The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 858 Test Airfield
this day.

Three fighter planes came through the air.

These three fighter jets are none other than the Sea Hawk fighter jets.

Three "Sea Hawk" fighter jets conducted an aerial refueling drill on Qiong Island, and then flew directly southeast to the target island.

The new directional sonic bird-repellent equipment had already been turned on, and in less than a minute, all kinds of birds flew away in all directions.

The three Seahawk fighters had already contacted the command center, and then began to land under the guidance of radar.

I saw one Seahawk fighter jet after another starting to land in sequence and aiming at the runway.

Although the Sea Hawk fighter can take off and land vertically, it can fly directly over the airport and land vertically, but the test pilot did not do so.

With the landing of three "Sea Hawk" fighter jets here, it also means that the "Sea Hawk" carrier-based aircraft will launch a one-year test flight in the ocean environment.

After completing this year's test flights, the Sea Hawk carrier-based aircraft will undergo a series of tests on a merchant ship converted into an aircraft carrier.

At this time, after the plane was parked, the ground crew began to inspect the plane.

Even though this is just an island and a small airport, as the saying goes, although small, it has everything it needs. There are more than 200 staff members in the entire test flight airport.

第二天，歼7高教机、歼7A高教机、雄鹰高教机、歼7最新改进型战斗机、歼8最新改进型战斗机、歼10战斗机、歼11战斗机先后抵达试飞机场，这些军用飞机都将进行海洋环境的一系列测试。

There were two 'Ray Sculpture' helicopters that arrived at the test flight airport.

In order to ensure the safety of the airport, Panshan Group deployed an air defense missile battalion on the island.

Of course, no matter what happens here, the Qiongdao Military Airport can take off fighter jets at any time to provide support.

Pentagon.

A meeting is being held in the conference room.

On the projector was the photo of the test flight airport taken by the military reconnaissance satellite.

Satellite photos show the condition of the airport from its construction to the present.

You can even vaguely see some airplanes above the airport.

However, at that time, the resolution of the American reconnaissance satellite was not enough. It could only see the runway and the aircraft, but the image resolution was not enough to analyze what type of aircraft it was.

"Everyone, this is the situation on an island about 300 kilometers southeast of Qiong Island in China. It was originally a fishing island with about a few hundred people living on it, fishing for a living. Less than a year ago, a runway was built here. At first we thought they were building a highway, but now it seems that an airport is being built here." Leslie Aspin introduced.

"Mr. Leslie, is this a civilian airport or a military airport?" asked a middle-aged man.

Leslie Aspin was speechless. Is he an idiot? If it was a civilian airport, would there be a meeting at the Pentagon?
However, despite his contempt, Leslie Aspin still said, "According to our analysis, it is very likely a military airport. After all, it is an island with few people living there. The Chinese cannot have too much money to build a civilian airport specifically for these hundreds of islanders."

"Who knows? After all, everyone knows that the Chinese are rich." The middle-aged man William shrugged and said, "I think it's better to send a reconnaissance plane to investigate the situation. If it's a civilian airport, it will be a waste of time to attend our meeting." William is not a military attaché, but a civilian.

Leslie Aspin said, "William, we are 90% sure that it is a military airport. No country in the world would build a civilian airport on a sparsely populated island. That would be a huge waste of money."

"You said it yourself, there's only a 90% chance, which means there's a 10% chance that it's a civilian airport." William retorted, "Sir Leslie, please understand that this is Chinese territory, and China is our friend. Don't treat everyone as our enemy."

"There are no eternal friends between countries, only eternal interests! We must have this clear understanding. We cannot take anyone lightly. The British were careless at the beginning, which led to the loss of the dominant position of the British Empire and gave us the opportunity." Leslie Aspin said angrily, "China is developing very fast. We must consider the problem from the most unfavorable situation and prepare all response plans!"

William folded his arms across his chest, unmoved: "Ladies and gentlemen, our internal problems are terrible right now. The three Republican governments have left us with a huge mess. We are unable to resort to external military force. William Jackson will never allow the military to start a war."

Leslie Aspin looked dissatisfied.

"No matter how bad the situation is, we must maintain military spending, which is the basis for maintaining our military strength. Without sufficient military spending, we will not have the money to replace equipment and will not be able to maintain a large number of military bases." Leslie Aspin was very dissatisfied.

In February, when the Pentagon submitted its new year's military budget, it suffered a huge blow and was drastically cut.

The reason is that the United States is short of money and is burdened with huge debts. It has to pay a lot of interest every year and needs to reduce spending.

This made Leslie Aspin, who had just been appointed as the head of the Pentagon, very dissatisfied. How could he survive in the Pentagon when military spending was cut? Other heads of the Pentagon could continue to increase military spending, but he was the only one to be cut?

It's hard to lead a team if people's morale is low.

Leslie Aspin has been in a very embarrassing position during this period.

He has no prestige in the Pentagon or the military, and few people listen to him.

Although William's military rank is one level lower than Leslie Aspin, everyone knows William's true identity. He is responsible for supervising them, strictly controlling the military's expenditures, and not allowing the military to launch armed forces without telling the insiders.

"Why so many military bases? Useless ones should be closed down, and important ones should be kept!" William said nonchalantly. "As for weapons and equipment, use them if you can, why seal them up? The aircraft carrier is clearly in good condition, why retire it and seal it up?"

Although William had a military rank, he never considered himself a soldier and he looked down on the US military.

Judging from the results of the Gulf War, the US military undoubtedly won a great victory.

At the beginning, there was a lot of praise, even praising the US military for finally learning how to fight.

But in the second half of last year, more critical voices began to emerge.

Because of the Gulf War, tens of thousands of American soldiers were killed or injured. The pensions alone are a huge sum of money, not to mention that some of the casualties did not receive the pensions or are dissatisfied with the pensions and are making trouble.

Then there is military spending. Various countries paid a large sum of money, and the United States itself also paid a sum of money, but in the final calculation, it was the U.S. military that overspent. Even if the compensation to Iraq was included, the U.S. military overspent by more than $600 billion.

As for the equipment losses of the US Navy and Air Force, they were also huge.

(End of this chapter)