The rapid ringing of the phone woke Li Xiaofeng up, he looked at the sleeping Angelina next to him, and snapped his fingers lightly, and the noisy ringtone disappeared in an instant. He kissed his wife on the cheek, sighed and walked over to the phone.

The tinkling was the red telephone, which was not available to everyone in the Soviet Union, and of course ordinary Soviet people could not afford to consume ordinary telephones. And this bright red telephone is commonly known as the confidential telephone, generally only in . Only high-ranking officials at or above the level of central committee members will be appointed.

Li Xiaofeng picked up the earpiece and replied slowly but forcefully: "I'm Andre. Petrovich, what's the matter? ”

After a while, Li Xiaofeng put down the phone, he really didn't expect that the Battle of Midway with the addition of the Red Navy had become very different from history. During the day, the Americans did not get the Wyvern, and the devils actually chose to give it a go, and even sent the second mobile unit to die.

Of course, the most unexpected thing for Li Xiaofeng is that the luck of Kuznetsov and Sukhoi is also too rebellious, and they actually collided with the devil in the middle of the night, according to the latest information, the two sides launched a fierce battle and it is difficult to solve.

Li Xiaofeng was not too worried about the defeat of the Red Navy task force, and he had already used all means to strengthen the combat effectiveness of this fleet, especially at night. If you can't kill the devil like this, then don't mix it up early, you can't even do the devil, how can you wrestle with the more murderous US imperialists in the future.

What really made Li Xiaofeng care was Kuznetsov's first operational report, and he was curious to know what lessons the future admiral had learned. According to Li Xiaofeng's request, the report was delivered to his desk as quickly as possible.

Because it was a telegram, Kuznetsov could not have spoken at length, his report was concise, writing in the simplest words what it was like to fight on the first day. After reading this report. Li Xiaofeng smiled, Kuznetsov really did not disappoint him, and the summary of various lessons and lessons is still very pertinent.

For example, Kuznetsov emphasized the importance of reconnaissance, believing that in order to gain the upper hand in a future naval and air war, it is necessary to have more powerful and reliable reconnaissance equipment. Kuznetsov believes that today the reconnaissance equipment of the Red Navy. Whether it is a water reconnaissance aircraft or a Ro-2 on an aircraft carrier, there are problems, which are too affected by the weather and the visual range, and it is very likely that the target will be missed.

Li Xiaofeng agrees with this very much, the range of the Ro-2 is long enough, but the search target can still only be observed by the pilot with a telescope. The search range and accuracy are limited, and the food is mostly closed at night. Just imagine, if the Ro-2 could also move around and reconnoiter this night, would the Japanese not be able to detect it when they approached?

Referring to observation equipment, Kuznetsov also mentioned the problem of radar. He believes that the Red Navy's existing radar technical indicators are good, but reliability is really a problem, and from the time it goes to sea to the beginning of operations, the radars of various ships have successively had various problems, big or small, and they are so unreliable at critical moments.

In this regard, Li Xiaofeng has no good way, electronic technology needs to be accumulated, and Nokia has tried its best to improve the quality of production and technical level. The existing radar is already the best, and those problems that Kuznetsov said can only be slowly improved. It's useless to be in a hurry.

In addition to these problems, Kuznetsov also focused on the problems of the Ro-2, which he considered to be a twin-engine attack aircraft with a long range, ruggedness and high survivability, but at the same time mediocre performance. The double game makes it appear clunky, and it can't bargain in the face of the dexterous Zero.

Although Kuznetsov did not explicitly say that he wanted to get better carrier-based attack aircraft, the subtext is clear. In fact, this is not the first time that someone has reported performance problems with the Ro-2 to Li Xiaofeng. Sukhoi has mentioned it several times before. In general, the head of naval aviation was dissatisfied with the Ro-2, and even Sukhoi was dissatisfied with the Ro-2, a significant modification of the Ro-3, believing that it was still too bulky.

