Once at Paton Forest, the modern aircraft factory was hidden in the middle of nowhere, with only two roads leading to the farm, one to the outside world and the other to the 27th Defense Division. In order to build this cooperative factory, the Lorraine people and the Star Group invested a huge amount of more than 15,000 gold crowns. You must know that the construction of the first free Lorraine Canal was less than 10,000 gold crowns, which shows how expensive the current high-end technology research and development and production equipment is.

In the past year, more than 50 engineers and technicians and more than 1,000 workers have moved here with their families, giving this aircraft factory a real soul and vitality hidden deep in the forest. Nowadays, in its spacious and grand manufacturing workshop, there are planes being assembled one after another, and at a glance they are full of modern metal structure, which is also the first all-metal bomber/transport aircraft production line in the Federation, and the current production is mainly twin-engine N-series military transport/bomber.

Prior to this, only the Federal Army had an all-metal model of fighter aircraft, whether it was a bomber or a transport aircraft, usually a combination of metal skeleton and textile skin. By the time Weiss and Nikolai arrived, the new weapons that the Star Group had purchased from the Grumman Group had arrived, but they were not as sleek as they had been imagined, but rather very simple framed guns, as if they were installed in a metal frame and the corresponding restriction device. They come in a group of two guns, and judging by their size and form, they can indeed be loaded with heavy aircraft. In Weiss's memory, the people of the old time and space also tried to combine aircraft and artillery. During World War II, attack aircraft equipped with small-caliber artillery played the role of "can opener" for ground armored combat vehicles, and in the post-war years, the most successful was the C-130 fire support aircraft, which was not only well-known to military enthusiasts, but also a "frequent visitor" on the screen.

Before the guidance technology matured, artillery did have advantages in terms of speed and accuracy that ordinary bombs could not match, which is why flying ships generally used artillery instead of bombs as their main weapon. In fact, in the early days of the rise of flying ships, experts have conducted a lot of research on these two main attack methods, and theory and practice have shown that artillery is more destructive and deterrent than bombs, and the weapons carried by attack aircraft are the opposite of flying ships - in the previous war, the Union army used bomb-carrying attack aircraft to defeat the Norman flying fleet, and in the case of limited body sturdiness and load, The use of bombs is also the only effective way for aircraft to launch attacks on behemoths such as flying ships. Now, the maturity of artificial star source stone technology, coupled with the potential increase in star source stone production, makes people see a bright future to break the original limitations.

In the factory's design room, Weiss saw a wooden model that he had never seen before, which Nikolai called a "flying gunboat". Judging by its exterior profiles, it is still a conventional aerodynamic aircraft: the wide wing is equipped with four piston engines, the propellers are three-bladed layout, and the tail is a traditional vertical tail. Compared with the previous aircraft, its biggest special feature is that there is a twin-mounted gun turret in parallel on the left and right in the middle of the fuselage - it can be regarded as an enlarged twin-mounted machine gun turret, their horizontal firing range covers the rear hemisphere of the aircraft, the vertical firing range is close to 300 degrees, and it can also fire at forward and forward and downward targets.

Seeing this model, Weiss's first question to Nikolai was, "What is their position?" ”

The tacit understanding formed by the long cooperation allowed Nikolai to grasp his intention in asking this question in the first place, so he replied straight to the point that they could be used as air cavalry on the battlefield, raiding and ambushing enemy flying ships, and also dealing with ground targets. These 15-PIR airborne guns are equipped with three conventional munitions, one for ship-attack armor-piercing, one for ground-attack high-explosive shells, and one for anti-air combat shotguns. In tests, the gun could penetrate the armor of any aircraft at a distance of 3,000 feet, including the kind used by the enemy in wartime, and in the case of high-explosive shells, it could attack air and ground targets from 2-30,000 feet away. Although the accuracy in flight is not as good as that of a flying battleship's guns, its carrier moves very fast and is able to give full play to the advantages of efficient maneuvering.

Air cavalry on the battlefield! Weiss repeated the concept, bracing his cheeks in thought. When it comes to attack combat aircraft, he used to think of dive bombers with mature concepts, and tried to explore in the direction of aerial torpedo planes. During the war, the Normans used aerial torpedoes to inflict heavy damage on the flying fleets of Wessex and the Federation, but this novel weapon had many limitations, the first of which was that it had to be used on flying warships, because the artificial star source stone parts had to be pressurized and heated before launch, and secondly, the current navigation technology could only ensure the inertial flight attitude of the aerial torpedoes, and could not deal with flexible targets at all. Before the advent of guidance technology, aerial torpedoes could only be used as high-powered slow artillery, and could not play the role of rockets or missiles, while medium-caliber aerial artillery undoubtedly made up for the gap between bombs and machine guns and machine guns......

"What does the Supreme Military-Technical Council say about this weapon?" Weiss then asked a very direct and important question about the prospects for the use of this weapon.

"From what we know so far, it's very optimistic." Nikolai replied calmly, "The most important thing is that this effect is equivalent to that of a light or ultra-light flying ship, and the aircraft has been freed from the dependence on the Star Source Stone. In fact, after the breakthrough in the artificial star source stone technology, the military technical committee has been carefully considering the backup plan for strategic adjustment. They have two options, one is to build a large number of heavy aircraft that combine the aerodynamic principle and artificial star source stone technology, and the other is to use artificial star source stone technology to build more flying warships, but I think the floating performance of artificial star source stone restricts this path - in addition to the low unit float force, we are worried that the fierce artillery battle will affect the stability of artificial star source stone, so the flying battleship built by relying on artificial star source stone is equivalent to the defective product of conventional flying ships. ”

From Nikolai's words, Weiss heard some information, that is, the artificial star source stone is still a little worse than the real star source stone in terms of performance and stability, but these involve high-level secrets, so it is not convenient to ask her more.

