The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Nowadays, China's air force is the leader of the world's second echelon.

All 767 J-5 fighters that were once produced have been retired from active service. In addition to export, only a small number are left for training and performance, and in museums as exhibitions.

The J-6 fighter was discontinued 10 years ago, with a total of 5,205 produced. This is also the main force of exported aircraft in recent years. Half of them are sold and half are given away, but there are still a large number of J-6 fighters in China.

By the millennium, that is, in 2000, the J-6 fighter will officially withdraw from the equipment sequence of the Chinese Air Force.

This also means that in the future, the J-6 can be sold as long as it can be sold, whether it is sold as a second-hand machine, half sold and half given away, or converted into a reconnaissance aircraft for export.

This part is mainly exported to Iraq, Persia, Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia and Latin America.

The price is very cheap, even the poorest countries can afford it.

The J-7 and J-8 series fighters are currently the middle force of the Chinese Air Force, while the hundreds of imported American aircraft and the equipped J-10 and J-11 fighters are the top combat power.

The number of third-generation aircraft currently equipped by China is second only to the Eagle Sauce and the Polar Bear.

The J-7 modified and J-8 modified are second-generation and a half fighters.

The current shortcomings of the Chinese Air Force are transport aircraft, early warning aircraft, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, and bombers.

The Chinese Air Force has all these aircraft, but they are not advanced and are relatively backward.

Although backward, they can barely be used.

The current reconnaissance aircraft development center is to build the J-8G. Once it is completed, China will be able to reach the world's first-class level in tactical reconnaissance aircraft.

In terms of reconnaissance aircraft, because the main purpose is for reconnaissance, reconnaissance cameras are crucial.

In order to develop the J-8G, the country has mobilized thousands of people in this regard, divided into multiple scientific research topics, to overcome related technologies.

Liu Tao also saw the project of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

The concept of drones was proposed very early. It has been 80 years since the British proposed the concept of drones in 1914. At that time, the British proposed the concept of drones to develop a small radio-controlled aircraft for military purposes.

In 1917, the United States invented the first automatic gyro stabilizer, and the childhood Curtiss N-9 trainer was transformed into the first radio-controlled unmanned aircraft.

In 1935, the "Queen Bee" drone developed by the United Kingdom came out. It is a radio-controlled full-size target aircraft and is considered the "pioneer" in the history of modern drones.

It can be said that major military powers and powers around the world are studying drones.

There is even a concept that fighter jets will be unmanned fighter jets in the future.

Unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is naturally one of the focuses.

China's unmanned reconnaissance aircraft did not start now, but as early as the 1960s.

At that time, the Air Force shot down several "Firebee" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the US Strategic Air Command, two of which were in a fairly intact corner and sent to research institutions for analysis and imitation. Beihang University repaired a "Firebee" drone and successfully brought it back to the blue sky. In the late 1970s, China began to imitate the "Firebee" drone and named it the WZ-5 drone. The Chinese name is naturally the Wuzhen-5.

The Wuzhen-5 unmanned long-range reconnaissance aircraft is carried and launched by a mother aircraft. The mother aircraft was originally a specially improved Tu-4 "Bull" bomber, and later changed to a Yun-8 transport aircraft, and then recovered by parachute.

The Wuzhen-5 unmanned long-range reconnaissance aircraft has a wingspan of 9.76 meters, a length of 8.97 meters, a height of 2.18 meters, an empty weight of 1060 kg, a maximum take-off weight of 1700 kg, mission equipment of 65 kg, fuel weight of 62 kg, a maximum speed of 800 kilometers per hour (at an altitude of 17,500 meters), a range of 2,500 kilometers, a flight time of more than 3 hours, a maximum flight altitude of 17,500 meters, and uses a WP-11 turbojet engine with a thrust of 8.33kN.

As China's only unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, the Wuzhen-5 is undoubtedly not advanced at present.

At least when used in the East Asian direction or the north, the probability of being shot down is very high.

Therefore, a powerful unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is needed.

Liu Tao personally went to Beijing to attend the launch meeting of this unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

At that time, he proposed that the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to be developed should be positioned as a high-altitude, high-speed, long-flight unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, mainly used for large-scale continuous reconnaissance and surveillance in low and medium intensity conflicts.

The main reason why Liu Tao came to Guifei this time was to participate in the development of this unmanned aircraft.

The development of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, models, aircraft engines, etc. are one aspect, but airborne radars, TV cameras, infrared detectors and other reconnaissance equipment, as well as defensive electronic countermeasures equipment and digital communication equipment are equally important.

Because this is an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, the purpose is to be used for reconnaissance, and the main equipment for reconnaissance performance is these.

And these are all China's shortcomings.

Even if the R\u0026D team is given sufficient funds, it may not be possible to develop an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft that can satisfy Liu Tao in ten years.

Therefore, he plans to participate in it personally.

Over the years, Liu Tao has personally participated in a large number of projects, and he has a very clear understanding of China's scientific research capabilities.

In terms of scientific research capabilities, even after more than a decade of accumulation and rapid development, China is still far inferior to the Eagle Sauce and the Polar Bear, and there is a clear gap compared with European powers and Japan.

Workers are easy to train.

But high-end talents, especially pillar high-end talents, are not easy to train.

This is also a historical debt left over from the past.

If the teachers have not learned it clearly, how can they teach students to understand it?

As for the entire knowledge system, it may take 10, 20 or even 30 years to catch up with advanced European and American countries.

China is too large and has too many people.

Engineers are easy to train, after all, it is a matter of practice makes perfect.

But when it comes to knowledge, especially innovation, it is not something that can be solved by practice makes perfect.

What Liu Tao did was actually a matter of forcing things to grow.

So much so that it gave countries such as Europe and the United States an illusion that China was in an era of great explosion of science and technology, which is why so many advanced weapons and equipment emerged, and the entire industrial system progressed and improved at a terrifying speed.

Even in many European and American media journals, China is ranked third in terms of military strength and comprehensive national strength, second only to the Eagle Sauce and the Polar Bear.

Even in terms of scientific research capabilities, China is ranked third.

After the first two third-largest powers in the world were beaten to a pulp, many countries now believe that China is the third-largest power in the world.

Even its military strength and comprehensive national strength have surpassed those of Britain, France, Germany and Japan.

In fact, this is just an illusion, an illusion created by Liu Tao.

And this illusion has caused a chain reaction.

Some chain reactions are even beyond Liu Tao's imagination.

Now, Liu Tao hopes to develop an advanced unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to meet China's current and future development needs.

As military equipment, it needs to ensure that it can serve for 20 to 30 years.