Chapter 1065
The Navy Ushers in a New Era of Power, Blue-Water Navy Makes Great Leap Forward
After a brief pause, Su Dingping added.
"Of course, once the pressurized water nuclear reactor is developed, Professor Zhang and his team will work on overcoming the technical challenges. At that time, it will be feasible for both commercial and military applications."
Upon hearing this, Xu Dongguo and the others exchanged glances, and finally understood.
The Varyag has now been converted into the Liaoning, the first aircraft carrier of the Longxia Navy. It would indeed be somewhat uneconomical to carry out further modifications and upgrade it to nuclear power.
Instead of wasting that money and time, it would be better to simply build a brand new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
They trusted Su Dingping's professional judgment because it had never let them down. He had always kept the direction firmly in place, saving the navy from many detours and saving a lot of money and time.
"Since you've said so, then we'll listen to you. You're in charge of military production," Liu Huaming said with a serious expression.
Xu Dongguo echoed, "Dingping, the commander is right. We have always believed in you."
"We originally thought that this much military funding would be enough, but we didn't expect it to still be insufficient."
Qian Wenbing smiled bitterly, "However, if the nuclear submarines, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and nuclear-powered warships are all successful, then this money will be well spent, and it will save a lot on fuel costs in the future."
"The key point is that this way our navy will also have a fleet capable of long-range voyages, which can continuously carry out maritime combat missions."
Su Dingping then reported: "Comrades, I have a surplus of US$48 billion from last year, plus the allocated military funds, which should be enough if planned properly."
"Dingping, you don't have to be so stingy."
Liu Huaming felt a pang of heartache upon hearing this and immediately made the decision, "Go ahead and spend as much as you want. If it's not enough, I'll apply to the higher-ups."
“That’s incredible. I’m willing to risk my reputation to ensure your research funding.”
"We can't let insufficient military funding delay your research progress and ultimately hinder the rapid development of our navy."
Liu Huaming said this and did it. His biggest worry was that insufficient military funding would slow down the development of the navy, which would make him a sinner against the navy.
Rather than do that, he simply threw away his pride and begged directly from the army and air force, exchanging related technologies for billions of yuan in military funding to ensure the navy's research progress at that stage.
It seems like there's enough military spending now, but when it comes to actually using it, it will be stretched thin. The navy has too much debt, and it's a high-tech, intensive branch of the military.
If a warship is outgenerational compared to the enemy, not only will the war be impossible to fight, but it will also have terrifying consequences, as the enemy will crush it!
He didn't want to see such a tragedy again, so he didn't mind swallowing his pride and asking the army or air force, or asking Marshal Xue for help.
For the sake of naval development, it's not ugly!
It would be truly shameful if the navy suffered a defeat because its warships were outdated!
As for the funding for the Pangu Research Base, it was allocated collectively by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, since it involved the research units of each of the three services.
The majority of military spending for integrated naval factories still comes from the navy.
Of course, it doesn't come from the regular funding allocated by higher authorities, but rather from the revenue the navy earns by capturing warships from the enemy and selling them, or simply from international arms trade.
"Thank you, sir. I will certainly live up to your expectations."
Su Dingping responded gratefully, already planning to go all out and make a big splash in his heart.
So he spent the night at the naval headquarters military base sanatorium and had a full physical examination. All his indicators were excellent, which put Liu Huaming and the other leaders at ease.
The next day, before dawn, he took a private plane directly to the dedicated airport of the integrated naval military factory.
In fact, he knew very well that if all the indicators from his physical examination last night hadn't been good, he probably wouldn't have been able to go back today.
There was no way around it; whether it was Liu Huaming or Xu Dongguo and other bigwigs, they all cared about him and were concerned about his health.
I had really been working too hard recently, and I looked so haggard that it scared them, including Xue Shuai. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been such a big fuss.
Su Dingping was deeply moved by the leaders' concern.
