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

Earlier in the day.

The coast of Bohai Sea.

In a 54K6 combat command cabin, Colonel Lu Zhicheng from the Quancheng Military Region Air Force Ground-to-Air Missile Force was staring at the circular radar screen in front of him while occasionally glancing at the electronic clock next to him.

The surface-to-air missile regiment under his command had moved here from its original base about 200 kilometers away a week ago and deployed an air defense battalion position with a strengthened regimental command system.

Generally speaking, this should be considered a standard start for an actual combat exercise, which should be followed by a round of confrontation exercises or shooting training based on "unknown airspace conditions and complex electromagnetic environment."

But this time, after the troops were mobilized into place, they went into standby mode and did not receive any new instructions for several days.

It was not until the evening of the previous day that the regiment command post officially received an order from their superiors, requiring them to act as the defender and simulate a confrontation with a "small high-speed ballistic target."

Captain Lu, who had participated in the S300PMU2 delivery test in Suzhou, knew that this statement was generally equivalent to a short-range ballistic missile.

Therefore, they entered a state of combat readiness since early this morning, waiting for the appearance of the target at any time.

At this time, the regiment chief of staff Li Jixiang, who was sitting two seats away, suddenly turned around and reported:

"Captain, we have received a notification from the military region's air force that the target missile will be launched around 0847!"

As his voice fell, the spirits of everyone in the command cabin were immediately lifted, and the atmosphere immediately became serious.

As for anti-missile interception, countries are generally still in the initial exploration stage, so an open chess approach will be adopted in most tests.

That is, the intercepting party will obtain the approximate time and direction of the target's attack in advance.

It's equivalent to a little transparent but not really transparent.

For example, when the U.S. military is testing the interception of intercontinental ballistic missiles, it will even input all the ballistic data of the target missile into the anti-missile system in advance.

Otherwise, many confrontations cannot even take place.

Lu Zhicheng took a deep breath and moved closer to the microphone installed on the podium:

"All battalion at first! Turn on the radar and search for the target!"

The air defense position was still quiet on the surface, but the personnel at each position entered the combat state in an orderly manner like a wound-up spring.

After a brief hesitation, Lu Zhicheng issued a second, more specific instruction:

“将96L6E2雷达调整至L波段，分担火控雷达的照射压力，同时由64N6E雷达全面接管警戒任务……”

"..."

In the test conducted last year, the live-fire phase included shooting down two different types of short-range ballistic missiles.

Therefore, even though he had only been equipped for a little over a year, he had already learned some tricks of intercepting ballistic targets.

However, even so, the actual interception efficiency is still not optimistic.

The problem was not the radar, but the missiles.

Missiles designed for aerodynamic targets often focus more on dynamic range and lack sufficient initial acceleration. Even if the radar has established stable tracking, there is still a considerable probability that the interceptor missile will miss the incoming target because it does not have time to maneuver.

"Captain, do we need to double the number of intercepted fire channels?"

Chief of Staff Li Jixiang, who was planning interception firepower in the command system, suddenly asked.

Lu Zhicheng was stunned at first, then shook his head with a bit of a smile:

"What's the point of adding a fire channel? There's no live-fire shooting session today..."

"From the reported launch position, the target missile is most likely a short-range ballistic missile... Based on my experience, it is relatively easy to capture and track such campaign and tactical ballistic targets under the unified management of the theater system command post."

The S300P used for key point air defense was not designed with anti-missile capabilities like the S300V, but the regiment-level 83M6 command and control center has specifically optimized its ability to intercept high-altitude ballistic targets.

This means that in virtual confrontations where missiles are not launched, they are usually able to gain some advantages.

However, they finally got a chance to fight back, and a regimental command post as large as this couldn't just sit there and wait for the target to attack.

Therefore, a few seconds later, Captain Lu looked back at his chief of staff:

"Old Li, take a few new staff officers to conduct some map-marking training, simulating the situation where the early warning radar is destroyed or loses contact..."

