Chapter 61: Sharpening the Swords!

Noticing the gaze directed at him by Sun Yongguo, Zhou Qinglei hurriedly smiled and said, "What could I possibly have on my mind? Nothing at all."

Su Dingping gave him a meaningful look.

Could it be that he had some unspoken difficulties?

Thinking of this, Su Dingping did not probe further.

He had been staying here for quite some time without much contact with the outside world, so he had no knowledge regarding the fourth Kongō-class guided-missile destroyer.

Shortly after everyone arrived at the pier, a massive warship pulled alongside.

Once the warship came to a steady halt, Zhou Qinglei led Su Dingping and the others aboard.

"Everyone, feel free to look around. I need to go handle the handover."

With that, Zhou Qinglei walked toward the main control room.

"Come on, Dingping. We are very familiar with the Type 052. Let us give you a proper introduction." As he spoke, Sun Yongguo led Su Dingping for a stroll around the warship.

Walking along, Sun Yongguo explained, "The Type 052 entered service in 1994. It has a length of 142.7 meters, a beam of 15 meters, a draft of 5.1 meters, and a full-load displacement of 4,200 tons. It uses gas turbines for propulsion, making it our navy's first warship to adopt gas turbine power..."

Lü Guangjun added from the side, "Dingping, come over here."

He pointed to the weapons system on the deck and said, "Four twin launchers for C-801 anti-ship missiles, with a maximum range of 35 kilometers. One twin 100mm naval gun, with a maximum range of... Four twin 37mm close-in weapon systems..."

"The shipborne air defense missiles are the French Crotale missiles, which provide a certain level of air defense capability—to put it bluntly, 'point defense'."

Su Dingping nodded and said, "The Crotale missiles, I recall their maximum range is only 10 kilometers."

Zhang Gongnong took over the conversation, "Yes, before the Type 051C was born, all the short-range air defense missiles we equipped were of this type."

After taking a tour, Su Dingping looked at the Type 052 before him.

It was hard to imagine that the Type 052, which was not yet a modernized warship, could evolve through four rounds of improvements—A, B, C, and D—into the Type 052D, a vessel that could completely disregard Kongō-class guided-missile destroyers.

The Type 052D was launched in 2012 and officially commissioned into the navy in 2014. Compared to the Type 052 guided-missile destroyer entering service in 1994, a mere 20 years separated them.

Looking toward the future from the threshold of the year 2000, who could have imagined that a navy still struggling at the threshold of modernization could, 14 years later, treat the Eight-Eight Fleet as nothing at all?

Countless military enthusiasts would wake up in the middle of the night, find it utterly unbelievable, and slap themselves across the face: What the hell, I fell asleep and woke up as a superpower?

Su Dingping's gaze fell upon Sun Yongguo and the others. It was precisely they who led a struggling navy through the encirclement, forging a formidable naval power for the future generations of China.

"Dingping, why are you looking at me like that?" Sun Yongguo felt a bit unnerved by Su Dingping's stare.

"It's nothing." Su Dingping smiled, then changed the subject, "The combat capability of the Type 052 hasn't even reached the threshold of modernization. Equipping the North Sea Fleet with it doesn't actually hold much significance."

Sun Yongguo and the others remained silent.

To put it simply, the anti-ship missile strike range of just 35 kilometers vividly demonstrated the gap between the unmodernized and the modernized.

In maritime combat, concepts like operational depth and tactics were entirely meaningless.

The enemy's anti-ship missiles could strike at seventy or eighty kilometers, while the Type 052 could only reach 35 kilometers. How could they play this game?

They could only rely on air defense missiles for interception!

However, the biggest difference between point defense and area defense was that the number of interceptions was far too limited.

With primary weapons this weak, how could one expect the electronic warfare systems on the warship to effectively jam enemy missiles?

Technological backwardness was the original sin.

Just as Su Dingping said, facing a surrounding fleet of purely modernized fleets, a warship like this could hardly make any waves.

"Sigh, there's nothing that can be done about it," Sun Yongguo explained. "If not for the appearance of the Type 051C, our most powerful vessel would only have been the Type 051B, followed immediately by the Type 052."

"And the Type 051B didn't even make it into service in time. Therefore, before the millennium, the most powerful warship in our navy was the Type 052!"

"Now that we have the Type 051C and hold the core technology of the Project 956E, naturally we look down on the Type 052. But just last year..."

Sun Yongguo lowered his voice and said, "Chief was holding high expectations for the Type 052."

