Chapter 1286: Like a Video Game
320 kilometers in the sky.
An aeros.p.a.ceplane about the size of two Starlight aircrafts slowly retracted its open magazine and cruised smoothly on the edge of the atmosphere.
“This is Kunpeng, finish launching airstrikes.”
“This is the ground command center. Target has been confirmed to have been hit. The battlefield will be taken over by ground forces. Please return now.”
“Roger that.”
The four huge electric propulsion engines shot out a blue arc in the deep s.p.a.ce. Driven by the high-temperature plasma, the giant plane named “Kunpeng” began to return to the ground.
Battlefield intelligence had been taken over by military observation satellites to provide information for friendly forces on the ground. The coordinates of enemy units and the battle path processed by the Star Voyage One quantum computer was sent to the ground attack drone terminal.
At the aeros.p.a.ce forces headquarters in Jinling.
Li Gaoliang stood next to a large screen. He was pointing at various parameters and marks on the screen to Lu Zhou… This was to show off their modern battlefield command system.
“Through satellite imaging, supercomputer processing, and real-time battlefield images, we can build a three-dimensional digital model of the battlefield and make the most efficient use of every combat unit and every available station resource.
“Over there, the red mark is the B army, while the green mark is the A army… They are a friendly troop. Of course, the Somali troops are too technologically behind, and they don’t trust us much, so we can’t command them.”
Lu Zhou: “What about those crosses?”
Li Gaoliang: “Confirmed killed or destroyed targets.”
Lu Zhou looked at the red dots that turned into gray crosses one after another. He was silent for a while before sighing softly.
“This battle is just like a computer game.”
“It’s much simpler than computer games.” Li Gaoliang grinned and said, “Computer games also need to consider balance. This game doesn’t. Before launching an attack drone, our aeros.p.a.ce strategic bomber has already destroyed 11.6 tons of ammunition and basically destroyed their defense facilities. If they had put up a better fight…”
Lu Zhou: “Then we’ll send the orbital Airborne Brigade?”
Li Gaoliang shook his head and said, “No, we’ll just repeat the same process again.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Wow…
No military unit in the world can deal with this, right?
Of course, this technology was actually quite difficult.
This compet.i.tion was not so much about military technology; it was more a test of aeros.p.a.ce technology.
They had to send weapons to low orbits at a very low cost and complete a reliable cruise or even airstrikes. So far, only the Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Technology Inst.i.tute at the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study had this technology.
Most countries on Earth might not even be able to launch satellites, let alone sending weapons to such a high orbit and dropping them.
When Lu Zhou saw the red dots disappearing on the screen, he suddenly couldn’t help but have a strange thought.
If aliens attacked Earth, would they feel the same way?
Their stars.h.i.+ps would park at the edge of the atmosphere, throw down some bombs, then send a bunch of smart soldiers or something.
“Speaking of which, I didn’t expect you guys to build an aeros.p.a.ce strategic bomber.”
Li Gaoliang smiled embarra.s.sedly and said, “Thanks to your fusion battery and electric propulsion engine, it has officially been in service since the beginning of this year.”
“Is it good?”
“Very.”
Lu Zhou nodded, but he felt a mix of emotions.
Even though he knew that warfare was one of the elements of civilization, he didn’t really like that his technology was being used on the battlefield.
However, thinking about it from another angle, prosperity required necessary forces to protect it. As long as the battles defended peace and allowed the world to move in a better direction, this seemed to be a good thing?
Since Lu Zhou was no longer entangled in these issues, he finally relaxed.
“However, although the weapons are getting better and better, the troubles are becoming larger as well.” Li Gaoliang watched the battle on the screen and said, “We will recover the drone hive through diplomatic means. There are also drones that were damaged in battle… We have to retrieve them through GPS.
“Also, there is the promised reconstruction of the village and a series of issues. We can’t be like the Americans, leaving a mess behind. War will always be the last resort, and we don’t want to use it unless we have to.”
“Does this count as necessary?”
“Of course it counts.” Li Gaoliang looked at Lu Zhou and grinned. He patted Lu Zhou on the shoulder and said, “If someone wants to hurt Professor Lu, they’ll get what they deserve.”
…
Ethiopian borders.
An officer in a US military uniform held a telescope in his hand. He looked at the flames on the hills in the distance.
After a while, he said, “Sh*t”. His mouth was dry from the blowing winds and sand. He put away the telescope in his hand.
The warlords and militias lurking in dangerous places had little room to fight back against the swarm of drones, and the entire battle was basically a one-sided slaughter.
This was probably the first time artificial intelligence had been used in warfare on such a large scale.
Although the Pentagon had tested similar equipment before, so far, the research was still at the laboratory stage, and he had not heard of any particularly big progress.
But now, he expected the Chinese technology to have advanced to this level.
Forget about these groups of militants, even he wouldn’t have any good ideas on how to deal with these locust-like monsters.
Standing next to him was an Ethiopian military officer, who accompanied him to the border. There was also a telescope in his hand, and he had a look of disbelief on his face.
“I don’t understand…”
The American officer glanced at him.
“Don’t understand what?”
“Let’s not talk about their drones. Where did the airstrikes come from?” The Ethiopian officer had a trace of fear on his face. He said, “Our radar only detected bombs from the sky. There was no evidence of a plane at all.”
“It’s not just that you didn’t see anything.” The US military officer said with a smile of self-deprecation, “We didn’t see anything on our radars either.”
The Ethiopian officer had a subtle look on his face.
He originally thought that their radar technology was too behind. He did not expect that the US military base, stationed in his territory, also didn’t observe any signals of a plane flying over this airs.p.a.ce.
“Could it be… that they have developed a stealth aircraft that can hide from all radars?”
If this is the case, doesn’t it mean that Chinese aircraft can come and go freely in any airs.p.a.ce they want?
This is so scary…
The US military officer shook his head and said, “Aeroplanes that completely hide from radars cannot exist. Even the most advanced materials will definitely leave traces on our phased array radar.”
“Then why…”
“Let’s think about it from another angle. Maybe they didn’t enter our air defense zone at all.”
“How is this possible?”
“Nothing is impossible. The most advanced aircraft can only fly up to 20 kilometers above sea level. The maximum airs.p.a.ce of each country is only about 110 kilometers. Beyond this limit, radar has no use at all. Even if we can observe them, no air defense missiles can reach that high.”
“So you’re saying…”
“I’m just guessing, there’s no evidence.” The US officer looked up at the sky with his eyebrows furrowed.
“From a logical point of view, if they can throw people from low earth orbit, there is no reason why they cannot throw a bomb from there.”