This time, after Kuznetsov raised the issue of Ro-2 again, Li Xiaofeng also had to pay attention. After all, he sent aircraft carriers to the Pacific Ocean to brush up on experience, and since there was a problem with the reaction of the troops, it must be solved.

In fact, since last year, Li Xiaofeng has promoted a plan to replace the Ro-2/3 aircraft, and several design bureaus have also put forward some ideas at that time. For example, Roberto. Bartini envisioned overturning the Ro-2 design entirely, abandoning the two-shot game and returning to the single-shot scheme.

Bartini wanted to replace the two VK-105 engines with one ASh-73TK piston engine, because the Ro-2 was designed because the M-100 engine was underpowered, and the other had to enlarge the fuselage in order to implement the common design of the three models. Now the ASh-73TK engine has a power of up to 2,400 horsepower, and it is a star-shaped air-cooled engine, which is quite good for maintenance and damage bearing.

Bartini has built a prototype of the Ro-4 based on the ASh-73TK engine, and although the maximum range and maximum bomb load are smaller than those of the Ro-2, the flight performance is greatly improved.

However, Li Xiaofeng is not optimistic about this plan, the reason is very simple, ASh-73TK was prepared by Arksnis for the new four-engine bomber, and now the progress on Tupolev's side is also very large, and it will probably be tested in the second half of the year, and it is likely to be put into production in 1944. And at this time, even the ASh-82 engine is in short supply, and how can Bartiny's Ro-4 and the Navy's saltwater chicken be able to grab the Air Force?

From 1943 onwards, naval and air warfare in the Pacific became more and more brutal day by day, and new carrier-based attack aircraft had to be put into service in large numbers in 1944. And Bartigni's plan looks so hanging!

In addition to Bartini, three other design bureaus also came up with new plans, and Mikoyan, who had been frustrated repeatedly, built a twin-engine, liquid-cooled MiG-4, using Rolls-Royce's Merlin 20 engine. On the whole, this is an improved version of the Ro-2, neither the Navy nor Li Xiaofeng wants a stupid duck with two engines, and the Merlin 20 engine is still purely British, based on the future relationship with the UK, it is unlikely to use British goods on important carrier-based aircraft.

After Mikoyan was PASSED again. Yakovlev came out again, and he came up with a design plan for the Yak-4, but the plan was also a double release, and it was clear that it didn't work at the beginning.

What really caught Li Xiaofeng's eye was the Su-5 of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. This plan is really unforgettable, not that this plan is amazing, in fact, the attack aircraft designed by Sukhoi can only be described in one word - ugly!

And it's surprisingly ugly. It can even be said that it is the ugliest flying machine ever built in the USSR. This chubby, round plane looks so clumsy, all in all, the Su-5 has been ridiculed and ridiculed since its birth. There are even quite a few people who say that this design of Sukhoi will never be on the aircraft carrier of the Red Navy.

However, Li Xiaofeng does not think so, objectively speaking, Sukhoi's design is indeed ugly. But this ugly duckling-like plane is not imbecile. Through test flights, it was found that the Su-5 has a very good speed (510 kilometers per hour), and the dive performance and low-altitude performance are also quite good, and the roll is an order of magnitude higher than that of the Ro-2, and the division of labor of the three members can also be seamlessly connected with the Ro-2.

More critically. From the very beginning, the Su-5 was much more versatile than the Ro-2, and from the very beginning the aircraft considered the issue of installing a sea search radar. In front of the belly bomb compartment there is a protruding nodule radar compartment, which can be installed with Nokia's latest sea search radar. In addition, the main purpose of Nokia's development of this small sea-to-sea radar is anti-submarine, which can effectively detect submarine ventilation pipes within 20 kilometers, periscopes within 10 kilometers, or frigates within 100 kilometers.

In short, if the Su-5 can be put into service, the Red Navy's aviation and sea control capability will be greatly enhanced, and the aircraft will integrate four functions: dive bombing, low-altitude torpedo attack, aerial reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare. A veritable all-rounder.

