Spark

"A new type of ballistic missile in our country was successfully tested, with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers."

After DF-17 completed the first experiment, the news came out, and the shock it brought was no less than a storm sweeping the world.

The first to respond was the Reagan aircraft carrier formation.

In the bridge command room, Thomas looked at the latest information with concern, and said to Gilday on the side:

"The previous news is indeed accurate. They are indeed developing a new type of weapon."

"Moreover, judging from the current public information, this weapon is aimed at us."

"It's horrific that they're developing far faster than we expected."

"If every weapon is like this, and it can be put into actual combat in less than three months, then what chance do we have against them?"

"The gap will be closed very quickly and our advantage will be gone."

Gildy on the opposite side looked dignified, but compared to the pessimistic Thomas, he still had a little fantasy.

In his opinion, the opponent's speed was too fast, even a little too fast.

How is this possible?

Even if it is our own side, it will take at least more than a year to trial-produce a medium-range ballistic missile, and the actual verification process will be even longer.

Now, the things built within three months are either just modifications of the original equipment, or simply false propaganda.

Thinking of this, he asked:

"Is it possible that it is fake? Maybe this is just a signal they deliberately sent out to deter us."

"Of course, I'm not saying that the equipment is fake, but maybe the performance parameters are not as exaggerated as they say?"

"Look at their reports. Is it possible to have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a penetration speed of Mach 5 or more? Is this data the result of intentional amplification?"

"Are you kidding me!"

Thomas rolled his eyes, then replied:

"Gildi, you have to understand that with them, the data can only be said to be small, not big."

"The report is 1000 kilometers and Mach 5, maybe the real performance is 2000 kilometers and Mach 10."

"This is their usual style. They call it keeping a low profile, but it's just pure insidiousness."

Having said that, Thomas sighed.

"Now, the situation is very bad for us."

"Jianlou doesn't want a real conflict between us to break out. What we can rely on is actually the advantage of the aircraft carrier battle group in the open sea."

"But now, the situation has changed."

"If this weapon really exists, then they are forcibly expanding the 'conflict-scale potential' at sea."

"In the past, we threatened them with the possibility of a small-scale war, but now, on this basis, they have come up with a higher level of deterrence."

"Their attitude is very clear. As long as a conflict breaks out, they will definitely use the advantages of medium-range ballistic missiles to expand the local conflict to the overall situation."

"So, the option is back in our hands."

"And in this kind of matter, whoever is forced to make a choice is the passive party."

Hearing his words, Gilday nodded silently.

"No matter what, we must find a breakthrough."

"Otherwise, if this operation ends hastily, neither the turret nor the Congress will let us go."

"I see."

Thomas pondered for a moment, then continued:

"We should organize a drill."

"What exercise?"

"Missile interception exercise! Let's replace our imaginary enemy with Pershing 2!"

Hearing this, Gildy's eyes lit up.

The Pershing 2 tactical missile has an effective range of 1,800 kilometers and a terminal penetration speed of Mach 12.

On this earth, it can be said that almost no defense system can effectively intercept it.

For a long time, it has been a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of the USSR. Only hundreds of missiles are needed to instantly disarm the USSR.

Using it as an imaginary enemy is indeed an extremely effective choice.

Because, if the Aegis system can show its strength in front of it, the sense of oppression caused by the so-called "new medium-range missiles" will be instantly lifted!

Gilday regained his spirits in an instant.

"From where? We've only deployed Pershing 2 in Europe right now, and in terms of range, there's no effective test environment."

"No, we can have."

A smirk formed on Thomas' lips.

"The missile wall project has been born for a long time, but before, because of our misjudgment of China's strength, it has not really been put on the agenda."

"Now, taking this opportunity, we can just do a preview."

"Even the Congress will never refuse. After all, they should be more anxious than the turret right now."

"Understood."

Gildy also smiled knowingly, and after a while, he asked again:

"Which region to choose? Vietnam? Their strength is not enough to carry such cooperation?"

"Of course it can't be Vietnam. I think Thailand is a good choice."

"Of course, this is not a cooperation that can be reached in the short term. Under the current circumstances, we can try it on our own site."