"Also, we've been talking a lot about things in the north lately." Nikolai did not specify who she was talking to, maybe it was the experts who worked with her on the artificial star source stones, maybe the members of the Supreme Military Technical Council, these are not important, the important thing is that they found another interesting paradox, that is, if what is found in the north is really the remains of a spaceship, or a part of a spaceship, and it is relatively complete, then the scientific and technological information it carries is far more valuable than the star source stone material it contains. But the Wessex people are now trying their best to transform it into a star source stone resource, and bargain over the distribution of star source stone resources, rather than exploring the advanced technology of a higher civilization - it will take a lot of time and energy to analyze that ancient and advanced civilization, and perhaps it will be possible to make substantial progress in the promising years by gathering the high-end talents of the entire planet Orens. From this point of view, the Wessex people may have found only a stellar source stone deposit in the north, which was rendered as a so-called spaceship relic for some ulterior purpose...... For example, using a certain amount of Star Source Stone resources to trick the Federation into changing its strategic deployment, regrouping the route of armament development into flying ships, and abandoning their dominant flying technology.

After hearing what Nikolai said, Weiss nodded: "The direction we have been thinking about recently coincides, and it is also for this purpose that we sent you a telegram to invite you to come. We intend to maintain the scale and momentum of mechanical technology through a national competition, rather than replacing engine-powered machinery with the expected explosion of flying ships, even for a month. ”

"Anyway, what do you think about this?" Nikolai asked rhetorically.

Because of the tacit understanding, Weiss knew that she was referring to the model of the heavy flying machine next to her. In terms of the way it operates with artillery and artillery attacks, it might be more appropriate to call it a flying gunboat.

"In terms of attack, it is impeccable and has good dynamics, the only weakness is that the defense is too weak, especially the propeller engine, which can easily be damaged or destroyed by artillery fire, which is still not comparable to light flying ships. However, I think there are no absolutes in everything, and if we want to pursue a balance of firepower, speed, and protection, it will inevitably lead to a larger body. Maybe...... Considering the complexity of the battlefield, we can modularize the combination of aircraft and artillery to form several extended models. For example, the twin gravity guns in front of you are located on both sides of the fuselage, which is a heavy combat type; If a twin-mounted flat column is mounted on the rear half of the fuselage, this is a ground attack type; Carrying one on the back of the aircraft is an anti-aircraft combat type. There are also the camouflage combat type with artillery, in fact, with heavy bombs, and the command type with high-power communication equipment. In this way, a formation of several types of aircraft is like a flying fleet, with different roles and different uses, making it unpredictable for the enemy. Compared to the attack aircraft we used in the last war, the biggest advantage of the aircraft equipped with artillery is that the attack range has been increased, just like the difference between infantry with swords and archers with bows and crossbows in the era of cold weapons. If an army only has sword infantry, it is difficult to reduce damage in engagement, but if sword infantry is combined with archers, or only archers are used under certain conditions, casualties can be much reduced. ”

Nikolai nodded incessantly and complimented, "I knew it was right to bring you." Of course, you also have a stake in this factory, so it makes sense for you to be involved in this important R&D project. ”

"Why here, and not your home base?" Weiss expressed his curiosity. Although the equipment of this cooperative factory is the most advanced, after all, it has just opened, and its R&D capabilities are far from being comparable to the main bases and research centers of the Star Group in the east. According to normal logic, the design of high confidentiality and high value should be completed by the main factory, and then produced by the branch factory and the cooperative factory.

Nikolai frowned, did not answer immediately, but offered to go to the lounge for a cup of tea. After sitting down and pouring the tea, she asked the staff to leave the lounge and close the door, then she lowered her voice and said: "The situation in the east has not been ideal recently, there are a large number of suspicious people moving, and the theft of data has happened more than once. ”

Weiss didn't have a clear idea of the situation in the East, but remembered that before Brooks was transferred to the East, he also mentioned that the Normans seemed to be brewing a new route of attack, which was to attack the eastern part of the Federation through the furious sea of harsh weather conditions. In the Norman style, since they were planning to attack the east, they would certainly launch a large number of intelligence operations in advance, just as they had done in the west and north of the Union. Because of the changed environment, Star Group has shifted the focus of its research to this relatively inconspicuous cooperative factory, which is a wise move, but it also means that Lorraine must make a lot of efforts to do a good job of security.

Weiss drank tea and thought about security. Assuming that you are a Norman, how to start to spy on the information here, from this point of view, you will find that the environment here is not as safe as it was before. Adjacent to the barracks, far from the living quarters, it gives people a kind of ideological paralysis. Once the Normans wanted to do something, they could take advantage of that.

As a good friend of Weiss, Nikolai looked at his worried look and unsurprisingly guessed his thoughts. She proposed, "Well, let's divide the work." I'll take care of the technical part, and you provide good ideas; How about you being in charge of improving the security system, and I provide advice and the necessary financial support? ”

Wei Sizan said: "Just what I want! ”