Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 280: A-shot B-guide, ever heard of it?

Factory 5701.

"The technology on the Mi-24 is advanced even for us!"

"That's right, the knowledge in our books is outdated. Only after coming into contact with it do we realize how backward we are."

"Classmates, it is precisely because there is a gap that we must strive to catch up! If we seize this opportunity, our country's helicopter industry can take a big step forward. Let's complain less and be more down-to-earth, and learn more from Cao. Look at what Cao was doing while you were complaining!"

At this moment, Cao Lijuan was meticulously measuring the disassembled titanium alloy propeller. The climate in Chengdu was rather hot, and there was no air conditioning in the factory, only electric fans blowing, but still many areas were not covered. Her hair was wet with sweat, but she didn't care and worked diligently.

The restless students felt ashamed upon seeing Cao Lijuan's demeanor, and thus continued to throw themselves into their work with renewed enthusiasm.

Suddenly, a commotion arose outside.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see will be classified information. Therefore, please be aware of the confidentiality rules. Do not ask questions you should not ask, and do not take photos."

Is that... Qin Liang's voice?

Everyone looked up at the doorway, where a figure appeared.

"Qin Liang is here?"

Everyone wanted to crowd around, but seeing the people around Qin Liang, they all stopped themselves.

She was a beautiful girl with a slender figure and delicate features. Moreover, she exuded a unique temperament that clearly indicated she had received a Western education.

After seeing the girl, they noticed the other foreigners. They were looking at the helicopter, which was almost completely dismantled, with regret in their eyes. They were too late! If they had come earlier, they could have seen the complete doe!

Ray Leo was the first to go up.

"The fuselage of this aircraft is a non-load-bearing structure, and it uses a lot of structural frames... wait, they actually used titanium alloy! These Russians are really wasting resources!"

Ray Leo's gaze fell upon the bulletproof plate beneath the cockpit, and he was filled with emotion.

Titanium alloy is an excellent aerospace metal, lightweight and high-strength. However, it also has a lot of drawbacks: it is difficult to process, it does not conduct heat well, and most importantly, it is expensive!

The Russians have almost monopolized all the world's titanium mines. When the Americans built the Blackbird, they bought the titanium alloy from the Russians, and it was incredibly expensive.

The Russians, with their abundant titanium mines, are quite extravagant in their spending, even using titanium alloy to make bulletproof plates. However, considering that the Russians' nuclear submarines also use titanium alloy for their hulls, it's understandable.

Armed helicopters operate at the height of a tree. Needless to say, they can be hit by anti-aircraft machine guns, and even ordinary AKs. Therefore, such aircraft must have sufficient protection. The Russian Mi-24's protection standard is to be able to withstand the fire of a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun. It can be said that it is a flying tank.

Using ordinary steel plates would definitely increase the weight. Now, by switching to titanium alloy, the protection requirements can be met without being too heavy. As for the price... Russian special forces use titanium alloy steel plates for individual protection!
"However, this fuselage is still too huge. I really don't know what the Russians were thinking!"

A group of Americans came up, chattering amongst themselves, while Cao Lijuan slowly walked to Qin Liang's side: "Qin Liang, who is this...?"

"My wife, Yang Duo'er."

wife!

Cao Lijuan's eyes were full of envy: "Indeed, only a gentle, elegant, beautiful, and poised girl like her is worthy of Qin Liang. Hello, my name is Cao Lijuan, I'm a helicopter major at China Southern Airlines, and I admire Qin Liang very much..."

Yang Duo'er smiled and extended her hand: "Sister, you've already started working on a project, that's amazing!"

"By the way, Cao Lijuan, while these people are watching the airplane, I'm going to give you a new task... Find a few classmates and come with me."

The Americans aren't going to leave anytime soon while they're watching the plane. We can use this time to arrange a task to fool them. Northwestern Polytechnical University is short of talent right now, so this helicopter project can only rely on people from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"Okay."

Soon, in a warehouse next door, Qin Liang spread out the blueprints and began to explain them quickly.

It's all just concepts; not a single technology has actually been developed! Qin Liang used these technologies to thoroughly fool the Americans. Now that the Americans want to cooperate, let's work together to perfect these technologies!
Cao Lijuan quickly got into work mode.

"Okay, that's all." Qin Liang said, "From now on, it's up to you. If you encounter any problems that are difficult to solve... then let the Americans solve them. In short, they learn our technology, and we should learn their technology too!"

"Yes, I understand, Qin Liang. Take this rotor for example. We can study it together with the Americans and then use it on our products. This is better than directly mapping the Mi-24."

Qin Liang smiled. This Cao Lijuan is really something, she got the hang of it so quickly!
"Alright, then it's up to you! The Black Hawk helicopters will be delivered soon. When they arrive, you'll need to find a dedicated factory; we can't let the Americans see them."

"Yeah, I got it!"

With everything arranged, Qin Liang breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, that's settled then..."

