Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

960 Factory Two.

With its brand-new red brick exterior and matching brick-red doors and windows, everything about this factory looked new.

Two figures appeared on the path, followed by a large group of assistants. Their arrival seemed to breathe life and energy into the factory.

“Is this the factory you built recently?” Natalie asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Yes,” Qin Yang nodded. “We built this new factory to produce advanced close-range air-to-air missiles. We hope the machinery can be moved in as soon as possible so we can start production quickly.”

Of course, it wasn't built solely for air-to-air missiles. This factory area was just a corner carved out of the entire Factory Two complex. However, these foreigners, visiting for the first time, certainly wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

As they spoke, the group arrived at the entrance of the production workshop. With a creaking sound as the door opened, the empty factory floor came into view.

The workshop was very long, almost impossible to see the other end in one glance. Sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating numerous dust particles floating in the air.

“We hope to use this workshop as the production facility for the Python-3 missile. What do you think?”

“The area is large enough, but there's a lot of dust in the air. You'll need to add advanced dust removal equipment. By the way, is it always this cold here?”

“It hasn't been put into use yet. Once it's operational, the heating will be on, and the entire workshop will be warm,” Qin Yang said. “I'll take you to our conference room shortly; you'll feel the warmth of our capital city there.”

“Let's go now,” Natalie said, already feeling the chill.

Entering the office building, she finally felt a wave of warmth. When Qin Yang opened the conference room door, an even warmer sensation washed over her.

Natalie could finally take off her bulky army coat, even her down jacket, and wear only the thin sweater underneath. For someone who lived in a warm climate year-round, wearing thick clothes was unbearable – too restrictive!

This thin sweater was already the limit. Any thicker, and she'd feel like a turtle carrying its shell. Moreover, after taking off her coat, Natalie's perfect figure could finally be displayed.

Natalie comfortably sat in the chair, enjoying the warmth of the heated room, which felt much better than Chengdu.

Wait, what was that?

Natalie's gaze fell on the front table of the conference room, where a strangely shaped helmet was placed!

The helmet had a large protective area, a visor in the front, and hooks on both sides for attaching an oxygen mask. It was clearly a pilot's helmet, but the back was covered in dense, tiny bumps, like a lotus seedpod. Anyone with trypophobia would definitely scream upon seeing it.

It made her scalp tingle.

“Qin, what is that?” Natalie asked curiously, pointing with her finger.

“It's nothing, just a model we made casually. Zhang Chao, quickly take the model away!” Qin Yang said.

Zhang Chao trotted over, carefully picked up the helmet, and started to walk out.

Wait, something wasn't right!

“Ms. Natalie, you're overthinking it. It's just a regular model.”

“No, this is a helmet-mounted sight with a completely new technical approach! Don't try to fool me! Qin, you're actually researching this technology!” Natalie was very excited. “This helmet-mounted sight is a perfect match for our planned Python-4 missile! How far along is your technology development? Can you sell the technology to us?”

For air-to-air missiles, the off-boresight angle is an important indicator. Simply put, it's the angle between the missile's line of sight and its own axis that it can track a target. Early missiles only had a few degrees, so pilots had to do everything they could to keep the target in their sights.

The Python-3 missile had an off-boresight angle of thirty degrees, meaning the target only needed to be within thirty degrees of the aircraft's axis to be locked on and fired. But that wasn't enough! Rafael's planned Python-4 missile would have an off-boresight angle of ninety degrees, meaning the missile could lock onto any target directly in front of the aircraft!

This presented a problem: if there were several targets in front, which one should the missile lock onto? In the heat of aerial combat, pilots certainly wouldn't have time to flip switches and lock onto targets. The best solution was to have the missile aim wherever the pilot was looking!

In other words, to kill the enemy with a glance! This required a high-tech helmet-mounted sight to work in conjunction.

In this era, helmet-mounted sights were still a new thing. The later-famous MiG-29 and Su-27 both used the Shchel-3UM helmet-mounted sight, but it was large and heavy, hanging in front of the helmet like bull horns. During high-G maneuvers, its weight could even break the pilot's neck.

South Africa also invented the APH-6A helmet, which had a reflector that extended in front of the pilot's eye. The pilot could aim the crosshairs in the lens at the target to direct the air-to-air missile's seeker head at the target. This looked very primitive, turning the pilot into a one-eyed dragon.

This wasn't the South African one, but it's roughly the same idea.

Rafael was struggling with the technical approach to helmet-mounted sights. Seeing the helmet in front of her, Natalie had an instant breakthrough.

The key to a helmet-mounted sight was to let the missile know where the pilot was looking, which meant determining the helmet's orientation. The bumps on this helmet were likely some kind of sensor. With so many spots, it could accurately determine the helmet's position, and thus know where the pilot was looking!

This was an innovation! An innovation that no one else had thought of!

Qin Yang chuckled inwardly. Sure enough, his final move was about to pay off.

Qin Yang wasn't wrong. This was a model, a replica of the high-tech BAE Systems' 'Striker' helmet from later generations. The domestically produced J-20 also used this technology.

Anyway, Factory 960 was already making bulletproof helmets, so making this thing was easy. However, there was really nothing inside the bumps.

These bumps required sensors that could be precisely positioned. It was unknown whether this technology existed in this era. Moreover, helmet-mounted sights not only needed to know the helmet's position, but also had to have an advanced display lens. The visor in front of the pilot was a high-tech display, which definitely didn't exist in this era.

However, it was still enough to bluff people with this thing now. Natalie had fallen for it!

“Ms. Natalie, let's talk about the contract first.”

“The company's board of directors has decided that the complete technology can be sold to you for $50 million. That's the lowest we can go. We will export various machines and equipment to allow your factory to produce qualified Python-3 missiles in that empty workshop,” Natalie said. “Qin, can we talk about that helmet technology next?”

“We'll talk about the helmet technology after our production line produces qualified Python-3 missiles.”

By keeping this card up his sleeve, he could see if the Jews would dare to tamper with the production line!