A few days later, Thomas and Gilday's proposal was passed with astonishing speed, and even the transfer of the aircraft carrier formation was unusually smooth.

In less than a week, the first batch of three Pershing 2 missiles have been deployed and tested.

Subsequently, under the command of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier formation, the first missile defense exercise was launched quickly.

This exercise was made public in the form of a joint military exercise, and the entire process was even broadcast live.

Everyone can see that this is a pure muscle show.

However, no one can ignore the significance of this operation.

Because it can almost be said to fully demonstrate the domineering strength of the US Aegis system.

Since the launch of Pershing 2, the anti-missile system has carried out full-time and all-round tracking on it.

Starting from the AN/SPY-1A multifunctional phased array radar, the radar emits hundreds of narrow beams to continuously scan the hemispheric airspace.

Even if only one radar beam finds the target, the radar will immediately manipulate more beams to illuminate the target and automatically turn to tracking, and at the same time send the target data to the command and decision-making subsystem.

The command and decision-making subsystem makes friend-or-foe identification and threat assessment on the target, allocates interception weapons, and sends the result data to the weapon control subsystem.

The weapon control subsystem automatically compiles the interception program according to the data, and sends the program to the missile through the missile launch subsystem.

The entire process from discovery to identification did not exceed 20 seconds, and within this short period of 20 seconds, the Aegis system had already predicted the approximate range of the missile's landing point based on information such as the speed and angle of the missile.

Although the accuracy of this landing point range is very poor, under the surveillance of the sea-air integrated early warning system, the missile has just entered the atmosphere, and it has been locked by the anti-missile missile that took off in advance.

At this time, the Pershing 2 missile has just entered the level flight attitude.

Because the air resistance is greater than gravity, its speed keeps decreasing during the descent. Under the control of the inertial guidance system, the flight direction sometimes jumps up and sometimes drops down. Under the premise of reducing the reentry speed, it can avoid the anti-missile system to the greatest extent. intercept.

But such a maneuver is meaningless for the Aegis system. It sensitively tracks all the movements of the missile, intercepts the missile launch, and goes straight to the Pershing 2 missile under the guidance of the sea-air radar data link.

At 4,000 meters in the air, the interceptor missile hit the Pershing 2 missile and exploded a brilliant flame.

The live broadcast was silent, no one cheered for it, and no one congratulated each other. It seemed that in the eyes of the personnel involved in the experiment, this was just a simple and unusual experiment.

However, outside the live broadcast, discussions surrounding this anti-direction exercise have already surged.

Huaxia's military forum has already exploded, and various comments have almost swiped the screen, and most of them are lamenting the huge gap.

"My God, it can really intercept it. The technology of the United States can really be said to be at the Zentraedi level."

"The speed of Mach 10, doesn't it mean that all air defense systems in active service cannot intercept it? How did they do it themselves?"

"Who knows? Anyway, their attitude is very obvious, they just want to show their muscles. This time, we have lost face a lot. Our new missiles just came out, and they immediately came to an interception exercise. Isn't this a slap in the face?" ?”

"I don't know if it's face-slapping or not, but I want to say, Aegis isn't that strong, is it?"

"Not that strong? Try intercepting a Pershing 2?"

"...You are purely bragging. I just want to say that the Pershing-2 missile's terminal penetration speed must be reduced in pursuit of strike accuracy."

"If the strike accuracy is limited to within 30 meters, then the terminal penetration speed can only be below Mach 4."

"If the accuracy is 15 meters, the speed needs to be reduced to Mach 2."

"This experiment is very obvious. Pershing 2 has let the water go. The pursuit of precision has given up the speed. Otherwise, the penetration speed above Mach 5 can't be stopped even if the gods come."

As this comment was issued, the topic shifted to the issue of "whether hypersonic missiles can be intercepted", and the quarrel became more and more intense, but in the end, this quarrel was ended by a sentence:

"Why do they need to intercept high-speed missiles above Mach 5?"

All the people involved in the discussion woke up instantly.

Yeah, why are they intercepting hypersonic missiles?

