In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 263: The Tenth Master, who started ahead of schedule, is about to die before he even becomes a sweetheart?
"Director Song, I think we really should consider this issue. The barrel, receiver, buffer, and ammunition belt of an aircraft cannon weigh over a hundred kilograms, not to mention the matching ammunition..."

Xie Wei knew that his proposal was somewhat surprising in this era.

Of course, more importantly, he didn't understand the specific technology of fighter jets. What he knew was only the technology of drones, which, whether in terms of aerodynamic layout, power system, or control system, was fundamentally different from that of fighter jets.

All I know is a rough estimate.

Ultimately, it boils down to "knowing what it is, but not why it is so."

Xie Wei's era has passed, and the technology and structure used by the Tenth Master, who is no longer even qualified to sit at the table, can be found on the internet, but the core technology is not available online.

With a little attention, anyone can find out.

The combat results of the Tenth Prince show that, apart from taking up a lot of weight, machine guns are basically impossible to achieve shooting results in modern warfare.

"Indeed, the machine gun, along with its ammunition, weighs several hundred kilograms. Xie Wei, do you know that after air-to-air missiles were developed in the 1950s and 60s, there was a debate in the world aviation community about whether to eliminate machine guns from fighter jets?"

General Song asked Xie Wei.

Xie Wei shook his head; he really didn't know much about the history of fighter jet development worldwide.

I knew that starting with the J-20, none of the new fighter jets in China have cannons.

With its high stealth capabilities and beyond-visual-range combat, the role of machine guns is almost negligible.

We can't expect stealth fighters to fire all their missiles from hundreds of kilometers away and then rush up to engage enemy aircraft in close-range "sword fighting" with their cannons, can we?

Use machine guns to attack ground targets?

What a fuss!

If fighter jets lower their altitude and attack ground targets with their cannons, advanced man-portable air defense systems and the air defense systems in armored formations will turn the ground-attacking fighter jets into a dazzling display of fireworks.

"The world's first fighter jet to eliminate the cannon pod design was the American F-4. In 1965, this advanced fighter jet, after only four years of service, was urgently fitted with a cannon pod. Do you know why?"

Xie Wei shook his head.

During the Vietnam War, he knew that the US military was bogged down in the war and suffered heavy losses. In addition, US warplanes dared not fly across the 17th parallel north, which ultimately led to their defeat.

"On the battlefield, if the missiles carried by the F-4 fighter jets missed their targets or failed to fire, they would be immediately pursued and fired upon by Vietnamese air force fighter jets with machine guns, resulting in the loss of hundreds of aircraft in a very short time..."

Director Song gave Xie Wei a detailed explanation of how the F-4 suffered a heavy blow when its cannons were removed, and how it eventually had to be reinstalled.

After Director Song's explanation, Xie Weicai understood why the debate over abolishing machine guns had ceased in the world these days.

"Also, the MiG-25 is not equipped with a cannon, but this fighter jet is positioned as a high-altitude, high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft, mainly used for aerial interception and aerial reconnaissance..."

The MiG-25 was the world's first fighter jet with two Mach 3s: a maximum speed of Mach 3 and a maximum altitude of 30000 meters.

It wasn't until Belenko's defection in 76 that the world discovered that this fighter jet was merely an engine encased in a stainless steel shell, and aside from its high altitude and speed, its combat capabilities were actually quite poor.

Director Song greatly admired Xie Wei, a young man whom the school was focusing on cultivating and who was also very studious.

Although Xie Wei did not choose to study aviation.

Director Song thought that Xie Wei would change his mind after he told him about the heavy losses the F-4s had suffered on the battlefield and the emergency installation of pods. However, Xie Wei, after expressing his feelings, still insisted on his own idea.

"President Song, I still suggest canceling the machine gun!"

His tone was very firm.

That's just someone who doesn't understand technology giving advice.

President Song was about to tell Xie Wei to stop making suggestions.

Before he could speak, Xie Wei's next words greatly shocked General Song: "If enemy aircraft get close enough to require close-quarters combat, it only shows that our air combat system is not advanced enough! We are already lagging behind the Soviet Union and the West in fighter jet technology. If we follow their concepts, it is almost a pipe dream to catch up and surpass them!"

Yes!

Advanced concepts guiding technological development are the right path to achieve a leapfrog development.

Xie Wei may not understand fighter jet technology, but he has the PLA's mature system from decades later as a reference.

