Although the actual value of a pure kinetic weapon in space warfare with a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers was still inconclusive, but huge ships and giant cannons were the romance of men! The scene of a thousand cannons firing simultaneously made him excited.
Now that the cannon is here, will the ship be such a distant dream?
“Can we test it?” Jiang Chen looked at Ling Tao.
“Of course! We’ll show you its power.” Ling Tao took off the radio on his shoulder and spoke a few words to the engineers of the institute, soon the barrel suspended by the mechanical arm slowly lowered itself by half a meter.
Ling Tao raised his hand and pressed the touchpad a few times. The warehouse door with the electromagnetic pulse cannon was shut and locked. The sprinkler embedded on top of the roof began to release dry ice into the warehouse. At the same time, the vacuum pumps in the lab began to operate.
With the enchanting smoke screen, the warehouse quickly became a vacuum.
“Steel plates” a few centimeters thick were transported one by one with the mechanical arm and placed in front of the groove 500 meters away from the electromagnetic pulse cannon to create a steel wall. But that was not everything. When the steel plates were over five meters thick, a concrete wall more than ten meters thick was placed behind the steel plates.
The size of the entire vacuum laboratory was limited, and the maximum distance was 500 meters. However, for weapons used in space, there was not much difference between 500 meters and five kilometers. After all, there was no air resistance in the universe, and there was no need to consider the kinetic energy attenuation.
The barrel of the cannon was pointed at the thick “steel plates”. The capacitor inside the cannon began to charge, and eerie blue arcs began to leak from the muzzle.
When everything was ready, Ling Tao smiled at Jiang Chen and invited Jiang Chen to press the command button on the touchpad.
“Press the red button to fire.”
Jiang Chen stepped forward, looked at the turret outside the glass, and pressed the red button.
There was no warning.
Blue arcs suddenly flashed, and the glaring white light formed and disappeared in an instant. The fifty-kilogram shell smashed onto the steel plate, accompanied by the tremor of the earth and the roar under their feet.
“…”
Words couldn’t describe such a shocking state.
Almost as soon as he gained the ability to think again, a thigh-sized fracture formed on the steel plate. The wall of steel formed by dozens of steel plates turned into a “V”.
As for the concrete wall behind the steel, it was shattered…
Because Ling Tao already witnessed this many time, he didn’t find it surprising.
“The cannon can fire shells up to fifty kilograms in mass. In theory, the rate of firing can reach nine rounds per minute. Should we still test one more shot?”
“No need, I have seen its power.” Jiang Chen shook his head.
“Okay”
Ling Tao nodded. Then, he stepped forward and pressed the touchpad a few more times. Once the overflowing electricity in the high-energy capacitor slowly dissipated, he immediately turned off the power of the cannon. The blue arcs also went dim and eventually disappeared.
After a long silence, Jiang Chen finally said emotionally, “…I am thinking now, if you put this thing on the Pacific Ocean, is there a ship it can’t bring down in one shot?”
“No warship can carry this turret,” Ling Tao thought that his boss was really considering this possibility, so he quickly explained to him, “The electromagnetic pulse cannon on the Guardian-class is already strong enough, no ship can be safe and sound after one shot lands—”
“I know,” Jiang Chen waved his hand. “I’m just saying. I won’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito.”
Jiang Chen paused for a while as he examined the cannon, then he continued, “How much is the cost of this cannon?”
“Ignore the cost of research and development, this prototype costs about 1 billion New Xin dollars.”
1 billion New Xin dollars!
When he heard this figure, even as the major shareholder of the Xin Fed, Jiang Chen shivered.
Even if large-scale production could reduce the cost by half, the price tag would still be 500 million Xin New dollars. If the Earth fleet planned to equip hundreds of the electromagnetic pulse cannons on its ship, it would bankrupt the Earth Defense Alliance!
Since Jiang Chen’s expression didn’t look too good, Ling Tao who guessed his boss thoughts quickly explained.
“The reason why it is so expensive is mainly because of the manufacturing process. Many parts cannot be produced by the current technology. Only industrial-grade 3D printers can be used as a substitute. Once the production technology catches up, the cannon won’t be so expensive.”
Jiang Chen finally felt better after the explanation.
In a few days, the Earth Defense Alliance would reconvene once again. The next meeting was to discuss what class of ships should be built as the first million-ton starship.
In fact, regardless of the class of ship, conventional weapons like electromagnetic pulse cannons would be indispensable. So regardless of the result, orders would go to Future Military. After all, Future Group’s advantage on electromagnetic pulse cannons were obvious to the world.
It was just that the cost of nearly one billion is too expensive.
Jiang Chen knew that if he switched positions with a member of the committee, he wouldn’t easily agree on this budget.
After all, he didn’t own the Earth Defense Alliance. The members paid according to a percentage of GDP and the population. Hua contributed three trillion in just one year! How could Hua allow a company from a differnt country spend this money so easily?
As the executive, he had the decision-making power, but the committee also had voting rights and the authority to do a budget review.
Jiang Chen began to have a headache.
How can I fool these committee members?
It doesn’t seem like an easy task…
…
With August right around the corner, the expectation of the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise began to increase. However, Celestial Trade’s reaction had been quite mild, as if the carrier battle group parked at their front door didn’t seem to cause any concern.
Above the height of 36,000 kilometers, the spindle-shaped aircraft moved between the steel skeletons several kilometers long. Like sewing needles, they weaved the future of Earth Civilization in electric sparks.
It was the second shipyard of Celestial Trade, and the current progress of the project was only 15%.
The new shipyard that covered 100 acres and costed nearly 20 billion Xin New dollars, was like a satellite city suspended on the side of Celestial City. The city was connected to the space elevator by a graphene track.
Six spindles of about three kilometers in length suspended in the synchronous orbit, connected by a titanium alloy skeleton. Just like a narrow and hollow hexagonal prism, it outlined the shape of the entire shipyard.
Remotely contriolled by human engineers with the help of neural connection technology, nearly a thousand construction robots particiapted in the construction of the space elevator by welding pieces of alloy to the skeleton. The spindle-shaped aircraft moved around the shipyard as they sent materials and construction equipment to the construction robots.
In the future, all warships with tonnage above 500,000 would be built in this shipyard.
The Earth Defense Alliance already held more than a dozen meetings on the the first ship to be built in the shipyard, but it still couldn’t come to a conclusion. Some people proposed to develop missile ships, some people suggested to prioritize aircraft carriers and drones…
The last one to end the debate was a representative from Hua, Lu Hao.
At the seventeenth meeting, his “functional ship theory” gained support from most members.
“It is ridiculous to use the 19th-century artillery to fight battleships of the 20th century. However, after a 19th-century warship has been modified by a 20th-century artillery system, then they can still play a role on the battlefield. Rather than the controversy being whether we should arm our ships with bows or spears, it is better to build the ship first and then consider what weapons to put on it.”
The choice of weapons should be considered in the future, but leave rooms of modifications and upgrades. Even if innovation in shipbuilding technology ultimately rendered this ship useless, it could still be repurposed into a construction ship for additional values.
Lu Hao’s proposal also gave Jiang Chen a sigh of relief.
At least for now, he didn’t have to worry about how to convince the committee to buy a billion-dollar cannon.
