Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"Speaking of anti-ship missiles, our technology is still too weak." Qin Yang began to ramble on, "As of now, we don't even have a single supersonic anti-ship missile. If we want to reduce the enemy's interception capabilities, we need supersonic missiles."

In 1982, the Exocet missile became famous for sinking the HMS Sheffield. At the same time, how to counter missiles became a major problem for military experts.

The solution quickly emerged. First, it was to improve the performance of air defense missiles, allowing them to better intercept anti-ship missiles flying at ultra-low altitude, skimming the sea. If one attempt failed, a second could be made. At the same time, there were various close-in weapon systems, mainly multi-barreled rapid-firing guns. If missile interception failed, a final barrage of shells would be unleashed, striving to shoot down the enemy's anti-ship missile.

With these measures, the attack effectiveness of anti-ship missiles was greatly reduced. In fact, the Exocet missile only bullied the British Navy, which only had Sea Dart missiles. If it had been the US Navy, they definitely wouldn't have fought the battle that way.

Meanwhile, the anti-ship missile side was also developing more advanced missiles to make penetration easier. After repeated research, many experts agreed that increasing speed was the best option for penetration.

The faster the speed, the shorter the reaction time left for the enemy. Changing from subsonic to Mach 3, a threefold increase in speed, means that the opponent's interception time is reduced to one-third. In such a short time, the opponent's air defense system may not be able to react at all!

The Russians are absolute supporters of missiles. They have the world's most advanced anti-ship missiles. To take out the US aircraft carrier battle group, more than half of their anti-ship missiles are supersonic.

"Supersonic anti-ship missiles require specialized ramjet engines, and we simply don't have the technical reserves in this area," someone said.

"If we don't have technical reserves, then we need to do more research. The ramjet engine is the simplest engine, and we will definitely be able to develop it," Qin Yang said.

Ordinary aero engines have a complex structure, with a compressor in the front to compress the air, which then participates in combustion in the combustion chamber behind, and then the gas is ejected to complete the entire process.

The ramjet engine is simpler. Because the flight speed is very high, there is no need for a compressor. After the air crashes in, it is directly compressed and can enter the combustion chamber for combustion. Without a compressor, there is no need for a turbine. The entire device is just a combustion chamber, as simple as it gets.

The only drawback of the ramjet engine is that it needs speed to operate and cannot start from zero. Therefore, other power systems need to be used to propel the missile to a certain speed before the ramjet engine can work.

The Russians generally use rocket-ramjet combined engines. When taking off, the rocket is ignited first to propel the missile to a certain speed, and then the ramjet engine is started. The Sunburn anti-ship missile, imported with the Sovremenny-class destroyer back then, used this method.

However, ramjet engines consume a lot of fuel, so the range of this type of missile will not be long. Although the Sunburn missile can reach Mach 2.3, its range is only over a hundred kilometers. Therefore, after the introduction of this missile, countless newspapers and magazines competed to report it, calling it an "aircraft carrier killer." In fact, the Sovremenny-class could not possibly rush to within a hundred kilometers of an American aircraft carrier to launch anti-ship missiles. It would have been shot down by the carrier's aircraft long before that.

"Supersonic anti-ship missiles are very fuel-intensive. If we want to achieve a sufficiently long range, we need a particularly large volume. If we want an anti-ship missile that can both reduce weight and attack at supersonic speeds, we need a combination of subsonic and supersonic."

The ultimate way to develop anti-ship missiles is to combine subsonic and supersonic.

For most of the flight after launch, it is subsonic flight, after all, there is no need to fly so fast. When near the target, it flies supersonic again during penetration, which can perfectly solve these problems.

When Qin Yang said this, everyone was shocked. Subsonic and supersonic combination?

"How is it done?" Old Liu asked.

"This is equivalent to a supersonic missile warhead wrapped in a subsonic flying body. After take-off, the whole thing flies forward. There is a small turbofan engine at the rear, pushing the entire missile to fly hundreds of kilometers. After approaching the target, the outer shell is discarded, and the supersonic warhead inside is exposed, starting its own engine and entering the supersonic flight phase, completing the final attack mission. This satisfies both the range requirements and the penetration requirements."

In later generations, after the supersonic YJ-12 was developed, it was followed by the subsonic-supersonic combined YJ-18. Although they are all loaded into vertical launch devices, and the specific combination is unknown, it is generally believed that the subsonic-supersonic combined YJ-18 is the main force, after all, it flies farther.

"President Qin's thinking is beyond what ordinary people can compare to." An officer sighed, "To even think of this mother-daughter bomb method, amazing, truly amazing! President Qin, only your Factory 960 can help us develop this missile."

What, is it my job again? Qin Yang quickly shook his head, "No, no, our factory doesn't have the strength."

"Didn't you develop air defense missiles?"

"Air defense and anti-ship are two different things and cannot be compared at all," Qin Yang said, "If our Factory 960 does everything, what will other factories do? Will they all go bankrupt? I believe that relevant units will definitely be able to develop this weapon. In the future, our navy's long-range attack weapons will be very complete. Not to mention a range of one hundred kilometers, missiles with a range of five hundred kilometers can be developed."

"President Qin, can the radar you just mentioned search beyond five hundred kilometers?"

Of course not, the "Music Box" radar can only search for one or two hundred kilometers. Beyond five hundred kilometers? Besides early warning aircraft, what can do that?

"At that time, we will need long-range search capabilities, from satellites in space to airborne early warning aircraft, patrol aircraft, etc. As long as a target is detected, an attack can be launched."

"At a distance of five hundred kilometers, can the missile find the target after flying over?"

"Of course," Qin Yang said, "At that time, we can simply have one of them fly at a high altitude as a leader."

In fact, the speed of an aircraft carrier formation at sea is not fast. Within half an hour, it will only move a dozen nautical miles. Therefore, as long as the aircraft carrier formation is detected, and the approximate location of the target is entered into the missile, an attack can be launched. Even with a subsonic missile, it will only take half an hour. After flying over, the target is still within the search range of its onboard radar.

If you are afraid of being unsure, you can use a lead missile. The Russian saturation attack is like this: one flies at high altitude to search for the target, and the others fly silently at low altitude. If the high-altitude missile is shot down, another one is sent up.