After all, US Secretary of Defense Cheney has been busy recently. Not only does he have a lot of daily Department of Defense affairs and understands the research and development of new equipment, but he also often attends some important domestic seminars, and these seminars basically have one direction, That is how China and the United States should coexist after the fall of their common enemy, the Soviet Union.
Some think tank scholars immediately and relentlessly put forward the concept of a "new cold war". After all, China is still a red country, a country ruled by an "undemocratic" CP, which is inconsistent with the universal values ??of the United States, and seems to be as keen as the Soviet Union. Exporting revolution is just a relatively covert process.
However, some experts and scholars believe that China is now in a pretty good relationship with the United States. The Gulf War has brought the two countries closer to each other and confirmed that China is willing to step up for the United States and abide by U.S. rules. Having just brought down a big country, and then so quickly pushing a big country that is still one's friend into an antagonistic position, this is beyond description of stupidity.
¡°Obviously, no politician with any brain will blindly position China as the enemy of the United States. This is unscientific and unhealthy. Although there are many aspects of competition between China and the United States, especially in the past two years, Chinese companies have taken over the limelight from Japanese companies and begun to challenge U.S. economic interests in many industries. But there is no direct life-and-death conflict between China and the United States. The struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union is due to the fact that both big guys want to be the boss. The current situation is that China is sitting in the audience and watching how Americans dance. Can the United States still jump off the stage and beat the audience for no reason?
Although China has a competitive relationship with the United States, it has not declared in any public forum that it has any ambitions for world hegemony, and has repeatedly catered to the position of the United States. This makes some people think that China is nothing to worry about and is only inferior to European countries. Talk about a bigger ally.
However, more pragmatic strategists do not think so. At least China has the potential to compete with the United States. Therefore, whether a new Cold War pattern of confrontation between China and the United States will emerge depends on whether China has this willingness. As for the matter of will, it is actually something that some people decide with a slap on the head. Therefore, it is definitely not a safe thing to allow China to continue to grow stronger.
The situation at this time is similar to the situation in another dimension twenty years later, and is even slightly relaxed, but the undercurrents under the surface are no less intense.
With Bush Sr. about to abdicate, Cheney, a loyal general, will also be laid off, but he will also stand for the last time. At this time, he was meeting with personnel from the Air Force Research Laboratory to follow up on the progress of the Air Force and Navy aircraft research and development.
"Lockheed has received the contract, and we have identified the B2 as the Air Force's new generation fighter jet."
Cheney interrupted him and asked: "What I want to know is, can the B2 compete with the J-LL Black Hawk fighter that China has developed and may officially enter service in the next three to five years?"
Officials said: "Obviously, in the process of developing next-generation fighters, many of our concepts are very similar to those of the Chinese. We all agree with concepts such as stealth, supersonic cruise, and super maneuverability. In addition, the Chinese also believe that the new Fighters need to have stronger beyond-visual-range air combat capabilities and situational awareness capabilities. We speculate that China's J-ll fighters will focus more on maneuverability and air superiority capabilities, while the pursuit of stealth and supersonic cruise may be weaker.
The reason why I say this is because the design of Chinese fighter jets adopts a canard layout and forward-swept wings, which will inevitably create convenience for radar wave reflection. However, this aerodynamic layout has extraordinary effects on the maneuverability of fighter jets at subsonic and transonic speeds. the benefits of. In addition, the magazine design of Chinese fighter jets is actually not very good and is extremely cramped, making it unlikely that they can carry too many types of ground weapons. From this point of view, the J-LL Black Hawk should be a heavy fighter specially manufactured by China for air combat. "
The official took a breath and explained: "Our B2 adopts a more advanced design, which is basically one level ahead of the J-L in terms of stealth, and its stronger power also gives our fighter aircraft excellent capabilities. In terms of maneuverability, I think it will not be at a disadvantage even in a battle with the J-L. What¡¯s more, we have also designed small-diameter bombs for the B2 to enable it to carry out penetration attacks.¡±
Cheney asked with great interest: "Have you done any evaluation? If stealth fighters are invisible to each other, it will be difficult for them to detect each other within beyond visual range. Once discovered, they will basically have entered visual range, so Will air combat in the future return to dogfighting from beyond visual range?¡±
The official could only say: ¡°We are still debating this, and we don¡¯t have a definite answer yet.¡±
Cheney nodded and no longer dwelled on this issue. He asked again: "The Navy's NATP1+ program will definitely not be suspended. Although the Soviet Union is gone, the Chinese Navy's presence at sea, especially in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, , has made some naval generals very unhappy, so the Navy hopes thatThere are plans to develop new fighters and build fighters that can effectively suppress opponents, but they seem to think that the B2 is not feasible, right? "
"Yes, the Navy has carefully evaluated that the minimum flight speed of the B2NR scoop is too high, which is very detrimental to ship landing operations. In addition, the aircraft has been structurally reinforced to board the ship, adding landing hooks and strengthening the landing gear, etc. , the variable sweep wing is also modified, but its weight will increase by 3% compared to the land-based version, which is obviously not accepted by the Navy. The Navy itself prefers to overhaul the B14B for stealth modification and new internal design, and Grumman. Through some shady means, we have obtained the design drawings and demonstrations of the stealth Tomcat from China Shenfei. If we can develop it ourselves on this basis, we will avoid many detours and increase the possibility of success." Secretary of Defense Cheney, officials don't need to be secretive, just make it clear.
