Yang Weiping actually understood in his heart that the worries of Chai Shufan, Cheng Yun, Chen Jinghua and others were not superfluous.

If he knew that this time the ocean-going fleet went deep into the South Pacific Ocean for scientific research and observation, he would definitely be the first to ask to sail with the 718 Project fleet, even if the central government strictly ordered him not to accompany him, he would have taken it as the wind in his ears.

Project 718, also known as the "Comprehensive Survey Ship Planning for the Ocean Range", is a shipbuilding project on July 18, 1967 on the formation of an ocean-going observation and comprehensive support formation. It includes the implementation of marine range survey and site selection, the construction of the "Yuanwang" ocean-going range comprehensive survey ship, the "Xiangyanghong" No. 10 ocean-going survey ship, the "Dajiang" class ocean-going salvage and rescue ship, the "Fuqing" class large oil-water supply ship, the ocean-going tugboat, the 051-class destroyer and other cutting-edge projects.

Thirty-five ministries and commissions participated in the project, and hundreds of thousands of scientific research workers and technical workers from the army, navy, and air force and hundreds of scientific research institutes across the country participated in the project.

In June 1968, Taizu officially approved the start of the 718 project, and Taizu's instructions were not ordinary circle reading, but "agree, we must do it quickly".

It took 12 years for the United States to go from the first atomic bomb to the launch of a missile carrying a nuclear warhead. At that time, US Secretary of Defense McNamara claimed that it would take at least 10 years for China to master missile and nuclear weapons. From the successful test of China's first atomic bomb on October 16, 1964, to the successful test of the combined atomic bomb and missile on October 27, 1966, it took only 2 years and 11 days for Huaxia to lose face.

In 1970, China also made a major breakthrough in submarine-launched missile technology. Conventional ballistic missile submarines can launch missiles from the sea to the open ocean. This missile experiment is too important for China's national defense construction. Survey and monitoring ships are indispensable, and at the same time, there must be ship vigilance, escort, and navigational supplies.

Since 1969, all shipbuilding enterprises in our country have been under the unified management of the Navy. To this end, the Navy has set up a shipbuilding leading group to coordinate various matters between the shipyard and the navy. Liu Huaqing, deputy chief of staff of the Navy, who has just made a comeback, is director of the Shipbuilding Office and vice president of the Seventh Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense. Chen Youming, director of the Office of the 09 Project (Nuclear Submarine) Leading Group, served as deputy director.

At that time, Liu Huaqing and Chen Youming faced huge risks and resistance, and discussed using the 718 Project to get the navy's military auxiliary ships up. Ocean supply ships, ocean-going rescue tugs, salvage and rescue ships and other ship types can take this opportunity to get on the horse.

these ships. If it is not included in the 718 project, it will not be a key project, and it will not be able to get special funds, and the ocean-going ships that the navy is looking forward to will be far away. Other than that. With the help of the 718 project, China's shipbuilding industry can also be pushed up, focusing on several large factories such as Jiangnan Shipyard, Hudong Shipyard and Dalian Shipyard.

In Premier Zhou. With the support of Ye Shuai and other central leaders, the 718 Project began its difficult process step by step in the face of various unhealthy winds during the 10-year turmoil.

The ocean-going survey fleet determined by Project 718 is two formations, with a total of 12 ships of five types. It includes two "Yuanwang" survey ships, one oceanographic survey ship, three large salvage ships, and three oil and water supply ships. Three ocean-going rescue tugboats.

In the international environment at that time, the 718 Project was simply unable to buy ships and technology from abroad, and everything depended on the cooperation of China's scientific research workers to tackle key problems. Pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps.

Taking the "Yuanwang" survey ship as an example, although Xu Xueyan, a ship expert at that time, had completed the design task of China's first ocean-going cargo ship "Dongfeng", it was just a bulk carrier with an empty belly. The ocean-going survey ship is known as the "Maritime Science City", and a large number of high-precision monitoring, communication, and meteorological equipment must be loaded on the ship. This is equivalent to moving all the tracking and control equipment arranged in an area of several tens of square kilometers of a satellite launch base into a ship of less than 4,000 square meters, and it is no less difficult than cramming all the furniture in a large villa into a car. It's definitely a dojo in a screw shell!

Not only that, but also to consider the electromagnetic compatibility between the instruments, but also to solve the "seasickness" problem of land equipment, its design is difficult, the technical content is high, it is difficult to go to the sky.

A type of oceanographic survey vessel is more than just a ship. The design and manufacturing process is extremely complex.

The tracking measurement of long-range missiles in space movement places high demands on the survey ship. Because in the vast and turbulent ocean, it is not easy for a survey ship to lock on to and follow a target flying at the first or second cosmic speed in the most effective ten minutes. The slightest sway of the ship will lead to a fleeting target. This places extraordinary demands on the stability of the vessel.

