Chapter 216: Do You Know What Informationalization Is?

Capital Military Region Command Headquarters, 802 Project Team.

The project team is located in a dedicated flat-roofed building; at a glance you can tell it's a renovated warehouse, with windows high up and not a large area; after entering, the interior walls are rough, showing they were originally coated with a mixture of yellow earth and straw, then painted with a layer of whitewash.

Many maps hang on the walls, with various arrows drawn on them, and on the large table in the room, dozens of staff officers stand beside it, drawing with rulers and compasses, making various markings.

"According to our war-game simulation, on the first afternoon of the exercise, the 38th Army can advance to Area 42, moving at an off-road speed of fifteen kilometers per hour, requiring the design of seventy-eight target markers along the way..."

A middle-aged staff officer, speaking while carefully marking on the map.

Map work is something staff officers must master; before the exercise, they will have planned all combat items for both the Red and Blue armies, completed the planning, distributed them downwards, after which each unit can simply follow its own script to perform.

The exercise is just a performance!

Creak...

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the person in the lead raised his head, looked over, then smiled: "Old Yuan, you've come?"

"Commander Qin, I went to see the heavy truck test today; I'm very satisfied with the performance of the Steyr heavy truck. Our military shouldn't dawdle—let's finalize it quickly, so that when you hold your exercise, you can also use the brand-new Truck Cannon!"

"This... I heard it's almost finished, soon we can approve it... wait... what did you say? A brand-new Truck Cannon?"

Truck Cannon, a brand-new equipment developed by Ha Gong Da, with advanced performance that everyone looks forward to; however, because the manufacturing cost is high, especially since it uses a Mercedes-Benz chassis—220,000 marks per vehicle! Procurement is not cheap; only the southern forces have used a batch, the others must wait.

Does this mean that after introducing the heavy truck, we will use domestically produced chassis to build the Truck Cannon?

"Yes, it's right outside; want to go see?"

Before the words were finished, whoosh... a crowd rushed out, abandoning their drafting work.

Truck Cannon, Truck Cannon!

The senior officers of the Capital Military Region came outside and saw a mighty, imposing military vehicle.

With an angular front and a wide cab, they only glanced at those features before looking up at the cab roof, where a gun barrel protruded, extending backward into the truck's cargo bed, which had elevation mechanism, left-right fine-travel direction mechanism, a spade, and a semi-automatic loading device...

"This Truck Cannon looks really good!"

"Yes, if we could use it in our upcoming exercise, it would be even more spectacular—set up, fire, then run; the key is, its range can exceed thirty kilometers..."

Everyone was full of praise, while Qin Miao stood beside the vehicle, watching Old Yuan and Old Qin come out.

Old Qin was slightly plump, with a broad face, wearing a liberation cap and green uniform; the red star on his cap glittered in the afternoon sunlight, easily reminding one of a song.

"The red star shines bright, lighting my way to battle..."

"Come, San Shui, over here; let me introduce you—this is Old Qin of the Military Region, and you're from the same hometown!"

"Hello, Old Qin!"

Qin Miao wasn't suited to go directly into the 802 Project Team; entering would be a leak, so he could only wait outside, glanced at the interior furnishings, and then lost interest in the inside.

It hasn't changed in decades; one could say that the way they commanded during the Anti-Japanese War is still how they command now, and it's already the 1980s—truly backward!

He became even more convinced of his belief: the military ought to undergo a high-tech revolution!

"Hmm, San Shui, your great name is constantly on Old Yuan's lips; we in the Capital Military Region have also heard of your Truck Cannon, though we've never seen it in person—come, let us introduce it to us."

"Yes, Old Qin, look at the rear—this is the 155mm gun, 45-caliber barrel, developed by Ha Gong Da, with long range and great power; its only drawback is poor mobility, so we mounted it on a truck, changing from being towed to being carried..."

"This gun, after entering a position, can be deployed quickly; at that point, the biggest problem limiting its firing time is determining one's own position, so we will install a satellite positioning system on this Truck Cannon—once reaching the position, we can know our coordinates..."

"Wait, what did you say?"

Old Qin didn't believe Qin Miao's words, and the other observing officers were also stunned.

"Rapid deployment..."

"No, no, the latter—just reaching the position lets you know your coordinates? How is that known?"

"Overhead, navigation satellites—our Ha Gong Da is developing the BeiDou navigation system, which uses a dual-star positioning principle..."

Although said, those present might not necessarily understand, but as long as they accept it: there is such a device that can quickly determine one's position coordinates!

"Interesting, keep going!" Old Qin was very interested.

In the past, artillery coordinate calculation was a very complicated task; generally, upon reaching the designated position, they would mark the pre-plotted location on the map in advance, then manually compute the specific coordinates using a direction finder and long ears.

The direction finder is the direction measuring instrument; the long ears are the artillery telescope—these are also equipment dating back to WWII, still in use now, with errors often reaching up to a hundred meters!

"As for the target position, we can, while receiving satellite positioning, also use the satellite's built-in data transmission function to have coordinates sent down from higher headquarters, then use the vehicle-mounted computer to complete all firing data calculations within a few seconds, and open fire within ten seconds..."

"Wait, what did you say, satellite transmission function?"

"Yes, this is a feature of our navigation satellite, equipped with a short-message function, capable of transmitting brief textual information..."

"This is an Eastern characteristic; as for the reason..."

"GPS is one-way; as long as you receive the satellite signal, you can calculate your position, whereas the first-generation BeiDou navigation is two-way—the user must send data back to the ground for processing, then have it sent back."

"Thus data transmission is needed, and so a short-message function can be added."

Everyone widened their eyes, striving to digest and absorb this knowledge.

Artillery deployment no longer needs slow operation; the Truck Cannon itself can deploy quickly, its own position and target position can also be rapidly located, allowing fire within ten seconds—this speed... is awesome!

"Our system can also be expanded." Qin Miao continued introducing: "For example, it could be equipped to tank units, so that headquarters could always know the exact position of the tank troops."

After speaking for a while, we finally got to the point—paper-based work should have been eliminated long ago; we have a more advanced solution!

Whoosh...

Before Qin Miao finished speaking, Old Qin grabbed him: "Come on, let's go inside to talk!"