However, this product that Duke thinks is relatively failed is a very amazing breakthrough in the eyes of the navy general who is a submarine captain like Major General Chen Weihong. First of all, the robot developed by Duke has now proved that it can complete some rescue tasks that originally could be completed by divers, and can dive deep into restricted waters that divers cannot access. This has added a new and effective means for the navy's deep-sea rescue, making up for the gap in the rescue operations of divers in the deep-sea waters.

For the officers and soldiers on the submarine, this is equivalent to an extra life-saving method. This alone makes Duke's robot have an incalculable effect.

On the other hand, the high-energy battery used by Duke, the robot has a relatively high energy density of more than one level of the battery used on naval submarines, which is even more amazing.

During the rescue process, Major General Chen Weihong was not good at asking about the details. However, after completing the rescue mission, Major General Chen Weihong accompanied Duke to Sanya and learned in great detail about the technical details of the robot and its high-energy battery. The more Chen Weihong understood, the more he showed a strong interest in the two new things Duke brought.

To a certain extent, Major General Chen Weihong even saw a new revolutionary direction of the naval submarine. The lithium-sulfur battery developed by Duke's team has rapidly declined in low temperature environments. For the robots developed by Duke, operating in the deep sea is a huge flaw.

However, if this lithium-sulfur battery is used as a submarine's battery, there are no problems. On the submarine, there are many ways to ensure that its ambient temperature is similar to that on land. Therefore, the disadvantage of Duke's ultra-low temperature environmental performance is not important in Major General Chen Weihong's opinion. As long as the safety and stability test passes, there will be no problem for the Navy.

Although Major General Chen Weihong learned that the price of this battery is too expensive, the price is an order of magnitude difference compared to conventional batteries, it is a bit regrettable. Otherwise, all the batteries on the boats of conventional submarines in service will be replaced with this battery. Under the same weight of the battery pack, the submarine can rely on these battery energy to dive under the sea to reach five or six thousand nautical miles!

In other words, there is no AIP system at all. This purely electric conventional submarine can directly submarine on the seabed for more than 10 days and nights, which greatly improves the combat power of conventional submarines, because the conditions of relying entirely on battery submarines can make the submarines have the greatest concealment. The submarine silent effect without engine operation can completely make the enemy's sonar detection device fail under the background noise of the ocean and cannot be discovered at all.

It can be said that to a certain extent, this pure electric conventional submarine is even more difficult to guard against than a nuclear submarine.

However, to achieve such an effect, the replacement cost of replacing each submarine battery pack is too high. According to the current manufacturing cost of such a battery, a 10-kilogram battery costs 150,000 yuan, which is converted to as high as 15 million yuan per ton. The battery pack of a submarine is as high as hundreds of tons. If all these old batteries are replaced with this new type of battery according to their weight, the replacement price of a submarine is as high as more than one billion yuan. Such a high cost is obviously unbearable for the Chinese military, which is now at a rapid development and spending money everywhere.

You should know that it is only about US$230 million to buy a Kilo-class submarine directly, which is a total of more than RMB 1 billion. If you just replace the battery pack, you can buy a new Kilo-class submarine or produce a new 041 submarine. For the navy, this price is not as good as adding a new ship.

What's more, the battery life is only about 500 charges and discharges. Under high-intensity use, it will fail if used for five or six years and needs to be replaced. The cost of use throughout the life cycle is almost equal to that of nuclear submarines. In terms of combat power, conventional submarines only have a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, and carry quite limited weapons, which is much worse than nuclear submarines.

Therefore, the original fantasy of using Duke's new high-energy battery to develop an all-electric submarine was immediately dispelled after Major General Chen Weihong learned about the cost of the battery. The cost of a test boat was not a big problem, but it was not very important to be equipped on a scale.

But it does not mean that high-energy batteries like Duke are of little significance. If we put aside the fantasy of developing an all-electric powered submarine and just use this battery to replace the existing submarines with equal capacity, Major General Chen Weihong still keenly sees the great advantages it has, because after using this new high-energy battery, as long as the original battery occupies about one-twentieth of the space and weight, the original effect can be achieved.

In other words, the original submarine battery pack with more than 100 tons is enough to replace the new high-energy battery with a weight of only a few tons, which leaves extremely valuable space and load capacity for the submarine. It is conservatively estimated that the remaining space will be used to carry 6 to 8 533mm heavy torpedoes or submarine-launched missiles at all.

