To the northeast of Yandu, the training base of a certain group army is surrounded by heavily armed soldiers with loaded guns, armored vehicles are stationed at various intersections, and helicopters patrol in the air.

Even though the sky is very cloudy, the shooting range and cross-country range in the base still pull tarpaulins to strictly cover the situation on the ground and prevent reconnaissance satellites from prying eyes.

"Before the Lantern Festival, I pulled everyone over, I hope everyone will not be resentful. If you have grievances, bear with it first, the base canteen prepared rice balls in advance, and when it came to the meal, eat rice balls to dispel your anger......"

The director of the National Equipment Development Committee, an admiral, as the nominal host, made a very life-like opening remarks, which made hundreds of people at the scene laugh.

Who will complain? Most of the twenty or thirty units present have been busy tossing for more than half a year for this project, and almost all of them want to get it done before the Lantern Festival. You must know that the result of this plan discussion is almost equivalent to the result of the bidding.

The general then talked about the development situation of international military technology, that is, to cheer everyone up, emphasize the importance of this project, and then replace Jiang Yaohua, deputy director in charge of this project. This is a lieutenant general of the army, who has led soldiers and fought in battles, and has come up from the grassroots infantry in a down-to-earth manner, so he naturally has a deep grasp of the needs of the army in this project.

Shang Weidong sat in an inconspicuous position in the judges' seat, but seeing the people around him talking to him from time to time, he knew that his status in the jury was not low.

Occasionally, Shang Weidong's eyes also fell on the less conspicuous position in the crowd, and Xia Ming's small team sat there, occasionally catching Shang Weidong's gaze, Xia Ming responded with a calm smile.

Jiang Yaohua was very simple: "This is the army, don't compare those bells and whistles PPT with eloquence, go straight to the real guy!" ”

Including Xia Ming, hundreds of people applauded together, refreshing!

Jiang Yaohua announced the process of the seminar. The most important thing is, of course, the actual demonstration, followed by the technical explanation, and finally the Q&A.

The actual demonstration is divided into three items, one is the sports demonstration, which is to compete with the weight-bearing capacity, mobility and flexibility of each power armor, and also show the continuity of the operation. This is the most important link for power armor at this stage of the military, and only when this link is mature will the next stage of practical model research and development be launched.

The second is the combat performance demonstration, allowing each company to show the performance of power armor in combat, and the military itself has no mature ideas on this. It depends on what each family understands in terms of power armor's combat capabilities.

The third is the maintenance demonstration, which is secondary, and the power armor is still in the proof-of-concept stage, which is still far from the formation of actual combat effectiveness, and it is not time to put forward requirements for reliability. However, the military still wants to see what brains and ideas each has in this regard, as a reference for setting indicators in the future.

Of the 27 units on the list, one has declined now, of course, the composition of the list has undergone some changes, and there is more than one "backdoor listing" like Xia Ming. After qualifying. Many units have carried out resource integration, and of course, like Xia Ming, through various channels, confirmed the participation rights of new units.

The first demonstration took place at the obstacle crossing training ground for tanks and armored vehicles at the base. It seems that the military is also very realistic, and does not expect power armor to be as agile as infantry.

The power armor of each unit was uniformly pulled into the place by the military, and the leader of the two power armors on Xia Ming's side was still Lieutenant Liu Zhen.

He instructed his men to put the armor in place and see if the other units had removed the crates. The power armor that revealed its true face couldn't help but let out a snort, just like his subordinates. The eyes were full of contempt.

He said to Xia Ming: "Mr. Xia, we can't win, I'll write the word Liu upside down!" ”

Xia Ming has been with these officers and soldiers for so long, and he has already become acquainted, and said with a smile: "Don't be too complacent, each family always has its own ......."

Seeing that the power armor of a unit was completely strengthened by strengthening the exoskeleton, and the computer and battery box behind it were huge, Xia Ming shut up.

XGPA also unpacked, but at this time, among the dozens of power armors of all kinds, it is not very inconspicuous, because it is only a skeleton, and there is no armor and helmet.

