Borrowing an Airplane

At night, in the small attic next to the second floor of the canteen.

After Peng Fei retired from the front line after relinquishing his title as technical consultant, he moved into this small attic, living with the assistant commander, quartermaster, and cook of the Second Brigade.

The attic is a suite, a bedroom of about 30 square meters, with a utility balcony and a washroom at the far end.

The average living space per person is even larger than that of a company-level cadre.

Peng Fei is from Chaoshan and loves tea. He set up a tea table and a set of Kung Fu tea utensils so he can brew and drink tea in his spare time.

The military is quite lenient towards a fourth-level professional sergeant who will retire in a year; providing him with a tea set and some tea is nothing unusual. Even if a military region leader comes over, he will say, "The tea is good."

Peng Fei poured tea for Li Lu and Zhang Fei, and said slowly, "Old Six, you really are an old man. I'm so old, I was almost scared to death by you."

"I joined the army at sixteen, and this year marks twenty-eight years of service in the 7th Air Regiment! I've never seen a soldier as audacious as you!"

Li Lu forced a smile, not daring to utter a single word.

Peng Fei glared at Li Lu and continued his lecture, "We spent 1.5 billion yuan to bring in this regiment of Su-27s!"

"It's US dollars!"

"Sixty-two million five hundred thousand US dollars per aircraft!"

"You little punk, you've got some nerve trying to seize that Su-27 from the Ninth Regiment! I think you don't want to be locked up, you want to get disciplined!"

At Peng Fei's age, he's long past the stage of getting angry, so it's extremely rare for him to lose his temper like this.

Seeing this, Zhang Fei picked up his teacup and said, "Have some tea, have some tea, let's talk this out."

Peng Fei glared at Li Lu, then picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea.

Li Lu carefully took a sip from the teacup with both hands and praised, "Old squad leader, this tea is really good. Order some for me later."

"Don't change the subject." Peng Fei was still in a bad mood.

When he was smoking behind the mess hall talking about this, if he didn't have some self-control, he might have had a heart attack from Li Lu's anger on the spot.

Zhang Fei said, "Alright, Lao Peng, calm down. When there's a problem, solve it. What's the use of getting angry?"

Peng Fei looked at Zhang Fei, snorted, and said, "Old Zhang, don't think I don't know what you're thinking. You're itching to get your hands on that Su Liangqi, aren't you? Can't wait to make your move on her right now?"

Zhang Fei quickly waved his hand in denial, "No, no, I'm about to be grounded, so I don't have any thoughts about it anymore."

Seeing that the two middle-aged men were getting further and further off-topic in their conversation, Li Lu quickly interjected, "Old squad leader, old captain, shouldn't I share my thoughts? To put it bluntly, it's just an idea, nothing to do with fighting or killing."

Peng Fei and Zhang Fei gave him a look that said, "You say it, we're listening."

Li Lu tidied up and said, "First of all, the purpose of our tactical test group is to find a way to shoot down stealth aircraft, but we only have second-generation aircraft, and even second-generation aircraft are mostly aircraft that can only fire cannons."

"There is a full generation gap between us and fourth-generation stealth fighters. If we had a third-generation fighter, we would have closed the gap by a generation in terms of equipment level, which would be a leap forward."

"Secondly, the Ninth Regiment received 24 Su-27s in the past two years. One more or one less shouldn't affect their combat effectiveness. Besides, I heard that the Ninth Regiment's performance in this large-scale military exercise did not meet the Air Force Command's expectations..."

"It's not about seizing someone else's plane, but... if we submit a report to the Air Force Command in the name of the tactical test team, listing the necessity of incorporating third-generation fighters, and request the Air Force Command to send over a Su-27, there just happens to be a Su-27 at this airfield that hasn't been repaired yet..."

"Under these circumstances, the Air Force will probably temporarily give us this Su-27, right? At worst, it's just a loan; we won't just not return it!"

As Li Lu recounted his story, Peng Fei gradually calmed down, while Zhang Fei seemed lost in thought.

