After all, the Harrier is notoriously difficult to control, or rather, this type of short takeoff/vertical landing fighter jet requires a lot of pilot skill.
If your skills aren't up to par, an F-35B can eject you on the spot, and a single crash would result in losses in the hundreds of millions.
Xia Yu was worried that the 12 F-16 fighter jets bought by the county might not be enough to crash, but this would also generate more "Cullinan fragments" so he could piece together a complete aircraft.
"Our Harrier is in pretty good condition after the maintenance. We'll fly a few more sorties this time."
Xia Yu gave the fruit bat some instructions.
Sharpshooters are made by feeding bullets, and ace pilots are made by accumulating flight hours. This boss has a system that doesn't require him to grind, but he can't be stuck with just one vehicle unit.
Invest in employee training when necessary; there's no need to skimp on this aspect.
"Yes, boss!"
After surveying the entire ship, Xia Yu returned to shore and began analyzing intelligence related to pirate attacks in the Malacca Strait this year.
More than 40 cases occurred in the first half of the year alone, which means the total number for the whole year is approaching 100.
More than 50% of the pirate attacks targeted oil tankers loaded with crude oil and refined oil products, since these are very easy to sell on the international market.
What surprised Xia Yu, a newcomer to the PMSC business, even more was that to secure oil, one didn't necessarily have to keep an eye on oil tankers.
Just like oil thieves on land stealing diesel from trucks, these pirates directly bribed the employees at the port's gas stations. They knew which bulk carriers and container ships had just been filled up and when they left the port.
Then they would block their only route, stop them, and start pumping oil directly. In just a few tens of minutes, they could pump away hundreds of tons of heavy oil.
This kind of refined oil that can be burned directly doesn't even need to go back to the port. It can be directly pumped up from the high seas, sold at a low price, and then used to complete a one-stop shop of robbery, theft, and resale, with the buyer taking US dollars back home.
This is what professionalism is all about. They do their jobs with far more precision than their Black counterparts, and last year they even set a record by attacking three ships in six hours straight.
Judging from this year's case files, no major crimes have been committed yet, but with concentrated fire and non-intervention, it's only a matter of time before a major case occurs in Southeast Asia in the second half of the year.
But Xia Yu has arrived, and if he wants to make a living from this, he can only make these pirates go down to sea to feed the fish.
"Beep beep beep"
The satellite phone suddenly rang, and when it was connected, it was Captain Joseph of the Seagull calling.
"Boss, we've arrived in the waters off Southeast Asia."
"Let's resupply in Singapore first, then we'll set off together."
"Yes, boss!"
After ending communications, the Haiyan, having completed its deployment in the Pacific, continued its journey toward Malacca.
Before they even reached the Dashi base, Xia Yu boarded the Haiyan aboard AS550.
This 3,000-ton specialized research vessel is more than twice the size of the 8,000-ton Jihuo, but it is not a polar research vessel. It needs to rely on its tonnage to break through the ice to move forward. With this displacement, the ship is equipped with a wide range of deep-sea scientific research equipment.
The most important one is the Argus Workerrov.
[Sub-project: remus6000auv]
Completeness: 100% (Printable)
Upon opening the system, Xia Yu first unfolded the spindle-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle, which could be remotely controlled without cables.
This thing is like a torpedo; its 22-hour range allows it to dive to a depth of 6,000 meters to search for shipwrecks.
Argusworkerrov will only act after a discovery is made.
Equipped with a 5-function Schilling Rigmaster and an Atlas 1x7-function Schilling T4 robotic arm, you can have hands on the seabed.
The ship's bell on the HMS Hood was salvaged from the seabed, so it's quite powerful.
"Print!"
Xia Yu chose to print the sub-projects directly. Subsystems on large ships can be printed in batches, but other people have to stay on the ship to do so.
Let's just stay here. Besides the captain's suite on the Jihuo, we, as the boss, also have a room on the Haiyan. We can stay as long as we want. Xia Yu will be staying here until the official deployment at sea.
[Sub-project: argusworkerrov]
Completeness: 100% (Printable)
"Print!"
Selecting the remotely operated underwater vehicle to join the printing sequence immediately increased the progress bar to 85.3 working hours.
High-tech things may be small in size, but they still require a lot of effort to build, and the Nautilus's refit was even more demanding.
A week later, the Haiyan arrived at the Dashi base, completed resupply and rest, and under the escort of the Jihuo, officially began scientific exploration in the busy Strait of Malacca to search for sunken merchant ships and warships.
Back on the Nautilus, Xia Yu officially began the refit and upgrade of the Nautilus.
