Chapter 2

At 11:30 PM, the Air Force section of the Super Base Camp forum was bustling with activity. As the most influential military forum in the country, Super Base Camp has never lacked attention, with numerous military enthusiasts, media reporters, and intelligence personnel mingling together.

In recent years, with China's military budget increasing year by year, various military projects initiated by the military since the 1990s have begun to bear fruit, and almost every period brings good news. This has made well-known military forums like Super Base Camp and Soaring Military the best sources of information for foreign media on China's military situation, such as the J-20 fighter, the 052D missile destroyer, the Changjian series of cruise missiles, and the refit progress of the Varyag aircraft carrier. There was even a user named "Going to the Countryside" who frequently circled around the Dalian Shipyard and started a live thread on Super Base Camp, releasing the latest progress photos of the Varyag's refit every few days (at that time, the Varyag had not yet been named).

Foreign media frequently cited information from Super Base Camp to report on China's military situation, while domestic media, out of caution, forwarded foreign media reports to convey information, a process known as "exporting and re-importing."

Today is January 15, 2011, and the military enthusiasm sparked by the J-20's maiden flight has not yet subsided. The internet is filled with discussions about China's fourth-generation fighter.

Although it cannot compare to the 148,573 posts and 16,302 peak online users on January 11 (the day of the J-20's maiden flight), the number of posts in the Air Force section of Super Base Camp has remained above 10,000 per day in recent days.

Most of the posts on the forum are about the J-20, with some topics that the media has repeated countless times. However, military enthusiasts, who have been suppressed by the F-22 for many years, remain enthusiastic.

This is completely understandable. When the F-22 entered service, China's latest third-generation fighter, the J-10, had just been publicly unveiled, and it was already a generation behind. This was a significant blow to China's military industry.

Later, there were reports that the F-22, in simulated air combat with the F-15 and F-16, achieved an astonishing 144:0 record. The media hyped the F-22 to the point of calling it a technological marvel from the stars.

This thing wasn't meant to fight the world; it was for the Americans to fight aliens and protect Earth.

American fans were overjoyed, calling the F-22 "Raptor" their "pet," and their fawning was so extreme that calling them slaves would be an understatement.

Even more extreme, a user named McCauley posted on Super Base Camp in 2008, claiming that China would not be able to produce an F-22-like integral coated canopy for 20 years.

When the J-20 was unveiled, the slap in the face was so hard that the post was dug up and ridiculed for days.

However, if you look at the initial replies, even though there were some rebuttals, they were not very confident, indicating the low confidence of military enthusiasts in China's military industry at the time.

Returning to the main topic, with the J-20's maiden flight, most of the posts on the forum in recent days have been about the domestic fourth-generation fighter, with fewer posts on other topics, and even those have been largely ignored.

But there are always exceptions.

...

Pei Sheng is an editor for the military channel of Global Times. As a seasoned military journalist, Pei Sheng often obtains semi-public information through his military connections and posts it under the ID "Peishens" on Super Base Camp. Over time, he has gained a significant following in the military enthusiast community and is known as "P God."

During this period, due to the military enthusiasm sparked by the J-20, Pei Sheng has been extremely busy, with the military channels of various websites operating like they are on steroids, churning out one analysis report after another about the J-20.

Just now, Pei Sheng spent half the evening writing a special report on the J-20's engine, preparing to post it on the Global Times military channel tomorrow. After a long night of work, Pei Sheng was a bit tired and opened the Air Force section of Super Base Camp to relax.

This has become a habit for him; he feels like something is missing if he doesn't browse Super Base Camp a few times a day.

The Air Force section, like the previous days, was filled with discussions about the J-20, from its engine, avionics, aerodynamic shape, to its payload, combat radius, and stealth performance. As long as a post had some substance, there would be a large group of enthusiastic military enthusiasts discussing and leaving comments.

It has been over half a month since the J-20 was unveiled, and Pei Sheng was no longer as excited as he was at the beginning. He casually clicked on a few posts, which were mostly meaningless chatter, and he didn't bother to reply. He refreshed the browser again.

"Huh?"

When Pei Sheng scanned the page of the Air Force section again, a post caught his attention: "Peeling off 'Aurora's' Little Underwear — A Major Revelation of America's 'Aurora' Strategic Reconnaissance Aircraft."

Pei Sheng almost spat out his tea. Someone was posting this at this time, and he was immediately intrigued.

The forum showed that the post was made ten seconds ago, with zero clicks. Pei Sheng glanced at the author — Wisdom Cube, an interesting ID.

Most military enthusiasts have at least heard of "Aurora" to some extent.

It is a highly classified strategic weapon of the United States, and despite the U.S. government's repeated denials of its existence, there is increasing evidence that it has been around for many years.