In fact, when Li Xiaofeng saw the ugly Su-5, he couldn't help but think of another equally ugly carrier-based aircraft in history -- the gannet anti-submarine aircraft. The ugly performance of Niu Niu's design is actually quite good. And the Su-5 is exactly that.

In fact, the Su-5 is larger than the gannet in appearance, and the other sincerity is very similar, so it can be said that the Su-5 is a gannet that is one size bigger. In particular, it should be noted that the engine used in the Su-5 is actually the Soviet version of the Gannet.

Gannets use Armstrong. The Sedre twin-shaft turboprop engine, which began to be developed in 1935 but was not developed until 1948 due to World War II interference, has a power of 2,950 horsepower. And now how many VK-2s are used by the Ro-105? It is only 1200 horsepower, and the VK-107 is only 1650 horsepower (and because of process problems, it is generally not reached, and it has to be reduced). It can be said that an Armstrong. The Sedre twin-shaft Mark 100 turboprop engine can withstand two VK-105 series. And this greatly guarantees that the flight performance of the Su-5 will not be too far worse than that of the Ro-2.

Of course, with Armstrong. The most important thing about the Sedre twin-shaft turboprop engine is not that it is full of power. What's more critical is that it's a jet engine. Yes, comrades, you read that right, this is indeed a jet engine. Because there are always some comrades who think it's a piston machine when they see the propeller, isn't this nonsense? Jet engines are not only turbojets and turbofans, turboshaft engines, turboprop engines and propeller engines are also jet engines!

What are the benefits of using a turboshaft engine? Naturally, the power-to-weight ratio is higher, simply put, the ratio of engine weight to power, and it is difficult for the general piston engine to exceed four, that is, the greater its power, the heavier the engine. In contrast, the power-to-weight ratio of jet engines is generally more than five, and compared with piston engines, even if the power of the two is the same, but the weight is much lighter.

The Su-5 uses the Armstrong copy of the reverse mapping that Li Xiaofeng handed over to the Rurika Design Bureau. The Sedri twin-shaft turboprop engine with a maximum power of 3000 hp and the designation AL-1 was designated.

Comrades who may have bright eyes soon found out, what does a twin-shaft turboprop mean? To put it simply, this turboprop engine can actually be regarded as two independent engines, which can be linked by the reducer or work separately. This engine will drive two sets of reversed propellers, which has the advantage of eliminating the strong longitudinal torque brought by the high-power engine, which greatly facilitates the flight control of the aircraft. In economy cruises, one engine can be parked. Even if one engine fails, the aircraft will not face the difficult maneuvering problems caused by the traditional twin-engine layout, and there will be no danger of a single engine running out at once.

The nose of the Su-5 was a conical hubcap. Equipped with 2 sets of twin reversing propellers with 4 blades each. The wing is a typical gull-shaped medium monoplane, with its inner wing reversing downwards and outer wings reversing upwards, and a three-stage folding method is adopted to accommodate the width of the aircraft carrier lift and the height of the hangar. Due to the fact that the search radar compartment in the lower part of the fuselage led to lateral instability, Sukhoi increased a certain tail height. Fortunately, the aircraft carriers of the Red Navy are all going to be large, and the hangar has also been deliberately raised in the renovation of the old aircraft carrier, so there is no problem in using it.

All in all, judging by the test flights of the first stage, the Su-5, in addition to being ugly, is fully able to meet the needs of the Red Navy in the next five years and can be put into production. So why didn't Li Xiaofeng immediately agree to the Su-5 to be put into production?

The reason lies in her engine, it is the twin-shaft turboprop engine that made the Su-5, but it is also this engine that hinders her production. Turboprop engines are more demanding and more expensive than piston engines. For the Red Navy, small money is still relatively tight. Naturally, think twice.

