Chapter 536

Chapter 536: China’s Aviation Industry Driven to the Edge of a Cliff

How could Boeing be so lucky? It was as if God had once again graced them, unlocking a golden finger for Boeing.

Although no one asked about the level of intelligence achieved by the "Adam" intelligent system, as an onboard unmanned combat system, it surely was advanced, and Boeing’s people were unlikely to disclose more information.

Experts from various countries repeatedly asked questions, but the host only provided partial answers, as most inquiries were rejected under the pretext of military secrets.

While the experts anticipated this, they still struggled to contain their excitement; even the small amount of information leaked was enough to move them profoundly.

"Can your hardware sufficiently support the operation of the ‘Adam’ system? Is the core processor supplied by Intel, AMD, or another military processor manufacturer?"

Thomas Logan, an aviation expert from Lockheed Martin, asked again. As an old rival of Boeing, Lockheed had a strong understanding of Boeing’s capabilities.

Knowing oneself and one’s enemy leads to countless victories. Lockheed’s experts wouldn’t miss such a valuable opportunity to learn about this high-performance intelligent system.

Regardless of whether intelligent systems were employed, fighter jets traditionally used numerous processors. For instance, the F-35 fighter jet comes equipped with three flight management computers (VMCs) housing six Motorola Power PC microprocessors to provide digital flight control and general systems control (such as fuel, electrical, and hydraulic systems).

Therefore, to realize the aircraft performance, one needs not only a robust software system but also an adequate hardware platform. This platform must be redundant; in the F-35, the distributed flight control system forms the core with three VMCs, only one of which operates at any given time. The other two compare the results, ensuring that even if one or two VMCs fail, the aircraft can still operate normally.

Thus, the proportion of various processors used in fighter jets is significant, and their technology has matured considerably. Unlike civilian processors that are often filled with bugs upon release, military processors are sometimes recycled for performance stability. There have been instances with the F-15 fighter jet where the Pentagon had to resort to using old processors, much to their frustration.

“The processors used in the ‘Adam’ system are custom-made for us by Boeing. They are the world’s most advanced specialized intelligent processors, with a computing performance equivalent to 800 times that of the F-35 core processors. It took five years to integrate nearly thirty-three processors into each jet’s core operating system, sufficient to handle calculations in various complex combat environments.”

The host subtly introduced the processor’s performance without revealing the manufacturer to prevent Lockheed from gaining an edge.

After all, this was a dedicated fighter jet processor. While it may not perform as broadly as consumer-grade processors in office and multimedia applications, it excels in providing support for intelligent cores, specifically designed for flight and combat.

800 times?

Dr. Thomas Logan felt a shock run through him.

Goodness, Boeing had spared no expense on "Adam." The investment in the processor’s research and development surely exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars. If only they could get their hands on those processor design plans!

His thoughts mirrored those of many other experts present.

Not only was Dr. Thomas Logan stunned, but a chorus of astonishment erupted from the attending experts. It was easy to imagine the truly staggering combat capability that the F/A-XX would achieve with such powerful hardware and software support.

As long as technical conditions allowed, hardware and software could provide enhancements by hundreds of times, but human pilots’ combat abilities could not double accordingly. Even a 10% improvement would be a matter of joy, let alone an increase of more than double.

Dr. Thomas Logan remembered a recent rumor within Lockheed about “Laboratory 41,” which had accidentally synthesized a magical alloy named "Fenrir," perfectly suitable for processors, exhibiting strong performance enhancement capabilities. If applied to the processor developed by Boeing, the performance gains could far exceed the 800 times that of the F-35’s specialized Power PC microprocessors.

Perhaps this "Adam" was a perfect match for it.

But whether this "Adam" intelligent combat system was a mule or a horse remained to be seen.

Maybe Boeing’s F/A-XX fighter jet had opened the door to intelligent combat systems surpassing human pilots.

"Everyone can try out the human-machine dialogue. In thirty minutes, it will be lunchtime, followed by two hours of tours in the afternoon. We will arrange for your accommodation in Las Vegas, and the flying demonstrations will officially start tomorrow."

The host continued to introduce the next arrangements and itinerary, signaling the technicians to allow the onboard unmanned combat system "Adam" to interact with the experts through the voice dialogue module.

