In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 280 It's time to develop surface-to-air missiles and man-portable air defense systems to intercept import business for related missiles.

"I'll urge them on."

Liu Debao said awkwardly.

He didn't tell Xie Wei that Factory 122 wanted Harbin Institute of Technology's 500 million yuan investment to be reduced from 40% to 32% as proposed by Xie Wei. In this way, even if the shares held by Harbin Institute of Technology's School-Enterprise Office and the Department of Automotive Engineering were combined, the total would only be 40%, thus ensuring Factory 122's say in the automotive industry.

Since Xie Wei proposed it and gave sufficient reasons, neither Zhang Mingqiu nor Liu Debao could easily make concessions.

Xie Wei remained noncommittal.

Since both Jiangbei Machinery Factory and Jiangshan Machinery Factory are military industrial units and their cooperation is on weapons and equipment, this falls under Liu Debao's jurisdiction. Once the general direction is finalized, Xie Wei naturally will not participate in the specific details of the negotiations.

As long as things go according to his expectations, that's fine.

If Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) wants to develop and become the top military industrial university in China, or even the world, it must cooperate closely with domestic military industrial units.

While Abdullah was still away, Shewe had to quickly finalize the plans for surface-to-air missiles and man-portable air defense systems with the school's missile team.

Otherwise, if Abdullah returns and is persuaded by Yitzhak, and when asked about the plan, he won't even be able to come up with one, how will he get the other party to take the US dollars out of their pocket?
"Xie Wei, what brings you here?"

Lai Guichang was quite surprised to see Xie Wei appear.

You should know that Xie Wei usually avoids them.

The school's missile team not only hoped that Xie Wei could persuade the school to increase its investment in the development of air-to-air missiles, but also kept trying to get Xie Wei to transfer to the research of air-to-air missiles and study missile-related majors.

Of the 78 experimental class, Xie Wei is the only one who has not clearly told the school his study and research direction.

Therefore, Professor Lai was naturally surprised when Xie Wei suddenly appeared in the air-to-air missile design room, which he had always resisted.

"I came here to check on the situation and get an update on the progress."

Xie Wei explained his purpose.

Upon hearing this, Professor Lai immediately became interested. "A customer wants a surface-to-air missile?"

Currently, among the school's project teams, besides those with ample funding for civilian products projects related to school-enterprise cooperation, the team with the most abundant research funding is Fang Pengju's long-range rocket artillery team.

That's a real allocation of 5000 million yuan in special funds, requiring no additional personnel or financial support!

No one can be jealous: the export of long-range rocket artillery has sold for over $100 million! And there are reports that there are orders worth another $500 million.

Therefore, all the military-related project teams at the school hoped that Xie Wei would tell them that the weapons and equipment they were developing had already received foreign orders, so that they could obtain sufficient funding for subsequent research.

"Nope."

Xie Wei shook his head, "However, there are currently customers who need man-portable air defense missiles. If our team can develop them, we can get orders very quickly."

"Man-portable air defense missiles? Didn't you say before that you would use the technology of PL-4 to develop short-range surface-to-air missiles and accumulate experience first? Our work mainly focuses on this."

Lai Guichang squinted at Xie Wei, not understanding why Xie Wei had changed his mind again.

The plan was to develop a tri-service air defense missile.

The HQ-61 air defense missile is not advanced in performance and has not yet been deployed on ships.

Lai Guichang and others were also well aware that anti-aircraft missiles were also urgently needed by the Air Force.

"The development of short-range surface-to-air missiles must continue. If possible, I think we should develop a man-portable air defense system as soon as possible... If we want to get more funding from the market, we must do so based on market demand."

Xie Wei said.

The price of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) is much higher than that of rocket launchers, but it cannot compete with the price of short-range air defense missile systems. However, the market size of MANPADS is much larger than that of short-range air defense missile systems.

Not every country's military can afford to equip itself with air defense missile systems.

Man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) are different.

Even one or two portable man-portable air defense systems can pose a threat to fighter jets, attack aircraft, bombers, and helicopters flying at low or very low altitudes.

Leaving aside the use of rocket launchers in the Iran-Iraq War to improve the combat effectiveness of infantry on both sides, which were not highly skilled, the Soviet armored forces, protected by armed helicopters and ground attack aircraft, inflicted heavy casualties on the guerrillas in the Graveyard of Reich.

The CIA's Redeye air defense system is not very good.

Although the FIM-92 has replaced the original lead sulfide probe with a lead selenide probe, which has improved the sensitivity of the probe, it still lacks night-time combat capability and has poor interference resistance, so the effect is not ideal.

"The research team lacks funding..."

"The school can provide 800 million yuan in funding for man-portable air defense missiles and short-range air defense missiles."

