I want to be emperor

Chapter 1174 Five Major Automobile Companies

The Air Force is planning to develop air-to-ground fire support aircraft, which is also related to the strategic development of the Air Force. This means that the Air Force will soon expand its scope of responsibility from previous reconnaissance missions to ground fire strikes.

It seems that the airplane is just a small and insignificant thing. At the same time, the current scale of the Air Force is also very small, and even the military expenditure is only a fraction of that of the Army and Navy.

But the Air Force is an independent military branch after all. In the military system of the Great Chu Empire, it is on the same level as the Army, Navy and even the Guards.

Therefore, such matters involving changes in air force strategy were naturally reported to the Crown Prince. Today, Crown Prince Luo Jun is the assistant manager of the Military Affairs Council and has power in military affairs second only to Emperor Luo Zhixue.

He has the power to make decisions on general military affairs, especially military development.

For example, what new warships the navy wants to develop, how much money it will cost, and what impact it will have on the navy's strategy, all these things will be reported directly to the prince. However, unless there are major special circumstances, the prince will generally approve it directly.

The naval equipment development plan that can be submitted to the prince must have been discussed collectively by the entire navy, especially the senior management of multiple departments. The final conclusion will generally not be rejected... unless the impact is too great, such as requiring huge military expenditures and affecting major strategic adjustments of the navy.

The process is similar for the Air Force. After the Prince looked at the Air Force's development plan for aerial gunboats, he felt that there was no problem.

However, he was not familiar with the air force, or even with airplanes, so he was still a little confused about how the air force would develop in the future and what role it should play in the military system of the Great Chu Empire.

In fact, the Crown Prince, like many others, did not quite understand why his father wanted to separate the Air Force.

Therefore, when it came to matters concerning the strategic adjustment of the Air Force, Crown Prince Luo Jun did not directly cut off contact, but instead sent the report to Luo Zhixue.

Although Luo Zhixue would also receive this report at the same time, and strictly speaking, he would receive the original copy while the prince would only receive a copy, under normal circumstances Luo Zhixue was no longer personally responsible for these routine affairs.

Therefore, if the prince did not speak up, Luo Zhixue would not pay attention to it, but would directly pass it on and handle it according to the prince's opinion.

Since the prince had mentioned the matter of the Air Force this time, Luo Zhixue simply took a look at the report submitted by the Air Force.

After watching it, I feel that the imaginations of these people in the Air Force are quite wild... Aerial gunboats, in the original time and space, this thing was not invented and used by Americans until the 1960s and 1970s, and only Americans used this thing.

No one used it before, and other countries didn't use it either.

  The reason is simple. Before the 1960s, it was difficult for Americans, and other countries at any time, to gain absolute air superiority in a war and to completely suppress the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower. Therefore, if an aerial gunboat dared to go to the battlefield, it would most likely be shot down by enemy aircraft or anti-aircraft firepower!

But the Americans are different. Their air control capabilities have reached their peak since the 14s and 15s. The F16, F18, F, and F series of third-generation aircraft have excellent performance and are huge in number.

Such air force may not be able to gain absolute air superiority over big countries, but for small and medium-sized countries, it can defeat them in minutes. In this case, aerial gunboats come in handy. However, even so, they suffered a lot of losses in the Vietnam War.

But compared with the results of the battle, this loss is nothing.

Generally speaking, this thing is suitable for battlefields where air superiority has been seized and the enemy's ground air defense firepower is not strong.

As for the Chu people, the purpose and usage restrictions of this thing are actually similar... After all, although the degree of technological advancement is different, the principles and combat concepts are highly consistent.

They all hovered at medium and low altitudes above the enemy, and then carried out ground attacks using machine guns and artillery.

Luo Zhixue was somewhat relieved that the people in the Air Force could think of this thing. This also proved that he was not wrong to separate the Air Force into an independent army.

Only when they become independent and have their own destiny can they be motivated to make progress, and then work hard to promote the development of the Air Force, whether it is military aircraft or air tactics, etc.

  In addition, these people in the Air Force also understand what the purpose of the Air Force is... What is the purpose of the Air Force?

There are roughly two types of air forces in the original time and space. One is the air force with national air defense as the core. They are mainly equipped with fighter jets, especially fighter jets with interception capabilities. Their core mission is to intercept enemy bombers and a series of ground attacks, or aerial reconnaissance of enemy aircraft. This is a defensive air force.

The second is the offensive air force whose core is to attack ground targets of the enemy. The mission of this kind of air force is to attack ground targets, bomb enemy ground forces, ground military targets, important factories, and even directly bomb cities on a large scale.

The core force of this offensive air force is various ground attack aircraft, that is, various medium and large bombers, fighter-bombers, and multi-purpose fighters that can carry a large amount of ground firepower, while those air superiority fighters are used to kick doors and escort...

The core mission of the offensive air force's fighters is to cover their own bombers and drop bombs on the enemy's heads.

