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

Chapter 533 McDonnell Douglas had already been on a downward spiral since the 1980s!
"Those Easterners are going too far. They're clearly working with us on developing a passenger plane, and we're practically partners, yet they're trying to sabotage us!"

"Yes, they climbed to power by stepping on our bodies!"

The meeting room was filled with curses.

"Michar, say something!"

After everyone had been cursing for a while, they suddenly realized that there was one person who hadn't joined them in cursing!
A complex expression appeared on Michar Hills' face.

He was the one who pushed for the cooperation with the East, and at the same time, he was also the head of the F/A-18 project. This is... quite a slap in the face!

He couldn't speak, and at that moment, a pair of cold eyes were already fixed on him from the main seat.

"Michar, can't you say anything at all? Then what's the point of your existence?"

In 1980, James Smith McDonald, the head of McDonnell Douglas, passed away. Like his father, Dassault, he remained in office until his death before handing over power to the next generation.

His nephew, Sanford McDonnell, took over the vast McDonnell Douglas aircraft empire. Unfortunately, he was in poor health, so the management of McDonnell Douglas fell to his son, John F. McDonnell.

In 1988, he officially handed over the presidency to his son, but before that, John had practically been the head of the company.

As it turned out, both men were fools. After John officially took over power, he single-handedly led McDonnell Douglas's empire into hell.

Because Douglas was not obedient to management after the merger, in February 1989, he summoned 5200 former Douglas managers and told them that their original positions were abolished and that they would need to apply for 4200 new positions!
More importantly, the elimination process also requires the implementation of a comprehensive quality management system!
That same day, after the meeting ended, someone resigned and went to Seattle!

This round of layoffs resulted in the departure of a large number of key personnel from Douglas, including James Douglas, the founder of Douglas & Co., who was also ousted!

These things are enough to demonstrate John McDonald's abilities; he's not good at running a company, but he's a master at internal strife!

Now, at such an important meeting, Sanford McDonald didn't attend, continuing to have his son chair it. John McDonald also keenly sensed that if this matter wasn't handled well, it would damage his prestige, so...

He simply found a scapegoat!

That's right, that's John McDonald's idea!
Instead of solving the problem, they target the people who create it!
Micah Hills really wanted to stand up, pack his bags, and leave. He could get a job offer from Boeing anytime he wanted to get out of there!

However, he felt sorry for the F/A-18 fighter jet, after all, it was something he had personally developed and poured his heart and soul into, and now…

He took a deep breath.

"This air battle defeat was not the fault of our aircraft, but the mistake of the commander."

"You mean, Swift's problem? Micah, do you know what you're saying?"

I want to shift the blame to you, but you want to shift it to the Navy? The Navy is the client! Do you think you'll have a good outcome by shifting the blame to them? You damn pig-brain!

Mitchell Hills shook his head: "No, no, not the supreme commander, but the AWACS commander at the time. When an aircraft was detected approaching, the Tomcat fighters should have been dispatched immediately!"

"You mean our bumblebees are inferior to tomcats?"

In terms of interception ability, it's definitely not as good as a tomcat!

Thinking this in his heart, but not saying it aloud, Michar-Hils continued to shake his head: "No, it's just..."

He suddenly realized that it was impossible to communicate with such a management idiot.

He took a few more deep breaths.

"Lituo only has a ground-based air defense network and no comprehensive low-altitude monitoring system. Our Hornet can fly at extremely low altitudes to their airport and bomb that damned Eastern plane directly onto the runway. This would also salvage the reputation of our aircraft."

John McDonald thought for a moment: "Yes, that's a good plan. Immediately ask someone to lobby the U.S. Navy that this mission must be completed by our Hornets!"

Their fighter jets may not be as good as the Tomcat in air combat, but can they be worse than the A-6 in bombing?
Logically, this should have been an easy mission, and it could have even salvaged the reputation of their fighter jets!
John McDonald agreed to the proposal, but... he paused for a moment before speaking again.

"We must teach the Easterners a profound lesson. Inform them that because their trainer aircraft shot down our fighter jet, our cooperation project with them is suspended, unless they publicly announce that they used special means to defeat us!"

what?
Looking at the idiot John McDonald, Mitchell Hills immediately spoke up: "No, we can't do that!"

"why?"

“We need Northwestern Polytechnical University’s cooperation! And we are not their only option! Without us, they can always turn to Boeing, or even Lockheed Martin!”

Damn it, do you think McDonnell Douglas is that strong?
"No, no, they won't. They're Easterners, and they love playing the balancing act. The C909 project chose to cooperate with us precisely to balance the other two companies. In their words, you can't put all your eggs in one basket."

John McDonald felt that what he said made him sound very sophisticated.

"Moreover, they did a lot of tricks in the development of this passenger aircraft. For example, they insisted on increasing the width of the aircraft, which increased our investment costs. Even if we had a falling out with the Easterners, we could continue to improve our existing McDonnell Douglas-82 passenger aircraft, which would save us a lot of production costs."

The C909 is a regional jet, designed to compete with the McDonnell Douglas MD-82.