The Aurora hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, also known as "Polaris," is said to have the official designation CP-140 or SR-91, and is the next-generation strategic reconnaissance aircraft following the SR-71 "Blackbird."

In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Air Force and NASA began some research on Aurora, although these studies did not produce practical results, they provided a promising shape and capability for Aurora.

The first mention of Aurora appeared in 1985.

In February 1985, the U.S. government's 1986 budget report, which included a non-classified weapons procurement document, listed a sub-project named "Aurora" under the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft improvement project: TR-1, which attracted significant media interest.

What was particularly noteworthy was that the 1986 fiscal year required only $80 million, but the 1987 fiscal year required a staggering $2.2 billion. However, a year later, in the 1987 fiscal year, the Aurora item mysteriously disappeared.

In fact, the 1987 fiscal year's Air Force procurement budget was reduced by several billion dollars compared to the 1985 fiscal year, and there were no projects in the 1987 budget that could have hidden the Aurora program. The significant increase in the budget may have indicated that it had entered production. At the same time, the U.S. Air Force retired the famous SR-71 "Blackbird" high-altitude, high-speed strategic reconnaissance aircraft without proposing a new strategic reconnaissance aircraft to replace it.

Based on these two pieces of evidence, it is generally believed that a new military strategic reconnaissance aircraft had been developed and was about to enter mass production, but the U.S. government, for confidentiality reasons, did not acknowledge its existence. Therefore, the media named it "Aurora" (also known as "Polaris").

The British magazine Jane's Defence Weekly revealed that in the early 1990s, due to the tension in the Middle East and the outbreak of the Gulf War, reports of unidentified high-altitude, high-speed aircraft frequently appeared on radar screens, and Aurora was believed to have participated in numerous strategic military reconnaissance missions. Whether it was the Kosovo crisis or the Taiwan Strait crisis, Aurora's shadow was always present.

From the timeline, the development of Aurora has been ongoing for about 20 years, and during this long development process, it has attracted significant attention from major media outlets around the world. As early as January 1988, the New York Times published a report on the U.S. development of a new high-speed, stealth reconnaissance aircraft, claiming it could fly at Mach 5 at 100,000 feet. A researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, stated, "When using the SR-71, they knew where we were, but they couldn't touch us. With the new technology, they won't even know where we are." However, the report did not explicitly name it as Aurora.

In February 1988, the American magazine Gung-Ho first named it "Aurora." The report stated that Aurora could fly at Mach 7 at 250,000 feet, with a crew of three and methane fuel, requiring refueling by a special KC-135Q tanker. An unnamed official stated, "We have already started test flights of this aircraft. Compared to the SR-71, it is like comparing a parachute designed by Leonardo da Vinci to a modern spacecraft." A retired colonel confidently added, "Compared to the world's aerospace technology, our technology makes us look like aliens."

On December 12, 1992, Jane's Defence Weekly obtained a witness account from a British Royal Reconnaissance veteran named Gibson, who had 12 years of military service and was a member of the International Aircraft Identification Group, giving him authoritative status in aircraft identification. He stated that while working on the Galveston Key oil platform in the North Sea, he saw a KC-135, two F-111s, and a mysterious triangular aircraft. He pointed out that the mysterious aircraft had a 75-degree sweep angle and did not resemble any aircraft he had seen before, which was very similar to the rumored Aurora.

There are reports that Aurora flew from a base in the Nevada desert to a reef in the Pacific, then to Scotland for refueling, and returned to the U.S. at night. It used liquid methane as fuel. F-111 fighter-bombers were specially painted black and flew in tight formation to confuse civilian radar and cover Aurora's tracks.

These are all unverified reports, and no one has ever seen Aurora's true appearance.

Pei Sheng initially thought this post would just be a rehash of the information circulating online. He clicked on it out of curiosity, with no particular expectations.

The browser loaded quickly, and as soon as the post opened, a picture of a flying vehicle appeared that left Pei Sheng speechless.

It was a large triangular-winged aircraft with a slender body. From the side, it resembled a streamlined shape like an eagle's beak. Two combined cycle engines extended along the length of the aircraft and were tightly integrated with the triangular wings, forming a large "sloping surface" at the front of the aircraft. At the trailing edge of the triangular body, there were two smaller, fully movable vertical tails. The entire aircraft was covered in black paint, giving it a highly technological appearance.

The background of the aircraft was a factory, with "The Skunk Works" (臭鼬工厂) written on it.

"Damn—!"

Pei Sheng couldn't help but curse.

He was certain that this was the first time he had seen this aircraft.

As a military enthusiast with years of experience as a military journalist, Pei Sheng could identify 90% of the world's aircraft. An aircraft with such advanced technology, if he had seen it before, he would not have forgotten it.

Pei Sheng scrolled