Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"President Qin, this project will be entrusted to you for research and development." Old Liu said, "I remember you mentioned a plan for a professional air defense ship before."

Qin Yang smiled. Wasn't that the reason he was called here? Anything difficult or requiring money was assigned to him for research and development. This way, the military wouldn't have to worry about research funding; Factory 960 would handle it themselves. When the research was completed and the military was equipping themselves, they would cry poverty, and Factory 960 would be too embarrassed to make money. Anyway, they could earn money through exports, so there was no need to profit from their own people.

"This project can't be done by us alone; we also need Institute 14." Qin Yang said, "Of course, the project can be set up at our Factory 960, and the funds needed for research and development will be provided by us."

Speaking of radar, people immediately think of Institute 14. After all, Institute 14 is the most famous. The phased array radar on the Chinese Aegis warships was developed by them. But in reality, Institute 14 started by building ground-based radars. They have been developing ground-based air defense radars since their establishment. Developing shipborne radar was also the result of competition.

The Hongqi-9 missile is, after all, a project of the aviation industry system. Within the aviation industry system, there is a specialized Institute 23, which also develops radar and provides support for the land-based Hongqi-9 missile. Therefore, in their eyes, this naval project was also theirs. Unexpectedly, due to an error in the technical approach, they ultimately lost the navy's approval. Institute 14 lived up to expectations and developed the Sea Star 346 radar with world-leading technology, enabling the leapfrog development of Eastern warships.

Qin Yang, of course, knew all of this.

The Hongqi-9 missile didn't start with an active seeker. According to the original design, it also needed C-band radar illumination guidance. Therefore, Institute 23 decided to use C-band for the entire radar array to solve both search and guidance.

However, C-band has a disadvantage: limited search distance. According to technical analysis, this type of radar array can search a maximum distance of 200 kilometers. Many European warships in later generations, equipped with four small shields, used C-band, and the search distance generally did not exceed 200 kilometers.

For the navy, which craved regional air defense capabilities, a search distance of 200 kilometers was clearly not enough. Institute 14 proposed using S-band for search and installing a small C-band radar on top for illumination. This proposal ultimately won the bid. After all, after changing the band, the search distance was increased to over 400 kilometers. By the time it was finally developed, the performance had improved, and the navy was very satisfied.

Later, the Hongqi-9 became an active radar guided missile, but the small C-band array was still retained because C-band was still needed to transmit commands and provide mid-course guidance.

From a technical point of view, this design is one generation ahead of the Aegis system. Although the Aegis system has four phased array radars, it still needs target illumination radar, which greatly limits the fire channels. The number of fire channels is limited by the number of target illumination radars. When boasting, the Aegis can deal with saturation attacks, but in reality, it can't deal with more than eight targets at a time. Four target illumination radars have to play a relay race.

Now, which technical route should we take?

"Our air defense radar needs to choose S-band. At the same time, our long-range regional air defense missile should preferably use an active seeker, so that we can obtain true anti-saturation attack capability." Qin Yang couldn't help but say as he pondered the technical route. After he finished speaking, he realized that everyone was looking at him.

Wait, is there a problem?

Qin Yang suddenly thought of something. This meeting was to discuss the 052, not the later 052C. Why did he say so much?

"Let's talk about this project later." Qin Yang said, "Let's talk about our 052 first."

"President Qin, your requirements are very high. Our regional air defense missile should use an active seeker. Are you trying to create the world's first?" An attendee from the aerospace department said.

Once, when missiles first appeared, many people thought that the era of missiles had arrived, and the theory of missile omnipotence was very popular. But in reality, this situation did not last too long.

Soon people realized that missile technology was too backward to replace previous combat methods. The pilots of the F4 Phantom had the most say in this. The designers thought that the machine gun was useless, so they didn't install it. Then the pilots in the air often used up all their missiles and gained nothing. They wanted to continue fighting, but there were no weapons left! So in the later stages, the Phantom fighter jets were equipped with machine gun pods.

The reliability of the early Sparrow missiles was quite low. These missiles used a conical scanning system, which was almost like a blind man touching an elephant. The truly usable Sparrow missile was the single-pulse seeker, which was the AIM-7M missile. The British-produced version was called Skyflash, and the Italian-produced version was Aspide. Moreover, Aspide was the first Sparrow-series missile to be equipped with this seeker.

It can be said that, currently, the single-pulse seeker is already the best. Active seeker? Only the Phoenix missile is equipped with it. After all, the missile body diameter is large, and the active radar antenna can be stuffed in. Others can't do it.

Now semi-active radar seekers are used. Whether it is an air-to-air missile or an air-to-ground missile, the biggest feature is that after the missile is launched, the radar behind it needs to continuously illuminate the target. The radar waves reflected by the target are received by the missile's seeker, which can continuously lock and fly towards the target.

The active radar seeker can emit radar waves by itself, so there is no need for radar illumination behind it. It is not easy to actively emit, and it is even more difficult for a small missile body.

Because the missile body diameter is limited, the effective range of this radar is only about 20 kilometers, and the launch distance may be farther. What should be done at this time?

The first half of the flight can continue to use target illumination radar, or it can be guided by commands. Air-to-air missiles use the former more, while ground-based shipborne missiles use the latter more.

However, the large-scale use of active radar seekers is already a matter of the 1990s or even the new century. To propose it now is to create the world's first miracle. After all, even the famous Patriot missile and S300 missile do not use this method, but use TVM guidance, a complex integrated guidance method.

"How can it be the world's first? The Phoenix missile is already using it. We can also survey and imitate the technology on it and then use it on our surface-to-air missiles." Qin Yang said, "I'm just proposing a technical route. If it can't be achieved now, it can also be used as a goal to pursue and achieve in the future."

"President Qin, are you even going to develop this regional air defense missile for us?" Old Liu continued to ask.