Jiang Yaohua and Shang Weidong and more than a dozen judges walked between the machines, and when they arrived at XGPA, Jiang Yaohua touched the seemingly ordinary skeleton and looked at Shang Weidong, who smiled and whispered: "Just know when you move." ”

"Well, I hope it can be the fourth alternative", Jiang Yaohua said, although his voice was extremely low, he couldn't escape Xia Ming's senses.

Is it just such a hope?

Xia Ming felt that there was no pressure, but in this way, how much pressure the first three families would have, it was not his pot.

By the time all the power armor has shown its face and has not yet moved, in the eyes of the jury, at least half of it will already be out.

Even Xia Ming can see that the focus is not on beauty and ugliness, those that are too light, at first glance, they don't understand the concept of power armor at all, they just strengthen the power exoskeleton, and even the plans of the two units don't even have a foot seat structure, which is not even up to the standard of the overall exoskeleton, and I don't know how it got into the list. And those that are too heavy, the overall design is problematic, and the structure must be strengthened in all aspects to move.

All joints are hydraulic, and they are certainly not up to par, the response is too sluggish, and the reliability is too poor. There are also two solutions like Yi Liyan's previous medical-assisted exoskeleton, using an inflatable bag and an auxiliary motor for assistance, which is not an option that the military will consider.

Of course, there is no lack of advanced design in the scheme, for example, a certain unit actually uses a frontal joint scheme (the movable joints of the exoskeleton wrap around the human joints) instead of the mainstream side joint scheme (the movable joints of the exoskeleton are separated from the human joints and exposed on the sides of the human joints). Not to mention the difficulty of setting up the drive device, this structure requires that the size of the man and machine is completely suitable, and it almost can't move, and the military will definitely not be able to accept the customized power armor for each soldier.

In the distant future, this idea may become mainstream, just like Lin Cheng's vision of power armor equal to combat robots. And now, Xia Ming can only mourn in silence for their courage that is too advanced.

According to the opinion of the jury, these unreliable plans will be a sports demonstration first, which can be regarded as a formality. So in the training ground, I saw scenes that I couldn't bear to witness.

The next batch is a slightly more reliable plan, but compared with the international advanced level, it is obviously far behind. It's not that the movement is too mechanical. It is that there is no technical strength to solve a certain defect at all, and it is just used as a technical demonstration, hoping to participate in the final plan.

For example, the power armor of a certain unit, which weighs at least 100 kilograms as a whole, is completely unloaded with batteries, and is dragged into battle with cables. The movement is still decent, although the rhythm and posture remind Xia Ming of the dwarf stone statue in WOW.

XGPA was placed at the end of this batch, which is also a special treatment for a new unit.

Hundreds of people looked at a lame old man, walking on crutches to a mecha. The soldier supported the mecha and took the first step in less than three minutes.

"Whose plan is this?"

"It's so fast!? It's completely worth fighting! ”

"Is it a disabled operation? There is technology! Got an idea! ”

The judges whispered, their eyes full of surprise.

This XGPA strides forward like a leap, barely feeling mechanical between steps, and the dust kicked up under your feet gives the illusion of actually running on the battlefield.

Then there was a burst of exclamations from the crowd, and the mech, as it increased its speed to almost 30 kilometers, suddenly turned sideways and stepped on a large cloud of dust. Running to the side, without the slightest pause, has exceeded the limits of human movement.

This lame old man is, of course, Lao Hong, and he has been quite slippery playing XGPA. A lot of the tactical moves were only available after he gave a demonstration to XGPA.

This is not the only XGPA, Xia Ming also put on his mecha and followed. Let Lao Hong demonstrate the operation of the disabled, and he will demonstrate the operation of normal people, reflecting each other. That's what makes it convincing.

Walk, run, jump, turn. Squatting, and even crawling, except for more agile rolling, prostration, and other movements, the two XGPA demonstrated almost all tactical movements. According to the analysis of the computer, the XGPA can reach a top speed of 30 kilometers, and the delay of all actions is no more than 0.2 seconds, which has reached or even surpassed the old American XOS-4 and HUAF power armor.

