Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Dalyan Shipyard.

As the sky gradually darkened, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on the Dongting Lake-class (Mistral-class) amphibious assault ship, giving the giant ship a layer of gold.

This is a giant ship with a hull length of about 200 meters. The wide deck seems to span the entire sea surface. Several engineering amphibious vehicles and Z-5 helicopters are placed on it. People like small ants are busy on it, as if they are about to carry out an operation under the cover of night.

The hatches on both sides of the ship's hull were slightly opened, revealing the dark interior structure. Workers could be vaguely seen moving around, preparing for the upcoming mission of the giant ship.

The amphibious landing turret at the bow of the ship has two 30mm high-speed machine guns with their barrels pointing straight into the distance, as if ready to fire at the unknown enemy at any time.

On the helicopter landing platform at the stern of the ship, several Z-5 transport helicopters were hovering quietly during training, with heavy supply boxes hanging on their fuselages. These were Z-5 pilots in training.

"Mr. Ren, our flat panel is finally going to be combat-ready," said Professor Liu of the Liming Ship Research Institute with some pride. "The progress of the Z-5 helicopter is faster than we thought. Of course, the progress of our ship is not slow either. It was launched three months ahead of schedule. Now, after the sea trial, we have installed a full set of ship power to form a complete combat capability."

"Now our Dongting Lake class has sailed nearly 5 kilometers in full condition, and all subsystems are operating well. The only problem now is that the weapon subsystem of the Z- helicopter has not been perfected. Our Dongting Lake class only has transportation capabilities and lacks attack capabilities."

Ren Zhong's purpose of coming to Dalian this time was not to launch this giant ship.

Ren Zhong is now becoming less and less interested in this type of ceremony.

He now only goes to key projects that require positive incentives.

Ren Zhong had no interest in the general ceremonial ribbon-cutting ceremony. The progress of the Dongting Lake-class amphibious assault ship was very gratifying to Ren Zhong. Both the ship and the shipboard equipment were completed ahead of schedule as planned. In this way, Ren Zhong did not need to do anything more for this small flat-panel plan. He only needed to ensure that their budget could be received on time.

However, Ren Zhong unexpectedly received a special gift in the main world. Through secret channels, he obtained the key design information of the Yak-38, an early vertical take-off and landing fighter of the Big Bear, and spent tens of millions of US dollars to buy the electronic version of the detailed design information of the Tumansky R-27V-300 lift/propulsion turbojet engine and the RD-38 lift engine.

For the main world, this is a rather useless and outdated technology. Ren Zhong doesn't know whether Dongda has obtained this technology. Anyway, for the West, these are not good things. At least the Yak-38 is still far behind the Harrier fighter.

But for Ren Zhong, this information was extremely valuable. After obtaining it, he took great pains to collect some detailed design drawings of the Yak-38 and Harrier fighter jets. Although he did not put together a complete set, he had collected most of the fuselage design, various dimensional data and performance parameters.

After all, these models are too outdated.

Although the secrets are still being kept, too many people know about it, so these confidentiality measures are bound to have many loopholes. In addition, the main world has basically achieved digital preservation, which makes the circulation of many secrets much more convenient than in the pure drawing stage. Through the dual system of funding research teams from Western powers' universities + civilian intelligence dealers, Ren Zhong's ability to obtain confidential information before the 70s has clearly risen to a higher level.

Today, he came to Dalian to communicate with Professor Liu about the preliminary project of Dongda's first generation of vertical take-off and landing fighter jets based on the Yak-38 and Harrier fighter jets, which required the coordination with the small tablet.

Yak-38A prototype

"Professor Liu, in the future we will equip the Dongting Lake class with a fighter that can take off and land vertically and by catapult. The nozzle temperature for vertical take-off and landing will be as high as 1000°C. I want to know how the deck of the Dongting Lake class needs to be modified to adapt to the take-off and landing of this type of fighter." Ren Zhong looked at the huge figure of the Dongting Lake class from afar. It took him a long time to retract his gaze, then turned around and spoke directly to Professor Liu.

"What? We also need to research vertical take-off and landing fighter jets?" Professor Liu was obviously not mentally prepared at all.