In addition, when radar ranging, the distance measurement should be based on the reference platform of the radar antenna, the origin is not flat, the angle is not accurate, the angle is not accurate, the distance is not accurate, the distance is not accurate, the positioning is not accurate, the guidance is not accurate, the guidance is not accurate, the missile cannot be accurate...... It's like a string of dominoes, and the consequences of injustice are devastating!

Leveling, easy to do on land. But the boat is a platform where the wind blows and the waves crash in the sea, and it is a platform that keeps swinging, which is quite difficult. And it's so irregular. This is the most terrible thing!(Regular errors, which can be regarded as systematic errors, can be corrected)

In addition, when a ship is sailing in waves, the hull will have small longitudinal deflection deformations. Again, this can cause large errors in the measurement. To this end, on the one hand, special measures should be taken from the design and layout of the hull structure to increase the rigidity of the hull as much as possible without increasing the weight of the hull steel, so as to reduce the amount of deformation of the hull in waves. On the other hand, an optical deflection deformation measurement device should be set up on the ship, and the inevitable remaining deformation should be measured and corrected, and input into the central computer, so that the hull deformation at the precision measurement equipment can be controlled within the use requirements.

To give an example, the "Yuanwang" is like a measuring stick floating on the water, it has to measure tens of thousands of kilometers, and it can accurately locate a point at the very end, and there can be no error of a single star. Carpentry makes furniture, and a few millimeters of error is fine, but launching missiles and satellites is absolutely not possible. "If you miss a millimeter, you will miss a thousand miles", a few millimeters up, and you don't know whose back garden it falls in.

There are only a handful of countries in the world today that can create such a precise "ruler". And now, Huaxia already has three "Yuanwang" class survey ships!

The successful maiden voyage of the Yuanwang marks that Huaxia has officially become one of the few countries in the world that can independently build specialized, ocean-going and integrated electronic ships.

In the future, every time it goes to sea, it will be closely linked to the progress of China's aerospace industry and national defense industry. As long as it appears in a certain sea area, it means that a certain new project in China has entered the experimental stage, and that China is about to make a major technological breakthrough in a certain field.

At the end of 1979, the ocean-going survey fleet with the "Yuanwang" main survey ship as the core was successfully completed.

"Yuanwang" is the first generation of comprehensive marine activity tracking and measuring station successfully developed by Huaxia, which has a large endurance, strong wind resistance and sea-resistant performance, and the electricity used on board is equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of a city with a population of 300,000.

The ship is equipped with a multi-means, multi-network, long-distance, all-weather communication system and measurement system. It brings together many achievements of China's science and technology, and also represents the highest level of China's shipbuilding and electronics industry in the 70s of the 20th century.

The complexity of the various types of ships of the 718 project is beyond ordinary people's imagination, from the steel of the special ship to the construction of the hull, to the instruments and equipment of the whole ship, it embodies the latest products in various fields such as metallurgy, machinery, electronics, chemical industry, light industry, aviation and so on. Nearly 10,000 cooperative supporting projects! Almost the shipbuilding technology and electronic technology of China in this era have been brought into full play!

It is precisely because of the persistence and struggle of Liu Huaqing, Chen Youming and others that the 718 Project fleet was successfully completed, the birth of the first light aircraft carrier in China today, and the fiery situation of the two major shipbuilding bases of Changxing Island and Dalian in eastern Hudong.

The "Yuanwang" ocean-going survey fleet and the Julang-1 submarine-launched ballistic missile were successfully tested at the same time, and Yang Weiping did not catch up with such a grand occasion of historical significance because he was on vacation.

The reason given by Chai Shufan is still unreasonable for Yang Weiping to complain.

Although Chai Shufan has not worked with Yang Weiping for a long time, he still has some understanding of the temper and personality of this young Director Yang. If he didn't explain some things to his face, Director Xiao Yang might have to isolate them from these old men in the future, and misunderstand that they were hiding everything from him, which would cause some unnecessary trouble.

"Director Yang, you may not know what to do. Before the ocean-going survey fleet officially set sail this time, in order to find the best marine shooting range, the 'Xiangyanghong' No. 1 to No. 16 comprehensive scientific survey fleets secretly went south to the Pacific Ocean five times in four years, and each time encountered different risks. Chai Shufan's old eyes gradually showed nostalgia, and he sighed and said:

"More than 30 comrades were sacrificed before and after. These risks are both natural and man-made. For example, the expedition before the ocean-going fleet set sail this time was encountered, and the 'Xiangyanghong' No. 10 encountered a sudden 12-level typhoon, causing six comrades to go missing. There is no place to hide, and there is no place to escape. Not to mention that you want to participate in this voyage, Comrade Jinghua and I also want to participate, but the central government has not approved it. Even we old men didn't approve it, do you think the central government can agree to let you take the risk?"

Yang Weiping silently took out a cigarette, lit one, and slowly took several puffs in succession, before nodding his head with a heavy face and saying: "The road to success will never be smooth sailing. Chai Lao, did there go wrong during this voyage?"

Chai Shufan nodded and said, "The warhead was almost snatched away!" (To be continued.) )