Chapter 215

1981 was a special year.

During the Cold War, the United States initially held the offensive, but by the late 1970s the Soviet Union began to act aggressively, oil prices rose, and the Soviets had money in their pockets, so naturally they wanted to show off.

In particular, in 1979 the Soviets moved south, invaded Afghanistan, faced opposition from many countries, even the Moscow Olympics were boycotted, and the Soviets were furious—these guys failed to see the situation and needed to be intimidated!

Thus, in September 1981 the Soviets deployed several hundred thousand troops, over a thousand tanks and armored vehicles, and conducted a military exercise codenamed 'Western 81'.

The countries of Western Europe were panicked, fearing the exercise might suddenly turn into real combat, with a rolling torrent of armor that would completely flatten all of Europe.

Actually, if the Soviets had truly flattened Europe, domestic weapons shortages and other problems would have been resolved, and the USSR would not have collapsed a decade later; unfortunately, at that time the Soviets seemed merely to be flexing muscles, just to intimidate the Western world.

This exercise was the display of the Soviet Union's greatest military strength at its peak, after which it was all downhill, and in the end the two brothers fought each other for years without a clear winner.

In 1981, just ten days after the Soviet exercise, the East also held the North China Grand Exercise, and the specific planning for this exercise had begun in 1980.

In that special era, the army's original training was replaced, troop quality fell to rock bottom, and urgent change was needed.

Therefore, in September 1980 the General Staff convened the 801 Meeting to discuss military strategy and operational thinking for the new era, and the meeting clarified the policy of active defense.

To implement the spirit of the 801 Meeting, the General Staff believed that a large-scale troop exercise should be organized, ultimately favoring implementation by the Capital Military District in the Zhangbei region, with the exercise code named 802, and the Capital Military District was to quickly produce an exercise plan.

This year, that is, right now, is when the military district and the General Staff are to finalize the exercise plan; Old Yuan returned to the Capital for this matter, and although he is not part of the Capital Military District, senior military officials all need to sit down and discuss it together.

When the formal exercise took place, there were as many as thirty-two thousand observers!

The exercise not only needed to test the troops' combat results, but also to test their equipment; this truck cannon was sure to make an appearance! The last truck cannon with a Mercedes chassis had been handed over to Old Yuan and his group for use on the southern battlefield, and a new batch needed to be produced—just in time to use a Steyr chassis!

As for the ground-to-ground missile modified from the Red Flag-2, it's still unclear whether it will be used.

At that moment, hearing Old Yuan mention this, Qin Miao instantly became excited: 'With just a truck cannon, how can we show the strength of our Ha Gong Da! Our tactical ground-to-ground missile can also be used! Ha Gong Da is directly supplying the troops, no need to spend money……'

Fighting wars costs money, and exercises cost money too; the North China Grand Exercise had prepared three plans, and how the superiors approve them actually just depends on the budget given by higher leaders.

After the senior leader listened carefully to the report, he immediately gave the go-ahead: proceed with the maximum scale! The scale of an army group!

Now, the Red Flag-2 modified ground-to-ground missile has already been sold to Yi Tuo, earning a lot of money; supplying a batch to the military is also no problem!

'Also, our armed helicopters should be able to keep up; even if only three or five are dispatched, it is of great significance, representing the shift from planar to three-dimensional warfare, from single-arm to joint multi-service operations, and armed helicopters are the nemesis of tanks……'

Qin Miao spoke fluently, and Old Yuan widened his eyes: 'You little guy, you're impressive—I haven't even said it yet, and you already know there will be an exercise? And it's a joint multi-service exercise? And you also know that our exercise's imagined enemy is the enemy's tank units launching an attack on us, so anti-tank warfare is most crucial?'

'Mm, I will report your ideas to the superiors.' Old Yuan nodded: 'Do you have any other ideas?'

Qin Miao closed his eyes, thought for a moment, then opened them: 'Old Yuan, in military command, what is most important?'

This topic, when asked, is too broad!

Old Yuan furrowed his brows: 'What do you say?'

'I think the most important thing is to always know where one's troops are; if we could know the position of every single soldier, we could even directly issue combat orders to each soldier……'

Old Yuan thought for a moment, then helplessly shook his head with a wry smile.

'Yeah, if we could know where each of our… never mind each soldier's position, just knowing where each company is, even being able to command across ranks, would bring earth-shaking changes, but…… this is simply impossible!'

'Possibly.' Qin Miao said seriously: 'Our dual-star navigation system has been underway for more than half a year, already moving from theory to development; as long as we can launch the two navigation satellites this summer, complete debugging, then we can equip the troops—for example, install a terminal on each tank company's company-level command vehicle, and transmit via satellite to headquarters……'

Qin Miao had considered whether to convert this moving Steyr truck into a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle, which could also satisfy the troops' shift from motorized to mechanized, but these are not revolutionary!

What is the future of the military?

Digitization, informatization!

These, most armies don't even have an intuitive understanding of!

This North China Grand Exercise mobilized tens of thousands of troops, the largest scale ever; missing this would mean waiting until after the 1990s!

So, taking advantage of this opportunity, let everyone witness what future high-tech warfare is really like.

Drones, Star Link, even exploding pagers…… these things are still too far off; better to first use a simple satellite navigation system and tell everyone that with it, the situation of war will be completely overturned!

'Little Wang, drive the car straight back, go to the Capital Military District compound!'

What?

Upon hearing Old Yuan's order, driver Little Wang and Qin Miao both froze—this……

'San Shui, organize your thoughts, then after you get there report to Old Qin and the others, let them hear what modern high-tech warfare is really like! All day they'll just be tinkering behind closed doors!'

Qin Miao widened his eyes: 'Old Yuan, I have nothing at all right now; if I go like this, they'll say I'm blowing hot air……'

'Blowing hot air? Who dares say you're blowing hot air? Wait a few months, when Ha Gong Da produces something, we'll slap them in the face!' Old Yuan said: 'Hmph, their exercise plan looks like it has no progress at all, just like twenty years ago—and this is already the 1980s!'