Chapter 738 - 712: Rain and AI

"Lin, I’ve brought you a huge order!"

Lu Jianfei spoke, but his eyes were fixed on the "Enterprise," which was in the middle of transferring.

The fully exposed Enterprise had naturally attracted media attention, with satellites having taken spy photos of it. The public, noticing that its external dimensions were similar to Chapter 9 and Zhu Rong, the vessel for the Tianwen-5 mission, naturally assumed it was the third sister model.

Such efficiency had numbed other space agencies, who took it for another landing craft set to join Chapter 9 for lunar missions.

Only those in the know understood what kind of monster the Enterprise was, and were eagerly awaiting the day it would break through the atmosphere.

Lu Jianfei even knew that the army had intentions to purchase it, considering using the Enterprise to organize a global landing force capable of airdropping directly into the enemy’s rear.

Keep in mind that the Enterprise had an effective payload of 25 tons when taking off and landing in Earth’s environment, equivalent to a Y-8 tactical transporter, capable of transporting a company without issue. Four or five Enterprises could air drop an entire battalion, and with the addition of "Warrior" series robots, their destructive capabilities were definitely significant.

What should this force be called, the Space Marine Corps?

However, this idea was destined to remain on paper within the army because the Enterprise’s purchasing price was too high—the Space Force spent a whopping 16 billion yuan on it!

The Great Wall One’s purchase price was only 13 billion yuan, and that did not even include subsequent modification costs. Three Enterprises could be exchanged for an aircraft carrier, and excluding the cost of missiles, one Enterprise could build two 055 destroyers.

Enterprise = 17 J20s = 2 055 destroyers = 1/3 aircraft carrier.

Although the Space Force had just been established and hadn’t even set up its provisional organization, its rate of spending already frightened the other military branches.

While Lu Jianfei was daydreaming, Lin Ju had already taken the purchase intent form from his hand, which was even passed over from the air force.

It was a purchasing plan for 12 NPAE-powered nuclear aero-space planes in total, split into two phases with the first batch consisting of six.

Unlike the Cloud Ascend series which are named after clouds, the nuclear-powered versions powered by NPAE are named after rain. The first six already have their names: Thunderstorm, Rainstorm, Torrential Rain, Mist Rain, Frost Rain, and Shower.

Lin Ju scanned through and did not see the listed budget, which led him to ask:

"So many, is the military not planning to economize?"

The nuclear-powered aero-space plane requires a total of 10 NPAEs. However, the NPAEs used in aerospace planes are somewhat simplified compared to those used in the Enterprise, with less stringent mass constraints. New Yuan quoted a price ranging from 13 to 15 billion yuan.

The purchase of six nuclear-powered aero-space planes would amount to over a hundred billion yuan, and they could all be delivered within a year, tantamount to an extra military expenditure of over 100 billion yuan.

Plus laser satellites, the Enterprise, and others, the defense budget for 2018 would be severely over budget, exceeding by at least 30%.

If the military isn’t planning to negotiate and just throws out so many orders in one go, it really is shockingly excessive.

However, Lu Jianfei did not show any sign of shock, but rather explained seriously:

"The military has entered full-scale war preparations. This batch of aero-space planes is for joint force use to cultivate space talents. To understand what space warfare is all about, one must first go to space and see for oneself.

Moreover, although the aero-space planes are expensive, they’re actually very economical to operate. A nuclear aero-space plane has a service life of over 20 years, making it cost-effective in the long run.

There’s also the demand for space construction. The space agency is also considering replacing rockets with more nuclear-powered aero-space planes. There could be over a hundred in service simultaneously in the future, which should reduce the costs, right?"

"Of course."

The main structure of the nuclear-powered aero-space plane is not much different from the conventional power version, with most components produced by national manufacturers. The base’s power in setting prices mainly comes from the power system.

A hundred nuclear-powered aero-space planes were essentially a thousand NPAs, and it was not impossible to press down the total quotation to 60 to 70 billion while ensuring profits.

But even so, the cost of building the Space Force was still absurdly high; the construction cost of the Enterprise and the nuclear-powered aero-space planes even surpassed those of the reputedly golden B2, and their numbers were greater as well.

Even though Lu Jianfei said that the military had entered a state close to wartime, the national economy had not, and with the added investment in aerospace, if exports could not be expanded, the fiscal data would look very ugly.

Lin Ju was concerned about the threat of extraterrestrial civilizations, but he also did not wish for heavy military spending to lead to a regression in the standard of living.

Even if it was an inevitable event, he still wanted to try his best to alleviate it.

The expression on his face did not escape Lu Jianfei, who placed a hand on Lin Ju’s shoulder and squeezed out a small smile,

"Do you regret revealing it? If you hadn’t spoken out, the society might have improved under the guidance of your advanced technology, and everyone could have had a few good decades."

"Forgetting war will invite danger; we cannot ignore the existence of threats."

Lin Ju closed his eyes, suddenly feeling that coming to this world might not have been a good thing, but rather brought disaster.

He stood there with his eyes closed, thinking for quite a while, and Lu Jianfei did not disturb him.

"The progression to automation is too slow."

He didn’t know when his eyes opened, as he stared at a patrolling robot nearby and said.

"I overlooked the popularization of civilian technology and limited the application scope of AI and robot technology. That was a mistake. The OGAS model should be promoted, and robots should significantly replace human labor."

Lu Jianfei did not question the angle of his statement but was very interested in counter questioning,

"Shouldn’t the main concern be the unemployment issue? Solving unemployment is the government’s primary task. Many places deliberately avoid machinery because it would lead to many people losing their jobs, which is even more detrimental to the economy."

Lin Ju also counter-asked him, "When the Industrial Revolution first started, workers also thought that machines stole their jobs, so they smashed the machines in factories, but it was industrialization that truly raised living standards."

"You mean to say, use automation to expand productivity, and then use the extra part of this productivity to support the unemployed and improve welfare?"

Lu Jianfei felt he had guessed Lin Ju’s thoughts, but he saw the latter shaking his head vigorously,

"That’s just a beautiful delusion. How could industrial progress lead to large-scale unemployment? This process expands like a snowball from the start, unless it’s interrupted by an irresistible force.

Haven’t they been thinking above about how to feed the economy with the advanced technology obtained? AI is an entry point, and I think the Science and Technology Commission is still troubled by the halt in the promotion of ternary technology, right?"

Several subsidiaries of New Yuan had been almost completely free-range in the past two years, but that did not mean Lin Ju knew nothing about them. "Mountain and Sea" always managed to summarize their activities promptly, allowing him to easily grasp their dynamics.

Originally, the Science and Technology Commission planned to make a big splash with ternary technology, aiming for a 5% market share in 2018, reaching 15% by 2020, and over 40% by 2025, achieving a situation of equal competition with traditional electronics technology and gradually overtaking it.

However, the actual promotion encountered many problems, and the majority were not just technical difficulties.

After all, there was a core issue: transitioning to ternary technology would always require a lot of effort, and if the benefits obtained were not sufficient, businesses would not buy in, and forced promotion would have limited significance.

Ordinary people might bite the bullet to support domestic products, but businesses need to consider the effects on all aspects, as every action may affect the whole.

Lin Ju pondered for a long time. During his death, AI had already become an unstoppable trend, and it had to be utilized well.