In other words, if the battery is transformed into the 039 Song-class and Kilo-class submarines among the existing conventional submarines, if you plan it carefully, each submarine can obtain a higher battery capacity than the previously used batteries at a cost of 340 million yuan, further increasing the maximum range of submarines under the water submarine, and at the same time, it can also save more than 100 tons of valuable carrying capacity and space to increase the capacity of about one-third of the weapon.

Calculated as a Kilo-class submarine, 12 large 533mm torpedoes and 6 needle-1 air missiles or "Club-S" submarine-launched anti-ship missiles are generally equipped before the transformation. After battery replacement and transformation, the space saved can be equipped with at least 8 large 533mm torpedoes or submarine-launched missiles, which is equivalent to increasing the submarine attack weapons from 18 to 26.

If so, it would be equivalent to increasing the combat effectiveness of the Kilo-class submarine by one third at once. Compared with the Collins-class, the leader among Australia's fifth-generation diesel-electric attack conventional submarines, the modified Kilo-class submarine has a much better combat effectiveness, because the Collins-class submarine can carry a total of 22 missiles or 533 mm heavy torpedoes.

Such transformation is obviously a fast and economical choice for improving the combat effectiveness of conventional submarines in service.

Therefore, after shortly after talking with Deputy Commander Chen Weihong of the South China Sea Fleet, Duke quickly assigned a new task to DSM, requiring DSM to develop and provide improved deep-sea operation robots and batteries for submarines. The Navy is preparing to modernize more than a dozen 039 Song-class conventional submarines and more than a dozen Kilo-class conventional submarines in service.

The most core transformation is battery pack replacement and new combat system updates, especially the originally unique Kilo-class conventional combat system, which will be extremely old and unique. This time, it will be upgraded on a large scale, allowing it to seamlessly connect to the naval data link and use the naval version of the theater joint combat tactical system.

The budget for the transformation of these submarine electronic systems and battery systems requires that the transformation cost of each ship should not exceed 150 million yuan, so that the navy can spend no more than 5 billion yuan from the extremely tight military expenditure to complete this modern transformation of combat power, allowing these already somewhat outdated Song-class and Kilo-class submarines to rejuvenate and support the navy for 5 to 8 years.

By that time, the Navy has basically achieved nuclear power in its main submarine. The latest new 097 Qin-class offensive nuclear submarine has begun mass production and is equipped at a speed of 2-4 ships every year. This new offensive nuclear submarine equipped with Lotus Reactor nuclear power, the first two Qin-class offensive nuclear submarines produced in the first phase are 112 meters long and 10 meters wide. The draft is 10 meters during water navigation, the underwater displacement is 7,200 tons, the maximum underwater speed is 35 knots, and the ultimate dive depth is 550 meters.

Thanks to the excellent performance of the Lotus Reactor nuclear power, the Qin-class offensive nuclear submarine can use less space for power drive, and at the same time, it has completely replaced the electronic combat system based on the G2/G2E core high-speed computing chip. In terms of combat power, the Qin-class offensive nuclear submarine has exceeded the Los Angeles-class offensive nuclear submarine with the largest number of US military installations, and is very close to its Virginia-class main submarine.

In addition, more than ten "Yuan"-class conventional submarines have completed nuclear power transformation. Five years later, the PLA Navy has at least 30 offensive nuclear submarine combat groups. This powerful underwater force is enough to cope with maritime challenges in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean waters, providing reliable submarine security for the two 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that are about to be launched by our army.

Of course, these things are not something that Duke and the others can know. Now, this urgent need proposed by the Navy made Duke speechless. He did not expect that his private job would trigger such a big move. However, this time the Navy was also very generous. They ordered all submarine-related research institutes to fully support the research and development of DSM. Whether it is technical accumulation or the allocation of scientific researchers, they must fully meet the needs of DSM and provide DSM with technical support in all aspects of submarines.

There are not many opportunities to embrace Duke, a big tech star. When Duke is fully responsible for the Shenlong plan and working for breakthroughs in the aviation industry, the Navy hopes to take up some of Duke's time to complete a rapid improvement in the technology and combat power of the naval submarine.

Because everyone knows that in China's achievements in electronic combat systems, no team can compare with the DSM company Duke, which has a peerless genius. Even if Dr. Duke can develop a new world-leading high-energy battery, it is expected that this modernization of the submarine will bring them a new surprise.

(Thank you very much to book friend Georgetutu for your monthly ticket support. Since there will be activities tomorrow, the monthly ticket addition will be completed the day after tomorrow)
Chapter completed!