Since the higher-ups treat me as a national hero, I must repay them in kind!
After landing, he immediately immersed himself in his intense scientific research life, locking himself in the laboratory.
For more than ten days in a row, he lived a very simple life. He ate when he was hungry and rested when he was tired. He would open his eyes and continue working. He even saved time on washing his face. He simply wiped himself with a wet towel and then continued working!
During this period, the situation on Earth remained very calm, with no localized conflicts occurring. The nations seemed to have become friendly overnight, maintaining extreme restraint and politeness towards each other.
However, everyone is well aware that beneath this surface of friendliness and calm lies an undercurrent of tension, brewing the next conflict and influencing the course of the world situation.
As for the countries within the Eastern Continent's sea area, they are taking intensive actions and secretly engaging in some underhanded tactics.
However, overall, they are not as arrogant and domineering as before, nor as brave as before, after all, their navy has not yet recovered its strength.
The $200 billion in compensation from the Eastern Wilderness Tribe has been directly transferred to the Dragon Summer Tribe's financial account. In addition, the tribe is also secretly advancing the Dark Night Project and brewing a revenge plan.
That's right, the people of the Eastern Wilderness have always been a nation with an extremely strong desire for revenge. Even after being defeated many times, they are still unwilling to accept defeat and want to restore their glory through various means, to fight the Dragon Xia Navy again, in order to achieve their goal of restoring militarism.
However, the Longxia Navy was naturally not afraid. They would be punished as many times as the Longxia tribes provoked them. Even if they wiped out the Eastern Wilderness tribes, they would not feel any psychological burden and would only applaud! Back then, how long did the Japanese devils of the Eastern Wilderness ravage the Longxia tribes and kill so many people?
With old and new grudges piled up, it's like having a super buff stacked up!
As for the Niying tribe, the Filipino tribe, and the Thousand Buddha tribe, and other countries geographically close to the Longxia tribe, the Eagle tribe people have all pulled them together and started making moves.
The Eagle Tribe's War Department has already started building military bases there, and not just one, they're almost forming an encirclement.
That's right. Ever since the First Island Chain was destroyed, the Eagle Tribe has been plotting a new strategic encirclement to trap the Dragon Summer Tribe within it. It could even be said that they've crippled the Dragon Summer Tribe's long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities!
The Ansar people knew very well that the only tribe on the entire planet that could compete with the Eagle Tribe was the Dragon Summer Tribe. As long as they disabled the Dragon Summer Tribe's intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, the Dragon Summer Tribe would be completely at their mercy!
However, the ideal was far from reality. The Longxia military had long been monitoring the construction of these military bases, and naturally wouldn't take action unless it caused any substantial impact on the Longxia tribe.
But if it causes any impact, then I'm sorry, in wartime these bases will be completely destroyed without exception! As for the troops deployed there, they'll all be sent to meet their maker!
Time quickly passed to the end of April, and on that day, two Type 052D destroyers and a 10,000-ton destroyer were launched together, thus achieving the goal of launching three ships at the same time.
At this point, the navy already has 30 Type 052D destroyers in service, and as for the 10,000-ton destroyers, the number has exceeded 10, reaching as many as 12.
In this way, almost every fleet was allocated four ships.
The Eastern Fleet was the last to be assigned four 10,000-ton destroyers, which used to directly confront Longzhao Island. Now that Longzhao Island is in their hands, the main naval force can be transferred to the waters east of Longzhao Island, where a deep-water pier is being built to prepare for the berthing of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
In fact, the East has always wanted its own aircraft carrier fleet that can fight in conjunction with the Northern Fleet, so that the two fleets can fight against the combined forces of the Eagle Tribe and the Eastern Wilderness Tribe.
However, at present, such a powerful naval fleet, even on the Earth, is second only to the Eagle Tribe in tonnage, and other countries can hardly match it!
On the last day of April, Su Dingping finally stepped out of the laboratory.
