Chapter 84

Hu Wenhui found it a bit strange. Had he offended Director Xi Yazhou by not personally inviting him? Why had his face been so sour since they met?

Even when Lin Qianjun shook hands with him, Xi Yazhou didn't show much respect—despite both of them having the title of Director, Xi Yazhou mostly dealt with documents that could be folded into paper airplanes, while Lin Qianjun handled documents that could buy F-14s. The gap between them was quite significant.

They say that a central official is always more prestigious than a local one. Unfortunately, in Lin Qianjun's case, he was merely spared Xi Yazhou's cold face.

Fortunately, neither Hu Wenhui nor Lin Qianjun were petty people. Director Xi Yazhou was only there as a witness and didn't need to approve anything.

Before coming, Xi Yazhou's superior had explicitly instructed him to bring his eyes but not his mouth. He was to thoroughly understand the specific performance of the new product, but he was not allowed to draw any conclusions.

Initially, Hu Wenhui thought it was due to the cautiousness of his superiors regarding the new product. Now, it seemed that it was just the other party's arrogance!

If the product's performance was poor—and it almost certainly would be, since if laser guidance were that easy, why would it have taken so long for the domestic industry to develop it? If the product was just subpar, that would already be a blessing. The worst-case scenario was that it would be completely inaccurate and then forced onto the military. The military-industrial complex had done such things before, and Factory 501 had a history of it!

No, if their product was no good, he would expose their tricks on the spot, even if it meant being criticized. The military had suffered enough in recent years; they couldn't afford to waste money like this!

With this noble mission in mind, Xi Yazhou met Hu Wenhui and Lin Qianjun quietly and then set off for the new product test site at the Xinkai Factory.

The last time, the gliding shell, though not loaded with explosives, still weighed at least ten kilograms due to its cast iron shell and internal electronics. Dropped from an altitude of 10,000 meters, the final kinetic energy was terrifying—equivalent to applying 20 kilonewtons of force to a wall in 0.2 seconds, which was enough to collapse the wall in one go.

This time, Hu Wenhui had prepared a flexible target to better observe the impact force of the gliding shell. What was a flexible target? Just a large stack of old newspapers and magazines. Factory 501 had accumulated so many "useless" publications over the years that this was only a fraction of them.

After the last control switch experiment, the drone didn't need to take off from the Xinkai Factory's test runway this time. Instead, it would take off from the Xiucheng Airport.

The control personnel were still the instructors from the aviation school. Since Factory 501 started producing simulators, the frequency of aircraft training in the Xiucheng sky had noticeably increased. According to feedback from the aviation school, the simulators had a significant effect on cultivating pilots' feel for flying.

It's no surprise; before flying fighter jets, pilots still had to fly the primary trainer aircraft, right? If the feel weren't important, why waste time flying aircraft that couldn't go into combat?

Similarly, since both were turbojet engines, there were commonalities in operation. The simulators meticulously simulated the aerodynamics, thrust, and density of real aircraft, making the mid-range flight envelope similar. After flying for a while, one could develop a good feel for jet aircraft.

As the aviation school instructor gave a thumbs-up, Hu Wenhui quickly waved everyone into the trench they had dug last time. This time, they were better prepared, and each person was given a steel helmet.

"Wow, Director Hu, you've really thought this through," Lin Qianjun said, awkwardly handling the laser target indicator as Hu Wenhui instructed.

With the experience from last time, the indicator no longer needed to be placed separately but could be handheld and moved. The carefully packaged laser target indicator was vastly different from the crude initial version. It now had a heat-dissipating, dust-proof window, a laser emission button, and most importantly, a visual rangefinder.

This device wasn't difficult to understand. Laser rangefinders are common optical industrial products in the future, and their principle is almost the same as that of a laser pointer. The only difference is that a laser receiver, similar to the one on a missile, is also installed on the indicator. With a temperature-controlled crystal oscillator providing precise timing, the time it takes for the laser to be emitted and received is divided by two and then multiplied by the speed of light in air to obtain a relatively accurate distance.

