Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 452 X1 is exposed, and the great power is actually me?

While the outside world is still discussing how much wealth Xu Shenxue has and how Zhiyun Group has achieved a market value of 2 trillion yuan.

Xu Shenxue secretly went to a city in the north and visited the highly confidential X3 project, the third experimental model of the artificial intelligence fighter.

Since the establishment of Project X, Zhiyun Group has been responsible for the research and development of Project X's artificial intelligence system and computing chips that support artificial intelligence, some auxiliary chips, communication chips and other chips!

In addition, it is also responsible for the research and development of some built-in sensors in the fuselage, especially high-precision semiconductor sensors.

These areas are where Zhiyun Group excels.

After all, in addition to core artificial intelligence algorithms and chips, various sensors are also indispensable for artificial intelligence applied to terminals.

You can refer to Yun Robot in this regard. Zhiyun Group's robot is actually highly similar to AI fighter jets to some extent, except that one flies on the ground and the other walks on the ground, but the core technical principles are actually similar.

Zhiyun Group has the world's top technical level in these fields, so it is reasonable to use some of its technologies in the national defense field.

The fuselage, engine, some traditional sensors and final project adaptation work are the responsibility of traditional aviation companies.

The two parties cooperated, divided the work respectively, and finally launched the complete X project.

Previously, Xu Shenxue had seen the first experimental model of the X project, namely the X1 project, which was a conventional diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail with two medium-sized engines. Its maneuverability and stealth performance were excellent, but its speed, range and payload had some defects.

I also visited the X2 project in October.

The X2 project is a conventional diamond-shaped aircraft with no vertical tail and a single large engine. It is also a medium-sized aircraft with average take-off weight and range.

The X3 project is the part that Xu Shenxue is seeing now. The aircraft looks different.

This aircraft is larger in size, much larger than the two prototypes Xu Shenxue had seen before.

"Our X3 test aircraft adopts a heavy aircraft layout with two large engines, a long range, a large payload, and a highly optimized supersonic stage design. Its maximum speed can reach more than Mach ."

"At the same time, under the control of the artificial intelligence system, its maneuverability is very good. Not only can it maintain good maneuverability during high-altitude and high-speed flight, but also when flying at low altitudes, with the support of the artificial intelligence system, it can maintain excellent maneuverability!"

Kong Jiakui, the project director of the X project in Zhiyun Group, introduced the aircraft to Xu Shenxue. After a brief introduction, he said: "This aircraft is good in every way, but it is expensive... If they use this plan, the cost of each aircraft will conservatively be twice that of the X1 plan at the same procurement volume."

Xu Shenxue didn't know much about airplanes, but he had his eyes open... Not to mention anything else, the fact that this airplane is so much bigger means it will definitely cost more!
This plan is a typical one that ignores cost for the sake of performance... But it is also conceivable that since Zhiyun Group has come up with something as abnormal as Project X, the other party must be desperately trying to increase the performance of the machine, otherwise such a good artificial intelligence system would be wasted.

Xu Shenxue and Zhiyun Group don't care about this. After all, they only provide sensors and software. No matter what body the other party uses, the cost change on Zhiyun Group's side will not be too big.

Anyway, for Zhiyun Group, the biggest cost is the training cost of onboard artificial intelligence, as well as the development and manufacturing cost of various chips and sensors. These costs are actually relatively fixed and will not change much just because the other party chooses a different aircraft.

But if the partner wants to make the machine, then we have to consider the cost... With such a large size, it is possible that the hardware cost will double. I don't know what the other party is thinking. I hope we can't afford it because it is too expensive.

You have to know that the entire X project is not a manned fighter, but an unmanned fighter based on artificial intelligence technology. In actual application, it is used as a loyal wingman for manned fighters... This also means that in order for the X project to form combat effectiveness, a certain number of them are needed.

A manned aircraft of the same generation, accompanied by five or six Project X aircraft, flies to high-threat airspace to perform missions. The manned fighters in the rear are responsible for command tasks, while the actual combat is carried out by the Project X aircraft.

It is not to avoid casualties... but to better perform the mission. When they are conducting various simulation tests, when facing high-threat situations, manned fighter jets are limited by human physical and mental qualities, reaction capabilities and other issues, and it is difficult to compare them with pure artificial intelligence fighter jets.