Of course, with the emergence of multi-purpose fighter jets, the air forces of most modern countries are doing both at the same time. After all, multi-purpose fighter jets can not only do air defense, but also provide escort, and can also drop bombs directly... they are capable of both offense and defense.

This is also the reason why modern fighter jets of later generations all emphasize multi-purpose...so that the air forces of most countries seem to be both offensive and defensive, at least when the rookies are fighting each other, they seem to be both offensive and defensive.

Back to the Great Chu Empire, the air force is undoubtedly an offensive air force, because there is no threat in the sky of the Great Chu Empire. The natives have no airplanes, let alone airships, and cannot threaten the sky of Chu at all.

Therefore, the Chu State's Air Force was, from the beginning to the end, a military force established for ground attacks... at least that was Luo Zhixue's plan. As for reconnaissance, that was also for better ground attacks.

When you understand this, you will be able to understand why the Chu Air Force wanted to develop aircraft such as aerial gunboats... You must know that in modern times, the Chu Air Force had no idea of ​​installing machine guns on aircraft for air combat, which means that there was no such type of aircraft as fighter jets.

On the contrary, the Guards Air Force has no interest in aerial gunboats, but is very interested in fighter jets that can shoot down airships and airplanes...

Because the enemies of the Air Force and the Naval Aviation Force are the natives, but the enemies of the Guards Aviation Force are the Air Force and the Naval Aviation Force.

Due to the special nature of the Guards, the Guards Air Force has been thinking about how to better provide reconnaissance and how to curb the enemy's aerial reconnaissance and ground strikes since its establishment.

By the way, the first anti-aircraft weapon in the Great Chu Empire, the anti-aircraft machine gun, was also developed by the Guards. It was an 8mm heavy machine gun that could specifically raise the elevation angle... In fact, it was just an existing mm heavy machine gun with a gun mount that could shoot into the air, but the effect was not very good.

The Guards have done a lot of research on aircraft in recent years, and finally found that the easiest and most convenient way is to just shoot down the enemy's aircraft.

Therefore, the Guards' aircraft also began to be equipped with machine guns, which were directly installed on the back seats of the Black Swallow aircraft for use in aerial combat... To a certain extent, the Black Swallow series of aircraft developed by the Hebei Weapons Company, from reconnaissance aircraft in the beginning, became trainer aircraft, and now has evolved into a fighter model.

It does everything a land-based, single-engine, two-seater aircraft can do... and does it pretty well.

  It has the best handling performance and is safe to fly. If you don’t use it, there will be no other aircraft to use!

Luo Zhixue directly wrote "I know" on the Air Force's aerial gunboat project report, which means that the Air Force's aerial gunboat project has been approved and can enter the next stage of research and development bidding.

In theory, this type of R&D bidding will review the performance, feasibility, and expected cost of the design plans of many manufacturers participating in the bidding, and finally select two manufacturers to award R&D contracts, allowing them to conduct technical research and development according to the contract and manufacture test prototypes.

Then they will select from the prototypes and finally choose one aircraft for large-scale procurement. Of course, the funds in these R&D contracts are not much, and in fact they cannot fully cover the successful R&D. Enterprises have to pay for R&D themselves.

The research and development and bidding of such important weapons does not actually mean waiting for the weapons manufacturers to complete the work and then taking them to participate in the bidding. After winning the bid, they will directly start mass production... Other companies cannot afford such high research and development costs, and once they fail to win the bid, these research and development costs will be wasted.

Therefore, the bidding for medium-to-large-scale new weapons and equipment with relatively high R&D costs in the Great Chu Empire often starts from the R&D stage, issuing R&D contracts to support manufacturers in producing prototypes, and then granting formal ordering contracts after the prototypes are approved.

The weapons manufacturer can then use this contract to raise funds for a series of research and development work including subsequent technology research and development, mass production preparation, etc.

Of course, some weapons with simple technology, or old weapons, or upgraded weapons, etc., are not suitable for this purpose.

Generally speaking, the Chu Army’s national defense bidding models are quite diverse and include all kinds of them.

After the Air Force started the bidding plan for aerial gunboats, the five major aircraft companies all participated... Well, now in the Great Chu Empire, there are only five relatively large-scale aircraft companies. There are other aircraft companies too, but their technical strength is too weak.

The five major aircraft companies are actually subsidiaries of the five major automobile manufacturers and are all wholly-owned subsidiaries. Therefore, they can all receive strong support from their parent companies in the power field.

Those new high-horsepower aircraft engines were all developed by the power departments of the five major automobile companies.

Unfortunately, although the aerial gunship is very important to the Air Force and those aircraft companies, for the five major automobile companies...this kind of business worth hundreds of thousands or at most a million dollars does not even reach the company's decision-making level.

Everyone is busy competing in the automobile market.

In the 54th year of Chengshun, the competition among the five major automobile companies in the automobile market is as fierce as ever.

In February, North American Motors launched its tractor business. Its new tractors have great cost-effectiveness. Relying on the brand effect of pickup trucks among farmers, North American Motors' medium and large tractors achieved impressive sales once they were launched.