Zhang Gongnong nodded repeatedly beside him. If his horizons hadn't been broadened by following Su Dingping, he would still consider the Type 052 very powerful upon seeing it now.

There was nothing particularly attractive about the Type 052. After viewing it, Su Dingping intended to leave.

At that moment, Zhou Qinglei finished his handover and walked over.

As soon as he arrived, he smiled and said, "Dingping, what do you think of this Type 052? In my North Sea Fleet, it's currently the heavyweight champion!"

"Captain Zhou, I know. Sending away the Project 956E and receiving the Type 052, the gap between the two is so vast, you must feel a psychological disparity. Please rest assured, give me a little time..."

Zhou Qinglei was momentarily stunned. Then, recalling that Su Dingping had asked him earlier if he had something on his mind, sudden understanding dawned on him.

He realized that Su Dingping had misunderstood.

"Dingping, it's not what you think. For us, the Type 052 is very powerful, and we are quite content."

Su Dingping looked at Sun Yongguo, his gaze seemingly asking: Did I guess wrong?

Sun Yongguo averted his gaze.

Su Dingping then looked at Lü Guangjun, who immediately gazed at his nose, then his mouth, pretending to know nothing.

His gaze fell back onto Zhou Qinglei, and he noticed Zhou Qinglei acting as if he wanted to escort them off the warship, which instantly aroused a deep sense of suspicion in his mind.

"Dean Sun, is there something you guys are hiding from me?"

"No!"

"Dean Lü?"

"I don't know anything."

"Captain Zhou?"

"The moonlight tonight is really nice."

Su Dingping reminded him, "Captain Zhou, it's overcast tonight; you can't see the moon."

Zhou Qinglei smiled awkwardly, momentarily not knowing what to say.

Seeing that none of them were speaking, Su Dingping's deduction became even firmer.

"Dean Sun, if you don't tell me, I'll go straight and ask Chief Xu."

Sun Yongguo sighed and said, "Dingping, actually it's nothing major. Just today, the data parameters of Japan's fourth Kongō-class guided-missile destroyer were suddenly exposed to the outside world."

Lü Guangjun hurriedly added, "Dingping, this matter really isn't a big deal, please don't overthink it. The Chief didn't allow us to tell you because he was afraid the pressure on you would be too great and your health wouldn't hold up."

"It must be a lot stronger than the optimized Project 956E, right?"

Su Dingping's casual remark startled Sun Yongguo.

"Dingping, how did you know?"

"It is indeed much stronger; rumor has it that it can rival the United States' Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers! Right now, people outside are panicking, and the pressure on our navy is still..." Lü Guangjun hadn't even finished speaking before Sun Yongguo gently pushed him, causing him to instantly shut his mouth.

"It's getting late, I need to go back and rest." With that, Su Dingping walked straight off the warship.

Not until Su Dingping had left did Sun Yongguo complain, "Old Lü, why are you so quick-mouthed? Are these things meant to be spoken of? Don't you know how heavy the burden on Dingping's shoulders is? Now look, with you saying that, how do you expect him to get any sleep tonight?"

"I just blurted it out, I didn't expect..."

Su Dingping, upon returning to his barracks, did not immediately enter the Military Industry Illustration Forging Space.

He picked up a pen and quickly listed out all the core technologies of the Type 052 on a sheet of paper.

According to his original plan, he intended to jump straight to the Type 052D in one go.

However, the changes in the external situation had exceeded his expectations. Because of this, he needed to make some adjustments.

Following that, he listed out A, B, C, and D.

The Type 052D required too much time and was temporarily out of consideration. The Type 052C was equipped with a basic active electronically scanned array radar, whereas even the United States was still using passive electronically scanned array radars at present; conquering the Type 052C sooner would be a good choice, but it would take too long and was not the best choice for an emergency.

His gaze landed on A, and Su Dingping crossed it out without a moment of hesitation.

Since they already had the optimized Project 956E, the Type 052A held little significance.

In the end, only B remained.

After pondering for a long moment, Su Dingping's gaze gradually brightened.

At that exact moment, a knock on the door interrupted his train of thought.

"Dingping, have you rested yet?"

"Dean Sun, I haven't slept yet."

As soon as he entered, Sun Yongguo said with a trace of guilt, "Dingping, don't take today's matter to heart. Our original intention..."

Before Sun Yongguo could finish, Su Dingping suddenly said, "Dean, I plan to make some adjustments to the subsequent curriculum!"