Munitions Empire-Chapter 1052: Some things just don’t make sense

Chapter 1052: Some things just don’t make sense

After developing jet engines, the Great Tang Empire continuously invested technical efforts in directions such as turbojets and turbofans, developing various types of jet engines. These engines, the technologies of the future, have promising prospects not only in military use but also in civilian applications.

This is a form of technological accumulation, considered a necessary preliminary investment. With the technology of many jet engines available, more models of aircraft are poised to emerge.

The Air Force is a major user of engines, and their constraints are relatively minimal: although the Navy also eagerly anticipates jet aircraft, they indeed do not yet possess the necessary conditions to equip jet engines.

The Navy’s aircraft carriers do not yet have retrofit catapult systems, so the 10 in-service carriers can only utilize propeller planes.

This is also a major source of frustration for the Navy: they have applied to build a newer carrier, planning to use advanced technologies like steam catapults to enhance the combat efficiency of carriers.

But this is still just a plan, and when there will be carriers equipped with catapults and when there will be naval carrier-based jets with jet engines have not been determined.

It’s different for the Air Force; they have already equipped many J-6 fighters and have also begun production of a jet bomber to replace the large number of Junkers Ju 88 multipurpose bombers and B-17 Flying Fortress strategic bombers in their inventory.

This is a significant part of the extensive weapons upgrade plan of the Great Tang Empire, signifying that the air force of the Great Tang Empire is about to enter the “all-jet” era.

Of course, Tang Mo knows that a complete transition to jets is impossible, because even the Lighthouse Country or the rabbits have not managed to completely phase out propeller aircraft from their air forces.

For instance, in terms of more economical transport aircraft, many countries in the world Tang Mo transmigrated from equipped a lot of propeller transport aircraft. Like the Hercules C-130 transport plane, like the Y-8, Y-9 and other aircraft.

So to enter the jet era mainly means using jet engines for the vast majority of aircraft types such as fighters, attack planes, bombers, etc.

For naval early warning aircraft, anti-submarine patrol aircraft, transport planes and similar, there is no need to overly emphasize jets.

Tang Mo is a person of faith; for the replacement of the B-17 bomber selected by the Great Tang Empire, he chose a well-known jet bomber, endowed with countless blessings of belief.

Indeed, this plane is the Tu-16 bomber that the rabbits used for nearly seventy years, also carrying the number 6, in a sense the true “Number Six.”

This bomber has a slightly longer range than the B-17 Flying Fortress, a similar bomb load, and a faster speed than the Flying Fortress, altogether a comprehensive upgrade.

Another reason for choosing this bomber is simple: in the future, this plane can develop into a vast family, with not enough numbers to cover it all.

Even though it’s still a Tu-16 bomber, the rabbits’ Tu-16 has become completely different from the original version. The internal mechanisms were redesigned, the body characteristics are completely different, and even the combat mode has changed.

In fact, Tang Mo had better options. If he waited a little longer, he could copy the B-52 bombers from the eagles, a strategic bomber that completely outperformed the Tu-16 in capabilities, yet Tang Mo still chose the Tu-16 bomber.

He did not hesitate; in the past, he rarely had the opportunity to choose the familiar and desired rabbit weapons, but this does not mean he did not like these weapons.

Because of many historical reasons, the rabbits missed a period in the weapon development timeline of the world. For a long hundred years, there were few unique presences in the rabbits’ weapon research list.

Yet as the technology of the Great Tang Empire continued to accumulate and weapon development progressed, Tang Mo’s preferences increasingly leaned towards that flower-growing family he so adored…

There was a time when a retired Russian veteran, holding a visiting rabbit, asked: “Are you still using the Tu-16?” It was a moment that made one sigh.

But Tang Mo knew that the Tu-16 used by the rabbits was not really a Tu-16 anymore. Although it looked similar, the structure inside was completely different.

Even, the Tu-16 equipped by the rabbits in the future had canceled the bomb bay, all weapons were mounted under the wings, and they hardly carried conventional bombs anymore.

Different from the historical Tu-16 bombers, the jet bombers mass-produced by the Great Tang Empire did not equip defensive guns, so the crew was reduced to three.

Yes, because there was absolutely no need, the new bombers of the Great Tang Empire did not have any self-defense systems installed. Including the tail turret, the top and bottom turrets, the frontal cannons, all were abandoned.

After all, this is a jet bomber with a speed exceeding 800 kilometers per hour; in this world, there is no other country’s airplane capable of catching up with this bomber to intercept it.

It can fly to an altitude of 11,000 meters, where the aircraft of other countries would already find it strenuous just to maintain their flying posture.

