Chapter 544

Chapter 544: Boeing’s Map Cannon

The bus from Las Vegas to Area 51 was filled with laughter and chatter.

“Ha ha… Old Qiu, I heard you all went to the casino copy last night. Sounds like you lost pretty badly!”

“Yeah, almost half of us lost so much we were on the verge of selling our underwear, total ruin!”

“Nonsense! I only lost five thousand dollars yesterday. Damn, the casinos here are unfair; they won’t let anyone win. No wonder they’re so wealthy.”

“Right, you only lost five thousand? I lost ten thousand! The dealer must be cheating!”

“Stop it! You guys are just terrible gamblers. I think it’s best to avoid playing; you’re just helping the Americans create GDP.”

“Major Lin, I heard you and your teacher won quite a bit yesterday? Is that true?”

Soon, the conversation turned to Lin Mo and Professor Yan. In the casino copy the day before, Professor Yan and his student were among the few who won without losing money.

“Uh! Not much! Not much!”

Lin Mo shook his head. Gambling was not his strong suit; winning any money was already something to be thankful for.

Professor Yan didn’t care about the amount they won last night; entertainment came first, gambling second. He had a great mindset, and even though he played over a dozen games and ended up winning around twenty thousand dollars, to him it was just a number. Being older, he didn’t hold much value on money.

The Dragon Knight was not a gambling god. In games like roulette and poker, Lin Mo lost every time, but he did win a bit on the slot machines, hitting four to five thousand dollars through luck.

He even gained the title of "Dart King" from betting on darts with others. After deducting his losses, he still made around a hundred thousand dollars, just enough to treat the experts to a late-night snack.

The bus filled with laughter made it clear that last night’s entertainment in Las Vegas was well worth it.

“Did you see? It looks like they’ve tightened security at Area 51 today!”

The bus reached a newly added checkpoint fifteen kilometers from Area 51.

Sandbag defensive structures lined the sides of the road, along with twin-mounted anti-aircraft machine guns, their long barrels and dark gun mouths forming a menacing first line of defense alongside an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank.

Lin Mo nodded in agreement, “That’s right. It seems Boeing intends to surprise us today. Americans never know how to hold back.”

The two of them exchanged a smile.

Area 51 seemed overly cautious.

What was clearly a small checkpoint was fortified like a mini outpost, with firepower comparable to that of an entire platoon, even stronger, viciously using anti-aircraft machine guns against people.

As yesterday, everyone underwent another screening, but this one was even stricter and more detailed.

The gold giant dragon remained incredibly frustrated, trapped in a dark cardboard box, drawing circles and cursing those Americans for messing up today’s test flight.

Besides the few military dogs seen yesterday, Lin Mo spotted a Tibetan mastiff— a standard iron-clad gold type. This wasn’t a search-type fierce dog but rather a defensive attack type, much fiercer than German Shepherds.

The soldiers at Area 51 had extraordinary guts and imagination.

Lin Mo’s cold gaze met that of the Tibetan mastiff. The dog merely whimpered a few times, staring back at him fiercely without showing any weakness.

Remarkably, the mastiff did not give in to Lin Mo’s presence, reacting quite differently from other dogs. This meat stew was not so easy to handle.

After all, it was just a proud dog; how could it be invulnerable?!

Sensing Lin Mo’s unyielding gaze, the nearby military dogs, although not reacting as dramatically as yesterday, still bristled, silently watching the human filled with danger.

The American soldiers finally noticed the source of the unusual phenomenon and looked at Lin Mo in surprise, wondering what he was doing to make the military dogs so fearful of him.

Lin Mo simply responded with a lightly pleasant smile.

Beside the long runway, rows of chairs were set up. Because the area was large, there was plenty of space between each chair, which held telescopes, sun hats, and bottled water.

At regular intervals, there were small tables with cakes, dried fruits, and other snacks, along with boxes of drinks for people to take freely.

The visiting group of nearly a thousand experts stood on one side of the runway, and it didn’t feel crowded at all.

On the opposite side of the runway, anti-aircraft artillery positions and air defense missile sites were arranged, perhaps as precautions just in case.

Four F/A-XX aircraft had already been towed out.

Two of them had pilots standing by, fully prepared, while the other two had their cockpit canopies closed, clearly intended for unmanned operations.

Boeing wasn’t bluffing; the sixth-generation fighter truly was a dual-mode model.

Not only that, but two F-22 Raptors were also being brought out, clearly for a combat demonstration. Lockheed Martin expressed indignation and helplessness over this, arguing that a sixth-generation fighter against a fourth-generation fighter was simply unfair.

