Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"So, the H-6 bombers used by the navy have been modified, right? The ones that can carry the Haiying-2 missiles," Qin Yang said.

The H-6 isn't just used by the air force; the navy uses it too. For the navy, what's needed is a bomber capable of anti-ship operations.

Look at the old 毛子's navy, with its deep pockets. The Tu-22M and Tu-95 can all carry anti-ship missiles, especially the Tu-22M. This bomber has a dedicated naval version that can carry three hefty anti-ship missiles, ready to launch a fatal blow against the US Navy. What about us in the East?

We only have outdated bombers. The Eastern H-6 is just a subsonic bomber with poor survivability on the modern battlefield and no penetration capability. However, we have to pick the best from what we have, so the H-6 has to take on this task.

After all, the H-6 has a large payload and long range, making it the most suitable helper for the navy. In the past few years, the only anti-ship missiles the navy had were the Haiying-1 and the Haiying-2, which was improved based on it. It looks round and chubby, like a small airplane, and was nicknamed 'Silkworm' by the West because of its shape.

The air-launched version of this missile is 7.36 meters long, 0.76 meters in diameter, weighs 2400 kilograms, and has a 500-kilogram warhead.

Its power is definitely not to be underestimated. Even an aircraft carrier couldn't withstand the impact of this anti-ship missile. A destroyer of several thousand tons would be sunk with just one hit; merely damaging it wouldn't be enough.

However, this missile is too heavy, and only the H-6 can carry it. Other aircraft like the Q-5 can't even think about it, and even the JH-7 wouldn't be capable.

The H-6, equipped with the air-launched Haiying-2, has long been the navy's sharpest weapon for attacking the sea. After all, the Yingji-8 was only just developed and couldn't keep up.

This combination was not only for domestic use but also exported in large quantities. Iraq relied on this combination to show its power in the Tanker War during the Iran-Iraq War.

"Chief Qin, are you saying we should convert that anti-ship missile into a ground-attack missile? That's quite difficult!" Old Lin frowned.

The navy's anti-ship missile warhead is a radar that can search for targets at sea, find them, and launch an attack. But what about missiles for attacking land targets? It's impossible to use the anti-ship missile's guidance system. How do we solve that?

"Of course not. I'm just giving an example. If we use this type of missile to attack the enemy, shouldn't we have a suitable platform? The H-6 is the best platform. It can carry missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers and launch attacks deep into enemy territory."

A range of thousands of kilometers!

Everyone was shocked again. If someone else had said this, everyone would have thought they were bragging, but Chief Qin has never lied. What Chief Qin says, he can definitely do!

Qin Yang felt that he was already being very low-key, not saying a range of several thousand kilometers, but only saying thousands of kilometers. Small-thrust turbofan engines are super fuel-efficient. What's so surprising about flying several thousand kilometers?

"That's right, if we use a turbofan engine, it should be no problem," Old Lin nodded. "The navy's 'Little Black' has already been developed and will participate in the parade. I heard that they plan to use a small turbojet engine for the modification, which will increase the range from thirty or forty kilometers to one hundred kilometers. If it's Western technology, and the missile body is enlarged, thousands of kilometers is possible."

'Little Black' is the Yingji-8, the navy's most advanced anti-ship missile, which is planned to be unveiled at the military parade. Old Lin certainly knew about it.

Enlarging the missile body, increasing fuel capacity, improving the engine, and reducing consumption could indeed make thousands of kilometers possible.

Hearing Old Lin's words, Qin Yang nodded, "That's right, that's it. In the future, this type of weapon will be widely used internationally, and we will have it too. In that case, our H-6 doesn't need to fly over the enemy's head, or even fly within the enemy's air interception range. We can launch missiles from a long distance, and leave after launching."

The H-6's mission is to be the carrier for cruise missiles, increasing the attack range!

"The H-6's nose also needs to be improved. Change the nose to a large radome. We can develop a large radar for it, giving it a longer search range and powerful terrain mapping capabilities," Qin Yang said. "This will make the mission more secure."

The transparent nose of the bomber should have been eliminated long ago. Replace it with a radome and put a large radar inside!

This radar can be completely modified from the Xiongmao's radar, not only having long-range air-to-air and air-to-sea search capabilities, but also having terrain mapping capabilities!

This is a dedicated synthetic aperture function. Radar waves illuminate the ground and are divided into beams for scanning, which can obtain a complete ground image.

Even at night, with this function, it can fly easily without worrying about hitting mountains or getting lost.

In fact, cruise missiles rely on this for long-distance flight.

In the era without satellite navigation, cruise missiles could still accurately fly to their targets. What did they rely on?

Inertial navigation and terrain mapping. Its computer stores a pre-prepared digital map, and compares it with the mapped terrain to make mid-course corrections.

Bombers also need these capabilities for long-distance flight. This technically solves the fundamental problem and achieves the goal of reducing personnel.

"If these technologies can be realized, it can indeed be reduced to a three-person crew. This way, everyone will be sitting in the cockpit, and ejection will indeed be safer," Li Chang nodded, expressing his agreement with what Qin Yang said, "I hope such a bomber can be realized as soon as possible."

"Yes, we need advanced electronic technology to improve the performance of our bombers. However, that's not enough. The engines used by our H-6 are too outdated. If we had advanced engines, the range would increase dramatically."

The H-6 was born in an era without advanced technology. It uses the Soviet Union's turbojet-8 engine, which has enough thrust, with 9.5 tons, but also has high fuel consumption, which limits the H-6's range and payload. Moreover, the engine's lifespan is not high, like other Soviet engines, only a few hundred hours.

"We realized the problem with the H-6's engine long ago. Just two years after the successful first flight of the H-6, we proposed the idea of replacing the H-6's engine and started planning to install the JT3D turbofan engine, and later planned to use the Spey, but both died in the womb," Old Lin said with emotion, as he was most familiar with this history.