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Chapter 54 The final sprint

At the end of the year, negotiations on jointly exploiting oil and gas resources in neutral sea areas of the East China Sea officially began.

Although it was seen by the outside world as a sign of easing between China and Japan, neither side had any hope for the negotiations at that time.

After the negotiations began, trouble came.

Japan first raised an objection, that is, according to the requirements put forward by China, it is not conducive to Japan to allocate the exploitation area with natural attributes, that is, Japan's exploitation area is mainly concentrated in the edge of the Okinawa Trench and the East China Sea continental shelf, while offshore oil and gas fields are mainly concentrated on the continental shelf, so the resources available for mining are very limited. China also subsequently raised an objection that if the oil and gas resources in neutral sea areas are enjoyed according to Japan's requirements, because the natural properties of the oil and gas fields, that is, natural sedimentation tends to be on the edge of the continental shelf, Japan's oil and gas resources are much more efficient in mining.

After all, both sides know that the negotiations will not have any results.

Judging from the situation at that time, the greatest contribution of the negotiations was to reduce disputes caused by resource exploration and fishery fishing.

The negotiations did not progress, but the preparations for both sides did not slow down at all.

In early 2034, four Kunming-class destroyers and four Weihai-class frigates were launched first. Half a year later, the first four of the third batch of Taiwan-class cruisers were also successfully launched, followed by four Weihe-class attack nuclear submarines.

At that time, the most eye-catching thing was not the large navy ships, but the J-30 began to be mass-produced on a small scale.

In early April 2034, after about ten days of delay, the J-30 completed the project test flight. According to the plan, before the formal mass production, small-scale mass production will be carried out, twenty initial mass production models will be produced, and delivered to the Air Force for acceptance and testing flights, and then the mass production stage will be entered.

However, small-scale mass production has shown that j-30 has solved all problems in the engineering stage.

The Air Force's acceptance and test flight test flights mainly test the tactical indicators of the J-30 and the system integration performance. To put it bluntly, the main task of the acceptance and test flights is to integrate fighter jets and weapon systems, such as conducting projection tests of various ammunitions, and testing electronic systems such as fire control.

Because it is not a project, the j-30 has been finalized after completing the project test flight.

Even if problems are found during the acceptance and test flight, no major changes will be made. They will only modify the problems and the basic performance of the fighter will not change.

In other words, Cheng Fei can prepare for mass production at this time.

This is also reflected in the acceptance and test flights, that is, the delivered small-scale mass-produced models. After the twenty j-30s have completed the acceptance and test flights, they will only make corresponding improvements at most, and then they will be delivered to the Air Force to serve in the Air Force as the first batch of formal equipment.

Of course, the j-30 at this time is a typical air-control fighter.

In the words of Chengfei General Engineer, when the j-30 was designed, it did not weigh a kilogram to serve ground strikes, and all were targeted at air control tasks.

This is not a big problem for the Chinese Air Force.

Before the J-30 was put into service, the total equipment of various models of the J-20 had exceeded 720. In addition, there were more than 1,500 models of the J-22.j-20 later, all of which were mainly ground strikes. When the J-22 was designed, it was a multi-purpose fighter. As long as the J-30 seized the battlefield air supremacy, the J-20 and the J-22 could complete all ground strike tasks. There was no need to use the J-30 to perform strike tasks.

After j-30 achieved small-scale mass production, j-32 also completed the project test flight at the end of June and began small-scale mass production.

Because there are great differences in the structure of the fuselage, that is, j-32 needs to take off and land on an aircraft carrier, the structural strength is higher than j-30, and the design standards are different, Chengfei specially prepared a production line for j-32, and the mass production of j-32 will not affect j-30.

In fact, the progress of j-32 was delayed by almost a month, so Cheng Fei paid a penalty for this.

The number of small-scale mass production of j-32 is only twelve, of which two are tested on the ground system, and the number of them are tested on board by the Navy.

This is also the biggest difference between j-32 and j-30 acceptance and test flights.

As a carrier-based fighter, the j-32 must first complete the onboard test, that is, it can prove that it can be deployed on the aircraft carrier and perform combat tasks normally before it can be tested. If the aircraft carrier cannot even be used, or it cannot be used after it is launched, it will have no value.

Of course, there is nothing to worry about.

The j-32's onboard test not only fully met the requirements of the navy, but also had unexpected surprises.

In order to carry the zy-1 carrier-based early warning aircraft and the j-15b heavy fighter, the hangar height of the Yangtze and Kunlun Mountain aircraft carriers is 7.2 meters, while the j-32 adopts a tail-free air dynamic layout, with neither horizontal tail nor vertical tail wing, and the maximum height is less than three meters. In this way, the hangar can adopt a double-layer layout, that is, two fighters can be placed where only one fighter can be placed.

However, some improvements are needed to be made to the hangar, such as adding related equipment to double-layer cameras.

There is no doubt that increasing the number of aircraft carriers will definitely make the Navy overjoyed.

When mixing with j-25m and all zy-1s are left in the hangar, the capacity of the "Yangtze River" class can be increased by at least 40%, while the "Kunlun Mountain" class can be increased by 60%. This means that without increasing the number of fighter jets on the flight deck, the "Yangtze River" class can carry twelve additional j-32s, while the "Kunlun Mountain" class can carry thirty additional j-32s.