The fact that the Tenth Master's first real combat mission resulted in him taking down the Rafale at a distance of over 100 kilometers, rendering short-range air-to-air missiles with a range of over ten kilometers useless, speaks volumes.

"Xie Wei, advanced ideas are useless! Our basic infrastructure can't keep up..."

Qu Hongtao, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore.

He felt that Xie Wei was pretending to know what he didn't, and that his random suggestions were refuted by professionals with facts, yet he still insisted on arguing.

Young people are too concerned about saving face.

intolerable!
Xie Wei glanced at Qu Hongtao, but seeing that President Song was still pondering his words, he ignored him.

He continued, "We are a school, not a specialized fighter jet design and development unit. If we continue to follow the established procedures, we will lose sight of the purpose of supporting the project and establishing aviation-related majors from the very beginning."

"..."

Director Song snapped out of his daze and stared intently at Xie Wei.

It wasn't until this moment that he understood why, after they arrived at the school, the school would do its best to invest funds in the research of various advanced technologies required for fighter jets, but the school had been dragging its feet on overall research and the manufacture of full-size models.

be cheated!
What happened to the promised funding for research into advanced fighter jets?
Qu Hongtao was speechless. Why say such a thing!
What will happen to the school's aviation major when President Song and the others go back?
"Ugh!"

Staring at Xie Wei, who was so embarrassed he felt like he was digging his toes out of a three-bedroom apartment, President Song sighed.

Before Xie Wei could speak, he said softly, "The model you brought out before is difficult to realize with current technology. Whether it's the quadruple redundancy fly-by-wire control system or the power system... no matter how much the WS-6 is improved, it will not meet the requirements."

"what?"

"Let me show you some other projects."

Judging from Qu Hongtao's reaction, Director Song realized that Xie Wei's visit to understand the situation was not a simple matter, so he simply took Xie Wei to various projects to learn about the situation.

The design scheme for the quadruple redundancy telemetry system has not yet been completed.

Based on the 204 radar, research on Doppler radar technology has been conducted. The basic principles have been clarified, but the two have very different working principles. In addition, Doppler radar has higher requirements for electronic and computer technology, and the manufacturing technology is not advanced enough. Therefore, the progress in this area is not as fast as Xie Wei had imagined.

"The improvement work on the WS-6 has been ongoing. If we continue with the original improvements, it will be difficult to achieve significant breakthroughs... The low bypass ratio and high thrust proposed by the university need to be re-evaluated and new solutions need to be developed..."

Cui Bo from Unit 611 told Xie Wei that it was virtually impossible to achieve the performance targets of the WS-10 based on the WS-6.

"The problem now is not just proving new solutions; we don't have much experience in this area..."

Wu Haowen, who had been transferred from the rocket engine project, knew of Xie Wei's influence on the school leadership. He hoped Xie Wei could inform the school leaders about the power room's predicament and increase funding in this area.

After spending the entire day, Xie Wei gained a direct understanding of the school's current fighter jet project research.

Only then did I realize how difficult it is to develop the J-10 these days.

He originally thought that by taking the J-10 design as the target, building on existing domestic technological achievements, investing money, and continuing research, even if there were some differences from the original design, the performance would not be much worse than the J-10 prototype.

result……

Ultimately, he was too idealistic.

The WS-10 core engine is a product of combining the GMF56 and AL-31F core engines.

GMF56需要等到85年波音公司向中国交付波音737-300客机，随附GMF56发动机的生产授权才得到；AL-31F，要等到苏联解体，为了维持生活卖老爹遗产的大毛提供苏-27战机并提供配套的发动机才得到，那已经是92年了。

Currently, domestically developed turbofan engines, from the WS-6 to the WS-9, have either failed to be successfully developed or have not yet been successfully reverse-engineered...

Only by understanding the industrial base and technological level of this era can we truly realize how crucial the country's decisions were on the scientific research path of "introduction-digestion-improvement-self-reliance"!

"That's just how it is; you can't rush it."

After leaving the power design room, seeing Xie Wei's heavy mood, Song Zhu comforted him, "Breaking through the technical difficulties in all aspects is very difficult and will take time."

He didn't say that more funding was needed.

I don't want to put too much pressure on young people.

"Are you planning to come up with an overall design plan and seek foreign investment?"

Seeing Xie Wei remain silent, Director Song suddenly spoke up and asked him a question.

Xie Wei wanted to deny it, but under Director Song's constant gaze, he silently nodded.

"If this fighter jet is actually developed, it absolutely cannot be sold! Fighter jets are different from tanks and rocket launchers!"

