Chapter 199: Modification

It was indeed as Hephaestus had said; it did not even take a few minutes to figure out the performance of a Typhoon-class submarine.

As the Workers hacked into the equipment one by one, the entire data of this submarine was soon completely exposed before the Workers.

After only four or five minutes, Workers returned to the lounge one after another, coming before Sun Cheng to explain their modification plans to him one by one.

Clearly, Hephaestus's performance just now had also taught these Workers a lesson.

With blue light flashing in his eyes as he received the final modification plan transmitted by the Workers, Sun Cheng began to look through them one by one.

The pride of the former Red Empire, the largest deep-sea monster ever built by humans—the Typhoon-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine—was indeed like a child's toy in the eyes of the Decepticon Workers.

The equipment is too trashy, a massive amount of space is occupied by useless facilities, and the propulsion system is backward!

These were the three points of consensus that appeared in basically all of the Workers' modification plans!

Sun Cheng also held an affirmative attitude toward this!

Indeed, the equipment inside the Arkhangelsk could not be considered advanced even by Earth's industrial standards, especially the radar and other electronic equipment inside the submarine; limited by the poor electronic industrial foundation of the former Soviet Union, it was not only comprehensively behind the United States, but perhaps even inferior to the electronic equipment used on submarines built by China itself.

During the former Soviet Union era, in order to take care of the submarine soldiers, the designers of the Typhoon used a considerable portion of the cabin area to serve the soldiers; although the internal design of every Typhoon-class submarine had some variations, they were generally similar.

For example, the Arkhangelsk had a library, a swimming pool, a sauna, a gym, and two lounges.

For soldiers serving on submarines, who are submerged for long periods beneath the sunless sea, these are indeed essential facilities.

But Sun Cheng and his kind are not humans, but Mechanical Life; one must know that every bit of space in a submarine is precious. Although a nuclear submarine has much more space than conventional submarines, which are only two or three thousand tons and like sardine cans, these original supporting facilities would only waste space if left behind, so they definitely had to be dismantled.

As for the propulsion system, Sun Cheng did not understand these very well, but after reading a few, he understood that the Decepticon Workers looked down upon the Nuclear Reactor equipped on the Typhoon, and more radical ones even proposed replacing the propulsion system with a Super Magnetohydrodynamic Thruster!

After finishing all the modification plans, more than an hour had passed.

Sun Cheng also admitted that the Workers' modification plans all seemed to have decent feasibility, but most were overall major overhauls; just looking at the improvement plans, it was far from something that could be completed in a day or two.

After spending some time reading them, he noticed Hephaestus waiting somewhat impatiently before him, and only then did he realize that he had not seen Hephaestus's plan among those just now.

"Master, this is my modification plan..."

Compared to the other Workers, Hephaestus clearly wanted to show off more before him, so his plan design was also obviously more painstaking than those of the other Workers.

Nodding slightly at him, Sun Cheng began to read after his Core received the modification plan he transmitted, and soon, a slight smile finally appeared on his face.

"Well done, proceed according to your modification plan; let's start with the first phase of the modification first!"

"Yes, Master. We will go do it right away!"

Having gained his approval, there was no better praise in Hephaestus's eyes; he excitedly accepted the Task, then proudly directed the other Workers to begin getting busy.

In the lounge, soon only Sun Cheng remained, continuing to stay there.

Hephaestus's modification plan was actually not much better than the other Workers', but it was more in line with Sun Cheng's wishes; the reason was none other than that he had set this modification plan into two phases.

The first phase was to use the existing equipment inside the submarine to perform Enhancement and modification; for the Workers, the workload for this process was not very large, and the only laborious part was probably the modification of the Nuclear Reactor currently on the submarine, which would require at least five Workers and continuous work for several days to complete.

The second phase, strictly speaking, was the true major overhaul.

Hephaestus and the others would redesign a brand-new set of anechoic tiles, while simultaneously performing a major overhaul of the internal space, dismantling those completely useless areas and redesigning them, and incidentally replacing the Arkhangelsk's current propulsion system with two Magnetic Fluid Water Jet Propulsors to replace the two OK-650 Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactors currently equipped on the Arkhangelsk, while using a set of Energon Cubes from the planet Cybertron to replace its original diesel auxiliary power unit.

The modification Task for this process was very large, and one could even say it was no less than rebuilding a submarine; after all, there were still many things about the Typhoon that were unsatisfactory, such as the diving depth of only 500 meters, a point he was very dissatisfied with.

After all, for Mechanical Life, wanting to enter the deep sea of several thousand meters was by no means a difficult task.

Hephaestus's plan was undoubtedly the most suitable for the current situation!

Although Sun Cheng did not fear exposure by sneaking into Severodvinsk this time to steal a Typhoon—after all, he was prepared to make a big move to make that powerful president of Russia notice his existence, so as to facilitate future dealings with Russia—

But, not fearing exposure did not mean he had a lot of time to waste here.

For now, the Workers only needed to complete the first phase of the modification for the Arkhangelsk, enough to let it go out to sea.

Opportunities to get a deep-sea monster for free would not come often; Sun Cheng would definitely seize such a good opportunity, and it would not be too late to leave the second phase of the modification for later.

Because the Arkhangelsk had not yet been officially decommissioned, although it had been docked at the Severodvinsk Shipyard for some time, the twenty submarine-launched intercontinental Missile launch tubes inside had been cleared, and all the ballistic missiles inside had been taken away by the Russians.

But the submarine had not yet been dismantled, so the equipment inside was maintained in a wartime state; once a great war started, it could be activated at any time.

However, most of the equipment equipped inside the Arkhangelsk had not been replaced since it entered service in the late 1980s, so it not only appeared very dilapidated but its performance was also comprehensively behind the times, and everything needed to be replaced.

Fortunately, the Severodvinsk Shipyard had sufficient materials, and the Workers should be able to complete the first phase of the modification within a week.

In addition, the Nuclear Reactor inside the Arkhangelsk submarine had not been processed; clearly, before receiving a clear decommissioning notice from above, the Severodvinsk Shipyard had not removed the nuclear fuel from the Nuclear Reactor.

Hephaestus checked the reactor, and the nuclear fuel inside was still quite sufficient; according to the Workers' estimates, this fuel could ensure the Arkhangelsk could sneak on the seabed for four or five years without sleep or rest.

This undoubtedly saved them quite a bit of time!

And so, in a corner of the Severodvinsk Shipyard, the modification of a Typhoon-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine began in full swing.

PS:

This chapter makes up for Saturday's, it is not counted in tonight's two updates!

Thanks to 'Yun Shen Bu Zhi Chu Xun' for the tip, and by the way, asking for recommendations, collections, subscriptions, monthly tickets, and tip support!