Chapter 409 - 400 Butterfly Effect_1

There was an entity, a specter accompanying Chinese military enthusiasts for over a decade, an unshakeable nightmare haunting every forum dedicated to weaponry, a mystery of indescribable, unknowable nature, so enigmatic that not even a clear concept of it could be established.

The base had already been involved in the Xuehu and Cloud Ascend, two projects that should belong to the highest level of secrecy, yet still could not catch even a glimpse of anything related to "it".

Lin Ju had tried to use his identity to learn a bit of information, but all he got was a "we’re working on it".

Well, at least this confirmed that "it" truly existed and was not just a mythical product like the "Jian 14".

A stealth bomber this terrifying! Could it perhaps match or even surpass the 10 Mach speed of "Xuehu"?

Just as Lin Ju began to let his thoughts wander, Zhang Ju’s humming brought him back to reality.

"Oh, our navy is preparing to commission a new ship soon, Mr. Lin, if you’re free you could come over to have a look, as a special guest."

A new ship? Lin Ju searched his memory, thinking of the new ship commissioned in 2017, which should be the 055, a destroyer exceeding 12,000 tons, seemingly launched in June?

Attending a naval ship launching ceremony in person—this I can do.

Lin Ju nodded, "Since you’ve invited me, I definitely must attend, with the 055 deployed, our primary warships will be the best in the world."

Zhang Ju laughed, "Haha... We are indeed ahead in integrated radio frequency antenna technology, once the 002 carrier is launched, we’ll have a powerful guard with a sharp blade."

"Indeed... the 002? Hasn’t the Shandong Ship already been launched?"

The 002 launched in April, the 055 in June. Although Lin Ju didn’t follow military affairs as closely after his rebirth, he had been very interested in his former life and should not have remembered the dates wrong.

The Type 002 aircraft carrier, Shandong, is indeed the Chinese version of the "Varangian" and was launched in April, right?

"Launched? No," Zhang Ju seemed puzzled; it was still in the dock when he visited the shipyard last week, so where could it have launched? Lin must have remembered it incorrectly.

"The launching of 002 will take a few more months; it’s scheduled for September, and by then we might even get to tour the first domestically produced aircraft carrier."

Zhang Ju’s explanation made Lin Ju increasingly confused. He was sure he hadn’t remembered wrong—how had the launching been delayed by half a year? What butterfly effect had his actions caused this time?

After some thought, Lin Ju decided to inquire in a different manner:

"Ju, the 002 is a 60,000-ton heavy-duty ski-jump aircraft carrier, right?"

"Yes, with a standard displacement of 60,000 tons and a full load of 73,000 tons, the ship has a ski-jump takeoff and a slanted flight deck with steam catapults, which is mostly public knowledge by now."

"!!!"

Since when did the Shandong have steam catapults installed? This was completely wrong! The displacement had also increased by about 5,000 tons - what had happened?

Zhang Ju: "I can talk about the warships; this has lower secrecy requirements... there’s not much secret anyway. Initially, the plan was to optimize the layout from the 001 and build a 002 for practice, considering catapults for the third one, the 003;

However, after the Dawn project, the military believed the future pressure would increase, and since our electromagnetic catapult technology was advancing well, they planned to equip the third with it. It would be a pity to mothball the successful steam catapults, so they added one last minute on the slanting deck of the 002;

It’s really just to train the flight operation of catapult-launched naval aircraft, so the combat capability hasn’t changed much."

This explanation essentially clarified the sequence of events, yet, wasn’t the breakthrough with electromagnetic catapults something that only occured mid-construction of the 003?

Zhang Ju laughed and pointed at Lin Ju:

"As for electromagnetic catapult technology, you’re in the aerospace field so you definitely know it has great uses there. The space administration invested a sum of money and it unexpectedly led to significant progress. Although we’re still far from launching satellites, these breakthroughs could mature the electromagnetic catapults."

Now Lin Ju fully understood just how great the impact of the butterfly effect was. In just over two years, so much had changed.

It made sense after all, with the Air Force getting a bunch of new planes, the Army heavily investing in humanoid robots, and it would be abnormal if the Navy showed no reaction at all.

It wasn’t just the military; the domestic economic situation had also changed significantly from the original timeline. Although it was still in a period of rapid development, the growth was clearly stronger, and even John’s various suppressions after taking office couldn’t stop the momentum.

It was a pity that he couldn’t remember the GDP data; otherwise, he would know exactly how much the growth rate was.

...

"How powerful is the Space Three Gorges? The cost-effectiveness is more than ten times that of thermal power!"

"Sichuan Province will support the world’s first hundred-megawatt level space solar power station construction plan."

"Or another thousand tons of space construction, what’s so enchanting about solar power stations?"

"Special commentator: Making electricity cleaner will be one of the main topics at this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference."

"..."

John turned on his VPN, and a plethora of domestic apps immediately popped up with the latest hot news.

The most direct way to understand one’s opponent: look at their domestic news. Although there’s truth and fiction, you can still discern quite a lot from them.

Having evolved into a half "China expert" and "space industry professional," John saw "Sichuan" and knew it was likely another eye-catching piece of news, just like the recently viral "Artificial Moon"—all just beautiful imaginings that were hugely expensive and offered little return for humanity’s current capabilities.

Logging into Weibo... follow... what have a few official accounts posted? What’s this about a space power station, "plan running after the sun"? That should be the right translation, the full-screen translation by Meridian is really handy.

As a trendy person who could "tweet" to govern a country, John wasn’t like his predecessor who didn’t even know how to use a smartphone. His hands-on experience with the translation plugin developed by University Information Communication had proven very useful, far more comfortable than Google with its very few ambiguities.

Just as he was about to scroll to the next item, John caught a glimpse of a familiar acronym—"XAP".

Wait, what does the space power station plan have to do with XAP?

John scrolled back up to read the content carefully again. The content wasn’t complex, and he easily understood that the essence of a space station was basically just a super large solar panel array. It didn’t seem too complicated!

400,000 square meters sounded huge, but upon careful thought... he googled it, one meter is 3.3 feet, 40,000 square meters is... this damn math, John calculated for five minutes, confirming it’s about 100 acres.

acres, his own estate is about 20 acres, so five estates flying in the sky, that certainly is a large area.

John thought the idea of a space power station was pretty good, with very low technical difficulty (??), but the area was so large it looked impressive. Right?

Such a vast expanse, at night, you should be able to just look up and see it. That would be way cooler than any Moon landing.

After some speculation, John was deeply convinced his idea was correct, "less" money and more impressive; America must have it too, and it had to be even bigger!