Grumman gave the B14 production license to Shenfei, but in fact the two parties continued to carry out various cooperation on the B14 project. By chance, several Grumman engineers were working at Shenfei. They discovered a large number of drawings and related information from the Shenfei Research Laboratory. These drawings and information were all used to demonstrate Shenfei's new generation super stealth carrier-based aircraft and were of great value. These engineers immediately took photos of the information and secretly took them with them. Back to the United States.
In fact, if Shen Fei¡¯s people didn¡¯t want them to see it, they would definitely not be able to see it. As for why Shen Fei wanted to expose these things, you have to ask Qi Yiming.
In another dimension, Cheney was called the "Tomcat Terminator" by many Tomcat fans and was used to hate him. It was precisely because of Cheney's interference that the Tomcat was discontinued early and eventually retired from active service. However, here, Cheney does not think that the Soviet Union has collapsed and the United States will rest easy. He believes that China may pose a greater threat to the United States than the Soviet Union, so he does not dare to terminate any weapons research projects easily.
During the Gulf War, Americans recognized a problem. In the development and research of some military equipment, the Chinese were ahead of the Americans. If Cheney is arrogant and thinks that the United States is in the lead and that no one else can catch up, then it won't matter no matter how hard he tries. But Cheney himself also knows that if he just gives up, it may create a larger gap and cause the United States to lose its advantage.
"Is it APX? Well, the Navy itself is allocated funds. Since they think it is appropriate, let's get on with it. If all the conditions are mature, the progress may not be slower than B2."
APX is the two-seat fifth-generation stealth carrier aircraft of the U.S. Navy. The prototype is naturally a Tomcat, but from the appearance point of view, except for the variable sweep wing design, it basically has nothing to do with the B14 Tomcat. . AP-XX has a relatively "thick" body shape. This is because the U.S. Navy hopes that it has both air combat and strike capabilities, and needs to increase its bomb load. Compared with the B2, the APX's nose is slightly shorter, but this does not affect its radar because it will use a small but more efficient phased array radar.
The fused and folded variable sweep wing of the wing body ensures stealth in the cruising state. The tail wing is somewhat similar to the B2, both are relatively large and angled vertical tails. The engine uses General Electric's PI2 engine, which also uses two The element vector nozzle, the nozzle is also modified with a heat source from the tail.
The AP Qiqi B2 is larger, and the most eye-catching feature is its relatively deep and wide magazine. The Navy even hopes to develop an air-launched anti-ship missile that can accommodate it.
Because the design drawings and many parameters were stolen directly from Shenfei, Grumman made some designs based on its own understanding. The production of the prototype was actually a matter of money allocated by the Navy. As for the various internal electronic equipment and systems, they can be used in parallel with B2, which can also control some costs.
The U.S. Navy is now more inclined to use APX as the YB, conduct trial production of prototypes, and then see if it works. Thanks to the Chinese, in order to make this fifth-generation aircraft fly, the Chinese have thought of many ways, such as using a large amount of composite materials to reduce weight, using lift bodies for the fuselage, and using new flight controls to compensate. After the Americans got their hands on it, If a treasure is found, it is estimated that according to the Chinese thinking, this aircraft will definitely be built.
Grumman engineers also felt that although the Chinese were the first to design this aircraft, their accumulation is far less rich than that of their American counterparts, and China does not have a decent aircraft carrier to help them verify the new fighter. It is necessary to train B14 carrier pilots alone. Big time. It is estimated that when China has almost figured out how to operate an aircraft carrier, YB has already removed the Y and officially entered active service.