"In terms of temperature alone, although ordinary carbon steel has a melting point of 1515 degrees, it will gradually melt before reaching this temperature. The temperature at which it first softens is 500-650 degrees. Although our HY80 steel is stronger, it will also soften at about 800 degrees. So if we want to cope with high temperatures of 1000 degrees, we must research new materials for the steel plates on the deck. The current HY80 steel cannot achieve this goal." Professor Liu knows his warships like the back of his hand.

"If we use HY150 steel, it can withstand temperatures of nearly 1000 degrees before it starts to soften, but the time will not be too long. It is not enough to rely solely on this. Moreover, after switching to HY150 steel, our processing difficulty increases linearly, which will increase the construction difficulty and cycle a lot. At present, we have no plans to use HY150 steel to build large surface ships. Only on nuclear submarines do we have to use this special steel with high yield strength, so that they can withstand the pressure of water at a depth of more than 400 meters underwater."

"I know. So I found a compromise in this regard. We spray a special alloy coating on the basis of HY80 steel. This is a titanium alloy high-temperature resistant coating. Theoretically, it can withstand 1500 degrees high temperature. Unfortunately, this plan only has a general idea, but there is no complete process design. Therefore, the Ship Research Institute and the Iron and Steel Research Institute need to work together to develop this high-temperature resistant coating on HY80 steel." After listening to Professor Liu's words, Ren Zhong nodded and stated his real purpose. Now, in addition to aerospace, the department that needs special materials is the ship, which has very high requirements. Therefore, aerospace and shipbuilding have their own material research departments, and they are conducting research for the special uses of their own departments.

Of course, the Iron and Steel Research Institute is the strongest center for material research, but they are faced with many fields that are part of the national chess game, and there are not many specialized research projects that focus on only one direction, especially under the condition of limited usage scenarios.

This kind of high-temperature resistant coating developed for small flat panels and even future aircraft carriers is a very niche use for the Iron and Steel Research Institute. There is no one from the Ship Research Institute to take the lead in investing the main research force. Even though the Iron and Steel Research Institute now has a scale of several thousand people, they will not invest too much.

Ren Zhong can certainly force them to do this, but this is not a long-term development path. He has always advocated that scientific research should be oriented towards the front line, the market, and the future. For narrow market spaces such as high-temperature resistant applications of aircraft carriers and small flat decks, it is certainly not impossible for him to suppress them, but once this precedent is set, more people may interfere with the Iron and Steel Research Institute in the future.

Therefore, Ren Zhong would rather travel a little further to come to Dallion to communicate with Professor Liu and let them coordinate and complete the research of this project on their own.

"We have no problem." Professor Liu heard from Ren Zhong's few words that there is an opportunity to greatly enhance the combat capability of the small tablet. You know, fighter jets are not like helicopters. They can compete for air superiority. Even if the Dongting Lake class only carries a dozen fighter jets in the future, the improvement in combat capability is immeasurable.

Simply put, this small flat-panel ship was elevated from an amphibious assault ship to the level of a small aircraft carrier!
This step is a revolutionary improvement. An amphibious assault ship with fighter jet launch capability is much better than three or four amphibious assault ships that can only carry helicopters!
The carrying capacity, combat capability, and flying speed of a helicopter cannot be compared with those of a fighter jet.

"How heavy a load do we need a fighter jet to carry?" Professor Liu asked a crucial question.

This is the most critical indicator regarding the design of warship deck.

"11 tons, no more than 12 tons at most." Ren Zhong said after thinking for a while.

The Sea Harrier fighter has an empty weight of 6374 kg. In addition, the fighter has a maximum external fuel load of 2404 kg, a maximum take-off weight of 11880 kg, a maximum weapon load (vertical take-off) of 3630 kg, and a (short take-off) of 2270 kg. The normal empty weight of the Yak-38A is 7485 kg, the maximum internal fuel load is 2720 kg, and the maximum take-off weight can reach 11700 kg.

According to Ren Zhong's plan, after adopting new materials, especially composite fiber weight reduction, the empty weight of the new Dongda first-generation vertical take-off and landing fighter will be controlled within 6.5 tons, and the internal fuel capacity will reach 2.5 tons. The maximum take-off weight will be 11 tons, and the weapon load can reach 2 tons, which basically meets the standards of a light fighter.