The reason is simple. The maximum a pilot can fly when wearing an anti-load suit is nine Gs, and the duration is very short.

At the same time, under the pressure of continuous high overload and high tension, it is difficult to carry out continuous ultra-high-intensity combat... No one can withstand the high maneuverability of 9G overload, continuously avoid the interception of enemy air defense missiles, and take the opportunity to launch ground-to-ground missiles to attack the enemy, while also calculating the best attack route and retreat route.

However, the X1 test aircraft in the X project uses an integrated titanium alloy for its fuselage and wings. Its main structure is very strong and can easily fly or Gs in daily flights, and Gs when performing missions.

Even in extreme cases, without considering the continued service life of the aircraft, it can even reach eighteen Gs... Of course, at eighteen Gs, the aircraft will suffer a great degree of damage. If you are unlucky, it will disintegrate in the air before it even flies back.

Even if it flies back, it will most likely be scrapped. Only some usable spare parts can be dismantled and used on other aircraft, but the main structure of the fuselage will definitely be scrapped.

Because under such a large overload, the main structure of the aircraft will suffer irreversible and irreparable damage.

Xu Shenxue didn’t know whether it was worth it. After all, he didn’t know what the partner was thinking.

But one thing is certain: for a pure artificial intelligence fighter like the X1 test aircraft, as long as the data collected by the sensors and the onboard computing power can keep up, it will never make mistakes, whether it is air combat, avoiding missiles, or ground attacks!
When the X1 test aircraft is actually flying, it can perform high-overload maneuvers while maintaining an altitude of less than meters above the ground on uneven terrain, and it can also launch missiles to attack targets along the way... It is conceivable that an aircraft is flying at supersonic speed at ultra-low altitude, shuttling between valleys, passing at treetop height, and then launching a missile at the enemy.

It can do this because it can still choose the most theoretically perfect route and method to perform tasks in the most extreme situations.

This is something that manned fighter jets cannot match!

At this time, several senior executives from the cooperating airline were also looking at the test aircraft carefully.

However, when Xu Shenxue heard the subordinate R&D institutions report the high costs, he could see that those people looked a little embarrassed.

After listening to this, these people walked up to Xu Shenxue and muttered, "The plane is good, but the cost of this one is twice as expensive as the sixth-generation manned aircraft we estimated. Who will help whom when the time comes?"

Xu Shenxue pretended not to hear!
However, the unit purchase cost of Project X is inevitably more expensive than the manned sixth-generation aircraft of the same generation... Not to mention the expensive artificial intelligence system, the aircraft structure alone is not on the same level.

In order to obtain a sufficiently strong fuselage structure while controlling the size and weight of the aircraft, a large amount of new high-strength titanium alloy materials and other expensive advanced composite materials are inevitably needed, which makes the fuselage cost very expensive.

But it is several times more expensive, so it is hard to say whether the other party can accept it.

After a brief introduction, everyone also took a brief look at the test flight of the X3 project. The flight was quite normal, and the landing gear was not even retracted during the entire flight. It landed after flying for more than minutes.

At this time, all three plans in the entire X project have completed prototype test flights, but the specific plan to be selected still depends on the plans of the partners.

However, what Xu Shenxue did not expect was that the other party actually adopted the same plan at the same time. One was the X1 plan, which was a medium-sized aircraft plan with two medium-sized engines, but the X3 plan with two large-sized engines was also selected.

Kong Jiakui, the vice president of Zhiyun Group who is in charge of many defense projects and also serves as the director of the X project, said to Xu Shenxue: "They said they want to make a high-low combination. The X1 solution is cheaper, and the number of them will be larger. It will be used as the main model and can also be used in conjunction with the existing fifth-generation aircraft. In addition, they are also preparing to make a ship-based version based on this."

"As for the X3 plan, it is intended to optimize the range and develop a long-range design to be used with a future sixth-generation aircraft to perform high-threat missions such as main air superiority and long-range penetration strikes."

"At present, we have signed two R&D contracts with the other party, one for the X1 project and the other for the X3 project, but the workload will not increase too much."

