Chapter 258

"Come, drink, drink!" In the base pilots' cafeteria, Lao Lin raised his cup and drained it in one gulp, then… furrowed his brow.

"Lao Lin, what's wrong?"

"Not good, this liquor is too low quality; someone, go to the car and fetch my Maotai!"

"Lao Lin, drinking in the military—isn't that not appropriate?"

"Why not? Today is our happiest moment; how can we not drink! San Shui, you brat, can't you stop being so petty? When you just arrived, I didn't know the situation; later, let's have a few more drinks together!"

Everyone had complex expressions; usually Lao Lin kept a stern face, being the most strict superior, but now his interaction with Qin Miao resembled more that of an elder to Qin Miao.

From now on, we must get on good terms with Qin Miao!

Soon the Maotai arrived; Lao Lin glug-glug poured a cup for Qin Miao: "Come, after drinking this cup, today's matter must not be mentioned again!"

"Yes, Lao Lin."

"Come, this cup celebrates the Tianlei-500 achieving the highest precision in night bombing!"

Nighttime! This is the most crucial!

In the past, with only optical sights, the Eastern Air Force practically had no night combat capability; nobody dared drop bombs, not knowing where they'd land!

Now, night bombing precision is also within ten meters—how could Lao Lin not be excited?

The Eastern Air Force's combat power has thus risen to a new level!

We are now eagerly anticipating the BeiDou navigation terminal's further expansion; tomorrow we'll go to Ha Gong Da… but I can't wait, San Shui, tell us now what this BeiDou terminal can do!

Well, for the Air Force, the next step is to provide navigation and positioning capability, so that fighter jets can fly anywhere without getting lost.

Everyone put down their cups, eyes full of anticipation.

The Eastern Air Force's equipment all comes from the Soviet Union; its fighter jets are short-legged, with a combat radius of a few hundred kilometers, relying on ground radar commands plus memorized landmarks to always know their position; after relocating, the first thing is to familiarize themselves with the landmarks.

And the bombers?

Bombers flying several thousand kilometers need dedicated navigators holding charts, leading the formation; overall capability is comparable to WWII era.

Meanwhile, the West long ago had modern navigation systems, such as inertial navigation: calibrate before takeoff, then measure flight attitude to know where one has flown.

But the Eastern Air Force lacks it—technology insufficient, importing too expensive!

Now, with BeiDou navigation, one can know their position anytime, anywhere! Since even bombs can know, aircraft naturally can too!

Our BeiDou system also has short-message capability, so aircraft can not only know their own position but also report via satellite to superiors, who can then always know where their subordinates are; this system is currently under development...

After battle, the battlefield is chaotic; knowing enemy and friendly positions is crucial!

Everyone felt moved; this technology is impressive!

This technology is quite good, but… it also has flaws.

Pouring cold water on others' joy has always been unwelcome; hearing this voice, everyone looked over and saw Engineer Chen, somewhat flushed.

For example, what if satellite navigation signals are jammed on the battlefield? Also, this bomb can only strike fixed targets! If the target is moving…

Under everyone's gaze, Engineer Chen voiced his opinion: "So I believe that even with such a system, we cannot neglect the development of aiming devices!"

San Shui, what do you think?

Lao Lin, I think Engineer Chen is correct.

At this moment, Qin Miao somewhat admired Engineer Chen; in later generations, when Americans wholly relied on GPS, they realized the risks and thus began researching combat methods without satellite navigation support.

Engineer Chen, regarding aiming devices… do you know the Western aircraft gun hot-line aiming?

Previously, fighter aircraft armament was just machine guns; wanting to shoot in the sky wasn't easy, with many technical problems awaiting solution. Pilots aloft, aiming consumes much time, often delaying the aircraft.

So, during the Vietnam War, the US Air Force could no longer tolerate it, literally overturned the table, demanding development of a wholly new machine-gun aiming method!

Using radar ranging, input target speed, height, angle, even projectile speed etc. into a computer for complex calculation to obtain the projectile trajectory, display this line on the flat display; at the trajectory's end there is a circle—if you press the circle onto the target, then just fire!

This line is the famed gun hot-line; in dogfights aiming no longer needs manual calculation, it can be called a revolution in machine-gun usage history!

Engineer Chen first blinked, then thought of something: "Comrade Qin Miao, are you saying to aim using airborne computer and radar?"

Qin Miao nodded; indeed, as the chief engineer who led development of the Shihao-1, his thinking is quick and his vision broad.

"Our domestic technology… is too poor!" Engineer Chen lamented: "We need to hit ground targets, must filter clutter, thus need pulse-Doppler radar; domestically even single-pulse radar isn't mature! As for computers… that's even more our weakness."

The Qiang-5 never had radar nor fire-control computer; only in the late 1980s, via cooperation with Italy, using the avionics armament of their AMX attack aircraft on the Qiang-5, did we achieve a mere improvement.

Smack!

Hearing the table-slap sound, everyone jumped; looking over, it was Lao Lin? Given his drinking capacity and demeanor, he shouldn't be throwing a drunken tantrum.

"Old Chen, why won't your brain turn? You lack this tech, but Ha Gong Da has it! Your Factory 5311, why not cooperate with Ha Gong Da?"

Ha Gong Da? Engineer Chen still somewhat disbelieving.

Tomorrow I'll take you to Ha Gong Da… forget it, after we eat, let's go night‑recon Ha Gong Da; those folks are all night owls, still researching late at night; we'll go see how advanced their equipment development is, and you can see how strong Ha Gong Da's technology is!

"Okay!" Engineer Chen nodded.

Qin Miao resigned: it's late at night, you guys aren't sleeping, but I still need to sleep!

"Lao Lin, with our reeking of alcohol, going over isn't appropriate, is it?"

"Why not appropriate? Old Li, later tell the cafeteria to make more food; I'll send it over to the hard‑working teachers and students of Ha Gong Da!"

Alright, it seems we must go.