By eliminating so many aircraft cannons and reducing weight, the Great Tang Empire’s Tu-16 bomber can carry nearly 8 tons of bombs, which is roughly on par with the B-17 Flying Fortress.

In reality, due to the high cruising speed that jet engines provide, the Tu-16 or, should we say, the H-6 bomber’s range is by no means inferior to that of earlier strategic bombers.

Although they can only be considered as medium-range bombers in the future, their performance is truly sufficient: after all, compared to strategic bombers, Tang Mo favors various types of missiles.

Tang Mo feels that as long as his Air Force bombers can strike deep into enemy territory within a range of 500 to 1,000 kilometers – a distance well within the escort range of fighter jets – they would be adequate.

Moreover, in the future, Air Force attacks on ground targets will shift to glide bombs or cruise missiles due to radar threats, thus the demand for bomber range is not so urgent.

In their operational use, the Air Force of the Tang Country has never considered employing bombers to cross the Endless Sea to conduct any bombing missions. The commanders of the Air Force are more focused on relying on the vast territory of the Great Tang Empire to carry out medium and short-range bombings to destroy hostile targets.

As for further distant high-value targets… the Great Tang Empire’s development of ballistic missiles is actually ahead of the development of jet bombers. When the Great Tang Empire was still using propeller-driven bombers like the Flying Fortress, they already had available ballistic missiles.

This gives the Great Tang Air Force, or rather the Staff Department of the Great Tang Empire, more options: they believe that ultra-long-range bombing places excessive demands on pilots and lacks security, thus they prefer the use of missiles.

It’s only been a little over two years since the Great Tang’s grand air force theory was born, yet it’s already facing challenges from the missile faction – it has to be said that the national circumstances of my Great Tang Empire are unique here…

The primary reason is that the hypothetical enemies of the Great Tang Empire are either too far or too near, and there’s no particularly pressing need to develop ultra-long-range strategic bombers.

Look, bombing countries on the other side of the Endless Sea, B-52 won’t be sufficient and it’s futile to use them. As for neighboring countries such as Chu Country and Dahua, the range of the H-6 is enough, and longer ranges are utterly unnecessary.

To expect pilots to fly across most of the enemy’s territory to bomb cities at the other end is not necessary at all; it’s too dangerous and it’s better to use missiles directly, or simply not to bomb at all…

Of course, all of the above is nonsense! The real reason boils down to one: Tang Mo likes rabbits! No matter how eloquently you argue other choices are better, Tang Mo insists on using the H-6 in Great Tang!

So, the factories producing jet aircraft on Dragon Island began mass production of the H-6 and officially named it the H-6—adopting the same numbering as the Air Force fighter jets.

What feels like a satirical joke is that when the H-6 started mass production, the output of the J-6 began to decrease—after equipping more than 200 J-6 fighter jets, the Datang Empire Air Force reduced the total procurement quantity of the J-6 to 400 units.

That’s right, after seeing the designs from Seventh Master, the Datang Empire Air Force’s top brass instantly lost interest in the advanced J-6 that had dominated its competitors.

The J-6, which has not yet seen combat – the first J-6, went from being the darling to the dowager overnight.

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Even though mass production of the J-7 would take some time, the generals of the Air Force, particularly the two Marshals Ibrahim and Xiao Yun, both felt there was no need to equip too many J-6s.

In fact, there’s a little aside here: the designs of the J-7 were accidentally leaked by Tang Mo to his subordinates. One day, when the Air Force was having a meeting about the mass production of the H-6, Ibrahim and Xiao Yun came to Tang Mo’s office, and Tang Mo forgot about the design plans on his desk, which the two Air Force generals then saw – this “future fighter jet.”

Compared to the J-6’s aerodynamic layout purely for speed as a first-generation jet fighter, the J-7’s “intake cone” at the nose and the delta wing were too attractive.

This revolutionary design instantly conquered the two Air Force generals, who treasured it like a precious find, forcing Tang Mo to reluctantly acknowledge the development of a new type of fighter.

As for the J-6… poor J-6 became a sacrificial lam, and before it could prove itself in actual combat, it had the misfortune of facing production cuts and accelerated retirement.

But it still had its day: sold as a commodity, letting those countries who bought it have the privilege of being ravaged by air-to-air missiles…

If they didn’t equip jet fighters, they might not even qualify to be locked onto by infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. There’s no way around it, the heat signature of propeller aircraft is too low, and the early infrared-guided air-to-air missiles simply couldn’t differentiate them from the sun.

As for radar-guided air-to-air missiles, are propeller aircraft worthy of those? Using them against propeller aircraft is like using a vase from the Song Dynasty to smash cockroaches.

It’s like using expensive anti-air missiles to intercept drones with motorcycle engines – theoretically possible, but in reality, few would do so.