Chapter 525

Chapter 525: Fenrir

Boeing and Lockheed Martin are sworn enemies.

In 2003, Lockheed sought revenge after Boeing "illegally used documents obtained from Lockheed" during the bidding for the U.S. Air Force’s Improved Expendable Launch Vehicle program (EELV), which resulted in Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms dealer, losing the bid.

Lockheed suffered a loss of nearly $40 billion in contracts for military and civilian rockets over the next 20 years, along with the opportunity to maintain technological leadership.

After Lockheed successfully sued, the U.S. Air Force penalized Boeing for its corporate espionage by retracting a $1 billion contract previously awarded to Boeing.

Boeing, relying on its strength as the world’s largest civilian aircraft manufacturer and the third-largest arms dealer in America, managed to resolve the situation for a mere fraction of the cost, even seeing a slight drop in stock prices on the day Lockheed filed its lawsuit, though it still ended the day up $1.14 per share at $34.31.

Florodo Lockheed coldly smiled at Boeing’s seemingly intentional invitation.

He knew very well the origins of the F/A-XX fighter jet, as Lockheed’s "Skunk Works" was also developing a similar type of fighter.

The orders for America’s sixth-generation main fighter jet would not be so easy to seize.

For Lockheed Martin, which held supplier qualifications for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth and fifth-generation fighter jets, this was a clearly defined challenge.

The U.S. Navy had specified requirements for the next-generation fighter, needing it to have high subsonic cruising capabilities and flight times of up to 50 hours.

To meet the Navy’s demands, Boeing’s "Phantom Works" meticulously crafted a solution to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, ensuring it met Navy requirements with a combat radius of 1,600 kilometers.

Boeing’s underlying motives were clear to Lockheed; they undoubtedly intended to snatch up contracts for the follow-up models of the F-35.

The F/A-XX, compatible with unmanned combat aircraft, was sophisticated; it could be manned or possess independent combat capabilities as an unmanned fighter.

With a variable-sweep wing design featuring large surface areas, it could fly at five times the speed of sound, cover a wider stealth range, and possess full-spectrum stealth and multispectral capabilities, while having comprehensive situational awareness. It could be equipped with laser weapons, kinetic weapons, and energy weapons, potentially serving as a near-space vehicle, perhaps even part of an integrated air and space system.

There remained plenty of intriguing possibilities regarding the F/A-XX, but even if the U.S. Navy selected and placed an order, the first unit wouldn’t likely be operational until at least 2020.

So why did Boeing unveil its prototype so early?

Florodo Lockheed guessed part of the reason, but not all of it.

So! Why not go?

Old Lockheed didn’t want to keep guessing until his head hurt; since Boeing offered such a great opportunity, he couldn’t waste the goodwill.

You can’t catch a tiger cub without entering the tiger’s den.

Lockheed Martin employed a tiered authorization management system, where only very important documents reached the president’s office.

After processing several important documents, one piece of news that caught Lockheed’s attention turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

The information came from Carter Johnson, the head of "Laboratory 41."

This "Laboratory 41" is merely a code name and does not imply the existence of 40 other laboratories; it is a secret high-tech research facility belonging to Lockheed, specializing in developing high-tech equipment and even future technologies, providing a solid technical foundation for Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed’s rise to become the world’s largest arms dealer is greatly related to this "Laboratory 41."

For this reason, Lockheed secretly invests tens of billions of dollars in research and development each year, with daily expenditures matching those of a military unit in active combat.

Not long ago, Lockheed deployed the "Poseidon" powered armor that caused a stir in Paris, and it originated from this "Laboratory 41."

According to Director Carter Johnson’s report, "Laboratory 41" accidentally discovered a peculiar alloy during a metal material experiment, possessing excellent ductility and outstanding semiconductor properties.

The accident rate in the laboratory is exceedingly high, but no experimental item, regardless of its success or failure, is casually discarded or destroyed; each experimental item undergoes careful and detailed evaluation after the experiment.

It is precisely this rigorous management system that prevents "Laboratory 41" from missing out on many astonishing technologies.