Mr. Song's face suddenly turned serious. "Especially since you said before that we should guide technological development with advanced concepts, if we really choose this path, we can't sell it."

"That means they're canceling the machine guns."

Xie Wei was a little embarrassed.

If we don't sell them, how will we raise money to continue our research?

The initial idea was to have Pakistan invest in and jointly develop the "Super-7" with 611. Pakistan provided the research and development funding, and Xie Wei hoped to accelerate the development of domestic fighter jet technology by utilizing Pakistan's funds.

"Regardless of whether or not the cannons are removed, you can't mess with our most advanced fighter jet exports! The technology we're using now is completely different from what's used in the J-7 or even the J-8. Once developed, it will be the most advanced in our country! And developing even more advanced fighter jets on this basis will be difficult to achieve a generational leap in a short period of time... The export of core weapons and equipment related to national defense security should be at least one generation behind the current ones!"

Director Song emphasized this seriously to Xie Wei.

The school exported the country's longest-range and most advanced long-range rocket artillery. Even though they knew it was to solve funding problems, General Manager Song and others were still very worried.

Fighter jets are indeed different from rocket launchers and rocket grenades, and even from tanks.

This is a powerful tool for keeping enemies outside the country's borders, protecting the motherland's airspace, and preventing ground clusters from being bombed.

Director Song was unaware that Xie Wei was the mastermind behind the sale of these advanced equipment; he only hoped that Xie Wei could convey his thoughts to the school leaders.

Xie Wei nodded somewhat awkwardly.

"Xie Wei, what are your plans now?"

On the way back, Qu Hongtao asked Xie Wei.

He followed the whole process but never heard Xie Wei mention increasing funding for the fighter jet project.

"What are the plans? The funding will be increased by 1200 million, no more than that! It's not just the fighter jet project that's facing funding difficulties; other projects at the university are also short of funds."

Xie Wei thought Qu Hongtao wanted to help him get funding.

Only now does he realize how difficult it was for Factory 132 to earn funds to subsidize the project's insufficient funding during the J-10 development process, even with national R&D funding.

"That's not what I meant. I suggested to the school before that we just do the preliminary research and leave the actual development work to the relevant departments..."

"no!"

Xie Wei refused without hesitation, saying, "We can't give up just because it's difficult or has limited funding."

按照历史，宋总要等到82年才在新一代战机研制方案评审论证会上提出歼-10初步设计方案；86年国家才批准歼-10立项；94年01号原型机开工制造；98年首飞；03年交付部队。

It took 21 years from the proposal of the J-10 to its delivery to the troops!
In Xie Wei's view, at least the time from proposing the plan to project approval is acceptable.

With the participation of institutions such as the 611 Institute, and given that the Su-27 has not yet been introduced, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has not yet become Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, and Factory 132 has not yet been called Chengdu Lockheed Martin, resulting in a stronger concentration of technical strength.

Seeing Xie Wei's objection, Qu Hongtao said nothing more.

As the head of logistics, he was reassigned to coordinate the work between the school and the partner team simply because he had always opposed Principal Li's various projects. He was essentially marginalized.

"You went over there to find out what was going on?"

Seeing Xie Wei's serious expression, Liu Debao asked.

"Didn't the Third Ministry of Machine Building offer any response?"

"Principal Li has approached us many times. The Third Ministry of Machine Building is also short of funds. Currently, many people have suggested importing advanced fighter jets from the United States and then assimilating them... The military urgently needs advanced fighter jets. This project at the university must be continued, but it cannot meet the needs of the Air Force's development in a short period of time..."

"The military hasn't reached a conclusion yet!"

Xie Wei looked at Liu Debao with annoyance.

He had never known before that Liu Debao was actually the main leader in charge of the school's military research projects!
It was only after selling tanks and long-range rocket launchers that he realized the truth.

"The main focus of 611 and 132 is continuing to improve the J-7, while 601 and 112 are working on a major upgrade of the J-8, along with supporting key equipment such as missiles and radar. With limited funding, if the school's third-generation fighter project doesn't produce results that impress the Air Force, the school definitely won't get any of the limited funds..."

Liu Debao's expression turned serious. "You can't invest a large portion of the funds from this sale of rocket launchers and tanks into projects with huge funding needs..."

The army was poor.

The Air Force has few orders for J-7 and J-8 fighters each year due to a lack of available fighter jets, and this is not solely because these aircraft are outdated and cannot meet the Air Force's development needs.

More importantly, it's because they're poor!

(End of this chapter)