Munitions Empire-Chapter 1061 - 983 Zhao Kai’s good son

Chapter 1061: 983 Zhao Kai’s good son

The Great Tang Empire had actually been equipped with various missiles, including the Scud tactical ballistic missile for ground-to-ground attacks, as well as the intermediate-range Dongfeng-3 ballistic missile.

Additionally, the air defense troops of the Great Tang Empire had long been using the mysterious Hongqi-2 air defense missile, deployed near the southern oilfields and the capital Chang’an, to ensure absolute security.

The navy’s first-generation Styx Anti-ship Missile was in the testing phase, and Tang Mo planned to use this missile to enhance the overall combat effectiveness of the navy’s destroyers.

After all, the navy of the Great Tang Empire had not equipped a large number of gun-armed warships, and apart from the mysterious aircraft carriers, their strike capability, particularly the anti-ship strike capability, had weakened overall.

With missile destroyers, this trendy gadget, at least when facing large enemy warships such as cruisers or battleships alone, they could now engage in combat—previously, they could only rush in with torpedoes on a do-or-die mission.

This navy-used Styx Anti-ship Missile could also be deployed on the shore to form coastal defense firepower, preventing enemy forces from approaching the coastline.

In short, because size was not too much of a concern, the navy’s missile development was going very smoothly, and they were relatively more versatile in application.

The situation with the Air Force was a bit different; they were also experimenting with various missiles: Anti-ship missiles mounted on the H-6 bomber, as well as air-to-air combat missiles that might be used in the future.

However, compared to the Navy, they didn’t even know what use their own missiles could be: the anti-ship missiles made sense, but the air-to-air missiles that could only shoot down their own were truly too cruel.

It can be said responsibly that the Great Tang Empire was quickly entering the missile era because the Empire’s computing technology had actually been secretly in iterative development for quite some time.

With the addition of computing technology, coupled with the continuous improvement in industrial processing precision, the weapon equipment performance of the Great Tang Empire was developing in a direction that others simply could not comprehend.

The engineering technicians of the Great Tang Empire were working hard to improve the attack precision of weapons to ten meters or even one meter level. In contrast, foreign technicians were already ecstatic to see an attack error of 1000 meters.

Because of the rapid development, the technicians of the Great Tang Empire even found that the new weapons they developed had nowhere to be used.

Their bombers could not be intercepted by enemy forces at all, which in turn made many engineers of the Great Tang Empire rethink whether the expensive Dongfeng-3 ballistic missiles they created were actually useful.

Indeed, in their view, a range of 1700 kilometers is completely within the operational radius of the H-6 bomber; even without any escort fighter jets, the H-6 could easily carry a large number of bombs to bombard the Capital of the Dahua Empire.

The same effect could be achieved at an even cheaper price, and with more mature technology—so, what was the necessity for ballistic missiles with the same range?

In the eyes of these technicians, as long as the Great Tang Empire was not willing to sell key technologies such as air defense missiles and jet fighter jets, their jet bombers would be invincible.

Faster than enemy fighter jets, flying higher than opponent’s aircraft… as long as they wanted, they could even continue to develop faster and more advanced bombers.

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In fact, Tang Mo indeed had related technical blueprints; Lighthouse Country had faster B1 bombers, and Maoxiong had faster Tu-22M and Tu-160 bombers.

These supersonic bombers were faster and easier to breach defenses; without even radar on the other side, intercepting them was simply a joke.

However, the technical departments of the Great Tang Empire always had a tradition of technological pre-research. Just because current ballistic missiles were not effective did not mean that future ballistic missile technology would be ineffective.

For the Great Tang Empire, the significance of ballistic missiles was not the current kind of siege warfare, but represented an even more distant future.

Compared to bombers that need to return to base, ballistic missiles do not need to return, and thus naturally have the inherent advantage of a longer range. With the same fuel, the range of ballistic missiles can be calculated based on the transfer flight of the bombers, an advantage bombers will never have.

On the other hand, ballistic missiles also have an advantage when delivering large-yield nuclear warheads: bombers need to consider their own safety when dropping bombs, but ballistic missiles do not need to worry about this issue at all.

Of course, Tang Mo was very clear that the future of ballistic missiles would directly develop into giant intercontinental ballistic missiles of strategic level, with ranges that could even reach 20,000 kilometers, capable of delivering nuclear warheads anywhere!