[Discovered 1 submarine, 2 types of usable modification parts, can be modified]
Xia Yu deployed the Type 206 submarine from berth No. 1, along with two types of underwater detectors, to the marine vehicle conversion laboratory that was unlocked last year.
Even so, the modified Nautilus still only had a diving depth of two to three hundred meters, so he put into the design of a double hull and chose to use titanium alloy to strengthen the hull structure.
"Modify!"
After fine-tuning the final result, Xia Yu directly selected the modification option, and a progress bar popped up in the system.
[Estimated remaining man-hours for modification: 134.8]
In just over five days, less than six days, his Nautilus will be completely transformed.
While Xia Yu was happy, she did not forget her work.
"Buzz"
Propelled by the airflow, the meritorious Harrier, which was parked in the center of the dock landing ship's apron, took off, and the fuel gauge reading in the fruit bat's line of sight dropped rapidly.
From this moment on, the countdown begins. With only enough fuel to fly a little over 200 kilometers, the aircraft will enter the warning zone where it must land, meaning its combat radius will be compressed to within 100 kilometers.
But this was a training exercise. They flew out 70 or 80 kilometers, where a Singapore Air Force A330MRTT multi-purpose aerial refueling tanker had been waiting for them.
The aircraft, delivered just last year, was still very new. The Harrier followed the refueling hose it was towing, and under the control of the Fruit Bat, it pushed the refueling port into the drogue. Tons of jet fuel were also rapidly poured into the fighter jet's fuel tank from the channel connecting the two aircraft.
Fruit Bat's mood instantly shifted from anxiety about leaving home with a phone that only had 50% battery to a sense of security after plugging in a power bank, since his combat radius had suddenly increased to 750 kilometers x n.
"Open the bow stern and release the unmanned combat boat,"
Xia Yu put down his binoculars, which he couldn't see anything with, looked at the images transmitted back by the scanning eagle on the screen, and gave the order.
"Yes, boss!"
The bow tongue, which is mainly used for loading and unloading cargo in the port, opens to both sides. Because the front is a dry dock, seawater cannot enter in calm sea conditions, but small boats inside cannot get out either.
Fortunately, the jari-usv multi-purpose unmanned combat vessel has a displacement of only 20 tons, so it was easily sent to the sea by a single vehicle tugboat.
With a "whoosh," the two 1200-horsepower diesel engines started, propelling the unmanned combat boat through the waves, and it soon disappeared from sight.
Their company's Jari-USV is definitely designed for long-term reuse, but since there are suicide drones, there must also be suicide unmanned surface vessels.
Fill a small boat with explosives and add a remote control kit. The total cost is only a fraction of that of an anti-ship missile, but the defensive capability is almost zero. A single burst of fire from a heavy machine gun can blow it up.
It's more suitable for pirates or armies to use it to attack merchant ships, but the success rate of attacking warships is too low.
This is similar to how during World War II, 99% of the U-boats' kills were on merchant ships. Destroyers and anti-submarine warfare vessels were extremely effective against U-boats; even a single anti-submarine net could stop them.
However, if the price is cheap enough, the shark swarm tactic can be used to blockade a narrow sea area and turn it into a semi-submarine for Mexican drug lords to transport goods, which can be even more effective.
Standing in the bridge command room, Xia Yu was lost in thought while maintaining contact with the Fruit Bat crew and monitoring the information transmitted back by the unmanned combat boat and the Scan Eagle.
This is a cargo-carrying maritime combat patrol, which is also a joint training exercise, since this tactic has not yet been used in actual combat.
Unmanned combat boats are built to be sold, and are very suitable for buyers with dock landing ships and amphibious assault ships. However, good equipment is not something that can be hyped up; sales are proven through actual combat.
The Asian branch urgently needs results, and combat patrols after setting sail are the first step.
I don't expect to encounter pirates on the first day; adapting to the rhythm of real combat is more important than kills.
“Pay attention to the location information of the registered merchant ships; we need to find that crucial ghost ship.”
Xia Yu said to Old Zhao, who was in charge of the helm.
Pirates wanting to steal oil can't manage just a few tons with speedboats alone; they'll have a "tanker" converted from a scrapped ship for transporting and selling the stolen goods.
These are all unregistered ghost ships and will not appear on the merchant ship real-time logistics information sharing system.
Catching even one pirate is equivalent to discovering a whole den of pirates, so it naturally becomes a key focus of their combat patrols.
Unfortunately, the first week of patrols yielded no results, but the Haiyan, which they were escorting, made some new discoveries.
"Calling the boss, we think we've spotted a submarine."
Joseph contacted Xia Yu via radio.
