The First Part of Eagle and Hawk Chapter 144 Modular Design

  "Kobayashi, I now somewhat understand your choice. This country needs people to do research and also needs people to make money. Without money, nothing can be done." Liu Xianghai sighed, mentioning money, his face showed some difficulty, saying: "Right, Kobayashi, the 10,000 yuan you lent me, I may not be able to return it for now."

  Lin Zhenhua said disapprovingly: "You take it and use it, I didn't say it was borrowed from you, it's a gift to you."

  "It's still considered borrowing, I don't take rewards for nothing. How can I just take your money? When my hands are more relaxed in the future, I will definitely pay you back. To be honest with you, this 10,000 yuan of yours has really helped me a lot."

  Lin Zhenhua asked strangely: "What's wrong with you? As a big boss, you still need to rely on this 10,000 yuan to get out of trouble?"

  Liu Xiangdao: "The organization's money, I can only use it within the scope permitted by the system. But in reality, there are many things that are outside of the system. Not long ago, we had a researcher whose father was ill and needed to borrow 800 yuan for surgery. However, according to the regulations of our organization, he could only borrow up to 200 yuan. He came to my home, a tall man over 7 feet, with tears in his eyes. But the system is like that, what can I do?"

  "So you lent him your own money?" Lin Zhenhua said.

  "Isn't that right?" Liu Xianghai said, "It's only my own money, I have the right to use it. Xiaolin, it was only then that I realized what you said when you lent me the money, you said this money can sometimes be used for emergency purposes."

  "I didn't think you were using this money for good deeds at that time," said Lin Zhenhua.

  "What did you mean by 'rescue'?"

  Lin Zhenhua did not answer this question. When he first gave money to Liu Xianghai, one was out of respect for the old military and industrial personnel, feeling that it was not enough to show his intention without taking out some money. Another was thinking that when Liu Xianghai first returned to Shanghai, he might need to walk around some old relationships, entertain guests and give gifts. However, how could these words be explicitly stated?

  "Doing good deeds is also a way to buy people's hearts," Lin Zhenhua said, "Old Liu, I have another sentence, don't know if you remember it."

  "What's up?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "I'm so poor that I only have money left. If you need anything that requires money, you can go to Huaihai Road and find the Shanghai sales office of Hanhua Industrial Company, Xiong Lijun is now the manager there, you can borrow money from him. In the future, I will settle accounts with him. However, I also figured it out, the money for your experiment, I really can't afford to pay, at most I can only lend it to you as a favor."

  Liu Xianghai shook his head: "I can't borrow your money again, I've borrowed too much and won't be able to pay it back in the future."

  Liu Zhenhua said, "Old Liu, if you're really short of money, just go to Xiong Lijun and ask him for it. I'll make up for it anyway. I forgot to tell you that the five-leaf fan you designed for me has already been applied for an international patent in my name. This patent should actually belong to you. In the future, if we can make money from it, I will pay you the patent fee."

  Liu Xiangdao said, "How can this be? I said it was a gift for you, and it's indeed a gift. This five-leaf fan, whether it makes money or not, has nothing to do with me anymore. Besides, there are so many things in the public sector, how can I personally pay for every single one of them? And by the way, it's not even me paying out of my own pocket, but rather you helping us pay - what kind of thing is this?"

  "Alas, even if we're poor, national defense can't be poor. The country shouldn't let you suffer in poverty." Lin Zhenhua spoke up for Liu Xianghai.

  Liu Xiangdao said, "It can't be said like that. The common people have been poor for so many years now, and it's time to prioritize solving the living problems of the common people. The policies from above have already been set, and in the next few years, national defense spending will be greatly reduced. Many projects are facing the threat of being scrapped. Here, we're still relatively better off, but can only maintain the status quo. By the way, just listen to these things, don't spread them outside, got it?"

  "Of course I know," said Lin Zhenhua.

  As a traverser, Lin Zhenhua was quite familiar with the situation described by Liu Xianghai. In the early 1980s, the central government made a judgment on the international situation at that time, believing that large-scale armed conflicts were unlikely to occur in the short term. Based on this judgment, the central government greatly reduced military spending and cut 1 million troops. Many military projects were also shelved during this period, not restarted until 20 years later.