"After all, the core artificial intelligence of these two projects is the same. No matter how many projects the other party comes with, we will use Project X to adapt them. It's not a big problem!"

As the head of the family, Xu Shenxue naturally knew that it was impossible for Zhiyun Group to give them a second X project... It was not that they were unwilling, but that they did not have the resources to do so.

For Project X, Zhiyun Group's self-use server GPU array, which is composed of multiple AI graphics cards in the southwest, is training day and night.

The computing power resources it consumes are almost 30% of the total GPU computing power resources of contemporary global artificial intelligence servers.

The total computing power resources include all the computing power of the AI ​​series graphics cards and APO series graphics cards produced by Zhiyun Group in recent years since it started to engage in artificial intelligence.

In this way, 30% of the computing power resources were used up.

It can be seen how much computing power resources this project consumes!

Such a huge consumption of computing resources has made it impossible for Zhiyun Group to allocate more computing resources to execute the second X project.

And… don’t expect that after completing project X in a short period of time, the computing resources will be free for the second project!
Because the training of Project X will last for many years... According to the contract, Zhiyun Group will continue to train Project X and continuously update it.

Not only will the X project’s artificial intelligence systems be used to maintain the service lives of the two existing aircraft planned, but other aircraft projects in the future will also use the X project’s artificial intelligence systems.

For example, the existing fifth-generation aircraft will also undergo certain modifications and be equipped with a simplified version of the artificial intelligence system. While they can fly autonomously and simply, more importantly, they can be used to integrate and command the X1 drone fleet and some traditional unmanned attack aircraft that are not equipped with artificial intelligence systems.

The next six generations of manned aircraft will also be integrated with artificial intelligence systems.

It is also possible to carry out unmanned flight while having someone pilot it, but the overload the aircraft can withstand will not be that great... otherwise the pilot will not be able to handle it.

These future aircraft will use the X system on a large scale, which means that the entire X system also needs to be continuously trained and updated to achieve better performance.

The computing power required for this continuous training will even increase.

Of course, the continuous upgrading of Project X in the future will require continued training, but with the continuous development of semiconductor technology, the technology of server GPU graphics cards manufactured by Zhiyun Group will become more and more advanced, and the computing power will increase. At that time, the proportion of computing power resources required for Project X will continue to decline.

Considering the above problems, Project X will be the only AI flight system in the short term, at least for the next ten years, and there will be no backup!
This is also the reason why Xu Shenxue attaches so much importance to Project X.

After the X1 and X3 projects were officially confirmed, the X project team at Zhiyun Group continued to optimize the underlying algorithms and conduct big data training, while the cooperating airlines began to manufacture more prototypes for various initial experiments.

The entire project began to enter a stage of rapid development.

If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to see more prototypes conducting high-density test flights this year.

In this case, it is difficult to keep it secret… Even though these two aircraft have very good stealth performance, they are only designed for radar waves, infrared and other situations, and they cannot achieve optical stealth. The X3 project is fine. There is only one flying prototype at present, and the number of test flights is not many. In addition, the location is remote, so it has not been discovered yet.

However, the prototype of the X1 project team came out earlier, was more complete, and had two experimental aircraft. After the project was officially confirmed, they not only started to manufacture the third test aircraft, but also began high-intensity test flights.

As a result, leaks were inevitable!
It cannot be said to be a leak. After all, Tianji often conducts test flights, and its appearance is so unique that it will always be discovered.

In fact, last fall, a satellite photo appeared on a foreign website. The satellite photo showed a relatively unique-looking aircraft parked on the ground.

Its diamond-shaped layout looks very obvious, and there is no pilot's cockpit, so you can tell at a glance that it is a drone.

Just from the appearance, you can see that it is quite different from traditional stealth drones.

When this satellite image appeared on the Internet, it immediately attracted people's attention to this mysterious drone.

However, the satellite images can't explain much. We can only vaguely see that it is a drone, but it is difficult to tell what it is specifically.

At the same time, many people suspect that it is fake news... and think that it is an AI-synthesized picture... Since Zhiyun Group started to engage in artificial intelligence, a large number of AI-synthesized messy pictures have appeared both at home and abroad. If you don’t distinguish them carefully, you may really fall into the trap.