The McDonnell Douglas-82 was an upgrade from the Douglas DC-9 airliner! Without Northwestern Polytechnical University, they would have continued to upgrade it to become the McDonnell Douglas-90 airliner, while maintaining the original fuselage width of 3.34 meters, thus saving a lot of research and development and production costs.

As for how much the improvement will be... only God knows!
"No, no, times have changed. We absolutely cannot continue using outdated methods!"

"Why not? Our DC-10 has been discontinued. Next, we'll modify it and launch our McDonnell Douglas-11. The advantage of doing this is... the R&D cost is only a quarter of that of a brand new model. We need to make our financial situation look better and give our shareholders confidence..."

In July 1985, the development of the successor to the DC-10 officially began. John was in charge of the development project. He calculated that developing a completely new aircraft was not cost-effective! It would be better to make some modifications to the existing passenger plane, which would require less investment and yield quick results!
Finally, the result...

This completely handed the market over to the Boeing 777! The latter's sales are eight times that of the Boeing 777!
McDonnell Douglas was eventually acquired, and the failure of the McDonnell Douglas-11 development was one of the biggest reasons!

Now, with the new regional jet project in cooperation with the East, everyone saw a glimmer of hope. But unexpectedly, John McDonald is up to his old tricks!

John McDonald delivered a passionate speech, and after he finished, he looked at Micah Hills.

"Either carry out my orders, or leave McDonnell Douglas!"

This guy is now figuring out how to establish his authority by firing people!

Little did he know that for someone like Micah Hills, there was no shortage of work; as soon as he left McDonnell Douglas, he would be offered a job by other companies in the industry in no time.

just now……

Micah Hills took a deep breath: "Okay, I'm going!"

what?
This guy is actually leaving?
John McDonald's expression changed; this guy wasn't going to give him any face!
"Fine, as long as you leave here, then... never come back in again!"

"Hmph, foolish John, if you keep doing this for a few more years, McDonnell Douglas will go bankrupt!"

With those words in hand, Michar Hills strode out.

Everyone else's heart skipped a beat.

Yes, old McDonald was so smart, how could he leave such a foolish descendant to manage the company!
With Micah Hills' departure, the division within McDonnell Douglas's upper echelons officially began, while the battle continued in the distant Mediterranean.

"What? Continue deploying Bumblebee?" Swift was puzzled upon receiving this news. "Why?"

Under the current circumstances, it is not appropriate to send out the Hornets. You should know that the Trainer 10 in Li Tuo's hands can easily compete with the Hornets!

The best course of action would be to deploy Tomcat fighters to provide air cover and A-6 attack aircraft to bomb ground targets, thus completely destroying the target's location, Wheeler Field.

Now, they're actually going to send out Bumblebees?
After the last failure, everyone has lost faith in Bumblebee!

“I don’t know, this is an order from the White House,” Snowden replied. “It’s probably a cost-effectiveness test.”

Tomcat and A-6 have to fly together, while F/A-18 Hornet can fly alone!
If you go there with bombs, you can drop them at any time and switch to air combat mode if you encounter air interception from the other side. This way, the sortie will be very cost-effective!
But... after years of navigating the officialdom, Swift quickly figured it out.

"Hmph, it's all those damned McDonnell Douglas executives' fault! They fooled the White House! Hmph, McDonnell Douglas used to be a technology company, but who would have thought... they'd start doing these crooked things too!"

"General, then we..."

Swift looked out the porthole at the deck: "Well, if they want to show off, let's do as they say. Hopefully... Bumblebee won't let us down again!"

If this fails again, the Hornet will probably meet its end on the deck of a naval aircraft carrier!
Soon, the four Hornets were carried onto the deck and preparations for departure began.

Perhaps because of their setback during the day, their confidence was not high.

Squadron Leader Mark maneuvered his fighter jet toward the number one ejection position. For some reason, he felt a strange sense of anticipation: if only the ejection system would malfunction at this moment, then there would be no need to take off for combat!
However, the familiar push-back sensation from behind and the surrounding steam dashed all his hopes.

Behind them, three wingmen also took off.

It was already 2 a.m.!
Almost all U.S. Navy pilots are capable of nighttime catapult launches. After all, this has nothing to do with the pilot's skill; as long as the catapult is intact, they can take off from the deck.

However, landing on the deck at night is not easy. After all, even during the most perfect period of US Navy training, only 60% of pilots had the ability to land at night.

Therefore, their usual attack pattern is to launch an attack in the middle of the night, so that by the time they return, it will be dawn!

The Hornet fighter jets have only been in service with the troops for a short time, and nighttime landings are even more difficult, so they can only choose to take off during this time period!
Unbeknownst to them, at that very moment, on a small fishing boat near their formation, several pairs of sharp eyes were fixed intently on the fighter jets taking off from the aircraft carrier!

"Quickly, report back! They've deployed four fighter jets, carrying auxiliary fuel tanks and bombs!"