"Qin Liang, we're fine on our side. The engine's reverse engineering is going smoothly, and we're even working on improvement plans. However, the weapon system remains a major problem."

"what is the problem?"

"For an attack helicopter, anti-tank missiles are the best weapon. However, at present, the only mature missile in China is the HJ-73. The new generation HJ-8 missile is still under development, and I heard that there are many technical problems that cannot be solved."

The rocket launchers mounted on the short wings on both sides of the attack helicopter are unguided weapons, mainly used for area destruction. To deal with armored targets such as tanks, specialized anti-tank missiles are needed, and the latter is the primary mission.

Back then, after the Zhenbao Island incident, the East realized that its anti-tank capabilities were severely inadequate. Rocket launchers were not enough; anti-tank missiles were essential!

In 1971, the Eastern Army acquired the Soviet-made SAG missile. Two years later, it decided to reverse engineer it. In 79, the design was finally finalized, and the Eastern Army had a dedicated anti-tank missile weapon system.

However, this thing only solved the problem of whether it existed or not; it was still very primitive. It used visual tracking, three-point guidance, manual control, and wire transmission of commands.

Simply put, this thing is a wire-controlled model airplane.

After the missile is launched, the operator must keep a close eye on it and constantly operate the joystick. The instructions are transmitted to the missile via wires, and the missile deflects according to the instructions.

Wait, a wire?
That's right, it's a wire!
At the tail of the missile, there are coils of wire wrapped around it. As it flies forward, the wires are released to receive signals from the operator behind it.

If a missile is flying and suddenly encounters a large tree that blows up into it, it will lose control.

Why not use radio?

This is, of course, due to battlefield interference. Not to mention the enemy, even if it were oneself, once faced with a massive armored onslaught, many operators would have to fire at the same time, which would cause interference between them. After all, radio technology in this era was very backward and could not be divided into so many channels. Even mobile phones would have garbled signals, let alone others.

After the HJ-73 was developed, the problem of having or not having one was finally solved. It was not only equipped by infantry, but also on various vehicles, and even armored vehicles might have one mounted on them. This thing had no outer packaging and was directly exposed, making it easy to spot at a glance. Due to its reliable quality, it was produced for many years, and even in later generations, it was still used occasionally for things like attacking bunkers.

However, the technology was outdated. So, in the mid-1970s, after obtaining TOW anti-tank missiles through special channels, China launched the HJ-8 anti-tank missile project. Its technical approach was tube-launched, optical tracking, and wired semi-automatic infrared guidance.

Tube launch means that the missile is installed in a launch tube. The advantages of this are that the missile has a longer lifespan, is less susceptible to sun and wind damage, and the flames are less likely to burn the operator during launch.

Optical tracking means that during operation, you only need to use optical means to aim at the target, and how to control the missile is handled by wired semi-automatic infrared guidance.

The missile's tail emits infrared light, which is received by a goniometer on the launch device. The goniometer measures the angular difference between the missile body and the aiming line. The computer calculates these deviations, issues correction commands, and transmits them to the missile via wires until it hits the target.

With this operating method, the shooter only needs to aim at the target without moving the control stick, which obviously greatly reduces the difficulty of operation and improves the hit rate.

It's semi-automatic because the shooter still has to keep aiming at the target until it hits. If that weren't necessary, it would be truly fire-and-forget.

The HJ-8's 90% hit rate is thanks to this guidance system. However... the technical difficulty of this is clearly much greater than that of the first-generation anti-tank missiles, so the slow development by relevant units is understandable.

This missile was displayed at the 84 military parade, but in reality, it was not finalized until 87 and officially entered service in 88.

If it weren't for Qin Liang developing armed helicopters ahead of time, the Z-9, which wouldn't have appeared until the 1990s, wouldn't have encountered these problems. Now that they have, he might as well give them a push!
"Yes, we'll contact the relevant departments. If they can't solve the problem, we'll solve it!"

When they returned to the factory, the Americans were still studying the Mi-24. Of course, their focus was different from that of the East. The East aimed to copy it, while they aimed to find the aircraft's weaknesses.

"What do you all think of this aircraft?" Qin Liang asked.

“We believe that this attack helicopter is not good, it is in the same class as our Cobra attack helicopter, and it is far inferior to our Apache helicopter,” Ray Leo said. “There are many flaws in this aircraft, such as this stub wing, which is too big. Although it can provide lift in flight, it sacrifices hovering performance. Under heavy load, it probably cannot hover, and it may even have to take off by taxiing.”

Qin Liang suddenly realized that he still needed a professional to answer his questions!

He was puzzled when he heard that female deer usually lift their hindquarters and take off with a runway, but now he understands that it was this short wing that was causing the problem.

The Apache also has short wings that can provide lift, but it is small and has only two hardpoints on each side, while the Hind is much larger and has three hardpoints on each side of its short wings!

The advantage of this is that the stub wing can provide about 20% of the lift during high-speed flight. The disadvantage is that the stub wing will obstruct the airflow of the rotor, especially when it is fully loaded with various equipment, in which case the rotor's lift will be insufficient.

