Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Although Factory 960 has created many miracles, it's not omnipotent. After all, expertise lies in specialization. Old Liu is asking for this and that from our side, demanding too much. It's clear that our side can't do it, but Old Liu still insists on these requests. What is Old Liu trying to imply?

Self-research is definitely not feasible. In the 1980s, it would be great if the country could develop a medium-range air defense missile. It's impossible to develop a more advanced long-range air defense missile unless we purchase it!

If we purchase, what can we purchase? The British Javelin is definitely not an option, and we can't buy the Russian S300. The answer is obvious.

The American Patriot air defense missile!

During the Gulf War in the early 1990s, the Patriot missile was praised for its miraculous ability to intercept Scud missiles. Although some pointed out that the data was falsified and the actual interception results were minimal, ballistic missiles are inherently difficult to intercept, but intercepting aircraft is not a problem.

This type of missile was developed in the 1980s and became the main air defense missile of the US Army, replacing the original Hawk air defense missile. Can our side buy this missile?

Some people have written about acquiring advanced weapons from the United States in the 1980s, including the Patriot missile, but this is not very credible. After all, there's also the E-3 early warning aircraft. The projects within the Perry Program don't count; those are just castles in the air.

If we don't acquire it through the Perry Program and purchase it directly, it will be a bit difficult. Even if we have the money, we might not be able to buy it. If we want to get it for research, we'll have to use our brains.

Qin Yang was carefully considering plans in his mind, but it wouldn't be easy to repeat the previous methods, such as the Tomcat crashing into the sea. So, after thinking for a long time, he couldn't come up with a suitable solution. For a moment, sweat actually broke out on his forehead.

"President Qin, what's wrong?" Old Liu asked, noticing Qin Yang's expression.

"It's nothing," Qin Yang said. "I just can't think of a good solution."

"Don't worry, President Qin. Don't get yourself too anxious, or the Air Force and Army will come looking for trouble with me," Old Liu said with a smile. "If you strain your brain, I can't afford to compensate."

Old Liu knew that this project was really stumping Qin Yang. It seemed that there were things Qin Yang really couldn't do.

Of course, Qin Yang can't say that the Soviet Union will disintegrate now. No one would believe it if he said it.

"Actually, our domestic aerospace department has already initiated a project. We just wanted to come here and see if there are any better solutions," Old Liu said.

The domestic project has already been initiated? Qin Yang realized that this was the Hongqi-9!

In later generations, many people said that the Hongqi-9 air defense missile was a copy of the S300. In reality, this is completely a lack of self-confidence. No matter what weapon it is, you have to find a foreign father. For example, the J-10 is said to be a copy of an Israeli fighter jet. Of course, there's also a lot of slander in it.

The Eastern Hongqi-9 missile began to be initiated in the 1980s, and it was also a key project for the Navy and Air Force. Of course, because the technical indicators were too advanced, it progressed slowly for the first ten years. Later, after importing the S300, they definitely took it apart and looked at it, and definitely studied it, but it would be inappropriate to say it was a copy.

After all, the technology of the Hongqi-9 missile far exceeds that of the S300. Take the most important guidance system as an example. The S300 uses TVM guidance, while the Hongqi-9 uses active guidance. These two are completely different, and the latter is more advanced.

TVM is an abbreviation for Track via missile, which translates to "guidance via missile," also known as "command + homing" guidance.

This is a compromise choice in an era when electronic technology is not advanced enough. The radar illuminates the target, and the echo is received by the missile, but the missile does not process the data itself, but sends the data back to the radar through a downlink channel. The radar station calculates all these relative coordinates, obtains the missile's control commands, and then sends the commands to the missile to guide its flight.

What's the point of all this fuss? Isn't it just to make the missile's signal processing simpler? Not only the S300 missile, but even the early Patriot missile used this mode. However, the Eastern Hongqi-9 has been following the active radar guidance route since its inception.

After the missile approaches the target, the missile's own radar begins to search for the target and guide the missile to attack. All of this can completely get rid of the constraints of the ground. It can be said that after the missile is launched, the ground doesn't need to worry about it. Of course, in order to hit the target more accurately, command guidance can be performed in the early stage, but it is definitely not needed in the later stage.

Other methods require full radar illumination throughout the entire process.

In terms of anti-saturation attacks, this active radar-guided missile system has innate advantages. The Eastern regional air defense missile has been following the high-end route from the beginning. Therefore, from its initiation in 1980 to 1995, it was considered a successful test launch after fifteen years of effort.

However, the initial performance was still unstable, so they continued to import the S300. In the later stages, after it matured, both ground and warships were uniformly equipped with the Hongqi-9.

"Old Liu, do you mean you want our research team to help with the research and development?" Qin Yang finally realized that he originally thought Old Liu wanted him to find a way to obtain advanced Western regional air defense missiles, but it turned out he wanted to cooperate.

Of course, there's no problem. Our project has been completed, and those Italians have nothing to do next. They can completely work together on the Hongqi-9.

"Yes, if they join, our research and development work will definitely be faster," Old Liu said. "Since your Factory 960 can't complete it independently, then we'll do it together."

You should have said it directly! Why do you always make us guess? We can't guess, Qin Yang said helplessly.

Old Liu smiled: "Everyone says that President Qin is the smartest and can see what others are thinking at a glance. So, I thought you would know as soon as I said it."

"Well, I know now. We will definitely work together to develop the most advanced missile system to protect the motherland's sky and allow the Navy to have advanced regional air defense missiles," Qin Yang said. "I also believe that we will soon see that day come."