After three days of vigorous operation, the search for the stolen engine came to an end.

Although no one wants to accept the harsh reality, two days ago, an incident that had little to do with the incident made the US authorities realize that the F-135-800 engine had been sent out of the book.

Two days ago, a US attack nuclear submarine accompanying the "Reagan" aircraft carrier discovered a suspicious submarine in an international waterway about 15 nautical miles south of the Balintang Strait and Sabutang Tang Island.

In normal times, this is not surprising.

In the last decade or so, the mainland navy has built six attack nuclear submarines. Although collectively known as the Type 093, the surnames of the first four ships can be equivalent to the Russian Victor3 type, and the last two ships are a new model, which can far surpass the first four ships and will definitely not be worse than the Russian Akula type.

According to the information obtained by the CIA, the latter two ships met with the Russian Sierra type when they were designed, using a large number of high-strength titanium alloys, with a maximum diving depth of more than 900 meters and a maximum sneaking speed of 35 knots, which is comparable to the SSN751 type of the US military.

The biggest problem with these two submarines is that they are expensive and prohibitive for the mainland navy.

The cost of the two submarines turned out to be twice as high as the first four submarines, and the unit price was three times higher! Counting the cost of late maintenance, the life-cycle cost of these two submarines is definitely more than three times that of the first four.

After overcoming the difficulties of high-strength alloy steel, the mainland navy began to design a third type of attack nuclear submarine, and the surname energy index is based on the "Seawolf" and "Virginia" classes of the US military. It's just that this type of submarine is still in the design stage, and construction will not begin until two years later at the earliest.

This time, the US military encountered one of the two "titanium alloy" submarines.

Here's the problem!

Because the surname can be advanced and there are high requirements for maintenance and support, these two submarines are deployed in the North Sea Fleet, which has relatively complete infrastructure.

For the first few years of service, the two submarines operated in the Yellow and East China Seas, each accompanied by surface ships.

It was not until last year that a submarine entered the western Pacific Ocean through the Osumi Strait and circled Guam to observe the joint exercises held by the United States and China.

It was also at this time that the US military first came into close contact with this kind of mainland navy's most advanced attack nuclear submarine.

In order to find out the surname of this submarine, the US military dispatched three Type 751 and also sent a "Seawolf"-class attack nuclear submarine from Pearl Harbor. After the conclusion of the joint exercise, the submarine turned south and circled the Philippine basin for a month before turning around and heading north and returning through the Osumi Strait.

Submarines of the North Sea Fleet have to pass through the Osumi Strait or the adjacent Tugara Strait to enter and exit the western Pacific.

If you enter the South China Sea from the Balintang Strait or the Bass Strait, you have to enter the East China Sea through the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwan Strait is a sensitive sea area with an average water depth of less than 200 meters, making it unsuitable for attack nuclear submarines with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons.

All along, the mainland navy has gone to great lengths to avoid allowing attack nuclear submarines to enter the Taiwan Strait.

The submarine's entry into the South China Sea looked very abnormal.

If it is only to carry out conventional tasks, such as deterring those small Southeast Asian countries, the two 093-class attack nuclear submarines of the South China Sea Fleet are sufficient.

Besides, the South China Sea Fleet does not have the ability to provide logistical support for such submarines.

What's more, just as the submarine entered the Balintang Strait, the mainland navy conducted an unconventional exercise in the northern part of the South China Sea, in which aircraft carriers operating nearby dispatched fighter jets and helicopters carrying special forces to rescue a cargo ship that simulated being hijacked by pirates.

This exercise is too timely, isn't it?

When encountering a submarine from the mainland, the US submarine also revealed its whereabouts, and was also "greeted" by the other side with an active attack sonar.

In an underwater confrontation, this behavior is very reckless, and can even be misfired.

More than 10 years ago, an attack nuclear submarine of the Russian Navy preemptively occupied a favorable position, caught a US submarine that was tracking a Russian strategic nuclear submarine, and "greeted" it with an active attack sonar. This move was misjudged by the commander of the US submarine, who believed that the Russian submarine was provoking. The US submarine immediately turned around and rushed towards the Russian attack nuclear submarine. Two giant steel whales collided head-on under the surface of the sea, the command platform enclosure of the US submarine was smashed to pieces, the bow of the Russian submarine was broken, and dozens of sailors on both sides were killed and wounded.

In underwater confrontation, no flags, no light signals, and no radio stations can be used, and sonar is the only means of communication.

The use of active attack sonar by submarines and the use of fire control radar by fighter jets are both very serious provocations that can easily lead to conflicts.

The mainland navy is not like Lao Maozi, it has always been relatively moderate.

This time, it used active attack sonar, and it was the first to strike, which was definitely not simple.

It was found out that the cargo ship involved in the exercise departed from Tokyo and was destined for Manila. Because it was temporarily requisitioned by the mainland navy, after entering the South China Sea, it was diverted to Guangzhou. The CIA immediately concluded that the stolen F-135-800 engine was on that freighter.

