Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Back when Qin Yang first went to Iran, it was through Alaga that he opened up the military sales channels. The two had met several times and had long become good friends.

However, meeting here was still a surprise for both of them.

Alaga's face broke into a smile: "I heard that the final assembly here is going smoothly and the test flight is about to take place, so I came to take a look. As long as the first flight is successful, we in Iran are willing to place an initial order for twenty aircraft."

Everyone present was excited.

If it were other aircraft, they would definitely be used domestically first after development before being exported.

However, the J-11 was a replica of the Tomcat, and Iran had long understood the technology, so there were no secrets at all.

Even now, during the final assembly stage, many Iranians are helping. Of course, it is possible to sell to Iran.

As long as they were sold, there would be funds!

The J-11 project was solely led by the Air Force, relying on the Air Force's meager financial investment. The research and development funds were even less than that of the J-8 fighter jet. However, the development of this aircraft did not suffer due to a lack of funds.

After all, those key projects, such as engines, avionics, wing boxes, etc., were contracted out to Factory 960, so they didn't need to spend money. As for other subsystems, with the continuous imitation, they could maintain the research and development needs by selling parts while imitating.

Now, before the first flight, there were already orders. In this way, there would be no need to worry about money for large-scale production, improving production lines, or even further improvement and upgrades in the future!

"Of course, but what you are buying is the Tomcat, not our J-11," Qin Yang said.

This fighter has too strong performance. If the Iraqis knew that the East sold such advanced weapons to Iran, they would definitely protest. Although Qin Yang was not afraid of protests, it was still troublesome.

Moreover, more importantly, if this transaction were disclosed, Grumman would definitely come knocking on their door in anger.

Anyway, the two fighters are exactly the same, so just treat it as if Iran already had the Tomcat.

"Okay," Alaga nodded.

Old Lin and the others became spectators, directly rushing towards the fighter, looking it up and down.

"I never thought that one day we would be able to develop such an advanced fighter."

"That's right, Old Lu, what are the parts that still need to be imported?"

"Mainly electronic systems. Although our Factory 960 helped solve the radar and fire control system problems, there are still other systems, such as the Tomcat fighter's central air data computer, as well as the inertial navigation system, etc. There are no domestic suppliers. If we produce in large quantities in the future, there may be big problems if these cannot be produced domestically."

"Don't worry about this," Qin Yang immediately turned his head when he heard their words: "We are only trying to make the first flight as soon as possible. During the test flight phase, we can imitate all the other systems. In the later stage, we can also improve and upgrade them, such as replacing them with the 1553B data bus."

The era when the Tomcat fighter was developed was too early. Many of the components on it were analog, so the 1553B data bus was not used. In the United States, it was not until the F-14D that this bus was laid during the upgrade.

What are the benefits of this?

There are too many benefits.

There are a large number of instruments, indicator lights, displays, and various switches in the fighter's cockpit. Each device needs to be connected with corresponding wires. In order to ensure reliability, aviation harnesses are still made of silver wire, and even the connectors are soldered with silver.

This not only costs money, but also increases the complexity of the system. With so many cables, if one of them fails, it will not be easy to check, replacement is complicated, and the dead weight is also large.

Therefore, the Americans, who are good at initiating aviation technology revolutions, took the lead in developing the 1553B data bus. It stipulates various standards, and aviation electronic equipment is manufactured according to the same standards, so that only one wire is needed to transmit all signals.

Whether it is various instruments, indicator lights, or even switches, they can be transmitted through this wire, as long as an electrical signal is sent. This is somewhat similar to a network cable, which can transmit web pages, files, audio, and video.

Fortunately, the F-14A doesn't have this, otherwise it would definitely not be possible to fix it now.

"President Qin, can you help imitate all the others?" Alaga also became interested: "As far as I know, your country still has a big gap with the West in terms of electronic systems. Can you also imitate those complex chips?"

"Of course," Qin Yang nodded: "All the parts of the AWG-9 radar are produced by ourselves, including the processor chip in it."

Is it easy to imitate chips?

If it is the most advanced one, it is really not easy, but if it is only backward, it is not difficult to imitate.

After Intel developed the 8080 series chips, the old Maozi quickly imitated them, called M1810BM86, and some of them even had special gold packaging, which looked very beautiful.

The domestic situation is not bad either. As early as 1979, the Shanghai Radio Component Fifth Factory imitated the 8080 chip, named 5G8080. This imitation used the method of slicing, that is, dividing the chip package to expose the silicon inside, and then placing it under a domestic 30,000x desktop scanning electron microscope to observe and map all the structures, and then imitate it.

5G was the meaning of the Fifth Factory at that time.

The AWG-9 radar uses the 8086 chip, and of course it can be done domestically.

"Really? Can you even manufacture the chips for the central air data computer?" Alaga's eyes were full of surprise.

The Tomcat fighter was the first fighter to use a microprocessor. Not only did the radar use the 8086 chip, but its central air data computer also used the MOSFET-based LSI chipset MP944.

Back then, the Apollo moon landing program stimulated computer manufacturers one by one, prompting them to invest a lot of energy to try to develop the most advanced microprocessor.

In June 1970, Steve Geller and Ray Holt, two great men from Garrett AiResearch Industrial Department in the United States, invented a product based on MOS-LSI technology, named MP944.

It consists of 6 chips, including two top-level quartz sensors, a 20-bit high-precision analog-to-digital converter A/D, a 20-bit high-precision digital-to-analog converter D/A, a MOS-LSI chipset, and an efficient power supply unit.

This chip is only 40 square inches, but its frequency is as high as 375KHz. It was the first military microprocessor at that time, so it was selected by Grumman and became the computing heart of the Tomcat fighter.

The Americans have always regarded this chip as a treasure and only made it public in 1998. But after all, it is a product of the 1970s. As long as there is a sample, you can take it to relevant domestic units for imitation!

At this time, hearing Alaga's question, Qin Yang nodded: "Of course!"

"That's great, President Qin, I hope you can invest in research and development as soon as possible and develop all the avionics systems of the Tomcat fighter. In this way, we can save a lot of procurement funds, and we can buy more fighters from you."

Purchasing from second-hand arms dealers is not generally expensive!

"Yes, we will, after all, we have to use it ourselves," Qin Yang said, looking at the J-11, and the picture of this advanced fighter soaring in the blue sky and protecting the motherland's airspace appeared in his mind.