The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master

Zheng Liangqun didn't know at this moment that Chang Haonan had already found a way to hang a hypersonic missile on the center line of the belly of the J-11, thus completely defining this uninterceptable thing as a "tactical weapon" and greatly reducing its use threshold.

Whether it is tactical, technical or political.

But even if he really got the news, he might not be happy in a short time.

Because the Air Force is organizing the first brigade-level multi-service live-fire confrontation exercise since the establishment of the army in the northwest region.

There is no height difference limit for the air combat part, and no penetration height limit for the low-altitude confrontation part. It can be said to be the simulation method closest to actual combat.

In fact, as early as 20 years ago, someone proposed that we could consider referring to the "Red Flag" series of military exercises of the US military to improve the training and combat readiness level of our air force, and also formed a blue army force simulating the imaginary enemy in a common sense.

However, in that era when the average annual flight time of pilots barely broke the double digits and those who could fly at night were considered elite units, this kind of training content was simply unimaginable for the Chinese Air Force.

Even in daily training, various outrageous flight accidents would occur. If there were to be an unlimited confrontation, the number of aircraft crashed each year would probably be more than the number of new aircraft installed.

It was not until the advent of the new century that with the improvement of equipment and training levels, as well as the continuous success of Operation Hunting Bat and Operation Embankment, related training was able to continuously break through the original boundaries and gradually move towards actual combat.

Zheng Liangqun, who experienced the painful period of the 1980s and 1990s and won the first victory on the eve of the new era, was the main promoter of this change.

To a certain extent, it can even be said that the process of expanding the scope of the Air Force's actual combat training is his own promotion process from regiment commander to chief of staff of the service.

Therefore, it is reasonable that this milestone joint exercise was handed over to Zheng Liangqun for coordination.

But the results of the exercise made him look a little ugly.

Everything went smoothly in the first half of the air combat simulation phase, and the second-generation and third-generation crews each decided their own winners.

Although it has not yet been decided whether to award any titles or trophies or other souvenirs, it was an extremely exciting battle.

Some units that did not perform well also learned from their mistakes and decided to work hard to come back next year.

The problem lies in the ground-to-air simulation confrontation in the second half.

The fighter-bomber unit relied on air-to-surface missiles with a range of 150km to frantically test the edge of the exercise area. The S300PMU2 with a long range on the defender side used TVM guidance. Beyond the horizon, it only needed to lower the altitude to be unlocked. The Hongqi 9 with active radar had a short range and could be thrown away by simply turning the direction.

A confrontation that should have been fierce turned into a one-sided provocation. In the end, the missile brigade commander, who could not bear the humiliation, gave up protecting the target and took a battalion to conduct close and fast tactics based on the experience of his predecessors in dealing with U2, and barely achieved a counterattack.

The price is the complete failure of the protection mission.

Of course, even if he didn't do this, failure would be a matter of time.

The superiors provided each unit with a certain amount of ammunition before the exercise began. In order to ensure the hit rate, the anti-aircraft missiles had to fire at least two salvos in each round of firing.

The aviation side can decide whether to launch weapons according to the situation.

In fact, when the brigade commander decided to lead the team to fight guerrilla warfare, they only had three launch vehicles with a total of 12 spare ammunition.

This is obviously different from the situation planned in advance.

In addition to the tactical value of this exercise, it also undertakes some verification tasks of tactics and equipment.

In the expectation, the rhythm of the ground-to-air confrontation part should be short and beautiful, everything will happen in a flash, and it will end with the pilot successfully using the terrain or the radar soldier successfully finding a flaw.

But in the end it became a long and boring war of attrition.

What made Zheng Liangqun feel even more painful was that reason told him that this might be the true form of ground-to-air confrontation on the future battlefield.

Compared with the past, the development of combat aircraft and air defense weapons has reached a balance to some extent, resulting in the confrontation ending only when one side's ammunition reserves run out.

"Looking at it from a positive perspective, this at least proves that the comrades are really thinking about actual combat, not about our directorate."

Qiao Chenqing, the military chief who came to observe, was very open-minded:

"As the first in a series of exercises, I feel satisfied enough to see such a result... Even if there are still some problems at the detail level, they can be changed later."

This sentence is equivalent to setting the main tone of the evaluation.

But Zheng Liangqun was not worried about these:

"I was thinking that the results of the exercise showed that even if the technical level is equal, the defender in the air-to-ground confrontation is always at a huge disadvantage, which is not good news for us..."

Qiao Chenqing certainly understood what he meant.

Although the enemy and our situation has improved over the years, in terms of the overall situation, China is still on the strategic defensive.

"This is not surprising. There is a saying that goes, 'Air defense, air defense, nine out of ten defenses are empty... No one can gain the initiative through defense, so our predecessors established the concept of 'active defense'."

At this point, he paused for a moment, then changed the subject and said comfortingly:

"And from a tactical point of view, being able to drive away enemy aircraft and intercept the ammunition fired by the other side is already considered to have completed the basic task of the air defense force. As for offensive air control... that should be the work of the aviation force."

No mistake, read the content of the first 6-9 book!

These words undoubtedly made Zheng Liangqun, who was born as a pilot, quite useful:

"However, it would be better to continue to extend the effective attack range of air defense missiles..."

At this time, another voice came from behind:

"Excuse me, this is very difficult..."

The two turned around and found that it was Shen Fangzhong, chief engineer of the Second Academy of Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

The purpose of his trip was to prepare for the next improvement model of Hongqi 9 by collecting feedback from the front line.

But he just heard a request that almost made his heart and lungs stop, so he quickly explained:

"Due to the limitations of power form and missile size, the effective range of 200km like 48N6 or Standard 2 is basically the limit. Although the newer 40N6 or Standard 6 can extend the paper data to between 300-400km, it is only by replacing the active radar seeker to obtain the theoretical ability to dive and attack low-altitude targets at the far end of the range. It is difficult to hit maneuverable targets..."

"..."

Zheng Liangqun and Qiao Chenqing looked at each other.

Finally, it was the former who asked:

"Chief Engineer Shen, you have seen the situation in the past two days. Is there any way to solve it... or at least alleviate this passive situation?"

Shen Fangzhong smiled bitterly:

"This is the biggest problem faced by colleagues all over the world... It's not that easy..."

After a brief sigh, he still answered seriously:

"If you have to say, there are two mainstream routes at present."

"One is to make large long-range missiles and small medium-range missiles compatible in the same system, increase the number of firepower channels and firepower sustainability. For example, you should have seen the 9M96 series air defense missiles and 48N6 series air defense missiles launched on the S300 system, which is equivalent to changing the idea from intercepting the launch platform to intercepting the ammunition itself."

Zheng Liangqun's thinking piece At this moment, he still shook his head:

"The exchange ratio is still not cost-effective, and it will only make the attacker's activities more unscrupulous, and even compress the launch distance of air-launched weapons. It can be used as an alternative plan, but it can't solve the root cause... What about the second route?"

This answer did not surprise Shen Fangzhong, so he immediately continued:

"At present, even the most advanced air-to-ground weapons outside the defense zone have a range of 300-350 kilometers. Therefore, if long-range air defense missiles can also obtain the same maneuverability and hit probability at the end of the trajectory, there will be a chance to intercept the enemy aircraft before it enters the launch position."

"Before coming here this time, I heard that the army has come up with some interesting new things in the field of propellants. If some research and development resources can be invested, it may be worth looking forward to..."