The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 358 High-speed rail technology?
After the meeting.

Liu Tao quickly understood why this decision was made.

After basically completing the reduction of one million troops, the leadership is planning a new round of reduction in the troops to slim them down again.

The goal of streamlining the troops this time is still to streamline the million-strong army.

That means reducing the current total number of military personnel from 430 million to 330 million.

In addition to cutting 100 million staff, the organization will also be streamlined. The three headquarters and major military district organizations have been reduced by nearly half based on the original quota. The Navy, Air Force, Second Artillery Corps and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense will also be significantly streamlined.

The second is to adjust the military regions, streamline the one million troops, and streamline the organs. Then the current 11 major military regions will seem too many, so the major military regions will be merged, and only five or six major military regions will remain. After the adjustment, the military regions will have a larger war zone, sufficient manpower, abundant material resources, and a deeper battle, thus improving the independent combat capabilities of the major military regions, and they can stand alone in important strategic directions.

Another thing is that the army corps were reorganized into group armies. The firepower, assault power and mobile combat capabilities of each branch of the army group greatly exceeded those of the original army corps, and mules and horses were eliminated, thus achieving motorization and semi-mechanization.

The last step is to adjust the structure of the army's arms. The number of professional arms of the army should exceed that of the infantry. Artillery should become the first arm of the army, and armored troops should become the main assault force of the army. At the same time, a large number of new arms should be formed, such as army aviation, army air defense missile forces, and electronic warfare forces.

Liu Tao was secretly shocked by his leader's courage.

You have to know that streamlining the troops will face great resistance and it will offend people.

In just the past few years, the army has been reduced by nearly two million people twice.

Now the third round of troop reduction is imminent, which will definitely cause dissatisfaction among many people.

The Beijing-Kowloon Railway project, a project of the century, can consume a large part of the job placement of retired soldiers, making the current troop reduction appear calm and effective.

In other words, the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" project has multiple meanings.

Afterwards, Liu Tao went to the Ministry of Railways.

Although he had dealt with Tie Lao Da a few years ago, whether it was the connection between the factory and the railway network or the connection between the port and the railway network, Liu Tao came to Tie Lao Da's headquarters for the first time.

This time we will specifically discuss the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" project.

"In 1987, there were only four years to complete the whole project. It was unrealistic. We could first build a double track and put it into operation. After 1987, we could start the construction of the double track. It would take another two to three years to complete the double track and thus complete the entire project!" The person in charge of the railway said, "It's just a technical problem. I have to trouble you, Comrade Liu Tao!"

Liu Tao waved his hand and said, "This is what I should do. In the next few months, I will adjust the line design, complete the design work, and organize geological drilling along the line."

For such a large project, topographic surveying and geological drilling are huge workloads.

These two tasks determine whether the design is reasonable or not.

"This is not a big deal. We can complete all the surveying and geological drilling work in just half a year," the person in charge said confidently.

The Ministry of Railways has a closed management system with a complete set of operating mechanisms. Even its talents are trained in schools managed by itself. It has its own railway police, railway courts, etc.

It's completely equivalent to a society.

"I will also solve the technical issues within half a year." Liu Tao nodded. "As for funding, we will set up a special account for the project. Our Panshan Group will first transfer 10 billion to it for the preliminary work needs." Dalian Shipyard.

The first Type 054 frigate and the first Type 052 destroyer are under construction in full swing.

On an open space, Liu Tao was holding a train model and testing it.

Liu Tao naturally did not have technologies such as electrification, rails, and trains.

But it did not prevent him from conducting research.

There are many technologies he needs to solve, such as track structure technology, railway construction technology, train manufacturing technology, information collection technology, dispatching and control technology, operation management technology, and maintenance technology, etc.

Such a high-standard railway undoubtedly belongs to the category of high-speed rail in this era, and only France and Japan in the world have mastered high-speed rail technology.

Japan's Shinkansen high-speed railway was officially put into operation in 1964, with an operating speed of over 200 kilometers per hour; France's TGV high-speed railway set a high-speed wheel-rail speed of 1972 kilometers per hour during its trial operation in 318.

High-speed rail technology, like aviation technology, is a very large and complex engineering system.

It took Liu Tao almost half a year to master these core technologies and form a complete high-speed rail technology.

The rails, trains, etc. on the open space are constructed using a 1:10 model. Liu Tao is conducting an experimental test. The rails are 1 kilometer long and the train has 16 carriages.

He now spends part of his time on the construction of the first Type 054 frigate and the first Type 052 destroyer, and the rest of his time and energy on the research and development of high-speed rail technology.

"This track structure technology is indeed one of the key core technologies of high-speed railways!" Liu Tao exclaimed in amazement.

The requirements for track structure of high-speed railway are high reliability, high smoothness, high stability and high durability. Track structure technology directly affects the speed, safety and comfort of high-speed train operation.

So don’t underestimate the track structure technology because it contains high technology and is one of the key core technologies of high-speed railways.

Traditional railway tracks usually consist of two parallel rails, which are fixed on sleepers, and ballast made of small gravel underneath. Both ballast and sleepers increase the load-bearing surface, disperse the pressure of the train, and help the rails bear the load, preventing the rails from sinking into the soil due to excessive pressure. In addition, ballast has several other functions: reducing noise, absorbing heat, reducing shock, and increasing water permeability. This is the ballasted track. Ballastless track consists of rails, fasteners, and unit plates, which play a role in shock absorption and pressure reduction.

However, as the speed increases, especially when the speed exceeds 250 kilometers per hour, the ballast powdering intensifies, the ballast splashes, the roadbed stability decreases, and it becomes difficult to maintain the track geometry.

Liu Tao then thought of ballastless track. The sleepers of ballastless track are made of poured concrete, and the roadbed does not require gravel. The rails and sleepers are laid directly on the concrete road.

Ballasted track and ballastless track each have their advantages and disadvantages.

Ballast track is the traditional structure of railways. It has the advantages of good elasticity, low price, easy replacement and maintenance, and good noise absorption properties.

Ballastless track has the advantages of low maintenance cost, long service life, good line condition, not easy to expand the track, and no ballast splashing when driving at high speed.

It can be said that as the speed continues to increase, ballastless track is actually more suitable and its application will become more and more extensive.

The design speed of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway is 250 kilometers per hour, but it does not mean that it has to be rebuilt if it wants to increase the speed to 300 kilometers per hour in the future.

(End of this chapter)