In fact, he came from the forging space of the military industry encyclopedia, and the analysis progress of "pressurized water nuclear reactor technology" has reached 100%.
In other words, this moment marks the official entry of the Longxia Navy into a new era of nuclear power, and the prelude to the future power of the Longxia tribe has begun!
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it's May 1st.
This day happened to be Labor Day in the Longxia tribe, which was a very long holiday. Su Dingping also had a holiday. He came out of the Military Industry Illustrated Forging Space, but he did not give himself a holiday.
For him, there was no such thing as 996 or weekends off; he would work as soon as he woke up, working overtime without a moment's rest, always in a state of being wound up tightly.
He knew very well that time was of the essence, and the enemy would not give the Longxia tribe enough time to slowly develop its weapons and equipment. Instead, they needed to work desperately to produce more weapons and equipment as soon as possible and equip the troops to form combat capability!
After leaving the laboratory, Su Dingping immediately went to the Air Force Equipment Research Base located in the Pangu Research Base. After inquiring about the progress of the preliminary research on carrier-based aircraft there and helping to solve the problems encountered, he rushed to the nuclear weapons research base without stopping.
The two places are not far apart, and since Su Dingping was traveling by private car, he naturally didn't need to worry about spending too much time on the journey.
At the Pangu Research Base, Su Dingping originally planned to give a lecture to the people there and solve the problems in one go.
However, considering that the core technology of the "pressurized water reactor" has already made breakthrough progress, it is natural that I cannot spare the time and must implement it as soon as possible and seize the time to make breakthroughs.
Next, Su Dingping spent another two and a half days visiting several research centers of the naval integrated military factory. After resolving all the problems, he returned to his laboratory.
Upon arriving at the laboratory, he immediately returned to the Military Industry Illustrated Forging Space.
Although the technical analysis of pressurized water nuclear reactors has reached 100%, he has not yet turned this technology into a physical object, that is, a formal reactor entity.
Of course, there is also the task of upgrading and transforming the 10,000-ton destroyer in virtual space to bring it up to 19,000 tons.
Inside the shipyard in the virtual space, there is a huge gantry crane.
Several docks house the Varyag aircraft carrier, the Type 052 guided-missile destroyer, the Type 956E destroyer, the Type 052D destroyer, the Type 052C destroyer, and other large-scale destroyers. Real-world warships are all built here on a one-to-one scale.
You could say that all the warships you see in the real world are here, and they're in every compartment.
It is precisely because of this that Su Dingping has the confidence to build it in reality, and at the fastest speed.
In another dry dock, the USS Enterprise nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is moored. This was a one-to-one replica that was immediately placed here when I boarded the ship.
Inside the factory, there are replicas of the Yunfan series anti-ship ballistic missiles, the Dark Sword-1 high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, and a series of fighter jets such as the F-16 and the J-8.
Su Dingping has conducted in-depth analysis of these fighter jets and has already developed a blueprint for carrier-based aircraft. He believes that it will not be long before a heavy naval carrier-based aircraft can be built based on the Su-27.
That's right. In Su Dingping's view, the navy should either not develop carrier-based aircraft or start with heavy carrier-based aircraft.
Both its payload and fuel capacity are substantial, providing naval pilots with ample loiter time and confidence, rather than requiring them to return for resupply and further operations after only a short distance.
Of course, carrier-based aircraft cannot consist of only heavy carrier-based aircraft; they must also be paired with medium-sized stealth carrier-based aircraft to achieve a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts.
Naval carrier-based aircraft cannot rely on just one type of aircraft; naturally, other auxiliary aircraft are needed.
As for early warning aircraft, Su Dingping has already replicated the E-2C from the Eagle Tribe at a full scale, but this model can only be used for catapult launch from a flat deck. The Liao ship has no way to use it and can only adopt other methods for early warning.
Even the usually composed Su Dingping was somewhat moved by the results achieved in three years. (End of Chapter)