This made Tangshan Automobile Company and Liaodong Automobile Company very vigilant, and they took a series of actions. On the one hand, they reduced the price of old tractors, and on the other hand, they hastily launched their own new tractor models.

Because for Tangshan Automobile Company and Liaodong Automobile Company, tractors are one of their main businesses.

Soon after, Tangshan Automobile Company launched a large pickup truck that was so-called deeply optimized for the American market... Because this car was large enough and could carry a lot of cargo, it actually sold quite well.

Then, Li's Power Company quietly launched a number of three-wheeled vehicles, including a large three-wheeled vehicle with a twin-cylinder engine. The small three-wheeled vehicle, which was priced at just over 100 Chu Yuan, could actually pull 700 to 800 kilograms of cargo on a dirt road, attracting strong attention from a large number of small businesses with transportation needs and even some individual transport operators.

This has made Liaodong Automobile Company very alert. The three-wheeled vehicle business is currently the core business of Liaodong Automobile Company, especially the medium and large three-wheeled vehicles with cargo as the core, which are the cash cow of their company.

So the two sides are now fighting fiercely over the tricycle.

Songhe Automobile Company also did not fall behind. Some time ago, it launched a heavyweight mid-to-high-end sedan with good cost-effectiveness, good appearance and good price. As soon as this sedan was launched on the market, it received orders for nearly 10,000 units, directly challenging the market leading position of Tangshan Automobile Company's star product "Tangshan Brand Type 3 Sedan".

Today, the five major automobile companies are in a huge melee, everyone sees each other as an enemy, and the competition area is very broad!

After all, the five major automobile companies not only sell passenger cars, in fact, passenger cars are only part of their business. They also sell various motor vehicles based on internal combustion engines, well, except for construction machinery vehicles...

  Engineering machinery vehicles, such as excavators and bulldozers, are relatively special. A large number of patents have long been seized by engineering equipment manufacturers. As a result, the five major automobile manufacturers cannot enter the market directly. They can only be suppliers of core components such as engines and gearboxes. If they enter the market rashly without patents, the market will not recognize them!

Several domestic engineering equipment manufacturers have been doing this for decades and have long accumulated brand, reputation and most importantly related technology. It is difficult for outsiders to shake their position if they rashly enter.

But apart from construction machinery, they can be found in almost all other internal combustion engine applications...

Various internal combustion engines for industrial use, such as gas engines and gasoline engines used as factory power, gas engines and gasoline engines used for power generation, etc.

Then there are various motor vehicles, cars, pickup trucks, trucks, tractors, tricycles, and two-wheelers. They all have different focus businesses.

Even military motor vehicles are no exception, but due to some restrictions, only unarmed trucks or tractors can be provided. For armored vehicles and other motor vehicles, technical cooperation and parts supply are adopted.

Oh, and there are airplanes. Airplanes are rather special things, so the five major defense companies simply cannot make them...and the five major automobile companies obviously don't want to help the defense companies spend a lot of time and effort on aircraft engines.

So far, military aircraft are the only type of weapons and equipment that are open to purchase by companies other than the five major weapons companies... But the Empire also made a remedy by directly granting the five major aircraft companies special licenses to develop and produce military aircraft.

Songhe Motor Company is still trying to develop small boats powered by gasoline engines...but it's too troublesome to do it because it's too cross-industry, so they simply don't do it themselves, but instead promote shipborne high-horsepower gasoline engines to supply downstream shipyards.

There are now some small boats powered by gasoline engines on the market.

The five major automobile manufacturers today are actually gasoline engine manufacturers... they make everything related to gasoline and gas engines.

Well, we won’t make diesel engines... There’s no commercial prospect for this thing in the short term, and the patents have basically been registered by Guangzhou Machinery Company, so we can’t make any.

  Guangzhou Machinery Company developed diesel engines not for use on the ground or in industry, but to use them on ships as a future shipborne power source to replace steam engines. Well, this idea is a long way to go!

The steam engine is a ship power source, and its vitality may exceed their imagination... In history, even during World War II, what transport ship was the most famous? Liberty Ship!

  What is the power of the free wheel? It is a combination of an oil-fired boiler and a triple-expansion steam engine!

In the Great Chu Empire, shipborne diesel engines will be used on a large scale to support the huge revenue of Guangzhou Machinery Company. It is estimated that this time will be so long that the core patent of the diesel engine they hold will expire!

Of course, it is not very reliable to use it on a large scale as a commercial power source, but small-scale attempts, especially by the navy, will not cause any problems.

The Navy has been actively exploring various available power modes. Not to mention diesel engines, they are even trying electric propulsion... The steam turbine has been developed, but the matching large reduction gears have been slow to make a breakthrough.

The Navy saw that large civilian yachts all used a combination of steam turbines and electric propulsion, so they were also considering using this power combination on the next generation of new battleships.

It is currently being tested on small and medium-sized test ships.

The Navy, which is even planning to adopt electric propulsion, is very receptive to diesel engines... well, gasoline engines are no exception.

The Navy is preparing to build its first diesel-powered military transport ship.