What an urgent matter, I waited for a photo of Xiaolong outside, and I consciously went to make myself a cup of sugar-free coffee because he was not very interested in the Longjing green tea that Pei Chengyi highly praised... "This was sent by Lao Liu, and I asked me to hand it over to you personally, saying that it was helpful."

"help?.

"Aleppo was bombed just now, and the losses are not small, right?"

Pei Chengyi was stunned for a moment, then picked up the reader.

There was not much textual information, mainly three-dimensional structural diagrams. After only looking at a few structural diagrams, Pei Chengyi cast a surprised look at Zhang Xiaolong. The agent of the Military Intelligence Bureau smiled and signaled Pei Chengyi to continue reading. Zhang Xiaolong was just a messenger and did not understand the technology at all, so he could not give a detailed explanation for Pei Chengyi.

What Pei Chengyi saw was a large-scale military project led by the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff. From this code name, it can be seen that this is a maritime military platform project.

As early as the century of Li, some people proposed the idea of ​​building a "floating city on the sea". In the early century, the US Navy took the lead in proposing the idea of ​​a "maritime military base" and conducted very in-depth research. When the speculation was the hottest, they even proposed a "specific plan." That is, by connecting the barges with a straight deck of Jinmi to form a sea base with a quadrille runway, which can allow the thugs to take off and land for such tactical transport aircraft. Because such a sea base has very high requirements for structural strength, is prone to attack, is too slow, is too expensive, and other factors, after the United States launched the Afghan War and the Iraq War, the idea disappeared.

The problem is that "sea bases" do have their own value.

In fact, the United States is the most active in related development.

During the Iran War, the United States experienced the feeling of "fighting alone". Although relying on Iraq's military bases, the US military did not need to worry about deployment issues, Iraq was basically a pound. Inland countries, the only port of Basra has very limited throughput, because surrounding Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries either did not support the United States in attacking Iran, or were afraid of retaliation from Iran, and did not open ports to the United States. Therefore, the United States had to spend several months before the war to transport combat troops and combat materials to Iraq, making the war lose its suddenness. It is precisely this that Iran has enough time to complete the war preparations, and the Republic and Russia have enough time to provide Iran with orderly assistance. Strictly speaking, if the United States could launch a sudden attack at that time, the Iran war would probably be another result.

Affected by this, before the Iran war ended, the US Navy once again proposed the idea of ​​building a maritime base.

Unlike the end of the century and the 2nd thugs, the US Navy was very "pragmatic" this time, it has designated the "maritime base" as a paramilitary facility from the beginning. To put it simply, the "maritime base" will not be deployed in front, and it is even more impossible to enter the war zone. Instead, it undertakes the task of transiting and sending combat troops, that is, the troop delivery platform. In this way, in addition to continuing to adopt the design idea of ​​a combination structure, it can also be built according to the standards of civil facilities and civil ships, thereby significantly reducing construction.

Cost and design costs. According to the US Navy, the total construction cost of the "maritime base" composed of old 10,000 tons barges will not exceed US$100 million. If each theater is equipped, the unit price will not exceed US$100 million. Although this is definitely the most expensive weapon in terms of unit price, in terms of combat effectiveness, especially the efficiency of sending combat troops, the "maritime base" can match 3 aircraft carrier battle groups and 3 amphibious assault fleets. The efficiency ratio is very high.

Unfortunately, before the US Navy takes action, the Iran war was deadlocked.

As the US military captured Khuzestan Province and controlled Port Khomeini and Port Abadan, material transportation work was solved and no longer needed a "maritime platform".

Of course, the U.S. Navy did not give up.

In any case, the Iran War was a war fought by the US authorities to consume excess domestic materials and had no intention of winning from the beginning. After the outbreak of the Great Depression, without a better choice, Republican President Frederick of the United States could only implement Keynesianism and provide society with more labor positions in the form of fiscal budget expenditure, and the defense budget is the bulk of government fiscal expenditure.

With sufficient military expenditure, the US Navy decided to develop a "maritime platform" separately.

It can be said that with the efforts of the US Navy, about four "maritime platforms" were almost real. Northrop, which contracted the design of the project at that time, had completed the overall design and had completed more than half of the detailed design, just waiting for the US Congress to approve the procurement funds. Unfortunately, the Republican Party lost the election this year, and the slogan of the elected Democratic President Westwood was to reduce government spending, improve government credibility, and enhance the purchasing power of the US dollar. In the situation at that time, let alone spending $4 B to buy a "maritime platform." Even if it only costs $100 million, the White House would not approve such a military purchase contract.

It is no exaggeration to describe the US Navy's "maritime platform" project.

Compared with the US Navy, the Republic Navy is much luckier.