Isn't the new missile we developed this time aimed at attacking aircraft carrier battle groups?

Since the aircraft carrier is the target, it must be like the Pershing 2, abandoning speed and pursuing precision.

In other words, if Pershing 2 can be intercepted, then our new missile can also be intercepted.

So what's the point of discussing so-called "hypersonic speeds"?

It's useless, it's just useless!

For a time, pessimistic sentiment continued to spread, and it seemed that everyone had reached a consensus:

Our missiles have only just been born, and they are already behind.

Different from the pessimism shown by public opinion, the attitudes of Zhu Xuejun, who also watched the entire live broadcast of the exercise, and all the scientific researchers who participated in the DF-17 project were completely different.

At this moment, they can almost be said to be full of self-confidence.

Because they know one thing:

DF-17 is completely different from traditional land-based medium-range ballistic missiles.

Because it uses a waverider structure, what it flies out of is also the almost unpredictable trajectory of Qian Xuesen!

In a launch base in the northwest, Zhu Xuejun looked at the second DF-17 that had just been assembled, and asked:

"Have you finished the launch preparations? This time we are going to test unsupported launches, don't make any mistakes!"

The engineer on the side nodded quickly and replied:

"No problem. The simulation is in the vehicle-mounted mobile launch mode. All data parameters have been adjusted, and the interception system is ready."

"However, we estimate that this time the Red Fang will be caught blind again."

"How can this thing be stopped? The terminal penetration speed is Mach 10, and the accuracy can still be maintained at 50 meters."

"When we launched it for the first time, the position where the missile hit was less than 5 meters from the bull's-eye."

"The Yankees are really funny, we just sent a message and tricked them out of their big move"

Hearing this, Zhu Xuejun shook his head calmly, and replied:

"Never underestimate your opponent."

"We hide things, maybe they hide too."

"Okay, let's go ahead and get ready to launch."

"clear!"

A few minutes later, the launch command was issued to the operator, and the DF-17, which had already been ready for launch, soared into the air.

It passed through the atmosphere at a speed similar to that of Pershing 2 and entered outer orbit.

However, during the reentry phase, the particularity of the waverider design begins to emerge.

With the help of the thin atmosphere, the DF-17 with a high lift-to-drag ratio bounced and fell like a float on the edge of the atmosphere. The trajectory kept changing. All radar and satellite early warning systems failed, and the direction of movement became unpredictable.

After entering the atmosphere, the speed of the missile did not decrease but increased. With the support of the new heat dissipation system, the shell of the missile ignited raging flames, but the internal structure maintained amazing stability and reliability.

In less than 30 seconds, the missile had already flown over the target.

Afterwards, it drew an arc with an astonishing angle, twisting and rushing towards the predetermined target on the ever-changing path.

The interceptor missile that had been launched long ago didn't even touch a piece of its clothes, and the maximum interception error even exceeded 10 kilometers.

After 10 seconds, the DF-17 hit the target.

Its terminal hit speed reached a jaw-dropping Mach 7, and the landing point was far from the bullseye.

Just 40 meters.

The deck width of USS Ronald Reagan is 78 meters.

Cheers resounded through the entire experimental base. Commander Zhu Xuejun breathed a sigh of relief and said calmly:

"Publish the report."

"It's not rude to come and go, they are so generous, and we will be generous once."

"shit!"

A few hours later, Thomas, who was far away in the port, smashed the cup in his hand.

He never imagined that things would develop into what they are now.

If it were at the poker table, the events of these weeks would seem like a ridiculous game of poker.

The opponent showed a pair of hole cards, and his side quickly showed the straight in his hand, trying to scare the opponent away and make them fold their cards.

Unexpectedly, what the other party held in his hand was actually four!

Hypersonic missile with waverider design.

Is this really something that should appear in this era? !

Blood oozed from Thomas' palm, and he gritted his teeth as he looked at the two reports side by side in front of him.

One is a report on the successful interception of Pershing 2.

One is the "DF-17" penetration exercise report that Huaxia has just released publicly.

He looks to the left for a while, and looks to the right for a while.

At this moment, he was more depressed than ever.

It was as if he was just a clown for fun.