Human-machine dialogue!

This fresh live activity immediately piqued the experts’ interest; it was the highlight of the event.

Several hundred people quickly gathered around the four F/A-XX jets. Due to time constraints, they could only take turns to interact, with each person limited to three sentences.

“Adam’s” voice dialogue module only supported English, and experts who did not speak English or lacked sufficient proficiency found themselves out of luck, forced to stand by and watch.

Time always passes quickly. After completing a brief tour, the teams of experts from various countries boarded a bus, escorted by the military, as they left Area 51, heading southeast toward Las Vegas.

At the Americans’ secret military base, the Chinese expert team maintained a low profile, occasionally exchanging coded phrases among themselves. When they did speak with foreign counterparts, their words remained brief and vague.

Almost everyone understood that Boeing’s invitation to visit Area 51 was certainly not as simple as an old wolf treating them to chicken today.

"What do you think of that ‘Adam’?"

Professor Yan asked his neighbor, apprentice Lin Mo.

Now that they had left Area 51, they felt a sense of relief and could finally express their thoughts.

Once the vehicle departed from Area 51, a feeling of inexplicable lightness washed over everyone.

Experts of their caliber were like America’s Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA); every word they spoke held significant weight, and even a careless comment could cause unimaginable repercussions, so they chose their words very carefully.

"The level of automation is very high, approaching human intelligence. Its combat effectiveness can indeed reach ace pilot levels, but we can only assess it as an ace. If mass-produced, it poses a substantial threat; we can’t have a large team of pure ace pilots."

Lin Mo’s response matched the thoughts of Professor Yan and the other experts.

During the human-machine dialogue, the experts from various countries posed on-site questions to "Adam," mostly revolving around tactical mathematical models and assessments of intelligence levels that were neither classified nor sensitive.

“Adam” responded extremely promptly, as if a real human were answering their questions, with replies that were both swift and accurate, even displaying a remarkably high level of tone variation.

Perhaps Boeing had imposed preemptive limitations, as “Adam” provided answers that were also somewhat reserved.

Based on Lin Mo’s observations, this intelligent system could easily outperform an average pilot, but it was still insufficient against the tactical movements of a Dragon Knight, which were as free-spirited as a Pegasus in the sky.

He leaned closer to "Adam" to inquire about several tactical movement combinations, but the response was that it could not do so. It was likely that Boeing had never considered such combinations, and thus the system wasn’t equipped to handle them.

Real aces could defeat “Adam,” yet no country could form an air force composed solely of pure ace pilots.

Lin Mo’s watch ticked insistently on his wrist as Gold Coin, feeling exasperated, cried out in his mind: “Damn it, it was tough to get out this time, and I ended up locked in a cardboard box. This is the height of arrogance; the Dragon must eliminate them, seize that bird aircraft, and devour it piece by piece.”

After making a rare appearance, he was disappointed that the Americans, not differentiating between harmful and harmless beings, had subjected the gold giant dragon to strict security checks, resulting in Gold Coin missing out on the action. Locked away in the cardboard box for half the day, having seen nothing, was frustrating enough.

The Americans truly had no eye for dragons, completely unaware that a fierce otherworldly giant dragon was hiding among them.

Even if Gold Coin attempted to gnaw at the F/A-XX fighter jet, he would probably find himself disappointed, as a single bite would yield indigestible remnants— the more advanced the fighter jet, the less metal material was used.

For Gold Coin, the F/A-XX was not a delectable cookie.

"Indeed, if the F/A-XX is deployed, it will pose a significant threat to our country. I didn’t expect Boeing’s intelligent combat program to be this advanced. It’s no longer about aircraft performance; we’ve already fallen behind, and we can’t afford to lag further."

Professor Yan considered the far-reaching threat from the future, his face revealing deep concern, and the nearby experts shared similar expressions.

After shock came tremendous deterrence; the emergence of “Adam” was no less significant than nuclear weapons.

Many countries would undoubtedly increase their investments in artificial intelligence research in the future.

Once again, China’s aviation industry found itself on the edge of a cliff.

“Indeed, we need to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence programs; we must not fall behind the Americans.”

From the back seat came the voice of Qiu from Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, who echoed the same sentiment.