Chapter 64

Old Zhang, born in 1910, joined the revolution in 1925, experienced the anti-encirclement campaigns, participated in the Long March, crossed the Red River four times, fought the battle of Laoyashan, defended Zunyi City…… He fought bravely, charging ahead. After the War of Resistance against Japan, he followed the Eighth Route Army to fight the Japanese, leading the New Fourth Army to open up the anti-Japanese base in northern Jiangsu……

After liberation, Old Zhang turned to leadership work in national defense science and technology and national defense industry, becoming the most outstanding leader in the national defense cause!

The first-generation surface-to-surface missile, atomic bomb experiments…… In that special era, he suffered persecution, his left leg was disabled, yet he remained upright and unyielding! After his comeback in 1975, he resumed work.

Intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ground-attack missiles, communications satellites, and so on—all have his contributions!

This thin old man is the stabilizing needle of Eastern national defense science and technology!

He was originally supposed to attend this meeting today, but the previous meeting had taken up a lot of his energy, so he only came now; when he reached the door, he heard the arguing inside, so he stood outside for a while.

Now he walked in, his gaze stern.

"The era of eating from the same pot is over! Those who don't strive for progress will be eliminated! The meeting I just held was about how our defense industry system can embark on a healthy development track under the market economy! I originally had no clue, but now I have a clear idea!"

Old Zhang went up to the podium, and Leader Ma quickly stood up to offer him his seat.

"Whoever uses their brains and finds ways to export products to make money, the biggest share of the profits will be theirs!" Old Zhang said: "Ha Gong Da has an idea, to improve our Red Flag-2 missile into a surface-to-surface missile for export; good, then eighty percent of the profits will go to them!"

After saying that, Old Zhang glanced at Old Huang: "Old Huang, what do you think of this ratio?"

"It's fine, of course it's fine, actually…… giving half would also work."

Just now demanding ninety percent also had some angry words in it; Leader Huang's manner of eating was too unsightly!

"Eighty percent then!" Old Zhang said: "No one should be jealous; those who are capable should also sell their own products! No need to worry about R&D funds—I'll guarantee you, go borrow from the bank!"

The people below had complex expressions; this R&D system must be completely overhauled!

In the past, doing R&D meant the troops put forward requests, superiors approved the projects, then tasks were assigned to the research departments.

Funds? Superiors allocate them; if the funds run out, file a report and ask for more! R&D results? Just wait! Many R&D units are just big bosses!

R&D funds must be borrowed by oneself; produce results, sell them to make money and get rich; the problem is, what if they don't sell?

For most people, they like the old system; making them compete? Hehehe.

"Old Zhang……" finally someone spoke up: "Our aerospace department has nothing to sell, the improvement of the Red Flag-2 missile is just an exception; the others……"

"How can there be nothing? Isn't the strapdown inertial navigation system also sellable? Developing an advanced subsystem could also make money! And that… uh… uh… Old Huang, you explain it to him!"

"Our aerospace department has many things we can sell, for example, our rockets can undertake launch services internationally, our air-defense missiles can be improved and sold abroad, our navigation system, once developed, can capture overseas markets……"

The people present were stunned; there are so many avenues?

Old Huang wore a look of pride; these were all said by Qin Miao!

Everyone present is a technical person; who would understand these ins and outs!

Old Zhang nodded: "That's right, this time Ha Gong Da will set an example in the aerospace system, later it will be promoted throughout the military-industrial system; whoever makes money gets the biggest share! The days when the crying child got milk are over!"

After saying that, he turned his head again, looking at the person standing beside him.

"Old Ma, your thinking needs to change! If you can't change, then only those with flexible thinking can get ahead! After all, we are now undertaking reform, walking the road of market economy! This is treading a path without precedent!"

"Yes, yes, I know, Leader Zhang, rest assured, I will certainly strive to change my thinking!"

Old Zhang then looked toward Old Huang: "Old Huang, let Ha Gong Da boldly go ahead there; if you encounter resistance, report directly to me!"

At today's meeting, Old Huang offended many people—some felt offended, some felt humiliated, some were jealous…… It's not certain that after this meeting someone won't retaliate; now we must back Old Huang and Ha Gong Da! Anyone who dares to play tricks is obstructing reform; such people…… should retire!

"Right, Ha Gong Da isn't easy either; help them coordinate with the bank, first loan two million yuan for their R&D." Old Zhang spoke again: "Universities aren't easy either—no R&D funds, they can only raise their own money; last time we squeezed Bu'er Boshi and his team's money, it's probably almost spent, can't support so many projects."

Everyone certainly didn't know that at the previous meeting Old Zhang held, he used Ha Gong Da helping foreign companies with projects as a typical case to explain; the senior leaders all affirmed the correctness of this practice and want to promote it further!

With so many military-industrial enterprises, don't count on the state; you have to figure it out yourselves!

Now Old Zhang has heard that Ha Gong Da wants to undertake an export-earning project in aerospace; there's nothing more to say—we must strongly support it!

Hmm, when I have time another day, I should go to Ha Gong Da to take a look!

"Qin Miao classmate, these past few days I've contacted some domestic manufacturers and obtained…… a very bad conclusion." Yang Chan's facial expression was full of worry.

"In our country, there is simply no space-borne atomic clock; only the hydrogen atomic clock at the observatory exists, and that thing is too big to be used on satellites……"

Yang Chan's tone seemed about to burst into tears.

Modern satellite navigation systems have extremely high requirements for time measurement; take the current BeiDou-1 as an example: the satellite needs to measure the distance between the user and the base station, then it can use geometry to calculate the user's exact coordinates.

How is this distance calculated? Of course according to time! The signal travels to the ground, then is received again; measuring that time, multiplying by the speed of light gives the round-trip distance; dividing by two yields the straight-line distance.

The speed of light is three hundred thousand kilometers per second! To achieve distance accuracy to the kilometer, time must be accurate to 0.0000001 second! To achieve meter accuracy, three more zeros must be added in between!

Such precision cannot be achieved by Swiss watchmakers, nor by high-end quartz clocks; only atomic clocks can do it!

Anyone who has studied high school physics knows that when the outer-layer electrons of an atom transition between different energy levels, they emit or absorb electromagnetic waves of a corresponding frequency; this frequency is extremely precise and can be used for timekeeping!

In 1967, the International Conference on Weights and Measures defined one second as the time required for the radiation oscillation period emitted during the transition between two hyperfine energy levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom.

Looking at these numbers, it's clear that only atomic clocks can serve as the most reliable timing device in satellite navigation systems! And this thing can currently be made only by the United States, Germany, and France.

Buy? Don't dream—how much would it cost? Moreover, this high technology, even with money you might not be able to buy it!

Since there isn't any, then we'll make it ourselves!" Qin Miao said, then looked to the side: "Teacher Zhou, take us to the Department of Engineering Physics for a trip?"