What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 442 Pirate Predator

South Pacific islands
"Buzz-"

Accompanied by the dense exhaust sound of a gasoline engine, a large six-axis drone took off from the ground.

Tang Wen watched as it nimbly moved left and right in the air, without flipping up and down.

Because the 160-liter super-large oil drum hanging below is too heavy, if it flips over, it will definitely not be able to come back.

Even so, the maneuverability of a six-axis drone is comparable to that of a UFO in this era.

Its magical control allows it to adjust the output power of each propeller at any time, enabling ultra-flexible flight with five degrees of freedom and unimaginable evasive maneuvers.

Rotating around the Z-axis (i.e., horizontal spin) is not possible because the propeller's output shaft cannot be adjusted in tilt. The only way to achieve non-center-rotation is to tilt the entire drone by using power difference and then adjusting the output.

However, this was harmless and already more than enough to meet Tang Wen's needs.

He called this drone the T6, and there was also the T4, a small quadcopter designed by Champs.

It also uses a gasoline motor for power, has a payload of only 2 kg, and a maximum takeoff weight of only 12 kg. However, its size has been reduced to only 50 cm x 50 cm, and the noise has been greatly reduced. When it flies at an altitude of 50 meters, the motor noise is not very noticeable with the help of the jungle cover.

The load capacity of only two kilograms is largely due to the small black box taking up a lot of weight. The original version weighed 6 kilograms after being filled with glue, but Tang Wen reduced it to 1 kilogram by using smaller and denser vacuum tubes instead.

The T4's final drawback is its short loiter time of only one hour. Tang Wen's plan is to use it as an accessory to the T6 drone.

将T6无人机原来的油桶缩减到100升，省出来的空间和重量用来挂4架T4，并且每架T4刚好能在腹部贴一块1.6公斤的“阔剑”反步兵地雷。

The "Claymore" is installed face down, so if it explodes in mid-air... hmph.

In addition to the T4 and T6, there was also a Q-97 "Predator".

Make no mistake, this is the MQ-1 Predator drone, which even the Empire has never officially equipped.

However, the Q-97 lacks advanced C4I systems, expensive and advanced radar, and a coordinated command system; it is essentially a model aircraft that mimics the appearance of a predator.

Of course, the MQ-1 Predator is still under development and there are only a few prototypes. It has not yet been put into mass production and service because it is too complex and sophisticated, and it tests the system rather than individual aircraft.

The Q-97 was equipped with a 120-horsepower piston engine, an inverted V-tail and a long straight wing layout, a flight speed of only 260 km/h, a cruising speed of 150 km/h, and a maximum service ceiling of 7000 meters.

However, it boasts a long range of 5000 kilometers, much longer than the original MQ-1 Predator's 3700 kilometers.

This is because it does not need to carry heavy electronic equipment. It simply stuffs in a 25-kilogram civilian marine radar antenna and a 30-kilogram "big black box" filled with various vacuum tubes.

Compared to the original Predator, it has 35% more fuel, enabling it to maintain continuous flight for 33 hours. At high altitudes, its radar cross-section is very small and inconspicuous.

However, this alone is certainly not enough to achieve the purpose of surveillance. At high altitudes, that blind radar is of no use; it can fool the Empire but not itself.

Tang Wen left an extra 150 kg of load capacity uninstalled, which needs to be obtained from China.

……

电科14所
"Hello Mr. Tang, I've heard so much about you. We've made progress on what you requested."

Qin Guang was quite pleased to meet the legendary richest man, because this very same scoundrel had invested 1500 million yuan in researching some kind of "flood".

Once the budget was secured, it was immediately thrown into research on the 1491 airborne Doppler radar and the 346 Sea Star phased array radar. The "Flood" jamming system was then treated as a hobby for researchers, something to think about during their lunch breaks. It wasn't that they didn't value it, but rather that the "Flood" system genuinely lacked technical sophistication.

Its approach is too simplistic and crude: simply pile on power to create strong, dense signals covering various frequency bands, thereby blocking communication for other nearby wireless devices and rendering them unusable.

In the 60s, a "frequency sweeping jamming technique" emerged, whose concept and technical approach were completely consistent with full-band jamming.

However, in practice, covering all frequency bands is almost impossible. Blocking all channels at once is extremely difficult, and it is generally only effective against radar and difficult to interfere with communications, which would require an extremely high level of power.

By the late 70s, modern radar was already able to find targets amidst dense interference and then deliver a fatal blow with anti-radiation missiles.

Therefore, the limitations of the "flood" concept are too great. After careful consideration in modern society, it would do more harm than good, and its continued development would be of little significance.

But if the customer requires it to be installed on a ship, doesn't consider power or personnel impact, and has absolutely no weight restrictions, then things become much simpler:
Just go for the maximum quantity and maximum excitation power!
If a single jammer can only cover a limited number of frequency bands, then add more jammers to cover other frequency bands. If the coverage area is too small, then increase the jamming area.

What was ultimately presented to Tang Wen was an extremely complex and massive system:

"This is the initial version of our 'Flood' system, which consists of four jamming surfaces with an inward tilt angle of 8 degrees. It can achieve radar jamming over a super-large three-dimensional space of 600 kilometers, covering almost all bands from 200 to 10 GHz, and can destroy most communication equipment."

Of course, it also comes at a huge cost: weighing 22 tons below deck and 45 tons above deck, it can maintain a 4-megawatt interference power for up to 10 minutes, with a maximum instantaneous excitation power reaching... 20 megawatts!

A glint of light flashed from the glass lenses on Qin Guang's nose, perfectly revealing a hidden madness.

What is the peak power of the 346?

"More than 5 megawatts, I guess."

"So the flood was 20 megawatts?!"

"You said there were no requirements for size and power, so I designed it this way. However, this is only an extreme case. Under normal circumstances, it is only 3 to 4 megawatts. I can just write a small piece of code to limit the peak output."

Qin Guang was a little embarrassed. 20 megawatts was just the theoretical limit. In reality, no ship has such a high power supply. He had just accidentally exaggerated.

Although the "flood" method itself is technologically outdated, its simplicity and brutality have a unique aesthetic appeal, and the researchers who use it are quite captivated by it.

However, Tang Wen seemed to be thinking about something and said:

"Is 3 to 4 megawatts based on the typical limits of marine power supply?"

"Of course, this is already very strenuous for a warship. Considering the losses in power generation, it is already an exaggerated figure."

4MW of electricity requires 6 megawatts of engine power, roughly 9000 horsepower. There are other places on board that need electricity; we can't possibly use it all to install generators, can we?

Tang Wen: "If I provide 20 megawatts of power and relax the weight restrictions, can I achieve a continuous 20 megawatt output?"

Qin Guang's gaze towards him became strange, and he explained earnestly:
"If it's a 20-megawatt output, heat dissipation alone would be a major problem. It would probably require at least 10 megawatts to install a complex water cooling system to withstand it, and the entire system would easily weigh over 100 tons."

The flood control system requires 30 megawatts of electricity, which translates to 45 megawatts of power, or 6 horsepower, based on power generation and transmission efficiency.

It's not just about consuming 6 horsepower; it also requires space to accommodate a 45-megawatt generator set. If it were a warship, it would need a displacement of 3 tons to fit it in. Do you understand?

But what Tang Wen said next almost made him faint:
"Only 3 tons? Then increase it to 30 megawatts of output, and the total power will not exceed 50 megawatts. Electricity is not a problem."

(End of this chapter)