Of course, modern laser rangefinders are small enough to be held in one hand. But the one Hu Wenhui made was so heavy that even two hands would feel the strain, mainly due to the battery needed to power the calculation circuit. If using dry batteries, it required eight size 2 batteries!

In twenty or thirty years, size 2 batteries might not even be available. But in the 1980s, size 2 batteries were still quite competitive in terms of power.

By comparing the past and present, one can see how important high-energy-density batteries like lithium-ion batteries are to the electronics industry.

Following Hu Wenhui's instructions, Lin Qianjun looked through the eyepiece of the laser target indicator and saw a red line projected in the center of his field of view. This was the near-infrared laser emitted by the indicator, colored by a polarizing filter.

Additionally, as Lin Qianjun moved the laser target indicator, he noticed that small red lights on the right side of his field of view were changing in number.

"Hey, Director Hu, what do these red dots mean?" Lin Qianjun asked curiously.

"These are the distances measured by the laser rangefinder. One red dot represents one meter. Count the number of red dots to know the distance to the target."

"Oh, that's great!" Lin Qianjun's eyes lit up, excitedly saying, "With this, we can report artillery coordinates at any time!"

Indeed, Lin Qianjun was knowledgeable. As soon as Hu Wenhui introduced the rangefinding function of the laser target indicator, he immediately recognized its immense value.

In the Sino-Vietnamese Self-Defense Counterattack, the struggle for hilltops was a key point in the war, mainly because they served as artillery observation points.

Standing high and seeing far, without air support, the army had to rely on itself to locate enemy artillery positions or valuable targets. Even after capturing a hilltop, the soldiers' knowledge was limited, and they couldn't effectively direct artillery strikes. Therefore, the artillery units had to send artillery observers—high-value targets for snipers on the battlefield!

Moreover, since the distance was measured using triangulation, one observer wasn't enough. At least two points were needed to calculate the distance and generate coordinates for the artillery units.

The Iran-Iraq War was described as a low-tech war in a high-tech environment, but the Sino-Vietnamese Self-Defense Counterattack was even worse, resembling a 1950s-level ground war.

With a laser rangefinder, the army no longer needed to capture hilltops, send dangerous artillery observers, or use two points for measurement. It could provide meter-level precision—this was a tool that could change the entire nature of the war, even if it was a 1950s-level war. It would fundamentally enhance the combat capability of the current PLA Army.

Even if the final precision of the laser-guided weapon was poor, the laser target indicator alone was worth including in the equipment procurement list.

"Hmph, who knows if they didn't measure the data beforehand, like burying explosives for a drill," Xi Yazhou said with a sneer, clearly skeptical.

"That's easy to check. Pre-measured data can't be used to guide a missile. If the missile hits the target, it proves the laser rangefinder works."

"Hmph, who knows if you didn't pre-measure the target data for the missile as well..."

Xi Yazhou suddenly stopped, realizing that even if the data was pre-measured and input into the missile, it wouldn't prove anything. This "cheating" method wasn't cheating; it was called inertial guidance.

If a missile could hit a target the size of a paper stack using inertial guidance, that would be even more impressive than laser guidance.

"Ha-ha—"

Hu Wenhui and Lin Qianjun exchanged a smile, clearly aware of the contradiction in Xi Yazhou's words.

At that moment, the familiar hissing sound came from the sky. Just as everyone heard it, a loud bang echoed, followed by paper fragments flying everywhere.

"Did it hit?" Lin Qianjun, though trusting Hu Wenhui, still felt a sense of unreality.

Xi Yazhou couldn't wait to climb out of the trench and rush to the target, worried that if he arrived late, there might be some way to fake the scene. He fanned away the dust and debris and gently pulled apart the already loose paper stack—

There, embedded in the waste newspapers and magazines, were the shattered cast iron shell, the visible circuits, batteries, and glass lenses!