Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"As for the engines for the warships, we are using the Spey to modify marine gas turbines. This type of gas turbine should be able to support our warships with a displacement of over 8,000 tons, which is enough to meet our needs for a long time to come," Qin Yang continued, moving on to other topics.

What else could it be? The biggest problem plaguing the navy—the heart—we're going to solve it!

For a long time, the navy has lacked power systems. The old 051 uses boilers. Although the speed can be very high, the startup is slow. After the boiler is ignited, it takes one or two hours to boil the water.

The joke about taking a whole day to boil water and set sail is not the actual situation, but one or two hours are still necessary. What about gas turbines? As soon as they are started, they can be driven away immediately, with high efficiency. Therefore, Western warships have long abandoned boilers, especially the British, who have long entered the era of all-gas power.

Only the East is still burning boilers, and besides burning boilers, there are no other means. Diesel engines can only be used on warships of one or two thousand tons, and the speed is slow.

The Spey is a mature aero-engine. The British had long ago modified the Spey into a marine gas turbine. All sizes of warships used this power. In the East, the island nation also used this engine.

Moreover, the power is also good, with an output of 20 megawatts, which is the same level as the early models of the American LM2500. Two units can drive a 4,000-ton warship, and four units can drive an 8,000-ton warship, and the power will not be wasted.

Although a batch of LM2500 gas turbines were imported from the United States, they are too expensive and have excessive power. Using them on the 4,000-ton 052 is simply a waste. Moreover, the technical content is too high, and it cannot be copied at all with the domestic industrial level. The Spey is simpler.

"That's right. If the Spey marine modification is successful, then the navy's future marine power will have hope," Old Liu nodded.

"Everyone, what other projects do you need my help with?" Qin Yang asked.

Now that things have been said to this point, the navy's affairs should be considered complete.

The ski-jump takeoff of carrier-based aircraft has achieved perfect success, and various supporting designs have been taken over by relevant units. Even the escort warships have been arranged. What other problems could there be?

Qin Yang couldn't think of anything, but the navy officers could.

"President Qin, our navy still lacks a lot of equipment. Now the air force already has early warning aircraft, but our navy doesn't even have a qualified maritime patrol aircraft," a leader of the naval aviation said.

Maritime patrol aircraft!

The navy is not only maritime but also needs to have a sufficiently strong force in the sky. After all, without air supremacy, there is no sea supremacy.

In naval warfare, the first step is not to formulate tactics, not to boost morale, not to check equipment, etc., but to find the enemy!

Although warships are large, and aircraft carrier formations are even more behemoths, they are too small compared to the sea and can be completely hidden, making them impossible to find.

You can look at the records of past naval battles. Both sides were racking their brains to find each other's tracks, constantly taking off patrol planes to search the vast sea. If you're unlucky, you might even pass by.

Even now, in this era with a large number of reconnaissance satellites that can search the vast sea, it is still impossible to find the aircraft carrier formation in time because there are not enough people to process the massive photos!

This technical problem was not solved until the rise of AI technology in later generations. Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze the data searched by satellites. As long as the algorithm is good enough, the rest can be left to the computer. Those well-hidden aircraft carrier formations can be easily identified by artificial intelligence.

How to solve it now?

Of course, it depends on shore-based aviation and maritime patrol aircraft.

The world's leading maritime power, the United States, developed the P-3C patrol aircraft, which is not only for its own use but also exported in large quantities. With hundreds of them worldwide, finding a needle in a haystack is no problem. The Soviet Union also produced a large number of patrol aircraft, such as the famous Tu-142.

They use passenger aircraft platforms for these maritime patrol aircraft because patrol aircraft need to search at sea for a long time and need a comfortable environment. At the same time, they also need to carry a lot of equipment.

What about domestically?

The most common platform in China is the Y-8, a copy based on the An-12 transport aircraft. However, the number of this aircraft is small, with an annual output of single digits, which cannot meet the needs of the navy and air force. Moreover, the performance is not very high.

The navy simply does not have a suitable platform, nor does it have suitable radar equipment. Historically, in order to solve this problem, the navy purchased the Litton APSO-504(V)3 sea search radar from the United Kingdom and installed it on the Y-8, becoming the Y-8X. Although the performance is backward, it at least solved the problem of having nothing.

What about now?

The navy doesn't like this backward design. The navy wants advanced maritime patrol aircraft.

"Aren't we developing the KJ-2000?" Qin Yang said, "It is currently being tested. Why don't you, the navy, order a few?"

Everyone smiled wryly.

"President Qin, that's too expensive! How can our navy afford it? Even the air force is gritting its teeth to support it. Although our navy is also very satisfied with this early warning aircraft, the budget is too tight."

"So what is the navy's idea?"

"President Qin, can you develop a sea search radar specifically for us and equip it on the Y-8? The search distance doesn't need to be too far, two or three hundred kilometers is enough. It must be able to detect the periscope of a submarine and be able to filter out sea clutter. It doesn't need to be as demanding as the air force's early warning aircraft."

The air force's early warning aircraft needs to be used on the ground and must filter out ground clutter, so the processing system is very complex and the price is very high. The navy's patrol aircraft flies at sea and only needs to filter out sea clutter, which is easy.

The only hard requirement is to detect periscopes, which is one of the important missions of maritime patrol aircraft.

Conventional diesel-electric submarines have a short duration of using battery power underwater, so they need to surface to periscope depth frequently to observe the surrounding situation with a periscope while extending the snorkel and starting the engine to charge the battery. Maritime patrol aircraft rely on detecting periscopes to find submarines, but the device exposed on the surface of the periscope is not large, not even as large as a fire warning post. This requires advanced radar.

They want Factory 960 to develop a radar specifically and install it on the Y-8.

"Why don't you choose the Y-10?" Qin Yang asked.

The development of the Y-10 requires accumulating enough flight hours, which requires the military to help. The air force already has early warning aircraft and aerial refueling aircraft. What about the navy? Can't you purchase a few?

"President Qin, the Y-10 is a bit big."