Chapter 125: Cranes and clams fight

In addition to surface warships and submarines, the Chinese Navy also has many serious equipment projects, such as the sixth-generation carrier-based fighter jets, new carrier-based early warning aircraft, carrier-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, etc., as well as amphibious assault ships jointly built with the Marine Corps, vertical take-off and landing attack aircraft developed by the Marine Corps, etc.

However, these projects basically do not have technical problems, and the main lack of relevant funds.

At that time, what really made Mu Haoyang’s headache was the Army’s equipment program.

It can be said that the Second Indian Ocean War made the Chinese Army show its face, and after thirty years, it once again proved to the world that the Chinese Army was the world's number one.

The problem is, this also ignited the Army's ambitions.

What made Mu Haoyang even more troubled was that against the backdrop of two consecutive Navy generals serving as chief of staff, the Army and the Air Force began to join forces to challenge the Navy.

The most typical example is that the Army participated in the Air Force's large transport aircraft project.

Although it is understandable that the Army participates in large-scale transport aircraft projects, because the main service target for air transport is the Army. When considering transporting materials, it must also consider transporting large combat equipment. Therefore, the carrying capacity and cargo hold size of the transport aircraft must be referenced by the Army's main combat equipment, and the maximum load range can also be based on the army's combat needs. However, in this crucial project, the Navy and the Marine Corps were excluded, and Qi Kaiwei and his mother Qi Tie joined forces to weaken Mu Haoyang's influence.

To put it indirectly, large transport aircraft projects occupy too much military expenditure.

In the fiscal years 2046 to 2047, China's defense budget was 178.6 billion yuan, and the actual expenditure was 179.3 billion yuan. Although the increase slowed down, defense expenditure still accounts for 23% of the central government's total fiscal expenditure and 8.4% of the GDP. Among this huge military expenditure, large transport aircraft projects account for one percent.

It seems that the proportion is not small, but the actual expenditure is amazing.

You should know that equipment expenditure generally accounts for about one-third of national defense funds, reaching up to 40%. There are hundreds of severe equipment projects carried out at the same time, and just one large transport aircraft project accounts for one percent, which is equivalent to squeezing the funds of other projects.

In fact, large transport aircraft are not yet an army-led equipment project.

After the Second Indian Ocean War, the most important task of the Army was to purchase future ground warfare platforms for the remaining eight armies.

For this item alone, the Army spent 1700 billion yuan in the fiscal years 2046 to 2047, equivalent to 10% of the military expenditure that year.

It can be said that this proportion is terrifyingly high.

According to the plan, the Army will purchase a complete set of future ground warfare platforms for the three armies before the end of March 2047, that is, before the start of the next fiscal year, and then purchase a complete set of future ground warfare platforms for the other three armies in the fiscal years 2047 to 2048, and complete the dressing work at the end of 2048 at the latest.

At first, Mu Haoyang firmly opposed such radical equipment procurement actions.

The reason is very simple. World War III will not break out before 2050, and the threat China faced on the mainland is not serious. Even if the army wants to change all the main forces before the war, there is no need to finish it before 2048.

In fact, it was already suggested that there was no need to continue to retain the eight armies.

To be precise, it should be that the four armies should only be replaced, and the other four armies retained their original equipment, and then increased the purchase volume after the war broke out.

If this is true, at least two trillion yuan of equipment expenses can be saved by 2045.

For other equipment projects, these two trillion yuan have indescribable severe significance. For example, the Navy can independently complete the development of the sixth-generation carrier-based fighter jet, the Air Force's bomber project can also be advanced, and the Marine Corps can also obtain the opportunity to purchase future ground warfare platforms.

Unfortunately, Mu Haoyang failed to stop Qi Kaiwei.

At that time, Qi Kaiwei raised two issues that no one could ignore. First, during World War III, Russia was likely to turn to the United States and become China's strong opponent on the mainland. Second, the Chinese army faced the test of expeditions, that is, to go to places far away from the local area. The original main combat equipment had too high requirements for logistics support and it was difficult to adapt to expeditionary operations. Only the future ground war platform could compete.

That's why Qi Kaiwei's proposal was supported.

It can be said that at this time, Mu Haoyang was a little helpless and could only compromise with the army and approved the army's dressing plan at the end of 2045.

The problem is that the trouble doesn't end.

At the end of 2046, when approving military expenditure projects for the next fiscal year, Qi Kaiwei proposed that the development and conception of the next generation of ground warfare platforms should be started in advance, and the existing ground warfare platforms should be improved from the 2048 to 2049 fiscal years.

Now, Mu Haoyang could no longer bear it.