Xie Wei did not hesitate at all.

"Xie Wei, we've considered and analyzed these plans before. Come with me and take a look, and give us some suggestions..."

"..."

Xie Wei looked at Professor Lai speechlessly: You're supposed to be a professor, aren't you?

Is such a rapid change of attitude appropriate?

Professor Lai didn't see anything wrong with it at all. He pulled Xie Wei into the design room and wanted to introduce Xie Wei to the man-portable air defense missile and short-range missile system that they had already designed before.

All the techniques are derived from modifications of PL-4.

"Since we started using indium antimonide detectors to replace lead sulfide detectors, our team has invested a lot of research in this area. Mr. Lin has also started experiments and can provide indium antimonide with higher purity... After replacing the guidance head, solid fuel propellant, and rocket engine, the PL-4 air-to-air missile's range has increased to 28 kilometers, its maximum speed has increased to Mach 3.6, and its maximum flight altitude has reached 22000 meters..."

Lai Guichang opened the design drawings.

The first thing Xie Wei was introduced to was the improved performance of the PL-4 missile.

Thanks to Xie Wei's high-purity indium antimonide guidance head, the PL-4 air-to-air missile not only far exceeded design requirements, but its performance even jumped directly from the first generation to the third generation.

The same solid rocket fuel formula proposed by Xie Wei had a higher energy density. After the missile team improved the rocket engine, the thrust was stronger, which increased the speed of the PL-4 from Mach 2.4 to Mach 3.6.

"Has the wind tunnel been blown?"

Xie Wei asked.

If the PL-4's performance truly reaches such levels, it could completely snatch the Air Force's $5 million order to purchase 1500 Python air-to-air missiles from Israel.

"The full-scale wind tunnel model has been completed, but we don't have the funds to produce samples and telemetry missiles..."

"..."

Faced with Lai Guichang's constant requests for funding, Xie Wei had nothing to say.

"The ground-launched PL-4 has increased diameter and length, but its range is only 18 kilometers, its altitude is reduced to 14000 meters, and its maximum speed is Mach 3.2..."

Seeing that Xie Wei was not responding, Professor Lai calmly changed the subject.

He introduced Xie Wei to the ground-launched air defense missile, which was an improved version of the PL-4 air defense missile.

Launching from the air and launching from the ground are two completely different things. Just look at the performance differences between missiles launched using the same technology and the same propellant but with different launch methods.

"That's great! I heard the Air Force is planning to import the Sidewinder air defense missile system from France to improve its air defense capabilities..."

"That's right! Because of this news, the entire team hasn't dared to rest. The modified air defense missile has now completed its feasibility study and wind tunnel testing. The next step is to produce telemetry missiles for testing..."

Associate Professor Shi Hongwei, who had appeared out of nowhere, interrupted Xie Wei.

He then looked at Xie Wei seriously and said, "Xie Wei, we didn't have much of a foundation before. Even the PL-4 upgrades haven't been tested. The Air Force doesn't believe our missile design has such performance... We need more funding to speed up the experiments..." Importing from abroad can't possibly mean it's the most advanced.

However, once the finished product is introduced, it can quickly form combat capability.

Importing complete production technologies from abroad can even accelerate the development of related technological fields in China.

The air-to-air missile team at Harbin Institute of Technology was merely researching a modified version of the PL-4 project. They received no funding whatsoever. Even though Xie Wei provided an indium antimonide guidance head more than a year ago, which performed brilliantly in target practice, the Air Force only provided an additional 200 million yuan in funding because the research on solid fuel, engines, and indium antimonide guidance heads was not in-depth enough, and then they stopped supporting it.

"In that case, let's manufacture the telemetry missiles first. Let's speed things up."

Xie Wei didn't even think about it.

"Simultaneously conducting sample testing for three projects is not only short-staffed, but also expensive..."

Professor Lai started bringing up funding again.

They all know the school has money now.

If you want to get more funding, it's better to ask Xie Wei than Zhang Mingqiu or Liu Debao.

"As for manpower, I can't do anything about it. Professor Lai, Professor Shi, you have many classmates, students, and fellow students who work in this field, right? As for funding, if the initial 800 million isn't enough, I'll try to persuade Secretary Liu to increase the funding for air defense missiles and air-to-air missiles..."

Xie Wei rolled his eyes.

The air defense missile design office is definitely not a suitable place to visit.

They had already agreed to give them 800 million in funding, but they still wanted more.

However, Xie Wei could understand.

Sufficient funding means that various experiments can be conducted continuously to identify problems in the design, thereby modifying the design and developing more advanced equipment.

Every defense science and technology worker wants to contribute to enhancing national defense capabilities.

