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

Two weeks later, in the evening.

Changli Shooting Range, northeastern Hebei Province.

As the night darkened like ink, a convoy of vehicles painted in military green slowly drove along a dirt road that was opened up between wild grass and melted snow.

In early winter, the unpaved roads that freeze and melt repeatedly become muddy and difficult to travel on. Even ordinary off-road vehicles are likely to get stuck.

Fortunately, almost all the vehicles here have tracked chassis, so apart from the severe bumps, there are no insurmountable obstacles.

In an all-terrain vehicle at the front of the convoy, Yu Zhefeng, a radar engineer from the Electronic Technology Group, suppressed his churning stomach and asked Cheng Guangwei, the chief model designer sitting next to him:

"Boss Cheng, why don't you continue to use the Korqin Shooting Range this time? Why do you have to travel so far to come to a place like this?"

On the one hand, it was out of complaint, and on the other hand, it was to divert attention so as not to actually vomit in the car.

According to his experience, at this time of year, the temperature in central Mongolia must have dropped below -10 degrees Celsius. Even if it snowed, it would be more convenient to drive on the ground because it was frozen hard than in a mud pit.

Moreover, although Changli is one of the largest air defense weapons shooting ranges in China, it is affiliated with the Air Force after all, and all facilities are generally prepared for the testing of key air defense weapons, which is actually not very suitable for their testing mission this time.

"We can't help it. The Korqin test range was cancelled this spring... The new army air defense weapons test range is being built in Qingtongxia. It is estimated that it will not be put into use until the middle of next year at the earliest. However, our model can't wait..."

Cheng Guangwei's face turned pale, and he was obviously uncomfortable with the shaking of the articulated tail cabin. He paused for several seconds after finishing his explanation, and then continued to explain:

"The 0910 project has much stricter restrictions on the model progress than in 99. If the tactical equipment is to catch up with the military parade, it must be equipped to the troops in batches before the end of 08. There is no room for delay even for a day."

As he spoke, he used the window on the tailgate of the vehicle to glance at the tracked combined missile and artillery air defense system following behind.

It is said to be a combined missile and artillery system, but the launch tube on the missile bracket is actually empty.

In other words, one of the main purposes of this test is to verify whether this system actually needs these four air defense missiles.

Similar to the two previous military parades, the grand military parade to celebrate the 0910th anniversary of the National Day three years later also had a " Project" dedicated to providing hardware equipment support.

Although with the overall improvement of the weaponry level of the Chinese military, the number of truly "parade-specific models" has become fewer and fewer, but if a model can take advantage of this opportunity, it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to the entire research and development team.

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries are naturally the several project leaders, including the chief designer and chief engineer.

It was precisely because of this concern that Cheng Guangwei had not mentioned this goal to many people before.

Even Yu Zhefeng, who was in charge of subsystem design, heard of it for the first time.

However, for the latter, something else is obviously more shocking:

"The Korqin Shooting Range has been cancelled?"

Cheng Guangwei's painful expression was mixed with a bit of surprise:

"You do not know?"

Yu Zhefeng shook his head in confusion:

"I'm not specialized in artillery research. If it weren't for that chance opportunity ten years ago, I would probably still be working on long-range early warning radars..."

Having said this, he did not continue.

In early 1999, he, who had just been promoted to deputy director of the research laboratory, followed the Air Force Air Defense Force to conduct an anti-aircraft artillery covering shooting test for the purpose of anti-stealth.

To this day, although the test itself is no longer a secret within the industry, the specific content is still top secret.

Since then, his expertise has gradually shifted from early warning radar to medium- and short-range fire control radar, and he has participated in the research and development of several short-range air defense missiles or close-in defense systems.

Seeing Cheng Guangwei looking a little uncomfortable, Liu Xiyun, the assistant chief engineer sitting next to him, quickly took over the conversation:

"In the past two years, almost 40% of the Horqin Desert has been planned as a soil improvement test area. In the past month, no one was seen in the area, but now it is bustling with traffic every day... Whether from the perspective of confidentiality or safety, it is no longer suitable to continue to be an air defense weapon shooting range..."

Yu Zhefeng was stunned after hearing this.

He certainly still has an impression of this sand-to-soil project that had been widely publicized before, and it is said that in the first half of this year, the country relied on this technology to alleviate a round of market supply shortages artificially created by the West.

However, this is the first time that I have felt so directly the impact of this project that seems to have nothing to do with me.

He was just about to say something else when the convoy came to a halt, allowing the few people in the carriage who were almost unable to hold on to breathe a sigh of relief.

With the help of the lights of several cars behind and the last rays of the setting sun that were about to fall below the horizon, Yu Zhefeng saw a large area of ​​yellow weeds outside the car window, as well as several rammed earth air defense positions vaguely visible among them.

"Get off, get off!"

Almost everyone feels a sense of relief the moment their feet touch the ground.

