Chapter 498 - 489: Business Resolution Approach_1

"Xuehu" radar stealth and obvious optical characteristics were actually not due to the design team’s lack of consideration.

As early as when they were testing engines on unmanned platforms, they had already thought about this issue. At speeds above Mach 10 in hypersonic flight, air will produce a large amount of plasma due to violent collisions, which in turn emit a variety of electromagnetic waves including visible light and infrared characteristics.

The original team came up with a method: they applied an electric field at the engine’s air intake, directing the plasma to flow along the desired route over the aircraft body, eventually merging with the engine’s wake.

The constrained plasma formed an elliptical cloud surrounding it, not only absorbing many bands of electromagnetic waves to enhance stealth, but also dissipating to significantly reduce detectability.

This technology dated back to the 1950s, and later it was even tested during the prototype phase of the Blackbird, but was abandoned because of control difficulties.

Now, with the tremendous advances in computer control technology, Desert Base has made plasma stealth a reality.

During the tests with small unmanned demonstrator aircraft, it achieved very good results, but Xuehu’s larger size meant more violent collisions and a plasma cloud that was even harder to control. This was why it was extremely visible when observed, actually affecting the radar stealth effect to a great extent; under normal circumstances, anti-missile systems’ radars would have more than ten times the difficulty in capturing it.

Androff’s proposed new solution was a technical approach, which the people present had difficulty understanding; however, knowing it "could improve" was enough, as being too ostentatious was not a good thing.

So, the last topic is the feasibility and concept of a space emergency command center... not space refuge.

Every nuclear-armed major country must consider command issues for doomsday scenarios. As long as the leadership survives and can maintain contact, the capability and cohesion for retaliation will not be scattered.

Although every country has underground bunkers capable of withstanding any known form of attack, who can guarantee that the leadership will be at the entrance of the bunkers when the nuclear button is pressed?

Therefore, the "Apocalypse Plane" was born. Taking America as an example, they use a modified Boeing 747, codenamed E-4B. To defend against electromagnetic pulses and radiation dust, the aircraft has a comprehensive protective layer, and the avionics system extensively uses vacuum tubes and analog circuits to enhance reliability under electromagnetic disturbances.

Every time the boss travels, it follows behind the president’s plane, and in wartime, it takes off with the leadership, cruising. With a lot of additional fuel tanks, it can stay airborne for 34 hours, enough time to return to the homeland from any corner of the Earth and enable the leadership to command remotely.

In the current technological level of nuclear war, the survival of the Apocalypse Plane is quite strong, but domestically there were not even real dedicated planes before, let alone an Apocalypse Plane.

Previously, there were plans to purchase a C832 for modification domestically, but the twin-engine platform does not have as high a risk tolerance as America’s four-engine platform, and it’s not feasible to produce a four-engine aircraft specifically for this purpose, so the progress has been slow due to weak resolve.

This emergency has made the superiors keenly aware of the inconvenience. When the specially ordered C832 is only due for delivery and operation in the month after next, the temporary 747 is still being used this time, causing many difficulties in handling affairs during flight. If it were a real war, there would virtually be no command capability.

It just so happened that space refuge was brought up in this incident, so the superiors wanted to know if it was possible to construct an Apocalypse Command Center in space.

In response to this question, Academician She and Lin Ju had already discussed and found an answer:

"If a safer doomsday plane is needed, we propose a modification using the Cloud Ascend project.

It could even be used as a dedicated means of travel. As long as fuel supply is guaranteed, it can not only rapidly visit any location but also enter space in emergencies, which is safer than any current doomsday plane.

When flying conventionally, Cloud Ascend does not need to use the plasma pointed cone mode and can still reach speeds above Mach 10, allowing for global access within an hour."

Everyone: "..."

After Academician She’s speech, there was silence in the conference room for a while, and then someone from the military raised their hand.

Upon being allowed, he stood up and expressed his sincere confusion:

"Then why don’t we just modify Xuehu to be the dedicated plane? It could fly directly back to the homeland in an hour, and its flight altitude is high enough to avoid the effects of a nuclear explosion."

"..."

"..."

Lin Ju listened from below and actually thought it made a lot of sense, since in the end, returning to the homeland for command was necessary, right?

And this particular gentleman also posed another soul-searching question:

"I remember the Cloud Ascend project uses cryogenic methane fuel, which requires temporary refueling and at least several hours of preparation. I’m afraid we won’t make it in time, will we?"

"..."

They had miscalculated.

Academician She and Lin Ju had been in such a hurry that they hadn’t thought things through, preoccupied with discussing last night’s events; they hadn’t expected to make such a basic mistake.

And it was just then that Androff stood up timely:

"Previously, we had plans to use Xuehu to modify private planes, which is almost feasible. I have no problems on my end."

The superior said, "Comrades from the Aerospace Development Committee, please step out for now and come back later."

...

More than an hour passed, and only after everyone else had left did the seven or eight people from the Aerospace Development Committee get called back in for the meeting.

The 8·12 incident and its relation to the Aerospace had thus concluded. Now, the higher-ups were concerned about something else.

They saw the Big Shot throw the issue of JAD that published Academician Yu’s paper on the table, saying irritably:

"No one’s been supervising you for a few days, and you already want to use hydrogen bombs to blow up the Moon. If we’re away any longer, will we come back to find the Moon gone?"

Academician She said, "This is my fault. The comrades merely proposed an idea. It’s me..."

The superior cut off the pathetic act of the two, indicating that, with no outsiders present, they could end the drama. They took a break to drink some water before asking:

"This hydrogen bomb mining, is it really necessary or is it just for show?

If we use conventional methods, how much effort will it cost us?"

Seeing this, Lin Ju quickly brought up the data on his tablet, which were the real figures calculated by the Aerospace Development Committee. They were far less exaggerated than the millions of tons of explosives rumored by the outside world.

To emphasize the convenience of hydrogen bombs, there had been a lot of concept-swapping in external publicity, making it seem utterly infeasible when, in reality, the amount of explosives and plans used for mining on the Moon were very different from those on Earth, requiring much less.

But even then, the superior took a sharp breath at the sight of it - just the explosives would need at least 100,000 tons. It would take three years to produce all of it in a chemical plant weighing a total of 600 tons that needs to be launched to the Moon. The overall plan was to send 4,000 tons of payload to the lunar surface over five years, with the launch and transportation costs alone amounting to 8 billion, and a total investment of around 18 billion yuan. Taking into account personnel and other maintenance costs, the final figure was close to 22 billion yuan to complete.

With such an investment and timeframe, even United Mining might be dragged into bankruptcy.

The superior put down the tablet and rubbed his brow forcefully, wanting to suggest canceling the mining plans. An investment of over 20 billion just for this one phase, a total cost in the hundreds of billions was certainly not an exaggeration – the economic costs were simply too high.

After a long silence, he spoke wistfully yet decisively:

"We’re standing at a critical juncture now; if the official sector releases hydrogen bombs to blow up the Moon, it’s very sensitive and could easily become a target for attack."

Lin Ju and Academician She were greatly disappointed, but this was also within their expectations.

Just as they were disheartened and about to give up, they heard the superior’s voice again:

"However, it’s not that there’s no solution at all. It’s not only us who can provide hydrogen bombs. Since you plan to use them for mining, these hydrogen bombs can be considered a special type of mining explosive.

United Mining is a commercial company, so why not try to solve this through commercial channels? What about putting out a tender?"

"Ah? *3"