This change can greatly improve the aircraft carrier's aviation combat efficiency.

Conservatively estimated that the aviation combat efficiency of the "Yangtze River" level can be at least the same as that of the "Flying Dragon" level, while the "Kunlun Mountain" level can surpass the "Flying Dragon" level by 80%.

The improvement in aviation combat efficiency of a single aircraft carrier is equivalent to the improvement of the overall combat capability of the fleet.

To put it bluntly, in the combat mission that focuses on sea control, the aviation combat efficiency of the four "Kunlun Mountain" class is equivalent to that of the eight "Flying Dragon" class.

There is no doubt that this is a big variable for the upcoming war.

To this end, after the j-32 completed the shipboard test in early August, Mu Haoyang rushed to Chengfei, asking Chengfei to put the mass production of j-32 first.

Even if Mu Haoyang doesn't do this, Teng Yaohui will come forward.

Relatively speaking, when the Japanese Air Force did not obtain the fifth-generation fighter jet, the Air Force's demand for the J-30 was not urgent, but the Navy needed the J-32 more.

By this time, the navy's shipbuilding operation had been fully launched.

In early September, in addition to the third batch of the four Kunlun Mountain class cruisers entering the outfit stage, four Kunming class destroyers and eight Weihai class frigates also began to outfit, and four Weihai class frigates were launched, and four other Weihe class attack nuclear submarines also entered the final assembly stage.

There is no doubt that China's ship construction capabilities far exceed those of Japan.

By this time, the four additional "Flying Dragon"-class aircraft carriers only completed 60% of the ship-to-ship workload, while among the other large warships, only four cruisers and eight destroyers were launched, and most of them were still in the stage of ship-to-ship construction. It would be a miracle that these warships could serve in 2036.

Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on the Japanese shipyard.

Among the many reasons for the slow construction of Japanese warships, external factors played a critical role. Take the "Hirui" class cruiser for example, more than half of its main electronic equipment comes from the United States, including the most core comprehensive radar system. With the slow supply speed of American companies, the construction progress of warships naturally cannot be faster. Among the several large warships added by the Japanese Navy at that time, the progress of destroyers was relatively fast, mainly because most of the key equipment of the "Zhenming" class and "Baigen" class have been domestically produced.

This is why the submarines added by the Japanese Navy were not able to be constructed according to the schedule.

You should know that among the small nuclear power devices used in the "Spring Tide" class, the most core components come from the United States and Canada. The United States has prohibited the sale of any nuclear-related equipment to Japan until the verification work is completely completed in accordance with the provisions of the "Washington Treaty".

All signs indicate that Japan's shipbuilding plan shall prevail in 2036.

At that time, the most eye-catching thing was the start-up ceremony of the new ship platform of Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries.

In line with Li Mingyang's judgment, the first task undertaken after these four new ships is to build large nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. However, even if the Japanese authorities formulate construction plans based on wartime standards, the fourth batch of "Flying Dragon"-class aircraft carriers will not be able to enter service before the end of 2038.

At that time, something happened.

After the new ship was completed, the Second Department received a piece of information that Japan is likely to start building a brand new aircraft carrier, with a significantly improved performance than the "Flying Dragon" class. Subsequently, some Western news media also reported that Japan's new generation of large aircraft carriers adopted a new hull.

Based on these intelligence and information, the Navy believes that Japan's new generation aircraft carrier is similar to the C3.

This has caused a controversy, namely, is it necessary to build the third batch of "Kunlun Mountain" class? If it is stopped now, the reconstruction of a more advanced C3 aircraft carrier will save at least half a year.

However, the second part quickly figured out that Japan's new aircraft carrier was actually an improved model of the "Flying Dragon".

To be precise, it has made appropriate improvements to the problems existing in the "Flying Dragon" class and the fifth-generation carrier-based fighter jets that are planned to complete the test flight in 2036.

Now, the Navy did not make the decision to cancel the third batch of "Kunlun Mountain"-class aircraft carriers.

The "Flying Dragon" level is also a "Flying Dragon" level. It is impossible to change the performance constraints generated by the basic design. In addition, the third batch of "Kunlun Mountain" levels have also been appropriately improved. For example, increasing the net height of the hangar to 7.6 meters to ensure that one j-22m and j-30 can be parked on the same camera in a mixed and matched manner.

According to Mu Haoyang's judgment, the improved "Kunlun Mountain" level is still stronger than the improved "Flying Dragon" level.

Since there are sufficiently obvious advantages, there is no reason to demolish the four aircraft carriers that have completed the construction project of 35% of the ships. In addition, Dalian Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard are all expanding their construction capabilities. A large ship platform built by each can be put into production by the end of 2035. Qingdao Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard have also built a 150,000-ton ship platform, which is expected to be put into production by the end of 2035. By then, after the third batch of "Kunlun Mountain" class is launched, at least eight ship platforms can be built at the same time.

The most important thing is that the design work of the C3-class aircraft carrier has not been completed yet.

As the war preparations between the two sides accelerated, by the fourth quarter of 2034, the total Sino-Japanese war entered a countdown stage.
Chapter completed!