Normally, when a US Navy carrier strike group goes out, other ships have to keep their distance. However, the Mediterranean Sea is too small, and it is nighttime. The radar reflection signals of some small wooden boats are very weak, so... it is still possible for them to sneak close.

Now, their close surveillance is playing a crucial role!

They spotted US Navy fighter jets taking off!
With auxiliary fuel tanks and bombs attached, this is definitely not a drill; this is a mission to bomb them!
The only place they deserve to be bombed by the Americans is Wheeler Air Force Base!

At Wheelersky Air Base, the piercing air raid siren blared.

"Great, it's finally here!" Voropaev exclaimed excitedly, grabbing his flight helmet and leaping out.

"Wait for me!" Jagum followed behind.

On the tarmac, the training helicopter has been fully maintained and is ready to take off at any time!
Two Lightning Tens were fired, and now new ones have been attached, but these are the last two!

Madyashev felt a pang of heartache; he really wanted to take down and disassemble these missiles to study them!
But... right now the most important thing is to fight, to strike a blow against the arrogance of the Americans!

Internationally, the US and the Soviet Union preferred to sabotage each other behind the scenes, but rarely confronted each other directly, otherwise a world war could have been triggered at any time!

Now, the Soviet Union's aggressive stance has completely disappeared!

The former superpower has now declined, while the United States has begun to launch attacks on all sides. The Soviet Union needs to adjust its strategy and wants to show the Americans how powerful they are.

So they decided to sabotage the Americans here, using Eastern equipment, because the Soviet Union's own equipment was too inferior.

Now, we can only use Eastern equipment to make the Americans suffer!
As the two pilots boarded the cockpit, Matyashev shouted from below, "Go for it!"

"Don't worry, we'll definitely show those Americans how powerful we are!"

With a roar, the instructor, along with two MiG-23s, took off in formation.

On the ground, countless people watched.

"Advisor Matyashev, you are truly remarkable!" A camel officer nearby exclaimed, "After the victory during the day, you predicted that the Americans would retaliate at night, and even after midnight!"

Madishev looked somewhat embarrassed.

How could I have predicted it so accurately!

After winning the battle today, all he wants to do is drink vodka!

Just before he had a drink, they received a mysterious phone call saying that the Americans might retaliate in the middle of the night and that they should be prepared. In particular, it suggested that they could send small boats to monitor the US carrier strike group.

Only then did they take action, and the result... was exactly as the mysterious caller had predicted.

Who sent this message?
It's definitely not Moscow!
So……

Forget about that, let's not think about it anymore. I hope tonight's interception will be a success!

Eastward, Princess Tomb, Airplane Building.

"Old Lin, why did you call me over so early in the morning?" Qin Liang rubbed his eyes, somewhat annoyed.

"Of course something's happened," Old Lin said. "Based on your suggestion, we gave Li Tuo a few pointers, and then... the Americans actually made a move! That's why we called you over to take a look!"

"The US Navy went to bomb?" Qin Liang was speechless. "How did we know that?"

"Of course it was their bombs that used our Beidou terminals. What, you didn't know?"

The first generation of Beidou has already achieved global coverage. Although it is not yet fully functional in high-latitude regions, it can be used in other areas!
As for GPS, although the Americans are accelerating the network construction, they still haven't completed the networking of all 24 global satellites. As a result, some of the Americans' precision-guided weapons need to use BeiDou for guidance.

There are many reasons, and cost is a very important factor!
As the number of BeiDou users continues to increase, the module cost of BeiDou terminals is also very low. Even if the modules that the Americans get cost $100, it is still cheaper than laser seekers.

Moreover, this thing can be easily discarded and left unattended; it doesn't require continuous exposure, so...

Did the Americans use our Eastern Beidou module in their JDAM bombs?

This world is a bit crazy, Qin Liang thought with a sigh.

He really didn't know about this. After all, Beidou's civilian applications have expanded globally. In the United States, it was the sister universities that helped promote it. They just took the modules and gave him the most favorable price. He hadn't paid much attention to how these positioning modules were used.

Only the military would pay attention to the equipment of the American army.

The Americans are using BeiDou terminals, so their every move is under our control!

“If needed, we can tamper with their bombs and make them all miss their targets,” Old Lin said.

Qin Liang shook his head: "The colonel isn't a good guy either. If we're going to bomb them, we have to make sure it's a precise bomb!"

Does the colonel think that because he has money, he's the boss?
They actually wanted to buy mushroom bombs back then, and even tried to use the other side of the ditch as leverage, but were immediately met with a cold shoulder.

Normal people can't communicate with madmen!
Even if the colonel were actually blown up this time, it would just be bad luck on his part.

"That's true. Let's continue to see if Coach Ten can create another miracle in this night operation."

"If the Americans send E-2s for air support and Tomcats for air defense cover, then the Instructor X won't have much of a chance," Qin Liang analyzed.

"Yes, but I heard that McDonnell Douglas is lobbying the Pentagon to take on the mission for their fighter jets, probably to redeem themselves."

Just then, Qin Liang's phone rang.

"Hey, what? McDonnell Douglas is causing trouble?"

(End of this chapter)