"I'm coming right away with the submarine."
He handed the work over to Lao Zhao and took the AS550 directly to the Haiyan ship, which was dozens of kilometers away.
"This is it. No scientific expedition team has reported this coordinate information yet."
Xia Yu looked at the submarine wreckage on the screen; its shape didn't quite resemble a U-boat.
Asia also has U-boats, after all, Japan is also an Axis power, and Hitler exchanged a lot of supplies with the other side, but most of the submarines that sank in the Southeast Asia Sea belonged to the United States and Japan.
"Boss, after comparing the shape and size, we can basically determine that this is a pufferfish-class diesel-electric submarine, which is also a big guy of 2,410 tons."
Joseph said with certainty.
The United States lost 52 submarines in World War II, which is less than a fraction of the Wolfpack submarines, but given their small size, this number still accounts for 22% of their submarine force.
If Lao Mei (Old Mag) were to travel back to World War II, he shouldn't serve on a warship at Pearl Harbor, nor should he become a submariner.
"So which specific pufferfish-class vessel is this?"
Xia Yu continued to inquire.
"The submarine's serial number was covered by marine life, but it sank in the Strait of Malacca. It was most likely the Glendia. 76 of them survived, but they were all captured by the Taliban."
Being captured by the Japanese is not a good thing; living might be worse than dying.
"The Glendia? Let's explore it next."
"Yes, boss!"
Joseph, who was following the new boss's instructions, did not see the amused expression on Xia Yu's face.
As the first submarine discovered under his leadership, this Pufferfish-class submarine will certainly be a collectible and placed in his underwater base.
However, since the Haiyan was exploring it, Xia Yu decided to first go and check out another sunken warship in the nearby waters.
"Splash splash"
That night, he took off under cover of darkness, and the helicopter plunged into the sea after flying a few kilometers.
Wearing a fully enclosed diving suit, Xia Yu dived to a depth of 100 meters, and then waved his hand to release a large object.
Compared to the compact Type 206, the Nautilus, with its double-layered titanium alloy hull and optimized propeller structure, is two sizes larger, with an underwater displacement of 800 tons.
The eight 533mm torpedo tubes on the bow were reduced to two, since as long as he was in the submarine, he could simply unleash unlimited firepower.
Therefore, he modified the six launch tubes above into release chambers for two types of underwater detectors, instead of mounting them on the outside of the submarine and disrupting its streamlined underwater structure.
After turning on his underwater searchlight and swimming around the Nautilus, Xia Yu didn't enter through the hatch in the conning tower. Instead, he remotely opened the cover of a torpedo tube and crawled directly into the auxiliary escape passage.
He entered the submarine, and the lights immediately turned on.
Xia Yu opened the small refrigerator in the torpedo compartment, took out a can of beer and drank it all in one gulp. Diving is quite physically demanding, so he needed to replenish his energy in time.
The original Type 206 submarine was a bit cramped inside, but after his modifications, it now has a kitchen, dining room, bedroom suite, and even a game room/private cinema.
Oh, and besides the shower, there's also a jacuzzi in the bathroom.
This space was freed up by removing two MTUV12 four-stroke 600-horsepower diesel engines and the fuel tank. Before today's upgrade, Xia Yu had already made extensive upgrades to the interior of this accessory boat.
The hot and noisy diesel propulsion system was the first thing he cut, and he upgraded the battery compartment structure to a large, replaceable battery pack, turning the Nautilus into a stylish all-electric submarine.
There's no need for any AIP system. Although there are no battery swapping stations in the sea, Xia Yu is a human-shaped battery swapping station.
He can replace a 1800 kWh battery pack with a wave of his hand, eliminating worries about range and ventilation, and also making the submarine's usable space more spacious.
However, submarines are vehicles that can be used in this way; fortress-style bases still require small nuclear reactors for power.
Barefoot on the solid wood flooring, Xia Yu walked through several functional cabins and arrived at the cockpit located directly below the enclosure.
After the host computer located and set the GPS coordinates and depth, the driver assistance module controlled the motor to output power to the propeller, and the Nautilus sped towards the target location.
Because the location wasn't far, they arrived at the restaurant before they had even finished eating half a roast goose at Xia Yu's late-night snack.
"puff"
The argusworkerrov at the bow was pneumatically ejected, pulling the cable towards the seabed until six 130W LED lights illuminated the two large cannons directly in front.
"Twin 203mm main guns, this caliber is acceptable."
After throwing away the cleanly gnawing roast goose leg and wiping his hands, Xia Yu looked at the image transmitted back from the f/zhdtv1080p camera on the screen and muttered to himself.
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