Li Lu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't easy to fool two middle-aged men. He slowly said, "There's an important prerequisite. Whether we can repair that Su-27, whether the Russian technicians can come and guide us, and whether we can provide the labor and effort to fix it—even if the Ninth Regiment doesn't consider the facts, they'll still have to consider our relationship, right?"

"Old squad leader, old captain, I think the chances of this succeeding are very high."

Peng Fei and Zhang Fei looked at each other, understanding each other's gazes—Shall we give it a try?

The Su-27 is just too tempting.

Peng Fei's harsh criticism doesn't mean he wasn't moved.

Who wouldn't want to touch a third-generation fighter jet before it retires from active service?

In the era when the J-7E was a domestically produced new type of fighter jet, the third-generation fighter jet was the dream aircraft that the People's Air Force had been longing for.

Many people have never even seen what a third-generation fighter jet looks like.

What kind of fighter jet is the J-7E?

It is an improved version of the J-7, which is based on the Soviet MiG-21. The biggest change is the adoption of a double delta wing aerodynamic layout, which improves low-altitude and low-speed performance.

(It is evident that the leading edge of the main wing has a significant outward fold, which improves lift performance at low altitudes and low speeds. "EH" indicates the naval variant.)

Even so, the J-7E still lags far behind third-generation fighter jets.

After the Gulf War, countries around the world generally realized that future air combat will be beyond visual range engagements with air-to-air missiles as the main attack weapons, and dogfights using cannons will become less and less common.

The U.S. military has defined the model of modern warfare with a highly technological and modern three-dimensional war, which has also served as a warning to many countries.

无论是俄罗斯的苏-27、米格-29，还是美国的F-16、F-14、F-15、F-18，抑或是欧洲已经首飞的的鹰狮、颱风、阵风这三种新式三代机，在研製之初就确定了以空空飞弹为主要武器的思路。

The US Air Force is even eliminating the cannon from the F-22, which is undergoing intensive test flights.

When the Soviet Union developed the Su-27, it still emphasized its close-range combat capabilities, with its cannon being one of its main weapons. After the Gulf War, Russia realized that the nature of air combat had changed and strengthened the ability of its third-generation fighters to use air-to-air missiles.

The Su-27 has enormous potential for improvement. Russia has used it as a third-generation fighter platform and launched a variety of improved versions in one go, forming a huge family of fighter jets. This family is the only one that can compete with the US military's third-generation fighter group.

On the other hand, Li Lu and his team can't even find a second second-generation fighter jet available right now; the J-8 is still in the development stage!

To be frank, since the stealth fighter tactical test project is a key project of concern to the Air Force, the best aircraft should be used.

But things weren't as simple as Li Lu thought, especially with only one regiment of Su-27s.

Whether it works or not, we have to try. How will we know if it will work if we don't try? If we don't try, it definitely won't work.

After the tactical test group reached a consensus, Li Lu reported to Xu Hailiang, and then the two of them went to the hospital to visit the regimental commander and report the matter to him.

The regimental commander naturally supported this, knowing that it would be difficult for him to continue in his post, and that he wanted to do something for the troops before being transferred to a secondary position.

The regimental commander, lying in his hospital bed, instructed, "Go find Gao Laowei from the Ninth Regiment first, get his support, and then ask the division for instructions. If Gao Laowei doesn't support you, this matter will be very difficult."

"While the Ninth Regiment and the Air Force Headquarters of the Military Region do not have the authority to dispose of Su-27s, don't forget that even if the Air Force Command agrees to allocate a Su-27 to you, the Air Force Command will reconsider if the Ninth Regiment strongly objects."

Upon hearing this, Li Lu and Xu Hailiang wholeheartedly agreed.

Combat troops do not have the authority to make decisions, but their attitude is very important.

"Gao Wei, the commander of the Ninth Regiment, I'd like to talk to him." Xu Hailiang demonstrated the responsibility of the temporary person in charge.

Li Lu said, "Chief of Staff, I'll go with you."

……