Radar technology is also a technology that Li Qingsong has attached great importance to and has conducted focused research on over the years.
Because radar is the "eyes" of the spacecraft.
Optical detection methods are certainly important, but in the space battlefield, the use of optical telescopes is greatly limited and must be coordinated with radar to achieve the requirement of perceiving the battlefield situation.
In addition to large targets, such as large spacecraft and large celestial bodies that are optically visible, other small targets, such as missiles, artillery shells, small satellites and spacecraft that use optical stealth technology, must use radar technology to sense them.
In order to improve the survival rate of warships on the battlefield, higher requirements must be placed on radar. In addition to being able to detect relatively large targets such as missiles and artillery shells, it is also necessary to have the ability to detect tiny targets such as electromagnetic cannon projectiles, which are only centimeters or millimeters in size and weigh only a few tenths of a gram to a few grams.
Because through simulation and calculation, as well as reverse engineering of the Bluetuk civilization's weapons, Li Qingsong has basically confirmed that in the interstellar battlefield, electromagnetic cannon projectiles are the most widely used and most lethal weapons!
If a spacecraft cannot intercept electromagnetic cannon projectiles, its defense system can be said to have collapsed by more than 90%.
Relying solely on armor to resist electromagnetic cannon projectiles?
Even if we only face electromagnetic cannon projectiles of our own technological level, such as the previous projectile with a muzzle velocity of 15 kilometers per second and a mass of 5 grams, its power is equivalent to more than 19 times the most powerful gunpowder gun bullet. What kind of armor can withstand it?
Even the heaviest tanks of the Earth era cannot withstand a mere gunpowder gun armor-piercing bullet, let alone an electromagnetic cannon projectile that is at least 19 times more powerful.
For the sake of the spacecraft's maneuverability, it is obviously impossible for Li Qingsong to make the spacecraft's armor so thick.
In that case, the spacecraft will become a turtle and a target.
This leaves only one solution.
Intercept!
We must find a way to stop those extremely destructive projectiles and prevent them from hitting the spacecraft.
The armor of the spacecraft is used to withstand stray bullets and small low-lethality electromagnetic cannon projectiles, not large and high-powered projectiles.
If we want to intercept them, the first thing we need to do is to discover them.
If we can’t even detect it, how can we talk about intercepting it?
But even the largest projectiles generally do not weigh more than ten grams, their size is even smaller, and their speed is generally over ten kilometers per second.
How can we detect such tiny, high-speed targets in the vast space?
This requires the use of high-speed radar.
Unlike ordinary radars, high-speed radars have higher power and can emit higher-energy electromagnetic waves to enhance the signal reflection intensity of the target.
At the same time, high-speed radars must also adopt more advanced and powerful algorithms, matched filtering, and coherent accumulation to enhance the ability to detect weak signals.
Its scanning speed must also be fast.
Because the interstellar battlefield is so vast and the speed of projectiles is extremely high, an area may not pose a threat one second, but projectiles may arrive the next second. The entire celestial sphere must be scanned repeatedly at an extremely high frequency.
Such high performance requirements are now all concentrated on one device, which needs to be used to achieve them all.
Decades ago, when Li Qingsong began research based on the previous generation of radar, he also had a feeling: can I really research such an advanced radar?
It’s unrealistic to think about building a radar with this kind of performance.
But Li Qingsong did not give up. Instead, he really calmed down and invested millions of clones. He also opened up the supply of materials, split up hundreds of thousands of technical details, combined them with the overall technological progress, and advanced and iterated bit by bit.
A certain material can achieve a sensitivity increase?
Use it.
A certain material can enhance echo resolution by
Use it.
A certain configuration can reduce the total mass by 1%, but this configuration is extremely difficult to process and has extremely low production capacity?
Then build larger and more sophisticated foundries and use quantity to increase production capacity.
In this kind of almost disregarding investment and advancing bit by bit, after decades of work, Li Qingsong finally built a radar that met the initial performance requirements.
Of course, it cannot be equipped on a spacecraft at this moment because it is too large.
It is built on the basis of an entire building, and various parts and equipment almost fill up the entire building, with a total mass reaching a terrifying 100 tons.
At this point, it began its first actual test.
A few hundred meters away from the building, more than a dozen small high-speed electromagnetic cannons came into the air on spacecraft and launched a fierce bombardment around the building.
Hundreds or even thousands of tiny electromagnetic cannon projectiles bombarded the area around the building in one second, raising huge clouds of dust.
This radar is operating at full power, doing its best to collect data on every tiny, high-speed moving object in the surrounding environment.
The bombing, which lasted for an hour, ended. During this hour, more than a dozen electromagnetic cannons fired more than 2 million electromagnetic cannon pellets. Among these more than 2 million electromagnetic cannon pellets, million of them had their precise movement trajectory and speed information captured by this radar!
The farthest one is even hundreds of kilometers away!
Looking at the data, Li Qingsong was filled with emotion. He felt that the decades of hard work he had put in had been fully rewarded.
Although it cannot achieve a detection rate of more than 99%, and its size and mass are too large, and its energy consumption is too high, it has taken a crucial step forward.
All that needs to be done next is to continue optimizing.
The development progress of high-speed radar has reached at least 80%, and there are no insurmountable obstacles in sight.
But this does not mean that he has mastered the interception technology.
The reason is simple. Radar is only for detection. To achieve real interception, there must be a corresponding launch system.
Li Qingsong must use some kind of medium to influence the projectiles whose speed and trajectory have been detected in order to change their trajectory so that they will not hit the warships.
There are only two ways to achieve this influence.
First, the same electromagnetic cannon projectile. Second, the laser cannon.
The first method uses kinetic energy to impact the projectile, directly knocking it off track. The second method uses burning to increase the internal energy of the projectile, causing it to explode and deviate from its track.
In addition to these two interference methods, sufficiently powerful computing power is also required.
High-speed radar, data processing, bogies, and projectile or laser launchers are all combined to truly intercept an attack.
Yesterday I saw some book friends saying that updating in five time periods would be too scattered. Rainbow thought about it and felt that what the book friends said made sense.
Then let’s change the update time, divide it into two time points, three updates at 12 o’clock, two updates at 18 o’clock, still five updates and 10,000 words a day!
