In 1975, China established diplomatic relations with the European Community, opening a chapter of mutual benefit and win-win results. The establishment of this diplomatic relationship has set off an upsurge of cooperation with China in Western European countries.
Although the technological level of China's leading industry has developed by leaps and bounds in recent years, the fact that the EU embargoes on China still exists.
China signed a ** agreement with the European Community and formally established the China-EU Economic and Trade Mixed Committee. At this time, Sino-US relations are in a honeymoon period, and the advanced military equipment of the Western world is in front of our country, waiting for us to improve the overall military level.
We seized this opportunity to import a large amount of military equipment from the West, including the British "Simberlin" counter-battery radar and L7-105 mm rifled guns that played a role in the counterattack against Vietnam, the French "Tavitak" tactical data link and T100C-100 mm naval guns, as well as numerous fighter fire control anti-aircraft missiles, ** and sea search radars.
These pieces of equipment have played an important role in our armed forces and have significantly enhanced our military strength.
During that period, in the name of technical cooperation or people-to-people exchanges, the developed countries of the West provided China with a large amount of advanced technology, which greatly enhanced China's military strength.
However, when China was ready to introduce better and more important high-end equipment, Sino-US relations suddenly broke down, and the Western world imposed an embargo on China. This move made China's military industry development severely limited in the next ten years, and it could only turn to Russia's military industrial system, which also opened a new chapter in the cooperation between China and Russia.
Looking back on the past, China cooperated with Russia to introduce the Su-27 Flanker, which set an example for cooperation between the two sides. In the previous embargo period, those equipment that was once crucial to China now seems to be insignificant.
However, these historical events have undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for the future development of our country.
In 1979, the Chinese delegation visited the UK, raised the need to design advanced destroyers, and expressed interest in the purchase of entire destroyers. Britain welcomed this and proposed three designs for China's then Type 055 destroyer program.
Britain even sent Type 42 destroyers to Shanghai in person to sell their technology and equipment to China.
China has shown a strong interest in the Type 42 destroyer with a full load displacement of nearly 5,000 tons, and the ship is equipped with modern fire control naval guns"Sea Javelin"Anti-aircraft missiles,"Harpoon"Anti-ship missiles and"Bobcat"If advanced equipment such as anti-submarine equipment is introduced and absorbed, it will undoubtedly greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of China's navy and improve the performance of China's carriers.
However, the British side's asking price was too high, which led to a dispute between our country and the British side over the purchase amount, which eventually led to the shelving of the plan. In the ensuing Falklands War, Type 42 destroyers"Sheffield"The overall poor performance of the ship dealt a serious blow to our country's enthusiasm for the purchase of British Type 42 destroyers, which completely abandoned this plan.
In order to improve the ability of our army to respond to high-altitude and high-speed targets of the Soviet Navy, our country decided to improve the old Type 051 destroyers. It was planned to install the Sea Javelin anti-aircraft missile with area air defense, this modification was planned to be named 851, and the improved destroyer was called 051S.
If this British medium- and long-range, medium-altitude shipborne anti-aircraft missile can be introduced, our army will have a maximum air defense distance of 70 kilometers, a maximum air defense altitude of about 22,000 meters, and a maximum speed of 3The semi-active radar-guided anti-aircraft missile of Mach 5 has significantly improved the air defense capability of our army.
In the Falklands War, the Sea Javelin supersonic anti-aircraft missile did not perform as well as it could have been. This problem was exposed by its slow reaction in the face of fast-skimming anti-ship missiles.
Our country made a request to the UK to improve the performance of the Sea Javelin and introduce it at a reduced price, but they were all refused. In addition, the country is also actively developing regional anti-aircraft missiles, so the program for the introduction of the Sea Javelin and the Type 42 destroyer was forced to be shelved.
The 50 sets of Sea Javelin anti-aircraft missiles originally planned to be introduced have not been heard from since. The development of zone anti-aircraft missiles in the Navy of our country did not make significant progress until the introduction of Russian modern-class destroyers in the 90s.
When the Chinese Navy proposed the 051S program, the British were willing to provide gas turbines for ships to help the Chinese Navy improve or design new warships. This coincided with the urgent need for a reliable, advanced Western gas turbine for the Chinese Navy at the time.
Due to the backwardness of China's ship engine technology at that time, most ships suffered from substandard power and low service life, taking the 053 missile frigate as an example, the output power of the 18VE390ZC diesel engine used was only 8824 kilowatts, which was much lower than that of Western gas turbines of the same era.