It's a pity that by the time the CIA figured it out, the engines had already been transferred to the aircraft carriers of the Continental Navy.

No matter how good the United States is, it is impossible for the United States to stop the mainland navy aircraft carrier on the high seas and ask for boarding and inspection.

These clues are enough to convince the CIA that it was the Continental Military Intelligence Agency that stole the engine.

The problem is that the CIA can't produce evidence.

Without evidence, it cannot be put on the table and put pressure on the mainland through conventional channels.

From the beginning, Turner and Rickel didn't think about solving the problem through the usual channels.

After the search and arrest operation died down, the authorities concentrated all their efforts to search and rescue the survivors on the island.

This is an even more difficult task, and those who did not have time to evacuate the island are said to be able to say that several of the living are hospitalized, and the dead are properly buried.

The key is the scientific researchers who are buried in the underground experimental base.

Because the island had completely collapsed, only a few higher places were exposed to the sea after the explosion, and the rest were submerged by the sea, and the underground experimental base was also swallowed by the sea, so when the search and rescue work began, the party did not have much hope. The scientists at the base were not killed, they were drowned.

What the authorities want is the hard work of hundreds of researchers: experimental data for the FPF project.

It takes a lot of time and a lot of trouble to train new researchers, but if everything starts again, not only will all the previous research funds be wasted, but it will take even more time.

If the experimental data can be found, the FPF project will hopefully be brought back to life.

For this reason, the authorities not only dispatched several warships to blockade the waters around the island and strictly prohibit all boats from entering, but also mobilized an underwater search and rescue force from all parts of the island, and even dispatched a frogman unit of the Navy Marine Corps to borrow several underwater probes from the US military stationed in Yue.

Unfortunately, the search operation is still difficult.

The experimental base is buried deep underground, the highest point is more than 20 meters above the surface, and the core area is about 40 meters above the surface. With all of them sinking to the bottom of the sea, digging a passage into the laboratory beneath the surface of the sea is no easy task. What's more, the explosion caused the island to collapse completely, and the underground passage of the experimental base must have been blocked, and it may not be possible to enter the laboratory and obtain vital experimental materials after entering.

At the same time, the salvage operation against the bombed freighter was carried out.

Comparatively speaking, there is much less trouble here.

Although it is also troublesome to get a 10,000-ton freighter blown in two, and it takes months to organize and mobilize equipment, it is not so difficult to fish out something useful from the ship, such as the control computer of the monitoring system.

In just two days, divers opened a gap in the freighter.

After entering the ship's hull, the frogman found the control center and the control computer, which had been badly damaged in the explosion.

It is no wonder that, for safety reasons, the control center is located in the bilge. Although the explosion site was more than 10 meters away, the power of 50 kilograms of high-energy explosives was absolutely not to be underestimated, and the debris produced by the explosion not only killed the guards in the control center, but also damaged most of the equipment by the way.

That computer wasn't spared.

The computer hard drive has been damaged, and even if the sealed case is not damaged and seawater does not enter the hard drive, it will take a lot of time to read the information on the hard drive in other ways.

It was the Intelligence Headquarters that organized the salvage work.

The attention of the outside world was focused on the search and rescue operation more than 40 kilometers away, which provided a lot of convenience for the intelligence headquarters.

Damu Ronggu has long known that the prime minister needs a reason to bargain with the president of the United States in Washington, so the salvage work on the side of the freighter is even more important.

Once the identity of the attacker is confirmed, it will be possible to figure out who is behind the scenes.

There were dozens of surveillance cameras on board the freighter, and the attackers piloted the gunboat and also used the machine guns on the gunboat, which must have been filmed by the surveillance system.

All you need to do is find a recognizable face from the surveillance footage stored on your computer's hard drive!

The Intelligence Headquarters went all out, and after getting the computer, it invited the best system recovery experts and computer hardware maintenance experts in the book.

At this time, Naoto Kanno's emergency visit to the United States was also decided.

According to the information announced by the chief of the Chief Cabinet at a press conference, after properly handling the domestic emergency, Naoto Kanno will visit the United States to discuss with the President of the United States in Washington about the purchase of F-35B fighter jets, and then go to the headquarters of the Loma company.

Naoto Kanno was accompanied by more than a dozen engineers in addition to important members of the political circles.

These people are all from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The engine theft disappointed the authorities, who removed Kawasaki Heavy Industries' dominant role in the project and replaced it with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Because Congress has not yet approved a budget for the purchase of the F-35B, Naoto Kanno will not sign the purchase contract in Washington.

The main purpose of going to Washington was to discuss retaliation for a series of intelligence security incidents.

It was also when Naoto Kanno was preparing for his visit to the United States that the Hashimoto family and the Ogata family reached an agreement on a grand alliance, and Liu Wei also returned to Yokohama.

(To be continued)