Compared to bombers that need forward bases and sometimes require tanker aircraft support, ballistic missiles were indeed much more convenient.

Especially since Tang Mo also knew that future ballistic missiles could use solid fuel, which would greatly increase their reaction speed, he had no reason to stop related research.

Could it be that you wait for other countries to start equipping large numbers of surface-to-air missiles before you rush around and start missile development? Wouldn’t that just be giving the enemy a chance?

…

In the exhibition hall that had been arranged in advance, many foreign diplomats from different countries saw the Scud missile launcher with their own eyes.

When they witnessed the terrifying giant rocket (Scud missile), they were utterly stunned by the scene before them.

Indeed, they had never imagined that the Great Tang Empire could produce such a massive rocket. It wasn’t even a solid rocket but utilized fuel injection technology.

This technology was actually not considered advanced in the Great Tang Empire anymore, as the Great Tang Empire had already begun large-scale research into solid fuel technology for missiles.

Other countries were unaware of this, and when they saw the complex liquid fuel injection vehicles, the missile troops’ command vehicles, and the missile launchers, they felt that the weapons they paid for were truly worth the money.

If their own countries’ technicians were to develop something like the Scud missile, it would probably take at least twenty years before they could use it.

But now, right now, as long as they pay, they can buy all the equipment they see, including the huge and exciting treasure erected on the missile car.

“This is the ‘Scud’ missile with a range of 300 kilometers. Its attack precision is about 900 meters, meaning it has a chance of hitting a building directly on the target!” The reception staff politely introduced the missile’s capabilities.

Photography was not allowed on site, and many guests were drawn to a roughly 20-inch color television hanging on the wall.

It was their first time seeing a color display screen, and they were immediately shocked by the content that was playing in a loop.

It was a video of the Scud missile being erected, the switching of the launch footage, and at last, a deliberately produced animation that demonstrated the strike path.

When everyone saw a red line extending forward on the map, they were conquered by this animation. It was the first time they could actually see the flight path of a weapon (although it was fictitious) and the first time they intuitively felt the strike distance of a weapon.

In the past, to traverse the distance represented on the map in the camera, it would have taken a long time. If the enemy had built complex defense positions within this distance, it might have taken several months, even a year to overcome. But now, it would only take about ten minutes for the Scud missile to cross this distance.

Although airplanes could also do this, the enemy has airplanes too… The Scud missile does not care about the enemy’s airplane interceptions; it’s unstoppable!

Many people started to let their imaginations run wild, fantasizing about their countries dismantling the Scud missile, understanding its principles, and then developing missiles with even greater ranges.

They also wanted to have the superpower like the Great Tang Empire, to be able to attack an enemy capital at any time! This way, they could deter the opponent with the safety of their lives, making the opponent think twice when making decisions.

Additionally, some technically savvy radicals were already contemplating using the philosophy of missiles to develop new fighter jets.

They fantasized about getting inspired by it and then significantly increasing the speed and altitude of fighter jets, thus gaining an advantage when intercepting enemy planes.

Others were pondering over what exactly inertial guidance was, as mentioned by the person who had received them.

They figured that if they could understand that, they could improve the attack precision of missiles, which could then be applied to their own longer-range missile developments.

These people probably wouldn’t imagine that when they disassembled the inertial guidance gyroscopes and other equipment made by the Great Tang Empire in the future, they would find themselves completely unable to manufacture parts with such precision.

In plain terms, they would also need to purchase machinery with higher machining precision, then repeatedly refine their parts, and adjust related equipment…

Eventually… well, eventually they would hit a snag with inertial guidance and come up against a brick wall. Only then would they realize that inertial guidance has its limits, and they could not rely solely on it to enhance the precision of missiles to the level they desired.

At least now they knew why such a weapon was called a missile, not just any rocket or projectile. Because it added a guidance process, the term missile perfectly summarized the performance characteristics of this weapon.

Therefore, soon the term missile was accepted by everyone and appeared in telegrams and news of various countries.

And at the same moment, Zhao Kai, who was in his sickbed, finally heard that his beloved elder son Zhao Ji had rushed back from the Wanliang front to the Imperial Capital without authorization.

At this moment, Zhao Kai was furious! He had already calmed down quite a bit and even acquiesced to the diplomatic actions that conceded to the Tang Empire. But when he heard that his son had returned from the front without permission, he smashed everything within reach.