Therefore, the British proposal provided an excellent opportunity for the Chinese Navy to improve the performance of the ship.
In the face of the proposal put forward by the United Kingdom, China quickly organized relevant departments to conduct investigations. In the course of the investigation, Chinese experts put forward a bold idea, that is, the United Kingdom, as the first country to use ship-class gas turbines, its Olympus series of gas turbines have been used on many ships of the Royal Navy for nearly 10 years, and the technology has been quite mature and can be directly introduced.
This idea could greatly reduce the difficulty of developing the Type 055 missile destroyer, which was still on the design bill at that time. However, due to the poor performance of the Type 42 destroyers in the Falklands War, our country finally abandoned the plan to introduce British destroyers, which led to the British company Rolls-Royce to arbitrarily increase the price of the gas turbine power system alone.
The decision to dismount the 055 large missile destroyer project and abandon the introduction of Olympus gas turbines made China lack foreign exchange reserves and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the State Machinery Commission made this decision after weighing it again and again.
This decision has made China pay the price for more than 10 years in terms of ship power systems, and it is unable to independently master the core technology, so it can only purchase LM2500 gas turbines under the constraints of General Motors of the United States, which is really a sigh.
In the face of the tremendous pressure of the armored clusters of the northern powers, our country urgently needs an advanced main battle tank to deal with it. At this time, Germany, which had just sent our first Hall anti-tank missile, became our first choice.
The German ironclad beast - Leopard 2A4 of the U2500 gas turbine has become an important supplement to our first team.
After the Chinese delegation went to Germany to inspect the Leopard 2A4 tank, they were amazed by the excellent performance of this German ironclad beast carefully built by Klaus Maffei.
The performance of the German tank far surpassed the best Type 69 tank in our country at that time, and its 120 mm 44 times diameter smoothbore gun could effectively eliminate the T72 and T80 in the hands of the northern powers.
In addition, the Leopard 2A4 tank's Mtumb 873Ka501 diesel engine provides 1,500 horsepower, allowing it to maneuver quickly on the road at speeds of up to 72 km/h.
Its command ceremony fire control system is equipped with advanced night vision devices and high-definition thermal imaging, which can quickly find and identify hostile targets, and realize the detection and destruction of the enemy first.
The Leopard 2A4 tank project has attracted great attention from the German side, and they not only warmly invited our delegation to observe the real car at close range, but also specially organized the real car to come to China to participate in field tests.
In addition, the German side has also made an exception to accept the technology transfer clause that was most intolerable to Western countries in the past, and has unreservedly transferred a large amount of technology to China for China's reference and learning.
At the same time, taking into account the economic situation in our country at that time, they optimized the production structure of the Leopard 2A4 tank and successfully reduced the unit price to $1.8 million.
Our personnel are full of longing for the Leopard 2A4 tank, and Poland's pragmatic attitude is impressive. This high-performance tank can greatly alleviate the situation of our country against the large armored forces of our northern neighbor.
However, due to the lack of foreign exchange funds, our country ultimately failed to successfully introduce Leopard 2A4 tanks. And considering the industrial level of our country at that time, even if a production line is established in China, the production cost will not drop much, and many key components must rely on imports from Germany.
In the case that the whole car of Leopard 2A4 cannot be introduced, China chose to introduce its high-power diesel engine - MB 8V331TC41 diesel engine with a lower **.
This engine provides key technologies and technical reserves for the power pack of many armored vehicles in China. Although there is a lack of experience in the introduction of complete vehicles, China's design of tank components, such as fire control, high-pressure large-caliber smoothbore guns, etc., can only be independently developed and solved problems.
After many years of hard work, our country finally had the ability to design a modern main battle tank in the 90s.
In the 80s of the last century, China faced a military threat in the northern region, and the supersonic penetration capability of the Tu-22M supersonic bomber made the Chinese Air Force almost helpless at that time.
At that time, China's main fighter was the old J-8, and the interceptor missile could not pose a threat to the air superiority fighters of the northern powers in terms of power or range, let alone interceptor with 2Mach 2 speed penetration of the Tu-22m up.
Therefore, China urgently needs a new carrier-based fighter to counter this threat. This role was eventually played by the F14 "Panda" variable-sweep wing heavy carrier-based fighter.
Tu-22M Our country, faced with such tremendous military pressure, launched a new project in the country. At the same time, taking advantage of the convenience brought by the honeymoon period between China and the United States, we are looking for an advanced fighter in the Western world that can defend itself.
In this context, the F-14 Tomcat heavy fighter of the American company Grumman has become an important target for China.
