Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Qin Yang felt like he was being squeezed dry, the things in his brain constantly being extracted. Now, his mind was almost empty, utterly vacant.

"With President Qin saying that, we feel much more at ease," Old Wu said. "We just need to aim in this direction and move forward with big strides."

"Exactly, the route is the hardest to determine. They also said that for the sake of insurance, the improvement of the Hongqi-2 cannot be relaxed. I think we don't need to improve it. We can focus all our efforts on developing this missile."

The Hongqi-2 missile is the only mature and reliable air defense missile in China. There are still a large number of them in service, and there are also a large number of them in stock. Qin Yang had just proposed the idea of improving it into a surface-to-surface missile. At the same time, relevant domestic units are also planning to improve it.

This plan is mainly being handled by the 061 base.

In that special era, under the slogan of "Good people, good horses go to the third line", countless people with lofty ideals left the big cities and came to the mountainous areas to start the third-line construction, establishing three major bases in Guizhou Province, including the 011 Aviation Base, the 061 Aerospace Base, and the 083 Electronics Base.

The main product of the 061 Aerospace Base was the Hongqi-2 missile. After all, at that time, this type of air defense missile was the only model that could be mass-produced.

However, after entering the 1980s, the international situation eased, and the country began to focus on economic construction. The disadvantages of the third-line bases became more and more obvious. When producing civilian goods, their transportation costs were higher than those of coastal cities, making it impossible to compete.

However, the third-line people, with a spirit of tenacious struggle, worked hard to find a way out. The 011 Aviation Base eventually became Guifei, producing fighter trainers, while the 061 Aerospace Base developed the Kaisan air defense missile.

The name "Kaisan" was the mailbox of the 061 base in those years. This missile was launched to the international market under the name of Kaisan, focusing on cost-effectiveness. Later, it was continuously improved and eventually met the needs of the military, and was designated as the Hongqi-12 missile.

This type of missile was improved from the Hongqi-2.

The biggest problem with the Hongqi-2 is the liquid rocket engine. Therefore, the modifications revolve around this, replacing the liquid rocket engine with a solid rocket engine, which can win market recognition.

Moreover, the original guidance and launch system are still used, which can also save the troops' expenses. The troops should like it. The 061 base is tinkering with this idea, but the troops don't like it, because the troops' equipment not only has to save money, but also has to have sufficient performance. If the performance is low, the price is low and it's useless, because you can't win on the battlefield!

Therefore, after realizing this problem, relevant units are also constantly improving. Since the original fixed launcher is not suitable, then we will change it to a truck chassis, hoisting two missiles. In the later stage, even launch tubes were used, which greatly improved the life of the missile. Since the guidance system is not advanced, we will continue to improve the technology, but the radio command guidance will not be changed, and it will still be relied on to improve cost-effectiveness.

Radio command guidance technology is a very old technology. It has been used since missiles first appeared. In essence, it is the same as a model airplane, except that the output signal is faster and the adjustment is more precise.

The biggest advantage of the Hongqi-2 using radio command guidance is that the missile is cheap. Only a radio receiving device and a rudder operating device need to be installed on it. Compared with the infrared-guided seeker, the radar-guided radar antenna, etc., this facility is very cheap. With the development of technology, electronic equipment will become more and more precise and more and more expensive.

Now, the 061 base is trying to改造 the Hongqi-2. In case the self-developed advanced regional air defense missile fails, there is still a modified version of the Hongqi-2 missile that can take its place.

"Yes, radio command guidance is too backward, and the range of the missile will not be far. There is no need to improve this type of missile."

In addition to being easily interfered with, radio command guidance also has a big problem with accuracy. Whether the missile can hit the target depends entirely on whether the ground radar can guide the missile to the corresponding position. The farther the distance, the lower the accuracy of the ground radar. Therefore, if the range is too far, the hit rate of the missile cannot be guaranteed. If you want to develop a missile with a range of 100 kilometers or even further, you are destined not to use command guidance.

"President Qin, what do you think?"

Seeing everyone's eyes looking over, Qin Yang thought slightly, and then said: "I think the improvement of the Hongqi-2 should still be carried out."

"Why?"

"Because the missile we are currently developing is too expensive."

The above are all high-end technologies. The seeker must be actively guided, the missile body must use a dual-pulse engine, and the tail must have a baffle to achieve the function of vector propulsion. Can such a missile be cheap?

The price will be quite high, and it may even create a white elephant: the aircraft shot down by it is not as valuable as itself, just like a certain region using expensive missiles to intercept gas tanks. If enough of them fly over, it will be enough to drag it down and turn it into a pauper.

The Hongqi-9 must be developed, after all, this is related to the future of the navy and air force, but we must also have a low-end option to fight a war of attrition, and this Hongqi-2 is the most suitable.

Everyone's eyes lit up.

"President Qin really has foresight."

"President Qin's consideration is reasonable."

"Of course, the Hongqi-2 missile is already outdated after all, and the fixed launcher is also outdated. If relevant domestic departments want to develop it, they do need to aim at the low-end advantage, but the upgrades that should be upgraded must also be upgraded, such as the launching device, which must be turned into a mobile launcher."

Since Qin Yang has brought it up, he also wants to make this missile more suitable for the needs of customers. What should be reminded must be reminded, so as not to keep relevant units working on it, and the military keeps looking down on it, and in the end, the confidence is almost about to disappear.

"Yes, the fixed launcher of the Hongqi-2 is already outdated."

"President Qin, is there anything else to remind us of?"

"There is also the radar system, don't always consider using the original radar. Now we have entered the era of phased arrays, and we can completely use phased array radar. We must aim at low cost, but also have a certain performance. By the way, how is the development of our ground-based phased array radar?"

Although Qin Yang knows a lot of things, he doesn't know them clearly. This kind of ground-based phased array radar has been developed since the Hongqi-5. Later, the two projects merged, each with its own advantages. One of the projects already has a mature phased array radar.

"Our relevant units have already developed a G-band three-coordinate phased array radar, code-named 202, with a maximum search distance of 100 kilometers. President Qin, are you interested in this radar? Do you want to use this radar to develop a four-sided phased array radar air defense system for the navy?"