Southeast of the Okinawa Islands, Ryukyu Trench.

Two hundred and fifty meters below the sea, a ship about 80 meters long and eleven meters wide, and is dark all over. Its body is like a stretched cigar. It has a streamlined podium, a retractable head horizontal rudder, an x-shaped tail rudder, and a "Swordfish" submarine driven by a pump-jet thruster is moving slowly along the ocean current at a speed of six knots.

In the command center, Hua Jianfeng stared at the two highlights on the fire control computer screen.

If the "Swordfish" commanded by Hua Jianfeng is a sharp sword, then two nearby "Qinchao"-class AIP conventional submarines equipped with the Sterling engine produced by the Swedish Koukum Company are ancient bronze swords dug out from the ground and should have entered the museum long ago.

"Captain, do you want to keep up with the target boat No. 1 floating?"

"Follow the No. 1 target boat and closely monitor the No. 2 target boat." Hua Jianfeng walked behind the helmsman, "control the course and speed. When the depth reaches fifty meters, start the underwater camera and let us see what this new friend looks like."

The "Swordfish" quietly followed the Japanese submarine and floated towards the sea.

Two years ago, when he was transferred from the nuclear submarine of the Caldera and served as captain on the Swordfish, Hua Jianfeng felt that he had been "spread" and was even more humiliated for two months. Because the Caldera is the most advanced attack nuclear submarine in the Republic, the Swordfish is just a conventional submarine.

However, the "Swordfish" is not an ordinary conventional submarine.

"Longxiang New Energy Company" was the first to develop and produce civilian composite batteries, but military composite batteries with a mass-energy ratio of 8 kilowatt-hours per kilogram. Later, the mass-energy ratio of composite batteries used in electric vehicles launched by Jiqing Company was only 2 kilograms per kilogram, and the performance was only 25% of that of military-type.

In the army, this high-performance composite battery has an alias: "Longxiang Battery".

How important is the geological energy ratio of 8 kilowatt-hour per kilogram?

The geothermal value of diesel combustion is 40,000 kJ per kilogram. The geothermal value of gasoline combustion is 44,000 kJ per kilogram. Each kilogram of "Longxiang Battery" can store 28,800 kJ of ground electricity. It is 72% of diesel soil and 65.5% of gasoline soil.

The geothermal efficiency of direct injection internal combustion engines is about 50%. The energy conversion efficiency of superconducting motors is more than 70%. The ground power propulsion system composed of "Longxiang Battery" and superconducting motors can completely replace the ground power propulsion system composed of diesel, internal combustion engines and ordinary batteries. This allows conventional submarines to have a real "AIP". That is, "does not rely on air propulsion devices."

It is equipped with a 400-ton "Longxiang Battery" and a 7500-kilowatt superconducting motor, "Swordfish" in the ground. After full charge, it can submerse at a maximum speed of 296 hours and sail 8,000 nautical miles within twelve days; if the submarine speed is reduced to six knots, it can submarine for 72 days and sail 10,000 nautical miles. During the entire patrol mission, it does not have to float to the Shanghai area to ventilate. Relatively speaking, even if it is equipped with a 212-class conventional submarine in the fuel cell, it can only submarine for 211 days. If it is sailing at the maximum underwater speed, it can only last for several hours.

The "Swordfish" can charge at any port equipped with dedicated charging equipment. If electricity is obtained from the civilian power grid, the charging time is twelve hours; if there are dedicated high-power power generation equipment, it only takes two hours. For conventional submarines equipped with AIP systems, they must go to the military port with supporting logistics support capabilities to replenish liquid oxygen or special fuel. It is difficult to obtain logistics support at the commercial port.

The ground power system composed of "Longxiang Battery" and superconducting motor has another advantage.

Apart from an emergency diesel engine, there are no other conventional power equipment on the Swordfish submarine, and there is no main noise source. Combined with the pump-jet propulsion system, the Swordfish's noise level has been reduced to an unprecedented level. When sailing at a speed of six knots, its own noise is less than 70 degrees Celsius; even if the speed is increased to twenty-seven knots, it is only 98 decibels, far lower than any conventional submarine, and even a few decibels lower than the US Navy's "Virginia" class nuclear submarine.

The outer surface of the "Swordfish" craft was laid with sound-silence tiles as thick as 35 centimeters, which shortened the detection distance of the enemy boat's active sonar by two-thirds. Coupled with very low self-noise, the "Swordfish" became the quietest submarine in the world.

However, the "Swordfish" is not perfect.

The "Longxiang Battery" is extremely expensive. The price of a 400-ton battery exceeds that of an attack nuclear submarine, so its endurance is far less than that of a nuclear submarine. If a small fusion reactor is added to the "Swordfish", it can have the ability to "unlimited endurance".

Due to the limitation of the diameter of the hull, especially the tail diameter, the power of the superconducting motor cannot be further improved, limiting the maximum navigation speed of the "Swordfish". The maximum submersible speed of only 27 knots cannot be comparable to the most advanced attack nuclear submarines.

The length of the "Swordfish" is only eighty meters, the length of the middle cylindrical cabin section is less than fifty meters, and the length of the passive sonar array on the side side is only fifty meters, which is nearly thirty meters shorter than the passive sonar array on the attack nuclear submarine. The performance of the passive sonar, especially the detection accuracy of the sound source orientation, has been greatly reduced.