If the properties of this alloy were merely average, there would be no need to report it to the president’s office.

After technical evaluation, the researchers were astonished to find that this unexpectedly created alloy could significantly enhance the performance of processor chips, far surpassing the current diamond chips and gallium arsenide single crystal chip materials.

The stable operating temperature of this alloy chip could reach 1,800 degrees Celsius, breaking the existing record for high-temperature chips; it could function normally even in regular flames without needing any cooling considerations.

It was truly the best material for space chips, designed for the cosmos.

The yield rate of finished chips made from this single crystal was surprisingly high, achieving a remarkable hundred percent defect-free rate, which even experts in this field could not explain.

When given other metals, it seemed almost alive, as this alloy could slowly merge and absorb other metals: steel, tungsten, aluminum, titanium—even uranium and plutonium. As long as it was metal, it would accept it all, ultimately assimilating everything into a substance identical in properties to itself.

What really left Florodo Lockheed in disbelief was the alloy’s ability to absorb and proliferate.

Although the conversion rate was low, with one ton of metal converting to just one gram, it still represented real absorption and assimilation. Where such a vast volume and mass of metal ended up remained a mystery.

According to analyses by metal material and physics experts, this absorption and assimilation reaction might be based on atomic weight changes, suggesting that the missing mass could have transformed into some strange form of energy.

Thanks to this absorption and assimilation characteristic, the laboratory did not need to spend time re-deriving the synthesis process.

In fact, after thousands of repeated experiments, those researchers were unable to recreate the same properties in the alloy. They could only chalk it up to coincidence—a stroke of God’s hand.

Many great inventions have stemmed from such unintentional occurrences, like vulcanized rubber, filaments, the periodic table, penicillin, microwaves, pacemakers, potato chips, X-rays, erasers, sandwiches, Archimedes’ principle, gravity, and many other significant inventions familiar to the public.

As long as various metals were continuously supplied, they would keep obtaining the magical alloy, much like planting crops where a biological medium yields more produce.

Unfortunately, with the current technology and equipment, Laboratory 41 still could not identify the alloy’s specific composition or determine its atomic weight and molecular structure.

Because of its assimilation properties, the purity of this alloy’s composition nearly reached the theoretical 100% purity described in scientific theory.

Perhaps this was why the alloy had such a high yield rate for chips, representing truly perfect chip material without needing to consider any compromise in expanding chip diameter.

Laboratory 41 designated this magical alloy with a code name: Fenrir, akin to the giant wolf from Norse mythology that devours the sun and moon and brings about the twilight of the gods. Its limits of absorption remained unknown, possibly infinite.

Old Lockheed’s heart quickly ignited with excitement; his sharp mind immediately recognized the immense value of this find, practically a treasure—a boundless treasure.

For Lockheed, this alloy represented their entry into the computer industry’s throne, putting companies like Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and VIA on notice.

With this special alloy, Lockheed might leap to become the most powerful processor manufacturer internationally, with not just civilian and military applications, but even space industries eager to partner with them.

Such an exceptional chip material was like a living money-printing factory.

“Establish the ‘Fenrir’ project team to conduct more comprehensive technical validations of the ‘Fenrir’ alloy, with Laboratory 41 providing the budget for research and development, and exploring a plan for large-scale industrial production…”

Excited, Florodo Lockheed brushed aside his earlier frustrations from discussions with the FBI investigation team, immediately adding his review comments to the report from Carter Johnson of Laboratory 41. He adjusted the document’s confidentiality and importance levels to the highest degree.

“Annie! Notify Vice President Harris to come to my office!” Florodo Lockheed’s eyes sparkled as he pressed the intercom on his desk to reach his secretary, Annie Albert, who was working outside.

Old Lockheed felt it necessary to discuss with his son the matters concerning that place where one could only shout “Allahu, Hark!”

…

“Lin Mo, don’t worry about ‘Abyss Nirvana’; that’s not something you should be involved with…”

Lin Mo held his watch phone with a troubled expression, listening to his teacher, Professor Yan Guoqiang, ramble on.