  For the gains and losses of this period of military spending cuts, later generations have different opinions. Those who praise it believe that China decisively shifted a large amount of military expenditure to civilian use, promoting economic development and laying the foundation for China's high-speed economic growth over the next 30 years. Critics, on the other hand, argue that due to this period of compression, there was stagnation in technology and loss of military-industrial talent, with the value of these losses being immeasurable.

  Is it really so easy to evaluate the merits and demerits of a policy?

  "So that means you only have tens of millions of yuan in funding for research each year? This amount is indeed barely enough to complete the prototype of the propeller." Lin Zhenhua sighed.

  Liu Xianghai sighed, "Where can we get tens of millions of research funds? These one or two million include the personnel expenses, medical expenses, and festival subsidies for our entire institute. I still have to think of ways to squeeze out a few hundred thousand yuan to build houses for the staff in our institute. Now, the housing problem in our Shipbuilding Institute is even more tense than that of Hanhua Factory. It's not uncommon for three generations of researchers to live in one room. Which institute doesn't have to squeeze out some research funds to build some houses?"

  "This is too much!" Lin Zhenhua couldn't help but lose his temper, "What else can you do with your research? You might as well go back to Fenghua and be a wood model worker. The research funds I spent at Hanhua Company are more than yours, aren't they?"

  Liu Xiangdao said, "It can't be said that way, actually the headcount fee is also a research investment. Our researchers take their salaries and still have to work. Theoretical research has made good progress, but once it involves experimentation, it's a mess. You know our experiments are very expensive. We want to modify a large CNC milling machine to process propellers, just the cost of materials for modification is over 10 million yuan. We've already submitted a report to the Central Military Commission and are waiting for approval."

  "The more I talk, the more disheartened I become." Lin Zhenhua said gloomily, "Old Liu, if I had known you were going to spend your days idling away here, I should have advised you to stay at Hanhua Factory. At least you could still help me solve some technical problems."

  Liu Xianghai burst out laughing, patted Lin Zhenhua's shoulder and said: "Little Lin, you can't say that. We're still working hard. Once the country gets through this difficult period, things will get better later on. Forget it, I won't talk about these unhappy things with you anymore. Little Lin, are you interested in taking a look at the warship?"

  "Sounds interesting!" Lin Zhenhua raised his hand and said, "How about it? Is it a new drive? Does it have 8,000 tons?"

  Liu Xiangdao: "What 8,000 tons of new destroyer? Are you kidding me? It's one of our newly built missile frigates, with a full load displacement of 2,000 tons, which is quite good."

  "Only 2,000 tons?" Lin Zhenhua said disappointedly. He seemed to be taking care of Liu Xianghai's emotions and said: "Well, 2,000 tons is okay, let's go take a look. By the way, it doesn't involve leaking secrets, does it?"

  Liu Xiangdao said: "This thing is not highly classified, it's okay to take a look, just don't go out and talk about it."

  The two of them strolled around the factory area, with someone from Hudong Shipyard following closely behind to accompany them. It was said that Liu Xianghai wanted to see a guided missile destroyer, so the accompanying personnel hastily led them to a huge workshop.

  This factory building is nearly 200 meters long and tens of meters high. In the center of the factory, a warship over 100 meters long lies horizontally. The construction of the warship has not been completed yet, and groups of workers are busy on the scaffolding. The sound of riveting echoes incessantly, and bright welding sparks keep falling from above, presenting a bustling production scene.

  Liu Xianghai led Lin Zhenhua up the stairs to a high platform next to it, from which they could overlook the entire warship. Liu Xianghai proudly introduced to Lin Zhenhua: "Look, this is our institute's newly designed and finalized new frigate, with a standard displacement of 1674 tons and a full load displacement of 1924 tons. The ship is equipped with two dual-ship-to-ship missile launchers, two dual-100mm main guns, four dual-37mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as anti-submarine rockets, depth charges, and anti-submarine torpedoes, possessing various functions such as air defense, anti-ship, and anti-submarine capabilities."