Dealing with unmanned combat aircraft was indeed troublesome!

Having once faced off against unmanned aircraft head-on, Lin Mo knew just how formidable the F/A-XX could be. Without strong models to counter it, China was bound to be overshadowed.

Given the development cycle of fighter jets, one could already see the future clearly from now, and what you saw regarding aircraft performance did not represent future capabilities; they would only become stronger and more formidable.

Especially with Boeing flaunting its "Adam" intelligent core, which was updated daily. By the time it was officially deployed, who knew just how advanced it would become?

Professor Yan noticed his student’s suddenly tense expression and asked with concern, "Lin Mo, you don’t look well."

“I see countless flames and smoke falling down across the skies of the Chinese Air Force.”

Lin Mo’s eyes seemed to flicker with fire at the thought. Judging by the combat capabilities of the unmanned aircraft encountered last time over the South China Sea, there probably wouldn’t be many top experts at home able to withstand such attacks.

At least a colonel-level pilot would be needed to counter it.

The combat capability of the F/A-XX was crucial during today’s flight demonstration, which would have significant and far-reaching effects on the development landscape of the international aviation industry.

The emergence of intelligent unmanned combat systems would change the nature of warfare. In the past, competition for warfare used to heavily depend on the users; human factors could fill certain gaps in technical capability.

The selection and training of pilots, however, had always been a high threshold. Years of training meant pilots could not just be churned out like items on a production line. Their skills were inconsistent due to varying innate capabilities.

But when that limitation ceased to exist, combat weapons taking advantage of the technological gap would become the most terrifying presence on the battlefield.

No matter how skilled a pilot was, facing a large group of unmanned combat aircraft with strengths close to that of ace pilots would create a frightening scene.

A chaotic punch could defeat an experienced master; the advantage of individual aces would be erased. Even the historical ace Erich Hartmann would only find himself in a desperate flight.

Thinking of this, Lin Mo couldn’t help but shiver. Even if he teamed up with Gold Coin, equipping the most advanced missiles and cannons in the world, it would still not be enough against a pile of F/A-XXs attacking together.

“That’s right!”

As an elder in the aviation field, Professor Yan resonated with this thought. Without casualties and with mass production, duels among aerial knights would evolve into group battles. The technical accumulation and industrial foundation of a nation would determine the outcome of the war.

America had again left China far behind.

“Hey! Teacher, look! What are they mounting?”

Lin Mo pointed to the tarmac, where it seemed Boeing’s personnel were busy weapon mounting on the six aircraft. Each F/A-XX had something long and box-like hanging beneath its wings, which looked neither like a missile nor a rocket pod.

“Hmm!” Professor Yan adjusted his reading glasses and looked closely, shaking his head as he said, “Not quite sure, but it should be something like aerial bombs, possibly a small bomb pod.”

“No, no! That’s the ‘Metal Storm Weapon Launching System,’ an airborne map cannon, a real map cannon!”

An expert nearby spoke up, seemingly recognizing the strange object beneath the F/A-XX’s wings.

“Oh! Old Shen! You know?” Professor Yan looked at his old colleague, Professor Shen Congwu from Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group with surprise.

“Of course! I study airborne weapon systems. This is my old field. The airborne Metal Storm weapon is a ferociously powerful weapon for ground attacks. It can automatically set the attack area, and the operation is super easy. You just need to select the target area on the electronic map. The fire coverage shape can be set freely, even hollow shapes are possible. Once the fighter jet hovers over the designated area, the onboard Metal Storm will immediately launch a precise attack. With its dense firepower, even tanks will find it hard to defend—this is what a map cannon is!”

Professor Shen Congwu spoke about the unusual weapon beneath the F/A-XX’s wings with great enthusiasm.

“Old Shen speaks correctly; the airborne Metal Storm delivers fierce firepower, making it especially suitable for attacking mixed civilian and military targets as well as infantry positions—it’s lethal.”

Other experts nodded in agreement.

At this point, the weapon mounting on the tarmac was complete. Six Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance drones began to take off from the runway, each heading in different directions.

They would capture high-definition video from multiple angles. Boeing also had its own "Ghost Eye" unmanned reconnaissance drone, but its performance was slightly inferior to Northrop Grumman’s jet-powered Global Hawk.

However, Boeing didn’t mind those small details; they were mainly promoting the F/A-XX, which would determine Boeing’s future status in arms supply.

Not long after the Global Hawks took to the skies, two unmanned F/A-XX fighters began to taxi toward the runway. At the moment their engines ignited, they nearly captivated the attention of everyone on the tarmac.

Aviation experts from various countries raised their telescopes, fixating intently on the tails of the F/A-XXs.