But in late January, another video appeared on foreign websites. This was a video shot on the ground. In the video, a medium-sized aircraft appeared with a typical diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail and air intakes on both sides.

This is the first time that the outside world has captured the true face of the X1 project...

The video quickly attracted more people's attention, and even the related news spread quickly across the country.

The main reason is that this drone is too special... It uses air intakes on both sides instead of the back-mounted air intakes of traditional stealth drones.

This is different from previous satellite images. The satellite images at that time could only show that China was developing a new stealth drone...and it couldn't explain much.

In fact, the concept of a pure stealth drone is not new.

The United States has had the X47B for many years, and claimed that it was capable of autonomous flight and combat, but later it was shelved because the so-called autonomous flight of this aircraft was based on traditional program control rather than an artificial intelligence system, and its actual combat effectiveness was very limited... When the X47B was being developed, artificial intelligence was not even a thing.

China also has similar stealth drone projects, and these are all public projects that ordinary netizens can see at the airport. Of course, most of them are traditional remote-controlled drones, with at most some program-controlled autonomous flight capabilities.

At the same time, these drones have one characteristic, that is, they are all subsonic aircraft, and the air intake is on the back of the aircraft. They are very typical offensive drones and do not have good maneuverability. Of course, their stealth capabilities are quite excellent.

Moreover, most of the current stealth drones are of the small body and small payload type... As for the previous remote-controlled drones, there is no practical significance in making them too big.

However, in the video of the X1 project that appeared this time, because there was a companion aircraft as a reference, some people were able to calculate that the size of this aircraft is not small. The length is about meters and the wingspan is meters. This size shows that it is used for high-speed flight. Its maximum speed is likely to be very high, and it is a typical supersonic aircraft.

Considering its size, the maximum take-off weight is conservatively estimated to be over 25 tons.

This is considered very large among drones, larger than the X47B, and has a larger maximum take-off weight.

The public data of X47B shows that its maximum take-off weight is only tons.

The most crucial thing is the air intakes on both sides of this aircraft... Anyone with a little aviation knowledge knows that this type of air intake is naturally designed for high pitch angles, which means that this aircraft is an aircraft with good maneuverability.

This is a huge difference from a large number of traditional stealth drones that almost all use dorsal air intakes.

Then many people were confused... What are you doing? You focus on mobility for a stealth drone? What are you thinking? Are you crazy?

With the autonomous flight capabilities of current aircraft, what's the point of letting it perform high-speed maneuvers on its own? Just for the sake of high latency aerial tricks?

If the ground remote control personnel or the aircraft behind the scenes want to remotely control the UAV for high-maneuverability flight, how to solve the communication delay? How to solve the communication interference on the battlefield?

There are huge communication problems here.

Therefore, many enthusiasts and even some industry insiders don’t understand: Why does this drone use air intakes on both sides?
Why not use a traditional back-mounted air intake?
Why not use canards to make up for the lack of maneuverability of the no vertical tail layout.

This is so unreasonable!
Not to mention whether the drone can perform high-maneuverability flight under remote control or autonomous flight, just how to achieve high-maneuverability flight in a diamond-shaped no-vertical-tail layout is a very complex problem that requires extremely sophisticated body design and flight control to be combined with each other.

So far in the world, no country, at least publicly, has been able to solve this problem!
People think that under current technical conditions, the conventional diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail cannot achieve high maneuverability. It is extremely difficult... unless you add a canard to enhance maneuverability.

On Earth in another time and space, the American F47 was doubted by many people: because it was unable to solve this problem and was facing the threat of its competitors' sixth-generation aircraft, in order to quickly catch up with its competitors, it was forced to abandon the original conventional diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail and instead adopted a canard-shaped design without a vertical tail.

The use of canards compensates for the lack of maneuverability caused by the lack of a vertical tail design.

This is the special feature of the diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail... It is extremely difficult to achieve high maneuverability. Even a powerful country like the Americans have to bow their heads and use canards when faced with this super difficult problem.

----

Back to our time and space, the X1 project currently circulating on the Internet, a secret stealth drone whose name is still unknown to outsiders, does adopt a conventional diamond-shaped layout without a vertical tail, and has no canards.

