Chapter 1373 Who will defend the United States?


    at the same time.


    In the conference briefing room on Capitol Hill, Admiral Lance Lord was typing at the keyboard in front of him, and the blue light emitted from the screen shone on the silver hair on his forehead, giving off a crystal-clear reflection.


    Inside the headphones, Major General John Raymond, the voice of the reconnaissance director, seemed urgent and nervous:


    "Admiral, about 90 minutes ago, the DSP satellite captured a clear working trace of a solid rocket engine in the southwestern part of Hunan Province. After analysis, it was a model similar but different from the Dongfeng 31..."


    DSP is a dedicated satellite early warning system that provides early detection of missile launches and nuclear explosions at the first time by detecting the combustion characteristics of solid propellants.


    The telemetry results given by it are almost 100% accurate.


    However, Lord was in the final stage of preparing for a hearing, and was at the most stressful and headache. He could not help but waved his hand with some headache when he heard this:


    "This is not the same as what we have judged before. Besides, Colonel Kenton has sent the briefing, and I am adding details of the report..."


    As early as a few days ago, the Aerospace Command had noticed the abnormal movements of the 55th Base of the China Second Artillery through the keyhole satellite, and mobilized reconnaissance resources to conduct high-frequency monitoring of a mountainous area around Hecheng City.


    Finally, with the help of the vehicle trajectory analysis system, it was inferred that a seemingly ordinary forest clearing may be the launch position to be launched soon, and China is likely to test the launching position of the latest Dongfeng 31 Type A ballistic missile.


    On the one hand, it is used to fill the vacant delivery capability caused by the insufficient range of the Dongfeng 31 prototype, and on the other hand, it also plays a deterrent role at this time node.


    Now that the inference has become a reality, it undoubtedly further confirms the conclusion that the General is preparing to throw at this hearing—


    Investment in research and development for missile early warning and interception systems must be increased in the next few years, otherwise the United States will not be able to maintain the current strategic balance.


    In fact, Lord knew very well that in terms of the scale and delivery capabilities of the China Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, it was still a long way to truly achieve effective deterrence.


    But because of this, it is an excellent weapon to intimidate the men of Congress.


    However, Raymond on the other end of the screen was not so optimistic.


    He looked up and wiped the sweat from his forehead:


    "But, according to the subsequent reconnaissance results, the mid-section correction parameters of the target ballistic trajectory are abnormally smooth, and the thermal signal distribution when the terminal load is separated is more like a satellite fairing than a nuclear warhead, and the measurement and control department has also confirmed that three appeared in low-Earth orbit A new flying object, judged from the altitude, may not be maintained for a long time, and should be an emergency launch test."


    Lord''s eyes twitched slightly, his eyes locked on another window.


    Everything was normal on the synthetic aperture radar scanning map of the shooting range in the western Longyuan, with no new craters, no abnormal electromagnetic activity, and even the abnormal thermal radiation from the camouflage net disappeared.


    The Gobi Desert in China is as calm as if it had never been disturbed by missiles.


    Of course, an intercontinental ballistic missile that uses high ballistic simulation full range will not carry real warheads, nor will it involve accuracy testing. It can be a different no-man''s area to smash it.


    So a simple satellite map cannot overturn the conclusion he wants to get.


    However, the conclusion given by Raymond was like a thorn piercing the decision-making chain.


    If the Chinese just launched a solid rocket for quick restocking, then the hearing report at hand would undoubtedly make Lord a laughing stock on the entire Capitol Hill.


    The general himself is about to retire in half a year, but he doesn''t care about his face, but if he can bring Lockheed Martin the second huge contract except HTV2 in the final stage of his term, it will undoubtedly bring him the quality of life in his later years. Great improvement.


    Once the money issue is involved, it is not so easy to see.


    Therefore, in the face of a situation where political and economic demands are superimposed, all details are irrelevant noise.


    "Listen, Joe."


    The communication line used by Lord is specially encrypted, and only a few special departments can retrieve it after obtaining the White House authorization.


    So after he made sure there was no one around him, he didn''t care about speaking more explicitly:


    "The Congressional Military Commission held a closed-door hearing half an hour later, asking us to confirm whether China is testing the range of the intercontinental ballistic missiles that cover our local area... Have we obtained any more intuitive evidence, such as images at launch? ”


    Raymond didn''t hear the subtitles of his superiors, but he still answered conscientiously:


    "Some of you, the Earth Eye 1 satellite in the solar synchronous orbit happened to capture images of the rocket ascendant, but this satellite is not specifically used for reconnaissance, so due to the shooting angle, the imaging situation is not optimistic. ”


    While speaking, he had already called up the black and white photo on the screen with only grayscale information.


    As he said, the clarity was quite a bit sorry, and I could only tell that something was flying. If I hadn''t known in advance that there was a rocket here, it would have been judged as a large aircraft or airship with a lower altitude, or even ignored it as a shadow.


    "call-"


    Lord also had some numb claws at this time.


    After all, although their Aerospace Command controls most of the space-based reconnaissance resources, other units such as NASA also have remote sensing and orbital monitoring capabilities.


    In other words, the MPs participating in the hearing may also receive reports of similar content.


    If you cannot produce more convincing evidence, it is difficult to ensure that there will be no exaggeration.


    "Amplify the objects captured by the satellite."


    He suddenly spoke and ordered.


    "ah?"


    Raymond was shocked immediately.


    Now the image is blurred into a lump. If you zoom in, you may not be able to see some pixels...


    No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!


    But he still enlarged the picture according to the other party''s request.


    Lord pretended to look at the front of the screen for a while, and then said:


    "Look, here are three silver orbs that are stripped from the secondary rocket, and the surface is still covered with a honeycomb-like texture."


    He made a judgment with a certainty:


    "I have to include relevant content in the report... This is a typical configuration of the ''orbital reentry vehicle''. The FOBS (partial orbital bombing system) of the Soviet SS18 used a similar design..."


    After hearing this, the Raymond people were stunned and hesitated for a long time but couldn''t put up a complete sentence.


    He suddenly felt that he was not like a major general who had served for more than 20 years, but a rookie lieutenant who had just graduated from military academy for less than 20 days.


    What silver sphere?


    What honeycomb-like texture?


    Why didn''t I see it?


    There is also some orbital bombing system that only stays in the conceptual stage and has never been put into use?


    When did you get equipment on SS18?


    Raymond had ten thousand questions flashing through his mind, but he was worried that if he asked, he would look stupid.


    The emperor''s new outfit belongs to yes.


    However, after a long struggle, he spoke tentatively:


    "The load of SS-18 is a thermonuclear warhead, and these..."


    Raymond grabbed an analysis report:


    "The orbital mechanics simulation and radar detection results show that the object projected by this rocket is fully in line with the characteristics of satellites operating in orbit, and it cannot be a weapon payload...even simulated payloads are impossible."


    Lord shook his head helplessly, and finally made the topic clear:


    "Do you think Congress allocates us tens of billions of dollars a year to pursue the so-called ''truth''?"


    He tapped the ballistic simulation curve on the screen:


    "What they need is the ''possibility'' that is enough to scare voters, not a rigorous technical report... On the one hand, Montana arsenal workers make up 12% of the total voter population, and lawmakers are concerned about missile defense systems that can How many jobs are brought, not orbital mechanics, nor is it the result of radar detection…”


    He still did not mention his plans after retirement, but instead made excuses with another description of the overall situation.


    “On the other hand, John, times have changed.”


    After eased his tone, Lord tapped the table lightly and added in a plain tone:


    "What is defending the United States now is no longer the missiles in the silo, but the stock index of Wall Street."


    (End of this chapter)