There are good reasons why our country has chosen to cooperate with Grumman in the United States. First of all, Grumman's cooperation in the field of aviation is not only about improving technology, but also providing us with a lot of key information about the future direction of aviation technology.
In particular, in the process of sending the Jian-8 to the United States for improvement, we found that there were some problems in China's experimental data on electromagnetic compatibility and interference. Therefore, Grumman specially led our technicians to their large microwave anechoic chamber for experimental modification, so that we have the opportunity to contact and learn the world-class electromagnetic detection technology, which is a valuable learning opportunity for our technicians.
Grumman's attitude towards our country is very good, not only in terms of work attitude, but also in terms of political attitude far beyond that of other Western arms companies.
As long as our technical personnel ask questions, Grumman will do its best to help us answer them, and will never hide our technology like Raytheon.
In addition, Grumman has also indicated to our country through various channels its willingness to purchase F-14s, and promised that as long as we are willing to pay, they can directly export F14 complete aircraft to us.
In the 70s of the last century, Grumman had a deep cooperative relationship with China, and sent a large amount of cutting-edge scientific information to China. In this context, Chinese researchers have a deep understanding of the high-altitude and high-speed interception capabilities of the F-14, which happens to meet the needs of our country against the Tu-22M.
In addition, China's air-to-air missile research and development program has been repeatedly frustrated, and many technicians have pinned their hopes on the F-14 aircraft introduction project, hoping to obtain the AIM-7 "Sparrow" and AIM-54 "Immortal Bird" air-to-air missiles used by the United States at that time.
The F14 has played a key role in military procurement in the past. Due to the shortage of foreign exchange reserves at that time, the squadron was faced with the problem of balancing the needs of various equipment.
The Army had hoped to introduce the Swedish RBS-70, but was unable to do so because the Air Force feared it would not be able to handle the anti-aircraft defense mission. In this case, the F14 became the best choice.
It can not only meet the needs of the Air Force to intercept Soviet supersonic bombers, but also serve as a technical reserve for sea-borne aircraft, and also meet the needs of the Army for long-range ground attack aircraft.
Therefore, when reviewing the project, the squadron gave priority to the introduction of F14. In addition, because the F-15 is strictly classified by the United States, and the F-16 79 high-altitude and high-speed performance cannot meet the needs, the squadron cannot choose to buy the French Mirage 2000 with average performance but double the performance.
In short, the F14 was the most suitable choice in the circumstances.
At a time when the F15 was not yet introduced in China, we partnered with Grumman. In 1984, Grumman proposed to provide our country with F-14+ fighters, which were an upgraded version of the A-type and equipped with a new F110GE400 engine, which had significantly improved performance.
In addition, Grumman CEO Yono Bryan personally presented a T-shirt and armband embroidered with the "Tomcat" logo, on which the famous saying "practice is the only criterion for testing truth" is written in Chinese.
Although Grumman is in the process of final negotiations with our country, the change in the northern power has frustrated the introduction plan. Fortunately, Gorbachev came to power.
The former leader of the Soviet Union, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, decided to improve relations with Western countries and our country, and the situation of the Cold War began to unravel. However, the United States** changed its attitude towards China and began to intervene in the F14 introduction program.
They feared that if China acquired the F14, secrets would be leaked to the former Soviet Union, and they blocked the export of any high-tech technology through an executive order.
In the face of enormous pressure, we can only turn our attention back to Russia and seek to introduce more advanced equipment. After Grumman lost orders from China, it was eventually acquired by Lockheed Martin due to continuous losses, and has since been unknown on the stage of history.
Looking back, our country has missed out on a lot of equipment that people regret. But this is not worth regretting, because it is the blockade and exclusion of the opponent that allows us to strengthen our own needs, start from scratch, overcome problems, accumulate research and development experience, and finally develop military equipment that shocks the world.
Just imagine, if we had introduced Type 42 destroyers at that time, would we now have 055 large destroyers called "China Aegis"? If we introduce the Leopard 2A4, will the 99A main battle tank and the Type 15 light tank, which are now galloping on the territory of the motherland, be born smoothly?
If we had introduced the F-14 heavy carrier-based fighter at that time, then there would be no J-15 Flying Shark heavy carrier-based fighter taking off on the Liaoning and Shandong ships in the air field today.
All glory is built on silent sacrifice and hard grinding. It is believed that in the near future, these past hardships will still inspire China's equipment system to continue to innovate, become stronger, and create more brilliance.
I don't know if this year's H-20 can be unveiled, the 20 family is behind it.