This is extremely unreasonable!

A large number of foreign industry insiders and bloggers believe that this aircraft absolutely cannot have any high maneuverability, because it is impossible to do so, and even if it can be done, it has no practical significance.

Stealth drones should have a diamond-shaped layout with a dorsal air intake and no vertical tail, and should fly at high subsonic speeds to serve as attack aircraft.

They naturally didn't know that the X1 project actually utilized powerful airframe design capabilities and flight control technology to achieve the aircraft's high maneuverability.

At the same time, it uses artificial intelligence technology to achieve fully autonomous flight operations, and there is no need for real-time remote control by rear personnel to perform high-maneuverability flights.

Both major problems were solved...and such an airplane was naturally made.

But outsiders don’t know, so they can’t understand it, and even think that this must be a fake video synthesized by AI...

I don’t know how ordinary people react, but the Americans are hurriedly speeding up the progress of their sixth-generation aircraft project.

Originally, a few years ago, due to the high technical difficulty of the solution without vertical tail, they came up with a conceptual design drawing of the so-called canard solution.

But last year, perhaps because he felt that he was doing well again, he returned to the no-canard design and created a concept drawing.

But what they didn't expect was that while they were still playing with the concept design drawings, the opponent's highly maneuverable drone appeared.

This is very embarrassing!

We even face a huge technical selection problem...

Is it a drone or a manned aircraft?

Is it a canard layout or a canard-free layout?

It’s very difficult!

Especially now, they can't be sure whether the drone exposed in the video is a main fighter jet. Just looking at its appearance, God knows what it is used for!
What if this thing is just bluffing and is just a traditional remote-controlled drone, wouldn’t I be trapped if I try it?

As for purely autonomous flying drones, they have also thought about it, but feel that the possibility is extremely small because they have tried it before but failed... The huge mess of X47B is still there.

So now they are also very conflicted!
They don't know that, in fact, the goal of the entire X1 project is very clear, which is to be a loyal wingman. No matter how good its performance is, it is only a loyal wingman. In the early stage, it is to be used in conjunction with the existing fifth-generation aircraft, and in the future it will be used in conjunction with the sixth-generation manned aircraft.

Of course, it is OK to use it alone without using it together, but the problem is that people are not confident at this stage... Currently, no one dares to let a fighter jet controlled by pure artificial intelligence fly out with bombs and let it do whatever it wants! What if the artificial intelligence makes a fool of itself and drops a bomb on its own head?
Therefore, the use of pure artificial intelligence fighter jets is actually still very cautious. A lot of restrictions are added, and it is required that they can only perform tasks under the control of manned fighter jets.

Of course, if the outside world insists on positioning the X1 as a sixth-generation aircraft, then they will not refute it... Anyway, no matter whether it is true or false, no matter what the outside world says, I will not explain, admit or deny it!

There won’t be any official news, so you can just guess.

In addition, there is actually a sixth-generation aircraft still under development, which is also prepared to be equipped with the X system. It is a fighter jet that combines manned and unmanned operations.

The manned sixth-generation aircraft plus the X1 and X3 unmanned aerial vehicles are the complete sixth-generation aircraft combat system... If we only talk about the X1 alone, it is actually incomplete... The X1 project is only a part of the sixth-generation aircraft project!

Because of the exposure of the X1 project, there was a lot of public opinion outside. People in China were naturally proud and sighed, while people on the outside Internet felt worried and even fearful.

This world gradually became unrecognizable to them!
Since when did backward and poor China actually have the upper hand over the Americans?

First it was artificial intelligence technology, then smart electric vehicle technology, and now stealth unmanned fighter jets, which have overturned many people's inherent impressions of China.

In the past, these outsiders all thought that China certainly had some good things, such as the S series of mobile phones, which were very good, as well as some other smart terminal products and various industrial products.

But I didn’t expect it to become so awesome!

Not to mention outsiders, even many people in China are a little surprised... After reading a lot of news about the X1 stealth unmanned fighter, and then looking at the news in many other fields such as smart electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and smart robots, a very interesting thought will arise: After all this time, I am actually the superpower?
(End of this chapter)