It just goes to show that you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Later armed helicopters had very narrow pylons and used gull-wing designs to increase their ground clearance. The stub wing configuration was abandoned long ago, and there were these reasons for that.

"Of course, Soviet products are tough and durable, which is quite good. They are more resistant to impact. In addition, we also found that the landing gear is very robust and the seats are cushioned. If they fall from the sky, the pilots may survive."

This was a bit awkward, and everyone lowered their heads.

Is this design good or bad?

"Everyone, if you've finished reading, let's go eat. Now that we're in Chengdu, let's try some authentic Sichuan cuisine."

Although his shortcomings had been exposed, Qin Liang really wanted to teach these people a lesson with Sichuan cuisine and let them experience the feeling of spicy chrysanthemums. However... when he actually went to the canteen, the dishes were mainly sweet and sour. After all, most of the people in Factory 5701 were from out of town, people from Nanjing, and they couldn't handle spicy food either.

Once everyone was seated, Ray Leo said, "Qin, this should be a military factory, right?"

Although the factory has been transferred to Northwestern Polytechnical University, many workers who have taken off their military uniforms still retain their old habits. Even when walking, they walk in pairs or in rows of three. The canteen is clean and tidy, and the words sprayed on the tableware in the dining area are all aligned.

Only an army, the most disciplined army, can do this.

"Yes, so it's quite an achievement that we were able to get you to visit and then have some of your staff stay here to work afterwards. Those who stay must be mindful of work discipline and absolutely avoid going to places they shouldn't. If a serious leak occurs, it could lead to serious consequences, even..."

Let's scare them first. When Black Hawk comes over, even if it's just through a wall, they won't know we're making a copy.

“Yes, we know that we’re here to refine our stealth helicopter project,” Ray Leo said. “We certainly won’t look at things we shouldn’t see, and we hope the cooperation will go smoothly in the future.”

"The relevant personnel will be in place this afternoon, and we'll have a meeting together," Qin Liang said. "Once the coordination is complete and the contract is signed, you can leave your people behind. I also need to go back; there's still a lot of work to do."

"What job?"

"This……"

“Christian, it’s best not to ask questions you shouldn’t. We just talked about the confidentiality rules,” Ray Leo quickly said.

He knew that his son wanted to spend more time with Qin Liang and learn more, but he still couldn't ask questions he shouldn't ask!
"This is related to armed helicopters. It's alright, Christian is my student, it's normal for him to be curious. I can briefly explain: in the anti-tank missile project, our Northwestern Polytechnical University will be responsible for the development of a brand-new guidance head..."

Although this wasn't a project handled by Sikorsky, it was still related to them. For example, the Black Hawk also had an armed version, which wasn't much worse than the Apache.

Upon hearing Qin Liang mention this, everyone became interested.

"A completely new seeker head?"

"That's right. The biggest problem with anti-tank missiles right now is that they are easy to expose. After the missile is launched, the gunner still has to continue to control the missile. The thick smoke during launch will expose the gunner's presence. If the enemy discovers it, the tank shells may arrive before the missile even flies over. We believe that to get rid of this problem, we need to fire from A and guide from B."

The first generation was purely model aircraft level. The second generation used computers to replace manual control sticks, but people still had to be present. Anti-tank missiles fly slowly, often at speeds of over 200 meters per second. Targets over 1,000 meters away would take more than five seconds to reach them. Experienced tank crews could definitely fire the shells within five seconds!
Therefore, more advanced guidance technology is needed!
The West is certainly researching it, but they were still quite shocked to hear Qin Liang mention A-shot B-guide.

"What do you mean?"

"Take our attack helicopters for example. Our stealth helicopters are responsible for searching for and locking onto targets, and then transmitting the data to nearby Apache helicopters. The Apache helicopters launch missiles and then leave, while the stealth helicopters continue to guide the missiles until they finally hit the target."

Stealth aircraft are designed for the most dangerous tasks; that's how their value is truly demonstrated!
Ray Leo quickly put down his knife and fork, picked up a pen and paper, and scribbled down the idea: "This is a very advanced concept; the Army will definitely like it!"
"Then how do we achieve A-to-B guidance?" Christian asked.

"That's where we need to work on the guidance system. Here, the food is here. Let's eat. Sweet and sour pork, have a taste!"

I can't reveal the specific technology, of course. I'll keep it a secret for now and wait until we attract American arms dealers to cooperate. Right now, I still need to develop the second-generation anti-tank missile we have on hand.

The reason... is, of course, that it's cheap!

The HQ-73 was still in use in later generations because it was cheap; you wouldn't feel bad about shooting down a car. The HJ-8 missile wasn't expensive either, since the expensive electronic equipment was all on the launcher, and you could take the missile with you after it was fired. In later generations, advanced anti-tank missiles cost hundreds of thousands of yuan each, but shooting down a broken car was less expensive than the missile itself!

　PS: When the missile is launched, the trailing cable can be clearly seen.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)