Only when national defense is strong can the Chinese people not be bullied and the century of humiliation never be repeated.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten.

It has become ingrained in the very bones of every defense science and technology worker in this era.

"Alright, we'll start producing prototypes right away."

Professor Lai said excitedly, and seeing Xie Wei about to leave, he hurriedly said, "Xie Wei, don't go! Let's have lunch together and discuss it some more..."

Upon hearing this, Xie Wei left without turning his head.

Just kidding!
The food in the missile room is the same as the school cafeteria food, so it doesn't matter where you eat.
If I eat with them here, Professor Lai and Shi Hongwei will definitely take the opportunity to get me to agree to help them get more funding from the school.

That's not okay.

Otherwise, if other project teams follow suit, how will we survive?

"Where have you been, kid? It's not easy to find you these days!"

Xie Wei planned to visit Fang Pengju's rocket artillery project to learn about the progress of the 150mm rocket artillery upgrades prepared for the troops, and also to check on Xie Rou, but was stopped by Du Guowang.

"Uncle Du, if you need anything, just give me a call, and I'll come directly to you."

Xie Wei still cares a lot about Du Guowang.

Not to mention that he personally came to Chengdu to pick me up, the care that Du Guowang and his wife took for me and Xie Rou was something we should be grateful for.

"Forget it. I can barely reach anyone by phone, or no one answers. And you, you're not even home now..."

"..."

Faced with such accusations, Xie Wei did not know how to respond.

He has a phone in his office in the Civil Engineering Building, but Xie Wei and Mo Lingyu are not in the office most of the time.

"Come on, follow me to the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering."

Du Guowang pulled Xie Wei toward the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

"Uncle Du, is there something wrong with the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department?"

On the way to the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xie Wei asked Du Guowang if the two-axis linkage CNC system for CNC lathes had been put into production, and if the market response was neither particularly good nor bad.

Three-axis, two-linkage CNC lathes also have a market.

These CNC systems are all used for the modification of ordinary lathes and milling machines.

What's the situation with the CNC machine tools at Harbin No. 1 Machinery Plant? Xie Wei has spent a lot of time on program-controlled switches and military-related projects, and rarely pays attention to the development of CNC systems.

At least, there won't be a lack of funding over there.

"Several Japanese brands, such as Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Fanuc, have now entered the Chinese market with their CNC systems and machine tools, and some are even building joint venture factories in China..."

Du Guowang said quietly.

"Didn't we have quite a few customers before? Especially the aerospace sector, which placed a batch of orders..."

Xie Wei was puzzled.

When the aerospace industry was preparing to import the Japanese CNC system and equipment, the other party not only provided outdated technology but also demanded exorbitant prices. However, because Harbin Institute of Technology made a breakthrough in technology, the Japanese demands were reduced to the point of being willing to jump off a building.

Now Du Guowang is telling himself that there's a problem in this area?
"We did purchase a batch of aerospace equipment, but many companies wanted to use the funds to import it. As you know, we made a breakthrough, and the Japanese, in order to suppress us, provided us with CNC systems and even CNC machine tools that were more precise and technologically advanced than ours... A number of companies, such as Changzheng Machinery Plant, directly refused to accept our systems and components..."

"Changzheng Machinery Factory?"

Upon hearing this name, Xie Wei instantly understood why Du Guowang had sought him out.

Changzheng Machinery Factory is the main contractor for Harbin Institute of Technology's 150mm long-range rocket artillery. It earns money from Harbin Institute of Technology but does not use Harbin Institute of Technology's products!

"Correct."

Du Guowang was unaware of the specifics of the 150mm long-range rocket artillery order. "Because they led the boycott, all the units in the aerospace sector are unwilling to use our CNC system. The situation at Hongguang Machinery Factory is very bad right now..."

Hey!
Xie Wei almost swore.

He really didn't know that the Changzheng Machinery Factory had done such a thing.

"Is their reason simply that our products are not precise enough and our technology is not advanced enough?"

Xie Wei asked, frowning.

"It's not just for these reasons. Didn't the Japanese provide us with a batch of four-axis CNC machining centers after they learned that we had made a breakthrough in CNC systems? These machining centers play a very important role in the production of irregularly shaped parts for aerospace products... Our four-axis CNC system is still not fully finalized..."

Du Guowang sighed.

"We've been working on this for a long time, and there hasn't been a shortage of funding."

Hearing this, Xie Wei was dumbfounded.

After leaving the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, I devoted all my energy to program-controlled telephone exchanges, and then spent most of my energy on export military projects, so I paid little attention to the development of CNC technology.

Now Du Guowang is telling himself that he has not made a breakthrough yet!
This was something Xie Wei found hard to accept at first.

(End of this chapter)