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

After all, William Cohen's focus is not on the threat posed by a third-generation fighter jet itself, but on how to gain more benefits for his department by exaggerating the Chinese threat.

Therefore, after some irrelevant discussions, he quickly gave up on continuing to delve into the specific technical sources of China's domestic engines.

Rigorous military intelligence is one thing, but using think tanks and the media to build public opinion is another.

People will always believe what they want to believe.

Among the one hundred men in the Senate, there are absolutely no more than one who can actually go through the procedures and carefully read the documents of intelligence agencies.

Therefore, the key point is to make reasonable deductions based on certain basic facts.

There are only two possibilities for the Chinese to produce Su-27 domestically.

One is that "the Chinese people hid it from the rest of the world and secretly spent several years developing an aeroengine and installing it on the aircraft";

The second is that "the Chinese bought military engine technology from the Russians."

To convince senators who don't understand technology, the point is not what the truth is, but to determine which version of the story they will prefer——

Obviously the second one.

Because this is more in line with an American's understanding of the world.

It can also bring old opponents and new opponents together, further exaggerating the challenges the US military will face in the new century.

After all, even though the Cold War is over, no one really regards the Russians as friends.

This has nothing to do with the other party's position.

But simply, the empire needs an enemy.

Otherwise, if the world is truly peaceful, wouldn’t the tens of millions of laborers who rely on war and arms sales starve to death?

"Well, thank you very much for bringing this news."

Cohen raised his wrist and looked at his watch. He felt that the time was almost up, so he changed the subject and prepared to end the conversation.

Henrion opposite had already had this intention. After a few polite words, he got up and left the Office of the Minister of Defense with the intelligence document.

After watching the other party disappear through the door, Cohen picked up the phone and dialed the number of his secretary's office.

"Make an appointment for me with Mr. Daniel Mitnick, the head of the Intelligence Select Committee."

"Yes, the sooner the better."

This intelligence selection committee is the department where Cohen served before becoming defense secretary.

Although the name sounds like an intelligence unit, it is actually a private think tank with no official background.

In the past, it has always been a situation where the reputation is very famous, but the influence is not very big.

However, in the past two years, due to obvious reasons, they have begun to gain opportunities to cooperate in depth with the national defense system, and their reports have been adopted more and more frequently, and there is even a tendency to develop into semi-official think tanks.

……

Almost at the same time.

China, Beijing.

Even though it was almost late at night, several rooms in the office building of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense were still brightly lit.

An emergency internal meeting is being held here.

Meetings like this were actually not uncommon a few years ago.

As the department in charge of national defense industry construction and military technology development, whenever there are any shortcomings in key national projects, meetings will basically be held until midnight.

However, in the past two years, the frequency of problems with national key projects has significantly decreased, so the number of people being called back after get off work has become significantly less frequent.

And this time, naturally, something went wrong because of a certain key model.

In the conference room, Ding Gaoheng, who was almost regarded by everyone as having quit smoking, was puffing away smoke for the first time, with a grim expression on his face.

After taking a long drag on the cigarette, he finally broke the silence that seemed to be like death:

"Lin Hai, please tell me about the current specific situation of the ring project."

The Ring Project, an early warning aircraft project jointly developed by China and David, plans to use the IL-76 platform to carry the Falcon radar system developed by the latter, in order to obtain an early warning aircraft with sufficient performance in a relatively short period of time. .

Although the contract was officially signed more than a year ago, in fact, before that, China Aviation Technology Import and Export Corporation, Davidson Elta Corporation and Damao's Beriev Aviation Manufacturing Company had already made many contacts for this purpose.

Therefore, in the first year after the official launch of the project, the overall progress was very rapid.

Even at the beginning of this year, a prepared Il-76TD transport aircraft was sent to the Kingdom of David to conduct flight tests after installing a disc-type radome.

However, after that, the ring project did not usher in the next key node according to the preset timetable.

Of course, with this kind of cross-border cooperation, especially between three countries, it is normal for some delays to occur as the depth increases.

But as time passed, the technical personnel involved in the project from China gradually realized that something was wrong, and after collecting some evidence, they reported the news to the country.

That's why today's meeting came about.

"Director Ding, according to the report of the leader of our technical delegation stationed in the Kingdom of David, Elta Company is probably deliberately delaying the research and development progress of the ring project."

"In April this year, the 14-meter radome required for the early warning aircraft had been transported from Taganrog to the Kingdom of David and was even assembled and tested, but the combined test flight was not immediately carried out."

"The reason given by the Great Patriotic State at the time was that because the Il-76 we provided was an old aircraft, some of the airframe details did not match the drawings provided by Beriev Company, and forced assembly might be risky. They needed to The structural deformation of the aircraft is measured and the necessary adjustments are made to the installation method of the radome.”

"At that time, Beriev Company believed that this statement was untenable. The reason was that although our Il-76 was eight years old, it had only flown for less than 8 hours in total. It was impossible for it to appear enough to affect the radar. The deformation of the cover installation, they have made modifications to platforms with longer flight times, and have never encountered this problem."

"However, we considered that the ring project involved a lot of work after all, and as long as there were risks, we still had to eliminate them, so we adopted the advice of the State Council and re-examined the structure of the aircraft."

"But from that time on, Elta began to hinder the project development process for various reasons. After repeated urging by us and Beriev, it was not until last month that the radome was installed in Iraq. On the Er-76, various reasons were used to postpone the first flight of the combination..."

"..."

Following Lin Hai's introduction, most of the other people present showed anger.

Even several deputy directors are like this.

In recent years, China's foreign cooperation in the aviation field has increased, but it is rare to encounter such a thing.

Even Airbus and the European Aviation Agency, no matter what others think in their hearts, at least on the surface they have an attitude of equality and reciprocity.

Although they, the leaders of the national defense industry system, do not say it in words, they definitely feel proud.

Now that someone is showing off his face in such a way, it is naturally impossible for him to swallow this breath casually.

"I'm afraid the Kingdom of David alone wouldn't have the motive to do this."

Huai Guomo's tone of voice was much sharper than usual:

"Look, there might be some Americans causing trouble behind here."

"No matter who is behind it, it is absolutely unacceptable to use such small means to stumble us in the dark!"

Zhang Dongxu almost slammed the table when he heard half of it, and now he is obviously suppressing his anger:

"The current plan is to put pressure on the Kingdom of David. We have paid 3.5 million US dollars, not to let them work hard."

"..."

Amidst the voices of expressions and condemnations, Ding Gaoheng, who was sitting at the top, also frowned slightly, but never spoke.

It was not a surprise to him that David would make small moves in the ring project.

Because Chang Haonan raised this possibility more than a year ago.

At that time, it was just a reason to launch the domestic early warning aircraft backup project, but now it seems...

It seems more like a prophecy...