  "What a great thing!" Lin Zhenhua exclaimed, he had never been in such close contact with a warship before, although it was only a 2,000-ton class frigate, but it was enough to make him feel exhilarated.

  "Now the only problem with this type of escort ship is that its price is still too high. We have considered whether to cut some weapons and equipment, which can also reduce the displacement and further increase the speed under the current two diesel engine drive conditions. However, after calculating, none of them can be reduced. One unit says it needs air defense, another unit says it needs anti-submarine warfare, but there is only one ship type that must take care of all aspects, which is our biggest headache at present."

  Lin Zhenhua said casually, "Isn't this easy? You design various weapon systems in a modular way, and use whichever one you need. The same hull design can be adapted to different purposes, isn't that a simple idea?"

  Liu Xianghai looked at Lin Zhenhua: "What did you just say? Say it again."

  "Didn't you hear clearly?" Lin Zhenhua asked strangely, the noise in the workshop was indeed quite loud, but they were standing together talking, and it shouldn't be that unclear.

  Liu Xianghai shook his head desperately: "No, no, I just heard what you said and felt like there was a glimmer of light flashing in my mind for a moment, but I couldn't grasp it immediately. No, you must have mentioned an extremely important concept, but I didn't quite understand."

  Lin Zhenhua thought for a moment and couldn't help but chuckle. He said, "Old Liu, what I'm saying isn't complicated at all. My point is that you can standardize and modularize each system, so the main body of the warship remains fixed, while the weapon systems can be installed according to need. It's even possible to do it this way: wealthy units can install more, while less affluent units can install fewer."

  Furthermore, if a modular design is adopted, all the weapon modules can be subcontracted to various units for manufacturing, and the shipyard only needs to manufacture the hull. When the time comes, just transport the various modules over, assemble them on top of each other, and a brand new warship will be completed."

  "That's it! That's the concept!" Liu Xianghai exclaimed excitedly, "You're absolutely right, modularization! Xiao Lin, I really admire you, how did you come up with such a brilliant idea?"

  Uh... this doesn't seem to be my idea, is it the Germans who brought it up? Lin Zhenhua quietly defended himself in his heart. However, he didn't dare say that his idea was borrowed from somewhere else, as it involved military intelligence matters. If he said it out loud, the security department would investigate him thoroughly. Investigate then, but where to start investigating such a baseless thing?

  "Lao Liu, actually, this idea of mine is just borrowed from the thinking in machine tool design. Do you think it's also feasible to apply it to warship design?" Lin Zhenhua said hesitantly, the concept of modularization in industry was already quite popular, and his explanation was reasonable.

  "Of course it's feasible, and indeed necessary!" Liu Xiangdao said, "Xiaolin, you don't know that our ship's main engine power is small, which determines that the displacement of our warship cannot be too large. Following your previous thinking, we can quickly design different configurations of warships according to the tasks of different troops, which is much more effective than redesigning one by one."

  "So I can also be a warship designer?" Lin Zhenhua asked excitedly, this was an ideal he had since childhood.

  Liu Xianghai smiled and said, "You're not qualified for this. You've only provided a very valuable idea. Modularization... it sounds simple, but how do you design various weapon systems into standardized interface modules? It's not that easy. On a larger scale, it could even bring about a revolution in the entire ship design concept. Can an outsider like you who knows nothing about ships really handle this?"

  "Isn't that right?" Lin Zhenhua was very unconvinced. "Old Liu, you're just working on the thruster too, how can you do this kind of thing?"

  Liu Xiangdao said: "I didn't say it was up to me to do it either. I am currently the director of the propulsion department and also a member of the expert committee of the shipbuilding institute, so naturally I will participate in the overall design of the ship. Next time the shipbuilding institute holds a meeting, I will bring this idea up for discussion. At that time, all experts will be needed to debate it. If this idea is ultimately recognized by the expert committee, we will organize various systems to jointly tackle the problem. The excellent experts in each of our systems have abilities that you can't imagine. Xiao Lin, maybe your idea can really come true."

  Lin Zhenhua asked: "Then won't I be able to get some kind of award?"

  Liu Xianghai burst out laughing: "No problem, we'll use a ship and thick boards to forge you a one-ton heavy medal."