And the technical difficulty of the turboprop engine is also one of the concerns, can the Rurika Design Bureau guarantee that there are really no problems with this new engine? Even if it can, can the manufacturer complete the production in batches? Moreover, with the current wartime state of the Soviet Union, it is difficult to put on a completely new production line.

If these problems are not solved, the Su-5 will not play at all. But now things have taken a turn for the better, and the Navy is no longer satisfied with the Ro-2 and has the willingness to change its outfit. And for the time being, the only one that can meet the needs is the Su-5. With the push of the Red Navy, the Su-5 should be able to fight for a decent priority. Be able to drive that engine production line.

Of course, it is unrealistic to drive a production line only by relying on the Su-5 model, Li Xiaofeng's idea is. Is it not impossible for the army to help, and it is not impossible to change the turboprop engine to a turboshaft engine. It is also feasible to use one core aircraft and two sets of products for the helicopters of the Army Airlines.

Soon Li Xiaofeng made this suggestion to the Navy and the Army, and soon the Navy and the Army responded, it is normal for the former to be interested, why is the Army also interesting? This also starts with the Army's new generation of utility helicopters. Sikorsky and Miri developed larger, heavier, and longer-range utility helicopters in accordance with the Army's requirements, but they found that they could not meet the Army's demanding requirements. The reason is that the power-to-weight ratio of the piston engine is too low, the power has gone up, and the volume and weight of the engine have also risen in a straight line, resulting in the helicopter falling into a strange circle of adding more water and more water. The power-to-weight ratio of a jet engine is a cut higher. Judging from the power-to-weight ratio of the current AL-1 engine, it can really meet the demanding requirements of the army.

And the Navy also promised that it would not need much investment from the Army in the early stage, as long as the Army could support them in this model. In the eyes of the Army, such a request is really given for nothing, so why not do it?

Soon the development of the Su-5 was on the fast track, but before the Su-5 was finalized, the Navy put forward new requirements, and they asked for the Su-5 to be carefully divided into two models. One is a dive-bombing/torpedo attack version, and the other is a reconnaissance/anti-submarine version. The former is called Su-5A, and the latter is called Su-5B.

So what is the difference between the Su-5A and the Su-5B? The Su-5A has eliminated the radar compartment under the belly, and after eliminating this external protrusion and reducing the vertical tail height, its maximum speed has increased to 560 kilometers per hour, which can be said to be faster than some models of the Zero War. Not only is it faster, but the dive performance has also been improved a lot. The Su-5B, on the other hand, retains a radar compartment, the main functions of which are reconnaissance and anti-submarine.

The most important reason why the Red Navy wants to turn the Su-5 into a highly common signal for two parts, in addition to optimizing the dive and lightning strike capabilities, is that the Su-5B is too expensive, and that deadly search radar is really expensive. And in the opinion of the Red Navy, not every Su-5 needs such a radar. Later, on the large aircraft carriers of the Red Navy, the ratio of fighters, attack aircraft, and anti-submarine/reconnaissance aircraft became 48 - 36 - 24 (this is the configuration of the Leningrad class and the Kiev class). The larger Type 42 aircraft carrier is generally 48 Yak-3K, 40 Su-5A, and 24 Su-5B, which can be loaded so much mainly because of the small size of the Yak-3K, and the Su-5 is also much smaller than the Ro-2), generally speaking, the Su-5A only undertakes dive bombing missions, and the Su-5B is mainly used for lightning strikes and anti-submarine in addition to part-time reconnaissance.

Of course, this equipment was not available until mid-1944, and in the early morning of June 5, 1943, the Red Navy could only fight with the old equipment. Thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, just as Li Xiaofeng was planning the selection of the Red Navy's future carrier-based attack aircraft, the Red Navy's four battle cruisers finally arrived on the battlefield. The British and German Battlecruisers faced each other again after World War I...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to the Rider King, Admiral Hood, Baby Panda, Sweet Potato in the Melon Field, Mending Knife King and Comrade Juventus!