Chapter 48

Dean Qian's days were not easy.

To be more precise, they were very difficult.

At this current point in time, he desperately needed results to prove himself.

First, the Fifth Academy led by Dean Qian had an independent budget and did not have to fight with other projects for the national defense budget.

Second, over the past three years, he had transferred a total of 1,500 core research and development personnel to the Qinghai base, far away from the local front lines.

Finally, the bigwigs' directives explicitly stated that expenditures for atomic bombs, missiles, and the like needed to be listed as special items to ensure they occupied more than 15% of the total military expenditure.

Everyone could see the results of the atomic bomb; Cultural Huaguo indeed needed it, but what about missiles? What was different about the missiles you developed compared to those developed by others?

Dean Qian said in a letter to the bigwigs: If the proportion of missile development funding is lower than 15%, the international window for catching up will be lost.

Finally, looking at the actual national-level support, if the supporting industrial investment is included, the proportion of missiles in military spending did indeed exceed 15%.

It can be said that in terms of scientific research investment, the Cultural Huaguo side absolutely did not treat Dean Qian or the Fifth Academy unfairly.

You have received such tremendous support, so you must produce results.

In the past, voices of doubt had already arisen from all sides: why not engage in mass scientific research, and why let you people go off to do research on your own?

These doubts were a huge pressure, weighing directly on Dean Qian.

Doubts were one aspect, but greater pressure came from America, whose Matador missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers had already been deployed across from Fujian Province.

Facing such a situation, Dean Qian had been holding back his breath; if he didn't produce something, it wouldn't matter if he himself was finished, but if the entire missile development line was finished along with him, then everything would be over.

In the past, he had always been dissatisfied with Soviet Russia because the P-2 missile-related technology transferred by the Soviet side was a castrated version.

Looking at Pokrovsky, whose face had changed drastically, Dean Qian could not have been more delighted.

He had known all along that the Soviets were not honorable; seeing the missile technology blueprints they transferred only verified once again that the Soviets were not honorable.

"Pokrovsky, the P-2 you transferred to us only had a range of 270 kilometers, yet we Cultural Huaguo people were able to increase it to 600 kilometers on our own.

The 500-meter accuracy that you yourselves couldn't achieve, we Cultural Huaguo people will show you!"

After speaking, Dean Qian was filled with excitement; 500-meter accuracy meant too much. For Cultural Huaguo, it meant there was at least one means that could directly threaten the area across from Fujian Province in a true sense.

500-meter accuracy, a range of 590 kilometers, and a speed of 2 km/s—with these three combined, all cities west of the Central Mountain Range on the other side could be covered by the Cannon of Truth.

This could greatly alleviate the security problems in the coastal areas.

"Qian, I believe that with your ability, it is entirely possible to achieve a range of 600 kilometers. We all know very well that although it is difficult, it is not impossible.

Whether it is purifying the oxidant, increasing fuel density, or carrying out a certain degree of modification to the engine, there are too many ways to make a difference in range.

But improving accuracy, especially increasing it from the kilometer level of the past directly to the meter level, is simply not the same thing in terms of difficulty.

You must have had a technological breakthrough to be able to do this.

According to the technical agreement we signed in '57, this technology must be shared with us." Pokrovsky's tone gradually became tough, "That's right, you must have discovered a new inertial guidance method to achieve such a leap in accuracy."

He seemed to want to confirm his own statement.

Dean Qian shook his head and said: "Sorry, the technical agreement no longer exists, have you forgotten?

You have already torn up the technical agreement.

Besides, the technical agreement had problems from the very beginning; it was only because we Cultural Huaguo people were magnanimous that we didn't hold it against you."

The technical agreement signed by both sides in '57 stipulated the transfer of R-2 missile technology, but in the end, they specifically gave you a castrated version called the P-2.

The range of the R-2 was 550 kilometers, while the theoretical range of the castrated P-2 was only 270 kilometers.

If it weren't for the Soviets being dishonorable and the things they gave being truly unusable, they wouldn't have waited until 1960 to conduct a test launch after receiving the blueprints in '57.

Over the past three years, the Fifth Academy led by Qian Lao had carried out a comprehensive upgrade of the P-2, improving the fuel, redesigning the engine, adjusting the structural materials, and improving the wake fairing.

Even without the Monte Carlo method and variational method optimization sent back by Lin Ran, Dean Qian and his team would still have optimized the trajectory of the P-2.

So from the very beginning, the Soviets had no good intentions; the things they gave were the most castrated of castrated versions.

"Military Industrial Commission accepted serial number KT-0124/1960

Sending unit: ****

Date: July 31, 1960, 4:30 Moscow time

To ****

And copied to

Urgent report: Regarding the abnormal development of Cultural Huaguo missile technology and response suggestions

Key fact confirmation

According to the radar data from the 7th Observation Station (Zhangjiakou) and the analysis of the Bingcheng experimental records (see documents KT-0124-1 to KT-0124-5 for details), in the fourth full-missile test launch of the 1059 Project conducted by Cultural Huaguo on July 30, 1960:

Range: 591 kilometers (exceeding the theoretical limit of the original R-2 technical files handed over by our side by 219%) Circular Error Probable (CEP): 483 meters (Soviet standard requirement is 1.8 kilometers) Penetration speed: 2.2 Mach

Technical traceability anomaly

The fuel system is confirmed to use a modified ethanol-liquid oxygen combination, with thermodynamic efficiency exceeding the design blueprints by 21%; the turbopump device features a three-chamber parallel patented structure; the guidance gyroscope drift rate has been reduced to 0.08°/h, and the inertial guidance algorithm has exceeded our core algorithm of the Globus-3 type, which has never been disclosed.

Risk assessment

(1) Cultural Huaguo has mastered the delivery capability to conduct direct missile strikes on the Far East region (Khabarovsk/Vladivostok);

(2) Neutral countries may reach deals with Cultural Huaguo; if Cultural Huaguo sells missile technology, our side will lose strategic leverage in some regions;

(3) If Cultural Huaguo performs reverse output of the improved technology, it will trigger a total loss of control of the Warsaw Pact technical system.

Action suggestions..."

It was not cold at all in Bingcheng in July, yet Pokrovsky felt a chill; the shock given to him by his Cultural Huaguo colleagues made him feel uneasy.

After writing the fax, he sat in front of the KROT fax machine, watching the message being transmitted back to Moscow bit by bit, while sighing in his heart: "My Cultural Huaguo colleagues are too good at stirring things up."

The Soviets had transferred technology to many other countries, but only Cultural Huaguo insisted on being able to make something different based on the technology they transferred.

Take the Third Brother as an example: the MiG-21 production line transferred in the late 1960s remained exactly as it was when it was transferred fifty years later in 2019; it hadn't changed at all.

Even though more than four hundred of them crashed during that period due to insufficient engine thrust and avionics coupling failures—more than the number that would have served a full cycle—they were never seen to have successfully improved them.

"If only Cultural Huaguo could be like other countries and not stir things up," Pokrovsky thought.