Although Qi Kaiwei proposed a relatively sufficient reason at that time, that is, the United States had made breakthroughs in the field of fuel cells, and it is likely that before World War III, the main combat equipment similar to future ground war platforms, and it will definitely be better in performance. The Chinese Army must maintain its technological advantages, so it must start the development of the next generation ground war platform in advance and improve the existing ground war platforms, but in reality, Mu Haoyang would not approve such equipment plans at all, because this is equivalent to wasting the trillions of equipment procurement costs that have just been invested, and in the next few years, it will have to invest trillions of yuan in the army equipment project.

There is no doubt that this is an unbearable burden.

This matter eventually came to Yuan Mansion and was decided by Huang Hanlin.

The result made Mu Haoyang even more frustrated. Huang Hanlin stood almost entirely on Qi Kaiwei's side. Not only did he approve the development of the next generation of ground warfare platform, but he also required the Ministry of National Defense to allocate a special fund from the 2049 to 2050 fiscal year to improve the ground warfare platform.

It seemed that knowing that Mu Haoyang would not give in, Huang Hanlin indirectly bypassed the General Staff and the Ministry of National Defense would dominate military expenditures.

In fact, Huang Hanlin took advantage of the conflict between Mu Haoyang and Qi Kaiwei to take the opportunity to reduce the status of the General Staff and make the Ministry of National Defense the dominant agency.

To put it indirectly, it is that cranes and clams fight each other, and the fisherman gains profit.

It must be admitted that Mu Haoyang and Qi Kaiwei have no personal conflicts, and their differences are concentrated on the construction of military forces.

During the Spring Festival in 2047, the two also visited Huang Zhibo together.

It was also under Huang Zhibo's support for the two to reach an understanding agreement, that is, Mu Haoyang supports the development of the next generation of ground warfare platform in advance, while Qi Kaiwei no longer questioned Mu Haoyang's prestige.

Obviously, both of them knew that if they continued to fight, they would definitely not be the Army or the Navy.

As a result, in the fiscal years 2047 to 2048, Mu Haoyang invested 120 billion yuan in development and launch funds for the next generation of ground warfare platforms. With the support of Qi Kaiwei, the military budget submitted by the General Staff also successfully received support from the State Council.

As for the Ministry of Defense, it still has to stand aside.

At that time, Mu Haoyang was not clear that Qi Kaiwei's purpose was to start the development of the next generation of ground warfare platform as soon as possible.

Although in the Army's planning, improvements to ground warfare platforms are placed first, the main improvement is to replace the first generation of fuel cells with second-generation fuel cells and improve some combat modules, such as using coil electromagnetic guns with greater capabilities on anti-armor platforms, equip multi-purpose platforms with electromagnetic machine guns, and increase the throwing distance of fire support platforms, etc., so as to greatly improve the combat efficiency of ground warfare platforms to cope with the upcoming threats. However, in Qi Kaiwei's eyes, the real focus is on the second-generation ground warfare platform system.

It can be said that this is also the conclusion he came to after comprehensive consideration of the long-term development of the Army.

Ultimately, it is still related to large-scale electric transport aircraft projects.

Fundamentally speaking, this is exactly in line with Mu Haoyang's judgment and vision of future ground wars.

To put it simply, when launching the large-scale electric transport aircraft project, Mu Haoyang solicited opinions from the army, and asked Qi Kaiwei and Wei Chenglong what the future ground war would look like when relying mainly on air transport. Both of them gave relatively accurate answers, that is, under this situation, the army's dependence on ground transportation systems will be greatly reduced, so we should pay more attention to field combat capabilities.

Reversely referring to this expectation, we will find that there is a problem that any existing equipment of the Army, including ground war platforms, is not very suitable for future ground wars, that is, these equipment fundamentally still have to rely on ground transportation systems and have no outstanding field combat capabilities.

The conclusion drawn from this is that a completely new way of walking on the ground must be developed.

If it were twenty years ago, even ten years ago, such a concept would not be possible, because the power system indirectly restricts the walking method of the main combat equipment on the ground, and thus limits the movement ability of the main combat equipment on the ground, making it difficult for it to leave the road for maneuvering in the wild.

To be precise, it is field maneuver at the battle and strategic level.

However, by now, the technical threshold has been greatly reduced. In the era of large and large power systems, many things that were not dared to think of before may become reality.

For example, judging from the development progress of the jh-45 reactor, after 2050, it was possible to develop a power supplement system with a total mass of less than 200 tons, which can be carried by four large 50-ton trucks, and small fusion reactors as the core.

For example, as the technology of the second-generation fuel cell becomes mature, the development of the third-generation fuel cell is beginning to be developed. The energy density of the fuel cell is likely to exceed the calorific value of gasoline around 2055, thus making the energy utilization efficiency of the electric system more than twice the heat engine.

These technological advances have greatly stimulated the Army's ambitions and changed the Army's basic tactics.

It was in this context that Qi Kaiwei proposed to develop the second generation ground warfare platform as soon as possible to ensure that the Chinese Army still had technological advantages in World War III.

Chapter 125: Cranes and clams fight
Chapter completed!