Because the bow space is limited, even if the torpedo compartment is moved backward and four torpedo launch tubes are installed in the submarine's ribs, they can only be equipped with the first spherical main/passive sonar with a diameter of six meters. Therefore, the performance of the active sonar of the "Swordfish" is not as good as that of the "Calacht".

Finally, due to the limitations of the internal space of the hull, the "Swordfish" can only carry twenty-two torpedoes and missiles, which is indeed far inferior to the reserve capacity of the thirty-eight torpedoes and missiles of the "Calachite".

For a conventional submarine with an underwater displacement of only 3,350 tons, the performance of the Swordfish is already outstanding. Not only does no conventional submarine match it, but even the French Navy's "Barfish"-class attack nuclear submarine is not necessarily much stronger than the Swordfish.

After seeing the "Sword Fish", Hua Jianfeng immediately changed his previous view.

What surprised him even more was that the Republic's Navy only built one "Swordfish". The main cost was 18.4 billion yuan, which discouraged the Navy. If it had not assumed the heavy responsibility of "test", the Navy would have spent the same price to purchase two "calpresses". The captain of the "Swordfish" was not "spread", but "high promotion".

In the next two years, Hua Jianfeng has always regarded the "Swordfish" as his home.

As the "assembly chief", Hua Jianfeng participated in the construction of the "Swordfish" and put forward several very valuable opinions to the engineers during the period.

Through related work, Hua Jianfeng has a deeper understanding of the submarine.

In addition to having a strong "heart" and a large enough "lung", the "Swordfish" also has a developed "brain".

The highly automated operating system and the positions saved after eliminating conventional power equipment have reduced the "Swordfish" officers and soldiers to 34 people, and usually only eight people are needed to control the entire submarine. The highly integrated detection, search and fire control system, plus the central computer that runs 2500 million times per second, gives the "Swordfish" the keenest reaction speed. In combat states, the "Swordfish" can track eight targets while controlling four torpedoes to attack two of the most threatening targets.

A good horse is paired with a good saddle, and a warrior is paired with a sword.

The Swordfish is equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, especially heavy torpedoes.

The new electric torpedo uses composite batteries as power supply. The range reaches 35,000 meters in the high-speed mode of 70 knots; the range can reach 65 kilometers in the low-speed mode of 45 knots. The battle thunder head filled with 250 kilograms of high-energy explosives is enough to cause one torpedo to severely damage a destroyer, or two torpedo to severely damage a cruiser, and three torpedoes to cause an aircraft carrier to lose combat capability.

Everything made Hua Jianfeng very happy. He felt that the "Swordfish" was more like a super submarine in science fiction novels.

Half a year ago, after the "Swordfish" was officially put into service, Hua Jianfeng and the other 33 officers and soldiers had new tasks. Within five months, the "Swordfish" participated in three joint military exercises, and its performance was fully recognized.

A month ago, Hua Jianfeng led the boat out to sea again.

Their mission is to track the second Japanese Navy's "Pro-Tide" class submarine that has been improved, equipped with an AIP system, and is being trained in the waters of the Okinawa Islands.

So far, the Swordfish has tracked the two Japanese submarines for eleven days.

Three days ago, after completing the last mission, the Swordfish used the active attack sonar to say hello to the Japanese submarine. As a result, it attracted more than 20 "Seahawks" from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, eight P-3c "Orion" anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and hundreds of sonar buoys. The Swordfish did not leave, but was still following the Japanese submarine, taking this opportunity to understand the anti-submarine tactics of the Japanese submarine.

Two days ago, another "Qinchao" class submarine arrived.

If the fight starts, Hua Jianfeng is confident that he will kill two "famous tides" at the same time.

"The boat length is fifty meters."

Hua Jianfeng came to his senses. "Open the external lighting and enter from behind the enemy boat. Let's take a closer look at the appearance of the Japanese new submarine."

A blurry figure appeared on the screen of the fire control computer.

The Japanese submarine, which is nearly 80 meters long and ten meters wide, is like a huge whale, floating quietly in the sea twenty-five meters away from the sea. The Japanese submarine is testing the newly equipped non-penetrating optoelectronic masts and satellite communication equipment, and no "Swordfish" appeared behind him at all.

"It's like a big manatee. I'm passing by the bottom with a podium, and dozens of Japanese devils will be finished."

"I can't bear to bear it." Hua Jianfeng smiled faintly, "Walking around from the left, the speed dropped to two cents, and see if the Japanese could hear the sounds we made."

The "Swordfish" slowly turned and reached the left side of the Japanese submarine.

"Captain!" The sonar suddenly shouted, "There is contact."

Hua Jianfeng frowned slightly. "Has he discovered?"

"No. At ten o'clock, the distance is very far and very weak."

"American's nuclear submarine," Le Jiacheng walked over, "maybe it the 'Los Angeles' of the Seventh Fleet."

"It should be 'waves', or 'Virginia'." Chief Sonar corrected the deputy captain's statement, "There is no matching characteristic noise data, and it is definitely not 'Los Angeles'."

At this time, a command that had not dried out of the ink was spit out of the laser printer.

"Emergency dive." Hua Jianfeng quickly finished the order he had just received and handed it to Le Jiacheng. "We have completed the mission and should have returned long ago."

After reading the order, Le Jiacheng sighed secretly and nodded to the helmsman who turned around and looked at him.

The General Staff ordered the return flight, and it was time for the "Swordfish" to go home.

.
Chapter completed!