Soon, the originally silent intercom channel became active.

Although the conditions were rather difficult, the departments responsible for each testing link quickly began the relevant work, and the prototype vehicle of the combined missile and artillery system quickly followed the command and drove into the firing position.

One good thing about the field air defense system is that it has very low requirements for launch conditions.

If it is a key air defense system, then facing this extremely poorly maintained site, it would probably take engineering machinery several hours to complete all preparations before launch.

But this time, it took dozens of people less than an hour to enter the testing state.

"Fire control system activated!"

Cheng Guangwei, who had recovered from motion sickness, picked up the intercom and gave orders word by word.

As his voice fell, the flat-panel search radar at the top of the air defense system slowly stood up and then began to rotate at a speed of about one circle per 1.5 seconds.

The drum-shaped fire control radar and optical sight directly in front of the turret also change their elevation angles following the movement of the gun barrel and missile bracket, always ready to further lock onto the target based on the capture results of the search radar.

A few seconds later, a slightly younger voice appeared on the intercom:

"The target plane is in the air!"

The target aircraft of this type of short-range air defense system is basically not something fancy. It is just a model aircraft with a corner reflector hanging on it, and it uses a two-cylinder motorcycle engine as its power.

Although it was dark and the target aircraft itself could not be seen for a while, the people on the ground could still clearly hear the rumbling sound of the piston working.

Almost at the same time as the previous voice ended, another command sounded:

"Radar system acquires target!"

A little later, the same person reported again:

Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!

"Optical system acquires target!"

Then, the seat ring drive motor suddenly made a buzzing sound, pushing the turret to rotate about 90° in half a second.

During this process, the two 35mm gun barrels were also adjusted to aim at the direction of the target aircraft.

The next moment, two streams of orange-red tracer light shot out like streams of fire, flying almost straight towards the inconspicuous target in the night sky.

Accompanied by deafening gunfire and slowly rising muzzle smoke, the programmed ammunition that did not require manual binding was given an explosion delay of varying lengths by the fire control system through the electromagnetic coil the moment it flew away from the muzzle. The shrapnel cloud formed by the almost simultaneous explosion of more than a dozen shells accurately covered the target...

Before anyone could react, the target aircraft had already turned into a dazzling fireball and floated down from mid-air due to inertia.

"Slant range 1km, target confirmed destroyed!"

This was followed by several rounds of repeated testing with almost identical scenarios.

The only difference is the distance and direction of the target aircraft.

"Slant distance 3km..."

"Slant distance 4km..."

"Slant distance 5km..."

It is not difficult to see that compared with the previous generation of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, although the new model has two fewer gun barrels, its combat effectiveness is far superior to the former thanks to more precise shooting accuracy and a more intelligent fire control system.

In addition, the larger caliber ammunition has increased the maximum slant range of the artillery system from less than 3km to more than 5km.

However, amid the repeated calls of "confirm destruction", Assistant Chief Designer Liu Xiyun did not appear very excited.

On the contrary, he became more and more worried as the test slant distance increased.

Finally, after the last set of 5.5km tests were over, he came to Cheng Guangwei with a serious expression:

"Boss Cheng, judging from the current results... maybe we need to change our combined missile and artillery air defense system into an anti-aircraft artillery system?"

The latter had just put down the walkie-talkie in his hand and was writing something in his notebook under the light of the car lights.

After hearing Liu Xiyun's sad voice, he raised his head and looked at the other party:

"For the time being, it should be like this..."

"The missiles in the original missile and artillery system were modified based on the Hongying 6, but the effective firing height and killing slant range of these missiles are not as good as those of the 35mm anti-aircraft guns. There is no need to increase the complexity of the system unnecessarily..."

After saying this, he also noticed the other person's face that looked like he had eaten a bitter gourd, so he smiled and comforted him:

"Don't be too concerned about a name..."

"Besides, what's wrong with anti-aircraft guns? Wasn't it anti-aircraft guns that shot down the B2 in the Balkans? Who dares to look down on the role of artillery in air defense?"

Of course, that's what they said, but everyone knows that the main reason for this situation is that China does not have an air defense missile that is small enough and has a long enough range.

However, this equipment is the key to the army's organizational reform, and we cannot wait endlessly.

Therefore, Cheng Guangwei finally added:

"In addition, we will also retain full missile control capabilities in the system until ..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw the contact person who had been waiting in the car running over in a hurry:

"Mr. Cheng, the institute just sent a message asking you and Assistant Liu to return to Beijing immediately."

Cheng Guangwei immediately regained his composure:

"So anxious?"

Leaving the prototype vehicle and a large group of people at the shooting range and only calling back a few key personnel obviously meant that there were some major changes in the project.

The other party nodded:

"Comrades from the Second Academy of Science and Technology said that they are testing a new technology that can increase the range of their Vanguard series missiles to at least 1.7 times that of their competitors!"