However, in the follow-up weight and handling demonstrations, the XGPA's performance was not very outstanding, and the limit of both indicators was 60 kg. In this regard, it is not that Xia Ming and Yi Liqing are clumsy, XGPA can only go so far. With the armor module, these two indicators will be reduced by 20 kg. This is because the transmission of the XGPA is completed by a combined motor unit, which is quite precise, and the power and torque are still somewhat defective.

However, in Xia Ming's view, the military uses power armor to fight, not as a mule. In terms of load bearing and handling, as long as it meets the needs of the operation, there is no need to pursue a single soldier to carry hundreds of kilograms.

After the demonstration of the two XGPAs, Jiang Yaohua also found Xia Ming and asked the question of power consumption, Xia Ming said that if it is equipped with a standard battery board, it can exercise at high intensity for an hour and a half, and if half of the weight is used to install the battery board, it can be extended to four hours.

"There's still not enough time......"

Jiang Yaohua has some regrets, but he also knows that even Lao Mei is facing this big problem. The energy density that batteries can provide is so large that it has to wait for a breakthrough in battery technology, which is actually a major threshold for the entire scientific and technological field to be broken through.

XGPA's performance shocked everyone present, and even the units doing the demonstration later asked to pause, they had to adjust the demonstration plan, otherwise compared with XGPA, it would be a bit like a product of the Stone Age.

In 2020, Yanling Institute and Shanying Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. don't care too much, in the eyes of these three companies, today's plan discussion meeting is just a formality. Only the three of them in China have a complete and mature power exoskeleton and even power armor technology. The purpose of convening other units is to hope that these units will show their characteristics in certain subsystems, so that the military can do subsequent resource integration.

They are not very surprised by the performance of XGPA, they all know that the technical background of XGPA is the Yanda Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, relying on advanced artificial intelligence to make the movement system more coordinated, which is only one advantage.

However, the deputy director of the Yanling Research Institute, surnamed Gu, was the chief designer who had talked to Xia Ming on the phone, and he still found Xia Ming and expressed his desire to join forces with XGPA.

"Our overall design and electromechanical system, coupled with your motion control system, will definitely come out with a solution that will definitely exceed 2020 and Shanying Heavy Industries!"

Director Gu said eagerly: "You also know that the operation and control of the 2020 Institute is self-contained, and it will definitely not accept outsiders. Shanying is a commercial company and does not want outsiders to share the benefits. ”

Xia Ming thought to himself, you are only sending thighs now, it's too late, we are already thighs ourselves.

"Our strength is not only motion control, so wait and see," he says with a smile. ”

The demonstrations of these three seed units can only be said to be decent, far from being comparable to the flexible XGPA. However, the indicators, especially in terms of load and handling, are quite good.

As for the other units, even after adjusting the demo scheme, it still looks lackluster, and they are only trying to prove that their scheme is still a power armor and not a simple power exoskeleton.

After a short break, the second demonstration was carried out and the venue was moved to the shooting range.

XGPA was the first to appear, and this was an adjustment made by Jiang Yaohua.

The well-prepared XGPA stepped into the shooting range, and the camera transmitted the image of the XGPA to the eyes of the audience hiding in the protective bunker, and hundreds of people suddenly burst into a buzzing discussion.

The XGPA, which was unveiled in the first session, only had a skeleton, and now, not only is it fully armored with a module, but even the helmet is fully protected, and there is not even a mask.

Looking at this armor painted in matte army green, with a red five-star armor printed on the back of the helmet, the torso and limbs are thick and powerful, and the tight concave waist makes it look not a stiff machine, but indeed a human, and the armor lines of the upper and lower legs are also tight and smooth, full of harmonious and violent beauty. It is not public, but also full of oppression, and full of high-tech flavor.

"This TM is power armor!"

A major general took off his hat and waved it vigorously. (To be continued.) )