Huaguo, Jinling, Xinghai Research Institute Affiliated Space Base.
After a few months, when Xu Chuan came here again, the base in his memory had changed drastically.
The newly built space shuttle production plant has been completed, and all subsequent space shuttle R&D and construction will be transferred to the new industrial zone.
The old industrial area only retains some testing, inspection, and space shuttle launch functions.
In Academician Chang Huaxiang's office, Xu Chuan knocked on the open door, walked in with a smile on his face, and said hello.
"Chang Lao."
Since the Xiashu Space Base was established, Academician Chang Huaxiang has been stationed here to preside over aerospace work.
For a seventy-year-old man, sticking to this kind of position and handling tedious work is a very hard and energy-consuming thing, which is indeed admirable.
"Coming."
Putting down the documents in his hands, Chang Huaxiang stood up with a smile, said hello, took out a box of tea leaves from the cabinet, and brewed two cups of tea.
Xu Chuan took the tea cup with both hands, put it gently on the table, and said with a smile: "Is the aerospace work progressing smoothly?"
Chang Huaxiang smiled and said: "It's not about whether it goes smoothly or not. It's enough that we can proceed according to the normal plan."
"Did we encounter some problems?" Xu Chuan asked curiously.
"There is no problem in aerospace engineering that can't be encountered, as long as it can be solved normally."
Chang Huaxiang said with a smile, then handed over the document in the cowhide bag in his hand and said, "Look at this."
Xu Chuan took the cowhide bag, opened the seal, took out a document from inside, opened it and took a look.
"Air Force Equipment and Materials Procurement Agreement? Is this negotiated?"
Yang Han, the leader of the Air Force Equipment Department, had talked with him about this matter last year. The Air Force would purchase small fusion reactors, aerospace engines, and even complete aircraft from the Xinghai Research Institute.
However, it was just a prototype idea at the time and was not implemented concretely.
The newly built large-scale industrial production line here is prepared for this matter.
Academician Chang Huaxiang nodded and said with a smile: "Not yet, but it will be soon."
"At the end of the year, we had another discussion with the Equipment Department. The agreement was finalized two days ago, but some relevant regulations will need to be supplemented in the future."
"That's why I urgently called you over to discuss this matter."
Xu Chuan flipped through the pages, his eyes fell on the final estimated purchase amount, and he said with a smile:
"With an estimated procurement fund of 33 billion, this is a big contract. Does the Air Force Equipment Department want to build an aerospace fighter fleet?"
Regardless of the fact that the annual domestic military expenditure budget is more than one trillion, it has climbed to a higher level after the realization of controllable nuclear fusion technology.
For example, the military budget in 2022 will reach 1.55 trillion, and the military budget in 2023 will reach 1.75 trillion, and is about to exceed 200 million.
Although this number seems to be only increasing according to the proportion before the realization of "controllable nuclear fusion technology", don't forget that after 22 years, the purchasing power of RMB has increased significantly.
In the past, the exchange rate of RMB to rice dollar was 1:7, but now it has dropped to 1:3.5.
If it weren't for the above still controlling the exchange rate, given the current international situation, there would be no problem if the RMB could rise to the same level as the rice dollar, or even exceed the rice dollar.
Xu Chuan didn't know much about finance, but the annual military expenditure was almost fixed.
Although the procurement budget of 33 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to the military expenditure of nearly 2 trillion, don't forget that the 2 trillion in funding is for the entire country.
The Air Force Equipment Division is only one of the equipment procurement offices of the three major armed forces.
With the current value of RMB, 33 billion is definitely a huge order.
After all, even if we only talk about the Air Force, there are currently more than 1,700 fighter jets that need maintenance and upkeep, as well as hundreds of thousands of active Air Force personnel, etc.
To be able to get more than 30 billion out of it to form an air and space fighter fleet, to be honest, this is actually a very determined decision.
Of course, the deterrence that a formation of air and space fighter jets can bring is also huge.
Academician Chang Huaxiang smiled, picked up the tea cup, blew on it, took a sip of tea and said: "I communicated with the leaders over there, and the budget is probably this much."
"But how much we can absorb from this budget depends on the situation."
Xu Chuan looked at the contract and asked, "How is the conversation going now?"
Chang Huaxiang thought for a while and said: "Mainly focusing on small fusion reactors, aerospace engines, control systems, etc."
"Civilian things are different from military things. An aerospace fighter does not involve much less than a space shuttle."
"For example, the design of aerodynamic wings, consideration of bomb load, etc., we have little experience in these. At the same time, our research institute currently does not have the production line and qualifications to produce military fighter aircraft."
"So they are not prepared to let us get involved in these things. They only need us to provide basic parts and components."
Hearing these words, Xu Chuan smiled, closed the purchase agreement in his hand, and said: "We really don't have much experience in this area. If we participate casually, it will harm our compatriots. We can't do this kind of thing."
"Military equipment is used to protect our homeland and the country. For those of us who have no experience in this area, we cannot and should not participate casually."
