The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Spring passes and summer comes.

After solving the biggest technical difficulty of sweat cooling, the development of the entire verification missile entered the fast lane.

Compared with similar research in other countries, China's hypersonic weapons project presents a rather peculiar state.

The configuration and cooling problems that others were struggling with were solved almost immediately here.

What really troubles Chang Haonan and his colleagues is the very act of "reaching hypersonic speed."

Facts have proved that even though high-altitude launch and liquid propulsion have been chosen, for China at this stage, it is still much more difficult than expected to propel the double-cone warhead to the expected speed throughout the atmosphere.

Chang Haonan himself is not a rocket propulsion expert, and many key issues are limited by industrial capabilities.

For example, most of the supporting facilities and industries built for the development of the new generation of rockets have not yet been put into place. No matter how capable he is, he can only solve some technical problems at most. It is impossible for him to build a factory or an assembly line out of thin air.

Therefore, from the beginning of the project, the test of the warhead part was singled out and planned to be completed within half a year.

As for the experimental method, a more evil approach was chosen:

Take a mid-range shot and hit it on a high trajectory.

The process of re-entry into the atmosphere is used to simulate the aerodynamic heating effect.

Although the restoration is certainly not as good as the verification bullet in its complete state, in the absence of a high total temperature wind tunnel, it is worse than leaving the bullet on the ground and waiting...

……

One morning in early May 2005.

In a dense forest somewhere on the outskirts of Lianhai City.

An almost invisible mist surrounded a dozen cars, reflecting a slightly brilliant halo under the morning sun.

However, beneath the fog lies a country's most important secret...

The officers and soldiers of the 51th Brigade of the 810st Base of the Second Artillery Corps were wearing heavy protective clothing and quickly and carefully refueling a green missile.

Compared with the same model product on the combat-ready launch position not far away, the appearance of this one has been obviously modified.

Specifically, the warhead part under the fairing is extremely small, and against the backdrop of the huge 24-meter-high warhead, it even looks a bit weird and incongruous.

Dongfeng 3A.

The first medium-range ballistic missile developed by China.

From the perspective of the 21st century, this model is already outdated even after improvements.

Not to mention the paper performance such as range and accuracy, the huge logistics fleet and the pre-launch preparation time counted in hours are enough for an imaginary enemy in a high-level confrontation to destroy the position several times.

In fact, the reason why this unit has been preserved as it is today is not only because of the insufficient number of the updated Dongfeng 21, but also due to external factors.

For more than 20 years, China has been providing technical and security support for more than 30 products of the same model exported to Saudi Arabia that year.

Therefore, a unit capable of operating the Dongfeng 3 must be retained in the country.

As a result, Chang Haonan got a good deal.

For him, as long as the missile can reach a sufficient trajectory height, it doesn’t matter whether the missile itself is advanced or not.

These old Dongfeng missiles of the 810th Brigade are embarrassing equipment that the leaders would shake their heads at the sight of. Taking one out of them for test firing will not have any negative impact on the actual combat readiness level.

In addition, in the eyes of other countries, the only reason for China to test-fire a DF-3 missile seems to be to conduct random inspections to prevent these old guys from becoming ineffective due to age and having relatively low sensitivity.

Therefore, the test application was green-lit, and Chang Haonan got the opportunity to enter the missile base for the first time in his life...

At this time, he was in the command post hundreds of meters away from the launch vehicle, conducting the final mission status check before launch with several technicians.

Brigade Commander Wei Shijun took off his gas mask and pushed the door open. He stood at attention with a snap and saluted Chang Haonan and others.

To be honest, he himself was a little unsure about this mission.

Reducing the range by increasing the firing altitude is a common test launch method for long-range and intercontinental missiles.

After all, China has no overseas territories, and its own land area is relatively limited. If it wants to conduct a full-range test of thousands or tens of thousands of kilometers, it can only launch into the Pacific Ocean, which would make too much noise.

However, the maximum range of the DF-3A is less than 4000 kilometers. It can be fired directly from the 51st base to Lop Nur, so there is no need to fire at the highest trajectory.

Even the launch parameters for this mission were specifically determined in advance.

Moreover, as a single-stage missile, the Dongfeng 3's payload in the past was itself a fairing. This time, in order to cooperate with the test, an additional minor modification was carried out to enable the missile to have the ability to release a double-cone warhead independently.

In short, this missile, which is almost as old as him, reveals details that are difficult to understand...

But in any case, compared to most of his peers who never had the chance to press the launch button throughout their careers, he was already quite lucky. Putting aside the random thoughts in his mind, Wei Jianjun took a deep breath:

"Reporting to Academician Chang, the missile has completed all preparations before launch. It is planned to adopt the high ballistic mode, with the ballistic apex at 1450km. The maximum speed when re-entering the atmosphere is expected to be 6.5 Mach. The expected landing point is in the Bohai Sea area. The specific coordinates are..."

"..."

All these contents were actually written on the mission brief in Chang Haonan's hand, but in order to be absolutely sure, the commander still needed to check with him.

"Ready to launch!"

Chang Haonan gave the order in a deep voice.

"Yes!"

Wei Shijun saluted again, then turned around and began to give orders to the front-line positions to evacuate.

Through the telescope, Chang Haonan could clearly see that the support frame used for erection was slowly lowered, and the missile entered the final stage before launch.

"Listen to my command, countdown..."

The battlefield that was originally bustling with activity has fallen completely silent. Only the radio waves carrying Wei Jianjun's command orders are echoing among the mountains in the northeast.

"3...2...1..."

"emission!"

As the missile battalion commander in the launch vehicle pressed the launch button, the nitric acid and UDMH inside the missile body tumbled into the combustion chamber along the turbo pump. The covalent bonds broke and reassembled within one thousandth of a second after contacting each other, bursting out astonishingly huge energy and sending the high-temperature reaction products into the engine nozzle...

"boom--"

The next moment, as if the silent life suddenly woke up, a dazzling red flame lit up from the rear of the launch vehicle, pushing the missile to slowly climb amid the white and light brown smoke that almost covered the entire position and the deafening roar.

The oldest warhead carries the most advanced payload, delivering game-changing deterrence into space.

Even Chang Haonan, who had seen a rocket launch before, was shocked by the spectacular sight.

"The prelude to the hypersonic era has begun..."

Xing Muchun uttered a somewhat literary sigh.

Others' responses were much more brutal:

"Oh my god, it's spectacular..."

"..."

Soon, the flames disappeared and the dust settled.

The launch site returned to calm, and the missile disappeared from everyone's sight.

Only a few computer screens nearby were still displaying the signals sent back by radar and missile-borne sensors.

100km...200km...300km...

Although Wei Shijun's mission had been completed, perhaps due to the influence of the atmosphere on the scene, he had no time to celebrate with his subordinates. Instead, he stared at the constantly jumping curves and numbers in front of him without daring to make a sound, together with Chang Haonan and others.

Soon, the missile reached the highest point of its trajectory at 1750 km.

"Report, head and body separated!"

The signal on the radar screen first split into two, and then soon only the relatively small one remained in the center of the screen.

There was a sparse applause in the command post, but most people still held their breath, waiting for the most critical moment to come...

The full range of a medium-range missile is not very long.

Just a few minutes later, the warhead returned to the re-entry altitude of about 150km.

The speed displayed on the screen remained at 2160m/s.

The air in the command post almost froze.

No one knows what is happening on the surface of the warhead. They can only see a continuously falling curve being generated in the coordinate system.

Until almost half a minute later, when every second seemed like an eternity...

A brief report cut through the air that seemed to be tangible:

"Report, start the seeker!"