As early as the Fourth India-Pakistan War, the Erkou National Navy proposed the "Habu Platform". Similar to the "Habu Platform" is, because there are no combat aircraft with a long enough range, the Republic's Air Force and Navy Air Force can only attack targets in northern India and cannot attack military targets in southern India. Because they cannot destroy the strategic missile base located at the southern end of the Indian subcontinent in one fell swoop, and were worried about being burdened by India, the country's performance was very cautious in the Fourth India-Pakistan War. In this case, the Republic's Navy proposed to build a large maritime combat platform that allows heavy fighter jets to take off and land normally.

Unfortunately, this idea was quickly rejected because the first choice for carrying fighter jets is definitely an aircraft carrier.

Then Li Nian. Although the Republic had participated in many wars, there was not much room for the navy to play, so the Republic's navy did not have the urgent need to build a "maritime platform". It was not until the Indian War in Li Sinian that the Republic's army felt the problems caused by insufficient delivery capabilities for the first time. In the post-war summary report, Pei Chengyi clearly mentioned that if there was a delivery force from sea to land, the result of the Indian war would be more beneficial to the Republic. Although Pei Chengyi did not clearly point out whether the so-called "delivery force" was an aircraft carrier battle group, an amphibious assault fleet, or something else.

, However, most naval generals believed that Pei Chengyi refers to a maritime combat platform that is mainly used to deliver ground combat troops, and has a far greater capacity than amphibious assault fleets, and has a complete self-support capability. Obviously, this is the "maritime platform" project that the US Navy has carried out for several years. More importantly, after the Indian War, Pei Chengyi went to the Equipment Office and was responsible for the approval of equipment development and procurement. Therefore, when the military expenditure was quite tight, the Navy still received a considerable amount of research and development funds and launched the "maritime platform" project of the Republic.

Influenced by the third military reform, the Navy decided to take the "people-friendly route" from the very beginning.

To put it simply, it is to put reducing procurement and maintenance costs first. Although Lin Xiaolei attached great importance to this plan that could transform the navy after four of them served as Chief of Staff, he asked the navy to speed up development, but the new naval commander Hua Jianfeng did not think that taxpayers should spend their hard-earned money at will. He was still very cautious in the "maritime platform" project. He required that the East China Ship Design Institute, which undertakes the design work, must put reducing costs first and not give up some necessary work in order to catch up with the progress.

Obviously, Hua Jianfeng's attitude made Lin Xiaolei very unhappy.

At this time, the "big fleet Jige thug" promoted by Lin Xiaolei was also affected, and the work of building a "Chongqing" class aircraft carrier was repeatedly hindered. In order to make the Ministry of Defense make concessions in the construction of aircraft carriers, Lin Xiaolei had to make sacrifices. Since Hua Jianfeng was not enthusiastic about Jige on the "maritime platform", Jige could be abandoned.

It is in this context that the "Sea Pingzi" project fell into the hands of the Ministry of National Defense.

In a sense, it is this change that has brought the "Maritime Platform" project back to life.

The new Minister of Defense Shuai Yongkang, like Gu Weimin, is an "accounting official, who will settle accounts before doing anything. As Gu Weimin's confidant, Shuai Yongkang has to do some meaningful things if he wants to do something as Minister of Defense. In fact, Shuai Yongkang has been doing something he thinks is very meaningful, that is, to prevent Lin Xiaolei from destroying the country's modernization construction. To put it bluntly, it is to prevent Lin Xiaolei from making trouble and avoid wasting taxpayers' hard-earned money on national defense construction.

Lin Xiaolei tried his best to build a "big fleet" Shuai Yongkang, but firmly opposed a maritime arms race with the United States.

After gaining the dominance of the "Marine Platform" project, Shuai Yongkang deviated from the norm and decided to strongly support the project. It has to be admitted that Lin Xiaolei was still a little worse in terms of playing methods. Because he had been vigorously promoting this project before, after Shuai Yongkang clearly expressed his support, he did not object, but took the initiative to establish a project team led by the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff. Shuai Yongkang followed the flow and brought the four major military branches and the Marines in. At this time, Lin Xiaolei reacted, but it was too late to oppose, so he could only bring the Military Intelligence Bureau in, and in the name of confidentiality, he asked the Military Intelligence Bureau to be responsible for the overall coordination work. In fact, Shuai Yongkang had only one purpose, which was to use the "Marine Platform" project to deal with the "Chongqing" super aircraft carrier fully supported by Lin Xiaolei.

Affected by this, in the past few years, some people in the Republic proposed the "uselessness of aircraft carriers."

Because this argument is not good for the "maritime platform", after all, aircraft carriers are useless, and the more fragile maritime platform is even more useless than aircraft carriers. So it is certain that Shuai Yongkang does not want to spend too much energy on "maritime platform".

Unfortunately, Shuai Yongkang did not count Li Cunxun's attitude.

Since this matter fell into Li Cunxun's hands, it would not end in vain. In a sense, Lin Xiaolei brought Li Cunxun in at the last moment because he saw through Shuai Yongkang's true intentions. Without a strong supporter, the "Marine Platform" project would be in danger.

With Li Cunxun, Shuai Yongkang had no choice but to use his tricks.