Academician Chang Huaxiang nodded and said with a smile: "According to the current communication, in terms of aerospace engines, small fusion reactors, complete sets of control systems, after-sales, etc., these parts and technologies are almost enough for us to take half of this order.
Budget."
"As for how accurate the follow-up can be, we still need to negotiate specifically."
Xu Chuan smiled and nodded, put the purchase agreement in his hand on the coffee table, and said: "This is the general situation. You should check it carefully and send me the final contract."
"In terms of budget, you don't have to worry too much about the equipment provided to the military. Just follow the approximate profits of other military industrial enterprises."
"But there is one thing..."
After a pause, he looked at Academician Chang Huaxiang and continued: "We must ensure the quality of the parts and technologies we provide."
"If possible, it would be best to join forces with other companies that produce aerospace fighter parts to form a special research team to ensure the entire production process and quality, and to cooperate with the work of other companies."
Chang Huaxiang smiled and nodded, saying: "Well, I will keep an eye on this myself."
After chatting for a while about air and space fighter aircraft, Xu Chuan asked: "By the way, Mr. Chang, how is the production situation of the third second-generation aircraft?"
Chang Huaxiang: "It's going on step by step. Do you want to go over and have a look?"
Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Let's go over and take a look. We just happened to have a look at the newly built production line last year."
...
Xuanxiao!
This is the third second-generation space shuttle that officially started production in the second half of last year. It means exploring the lofty and mysterious realm of the sky, and also refers to the boundless exploration of the universe.
Currently, this space shuttle has entered the final stage of installation of the external insulation layer, and various components inside, such as electronic and aviation equipment, communication systems, power systems, life support systems, etc., have been installed.
According to the current progress, it will take about half a month to leave the factory for inspection and testing.
Of course, Xu Chuan's focus was not on that either.
For the current Xiashu Space Base, the production of a second-generation space shuttle is nothing at all.
Especially after experiencing the development and manufacturing of the Hanhai and Xinghe, the design and manufacture of the Xuanxiao became even more comfortable.
The optimization of the optimization, the adjustment of the adjustment.
The main center of Xuchuan is the new production line factory built last year.
Compared with the original space shuttle production line, the newly built production factory is larger in scale and adopts the latest "pulsation production line".
Even if we look around the world, there are only a few countries that can build this 'pulsating digital production line'.
Simply put, this is an assembly line that moves on a beat.
In this kind of production line, no drawings can be seen throughout the entire production line, because 90% of the processing is completed by machinery.
By re-designing, optimizing and balancing the assembly process, we can realize stationary assembly operations according to the set rhythm, achieve an assembly production form that shortens the assembly cycle and meets customer requirements.
On the one hand, it can greatly reduce manpower, which naturally reduces the possibility of human error.
On the other hand, it greatly improves production efficiency.
The first companies to adopt this production line were Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and other companies.
For example, the American F35 and F-16.
When this production line was not used, a conventional production line only produced 12 fighter jets per year.
Lockheed Martin, which uses pulsating production lines, can achieve one aircraft per day under ideal conditions.
Of course, limited by various practical conditions, the current production rate of F-35 fighter jets is about one every two days.
But this is enough to give a glimpse of the terrifying production efficiency of this almost fully automated pulsating production line.
As for the number of domestic pulsation production lines currently, they are mainly concentrated in military applications, such as J20 and Yun-20.
Xu Chuan is not very clear about the efficiency of these production lines, but the production line at the Xiashu Space Base, if the logistics parts can keep up, can theoretically complete the production of a second-generation space shuttle in an average month.
The reason why there is such a big gap with the production speed of the F-35 fighter jet is mainly due to the complexity and manufacturing maturity between the space shuttle itself and the F35.
Although both are highly precise products, the F35 has actually been more focused on the principles of generalization, low cost, and rapid production since its design.
In terms of manufacturing maturity, the current Xiashu Space Base cannot be compared with Lockheed Martin, which has a history of hundreds of years.
In addition, another more important point is that the production line at the Xiashu Aerospace Base focuses more on the production of ‘single components’.
To put it simply, its industrial production line focuses more on the manufacturing of individual equipment such as small fusion reactors and aerospace engines.
This is determined by supply and demand.
The F35 is a mature fighter jet that can be sold directly for money, and there is also a lot of demand from the outside world.
But the space shuttle cannot.
There's no way they could sell the space shuttle.
Therefore, producing so many space shuttles does not make much sense to them at present. It is enough to maintain the capacity demand in aerospace and other fields.
More importantly, it supplies basic core components such as small fusion reactors and aerospace engines to the Air Force.
Therefore, it is intentionally designed to be mainly composed of parts and supplemented by assembling space shuttles.
According to theoretical calculations, on average every thirty days, this large-scale production factory covering an astonishing area of more than five million square meters can produce one set of small fusion reactors and three sets of standard-sized aerospace engines.
Compared with the previous half a year to build a space shuttle and a set of small fusion reactors, its efficiency has been improved by an entire order of magnitude.
...
PS: It's the beginning of the month, please give me the guaranteed monthly tickets in the hands of the big guys, QAQ, Yawei are online asking for monthly tickets, there will be an update in the afternoon.