Of course, this is the case when the tank is full. If the aircraft is to carry out short-range aerial combat, it is entirely possible to reduce the fuel load and increase the weapon load to the limit of 3.5 tons. This is generally used for air fire support scenarios on the tidal flat front. In this case, the combat range is only a few hundred kilometers, and it is recommended to use catapult takeoff.

"11 tons?!" Professor Liu was a little overwhelmed. The Dongting Lake class, which was designed for helicopters, has a designed load capacity of 8 tons. After all, the maximum load capacity of the Z-5 is only 7600 kilograms.

Although the weight difference is only 3 tons, considering that the take-off and landing of a fighter jet is more explosive than that of a helicopter, it needs to bear a higher strength steel plate to be competent, not to mention that it has to withstand the high temperature of thousands of degrees. This test is no less difficult than redesigning a large ship.

"In the construction of our second small flat-bed ship, we will try our best to design and implement it around this goal," Professor Liu did not back down because of the difficulty. Moreover, Ren Zhong also pointed out the direction for them to work towards. Based on past experience, this direction will definitely not be wrong. Even if there are twists and turns in the middle, they are just bumps on the road ahead.

"Professor Liu, this is very important. Before our aircraft carrier comes out, I believe that vertical take-off and landing fighters will complete the research task first. Before the aircraft carrier comes out, our small flat-panel aircraft will serve as the aircraft carrier's combat mission to defend our sea borders and our growing overseas interests."

Professor Liu understands the reason without much explanation. A fighter jet that can take off from a small flat panel is still a fighter jet. At a time when most countries in the world still use propeller fighters, the vertical take-off and landing fighter jet proposed by Ren Zhong is still a jet-type one, which is an overwhelming advantage over the propeller fighter jets of most countries.

According to the current equipment of the air forces of other countries in the world, a squadron of jet fighters can basically crush them.

This is something that an armed helicopter cannot do.

To put it in a more arrogant way, a task force consisting of two small flattops and four Jianghai-class destroyers has the ability to destroy more than 4% of the countries in the world except the Western powers!
After all, the two small flat-panels can be equipped with 6 vertical take-off and landing fighters + 6 armed helicopters + 40 tanks + 600 special commandos in different combinations. In this combination, the two ships respectively have a fully-staffed fighter brigade and armed helicopter brigade as air force, and there are 80 tanks and 1200 elite special commandos on the ground. There are really not many countries that can withstand such an armed strike force!

Especially when close to the coast, there is naval artillery fire support.

"Our Ship Research Institute is committed to completing the mission!" Professor Liu assured loudly, "The other subsystems of the Dongting Lake class have all reached preliminary capabilities. Now we are just improving the deck and then trying to solve the catapult research that Mr. Ren mentioned. We are confident that we can complete the deck reinforcement. As for the catapult, since we have obtained a detailed explanation of the principle, I personally have great confidence in the research and implementation."

Professor Liu has led his team to build destroyers, nuclear submarines and small flattops, which he would never have dared to imagine in his entire life. He has built up confidence in shipbuilding. To be honest, when it comes to shipbuilding, one can learn faster through practice.

Ren Zhong gradually improved their shipbuilding capabilities through roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, and then through copying samples that were close to actual design drawings, Professor Liu's team began to find their own technical confidence after a lot of practical experience in engineering design.

In this way, in the design of the small tablet, the design of the Dongting Lake class was quickly realized step by step based on the inspiration of Ren Zhong's prototype. In this world of Bright Sword, the Dongting Lake class is currently the only one.

If the armed helicopter is realized, the Dongting Lake class will immediately become a powerful weapon at sea.

When vertical take-off and landing fighter jets come out, the Dongting Lake class will be transformed into a real light aircraft carrier. I am afraid that the current Western powers have not yet imagined that the Dongting Lake class amphibious assault ships of Dallion and Jiangnan Shipyard will have such a gorgeous transformation.

But it’s still early.

The current vertical take-off and landing fighter is still in the planning stage.

Although Ren Zhong said that the blueprint has been drawn up for everyone, there are too many problems that need to be solved in the vertical take-off and landing fighter. Compared with the redesign of the F-4 Phantom fighter, this is much more difficult.

Ren Zhong did not think about completing it in the short term.

For Ren Zhong, being able to produce a prototype within five years was a pleasant surprise.

(End of this chapter)