Of course, under the Certificate of the Military Intelligence Bureau, the Republic's "Maritime Platform" project has never been known to the outside world.

In order to keep it confidential, the Military Intelligence Bureau used the trick of "stolen the wrongs". In fact, the "fast strategic delivery fleet that has long been widely known to the outside world has long been the case.

According to the information provided by Zhang Xiaolong, with the final break of the "Quick Delivery Ship" in service at the beginning of the year, the "Marine Platform" has already achieved practical deployment capabilities. Of course, unlike the "Marine Platform" proposed by the US Navy, the Republic's "Marine Platform" is not only a troop delivery platform, but also a material transfer platform and a comprehensive support platform.

In a sense, the Republic was able to take the lead in creating a "maritime platform" mainly due to technological progress.

In an era when even aircraft carriers have to pay attention to stealth, "maritime platforms" that are long and thugs are damn big. Tens of meters wide or even hundreds of meters wide are undoubtedly the most eye-catching targets of attack. Not to mention resisting saturation attacks, submarines can pose a fatal threat to them. What's more, "maritime platforms" that are almost impossible to avoid attacks. As long as there is a sufficiently powerful intelligence system, large warships such as aircraft carriers can avoid dangers by speed, while "maritime platforms" without any speed advantage cannot avoid danger. If the deployment scope of "maritime platforms" is considered, that is, affected by structural strength, they can only be deployed in seas with better sea conditions. In relatively harsh weather, they will not only fail to operate normally, but also have the possibility of damage. Then "maritime platforms" have no value in existence.

It can be said that the US Navy has not made any name for several years, but it is restricted by these problems.

To solve these problems, we must first improve our technical level.

The Republic Navy's "Quick Strategic Delivery Fleet" adopted a unified hull structure design from the very beginning. Although according to the Republic Navy, the use of a unified hull is mainly to reduce maintenance and reduce maintenance costs, the actual situation is to unify the interface, so as to facilitate modification when necessary, and then piece together into a "maritime platform". This is true, the "Quick Delivery Ship" is very special.

As the world's first old 10,000-ton large cargo ship that adopts catamaran surfing ships, the "Quick Delivery Ship" uses military ship standards in key systems when a large number of civil construction standards are adopted. More importantly, it has adopted a systematic design from the beginning. Not to mention, among the fast gun delivery ships, only two bulk carriers have the most flexible cabins with a complete power system, that is, they are equipped with a controllable fusion reactor. Others only have batteries and a directional power supply system developed by the Navy.

The biggest advantage of this design is that it ensures the speed of the "maritime platform". Because all sending ships use water jet propulsion systems and rely on adjusting the direction of the propulsion system to change the course, there is no operable steering rudder, the maximum navigation speed of the "maritime platform" composed of six sending ships can reach a relaxation, which can fully meet the requirements when fighting in secondary sea areas. Another significant advantage is that when encountering threats, the "maritime platform" can be dispersed at the fastest speed to avoid losing all combat capabilities at one time. In extreme cases, as long as there are thugs, bulk and container-type sending ships can still fight, it can form a "maritime platform" with basic combat capabilities.

Of course, the basics to reach the above days are still technology.

Connect large ships with a length of more than meter, and make them sail like a thug in any situation. The biggest problem is structural strength. In the sea conditions, the bow of the ship is likely to be several meters higher than the sea surface, while the stern of the ship is likely to sink several meters. The resulting buoyancy difference is enough to break four steel pipes with a diameter of meter. If this problem cannot be solved, no matter how good the idea is, it is just a concept.

Obviously, it is difficult to make breakthroughs in the short term starting from materials.

The East China Shipbuilding Research Institute has adopted a clever solution, which is to use "flexible links" to solve the strength problem. To put it bluntly, the six ships that make up the platform are not forcibly spliced ​​together, but are connected together with a universal joint. The problem is that there is no universal joint in the world that can connect old 10,000-ton ships together. Engineers have found a good solution, which is to replace the universal joint with a magnetic lock, and the computer controls the magnetic field and direction, thereby controlling the connection point.

Power and direction. Of course, this is not enough to solve all problems. When the six delivery ships form a "maritime platform", the other delivery ship acts as material transfer platforms on both sides. Only the propulsion system on the bulk delivery ship located at the front and rear ends works in a normal way and provides forward power for the platform. The propulsion systems on the other four delivery ships act as attitude control propellers, that is, adjust the navigation attitude at any time according to changes in the external environment to ensure that the delivery ship is always on a straight line.

This is easy to say, but not easy to do.

Not to mention, in order to accurately control the attitude of the platform and reach a level that allows the aircraft to take off and land normally, at least thousands of stress sensors need to be set up to sense changes in the external environment. Hundreds of attitude control thrusters and a supercomputer are required to control these thrusters.

It is precisely this that the US Navy has not made much progress.

In fact, this is also a very difficult challenge for the Republic.

To put it more intuitively, connecting six delivery ships with lengths exceeding the rice is as difficult as erecting six toothpicks head-to-head.
Chapter completed!