Although new military technologies have brought confrontation into the information age, traditional paper operations remain a conservative but reliable choice for soldiers.

And Li Jixiang happens to be the leader in this area.

"Yes!"

The chief of staff immediately stood up, picked up three pens in black, blue and red from the side, and walked to the tactical table not far behind him.

The other two relatively young staff officers also came over, ready to admire the unique skills displayed by their leader...

"Report, according to ballistic calculations, the target is about to enter the interception range!"

The voice of the 64N6E radar operator came over the radio.

At the same time, the search results of the battlefield management radar were also displayed on the screen in front of Lu Zhicheng.

Just as the words came true, just a few seconds later, a dazzling echo appeared near the center of the radar detection range - 34km away, 47.7km altitude

"The target has appeared, prepare to track!"

While giving commands, Lu Zhicheng also turned the trackball in his hand to keep the target within the radar's optimal search range.

At the same time, Li Jixiang also drew the first blue mark on the paper.

The search frequency and accuracy of the battlefield management radar are relatively limited. Therefore, according to normal procedures, the captured general information will be shared with the 96L6E2 and 30N6E radars, which will conduct rapid multiple scans of the target area and then provide more accurate fire control parameters to the launch unit.

The altitude of 47km is equivalent to a reaction time of about 38-40 seconds for common medium-range and short-range ballistic missiles.

enough.

According to the rules of the simulation exercise, as long as the target interception information is successfully sent to the launch unit and the launch squad leader presses the trigger button, the intercepting party will be considered the winner.

The experienced Lu Zhicheng had even moved his finger to the button for transmitting accusation information in advance.

However, it was different from what he expected.

The fire control radar team's feedback was not heard on the radio yet.

On the screen next to it, only a few intermittent trajectory points flashed by, and there was no stable and clear target trajectory as usual.

"what's the situation?"

Watching the interception countdown in the lower right corner of the screen gradually return to zero, Lu Zhicheng's forehead suddenly broke out in sweat.

"The target was moving too fast, and the small-angle scan could not keep up with the vertical area changes."

The radar company commander's slightly hurried voice rang in my ears:

"We are reconfirming the scan range..."

"..."

As one of the first units to be equipped with this type of air defense system, Lu Zhicheng's subordinates acted very quickly and re-completed the interception-transmission-tracking process in a very short time.

However, the target in the sky seemed to be faster.

About 10 seconds later, when the command center shared the target information with the fire control radar for the second time, the altitude information displayed on the screen had actually changed to 23.3km.

Lu Zhicheng almost popped his eyes out.

Speed ​​over 2km per second???

This is obviously not the terminal speed that a normal short-range missile should have.

Even many old-fashioned medium-range missiles may not be able to reach...

"Try tracking again!"

Although they were completely unprepared for this, this elite ground-to-air missile force still exerted its subjective initiative to the extreme.

By rubbing the keyboard to produce sparks, the 96L6E2 radar finally intercepted a stable signal below 10km in altitude before the missile finally hit the target.

However, Lu Zhicheng didn't even have time to move his fingers before the target disappeared back into the search range because it was too low.

Obviously, this has hit the designated area.

Their interception failed.

Only one successful speed measurement data was left on the screen——

2250m/s.

About 6.6 times the speed of sound.

作为对比，S300PMU2系统的48N6E2防空导弹在动力段结束时，大概能达到1750m/s的速度。

According to general theory, the speed of the interceptor missile should be kept at more than 1.5 times that of the intercepted object in order to better deal with the target...

For a moment, the only sound in the entire command module was the humming sound produced by the operation of the cooling system.

Lu Zhicheng stared straight at the radar screen in front of him, as if he wanted to see something from it.

Li Jixiang, who was in charge of manual mapping, had one hand hanging in the air and didn't even have time to place the second mark.

The two young staff officers who had just graduated from military academy had not yet reacted to what was happening.

He looked at the chief of staff, then at the regiment commander.

"Just now...it seemed like something flew over?"