You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 591 - 579

"Pre-coordinate East Longitude 141 Degrees 1 Minute 41.857 Seconds, North Latitude 37 Degrees 25 Minutes 13.900 Seconds, warhead codenad ZDZY34, trigger depth 137 ters!"

The operator inside the command vehicle broadcasted the coordinates from the folder in his loudest voice, then turned and handed them to the lieutenant colonel:

"One East Wind 15 ready, preparation complete! Awaiting instructions!"

The lieutenant colonel solemnly took the folder, opened it, and slowly inspected it. In fact, during these days, he had read the sa text countless tis, and the coordinates were firmly etched in his mind.

Still, he followed protocol, opened the tactical tablet, and pressed the intercom:

"Longgong, Flag Bearer is in position, please confirm coordinates!"

"Longgong received, East Longitude 141 Degrees 1 Minute 41.857 Seconds, North Latitude 37 Degrees 25 Minutes 13.900 Seconds, please cross-check again, report imdiately if unclear!"

"Confird!"

The lieutenant colonel’s gaze swept over each number, then he recited them in his mind once more before shifting his gaze to the coordinates entered but not yet confird on the console.

"Cross-check complete, strike target confird correct. Awaiting instructions!"

"Proceed according to plan."

"Flag Bearer understands!"

The lieutenant colonel "snap" closed the folder and solemnly returned it to the operator.

"Coordinates confird correct, please continue with launch preparations!"

"Confird!"

The impatient operator firmly pressed the confirmation key; in fact, these coordinates had long been pre-saved in the missile’s computer, and now it was just officially selecting them.

The console screen displayed a dotted trajectory line from Mudanjiang to the First Nuclear Power Station, which would be the path the East Wind 15C would travel.

The lieutenant colonel looked down at the ti; it was now 10:59. There were 40 minutes left until launch.

The East Wind 15C was a two-stage solid rocket. It did not require the liquid rocket’s pre-launch fueling, aning all their attention was now on waiting for the launch.

What he hoped for now was that no further ssages would co through the radio, as that would an the rocket would definitely launch as planned.

A terrible silence fell inside the command vehicle; each person stood motionless at their post, and the personnel by the launch vehicle had long since withdrawn. Everyone was silently counting down the ti in their hearts.

The launch ti was 11:40, and it would take about ten minutes to reach the destination.

During this ti fra, there were quite a few satellites able to provide navigation over the Western Pacific. To ensure nothing went wrong, the central command even mobilized two Kuaizhou rockets three days in advance to deploy two small satellites into a 200-kiloter low Earth orbit.

This was absolutely the longest forty minutes the lieutenant colonel had experienced. The last ti he felt this way was back in the rookie platoon when he failed on the pull-up bar and his hands were tied to it by the squad leader.

At 11:29, still no sound ca through the radio.

The lieutenant colonel believed the Commander also did not want to hear of any further variables. In his mind, he envisioned a group of people standing tensely in front of an electronic map, their gazes locked firmly on the red-marked spot.

The command vehicle was eerily quiet. He could clearly hear the hum of the generator working, the whistling of the current passing through the capacitors, the breathing of different frequencies, and the thumping of his heart beating violently against his chest.

The second before his watch’s second hand crossed the middle, he took a deep breath, glared fiercely with his shining eyes at the operator who was staring back at him with eyes nearly shooting flas, and shouted with all his strength:

"Launch - Prepare!"

The operator snapped his legs together, boots clicking crisply.

"Confird!"

The operator rapidly pressed the buttons on the console with the mory he had practiced countless tis. Finally, he picked up the handset with his left hand, held it to his ear, and faced the stopwatch straight on with his right hand, sternly watching the numbers jump.

Once more, only ambient noise and breathing resonated in the command vehicle. Everyone froze like machines.

11:39:00, 11:39:10, 11:39:20...

At 11:39:40, the operator spoke at the mont the numbers changed:

"Attention all units, land target point... five, four, three, two, one, release!"

The countdown reached zero. An array of gas ejected from the base of the already-erect rocket. It quickly expanded, kicking up the surrounding dust to create a white fog tinged with brown.

Actually, an hour before the rocket’s computer had entered the launch sequence, and unless manually aborted, it would launch on ti.

The ignited solid rocket engine reached maximum thrust in a second, propelling the rocket swiftly up the vertical rails before it instantly turned and began to accelerate along Earth’s rotational tangent.

The mission-specific East Wind 15C had a much faster ascent rate than regular rockets. In just a few seconds, it pierced through the clouds with a "roar" and beca a shimring star in the clear sky.

...

"Target acquired!"

"Orientation 02, estimated ti 689 seconds, correction 4."

"Stage separation!"

Just over ten seconds after the East Wind 15C was launched, it appeared on the radar of Yuanwang Seven. On the central display map of its console, a small blinking point was slowly moving along the dotted line.

The East Wind 15C flew a distance of 1190 kiloters for this launch, well within the range of its maximum range.

Therefore, to enhance its ground drilling strike capability, the mass of its warhead was almost maximized, and the burnout altitude increased from 150 kiloters to 200 kiloters. Just the descent process required 195 seconds, with a maximum terminal velocity exceeding Mach 5.

It wasn’t that the velocity couldn’t be faster, but since the Ground Drilling Bomb aid for ultra-high precision strikes, if it were too fast, there would be no ti for trajectory correction, and the difficulty of adjustnt would rise exponentially.

Even at Mach 5, control was actually quite difficult. At that speed, even a slight deviation at a high altitude could result in an error of tens of ters upon reaching the ground.

The accuracy control of ballistic missiles has its limits. Reducing the error from 100 ters to 10 ters is already extrely difficult, let alone trying to control it to a single digit—enough to drive one mad.

However, this launch had extrely favorable positioning conditions. There were plenty of signal beacons set up on the ground, a complete satellite network in the sky, and Yuanwang Seven providing real-ti correction data at sea, so most people were still very confident.

Lin Ju had been gazing at the sky in the direction of land from the bridge from the mont of launch, and by this ti, the sun was already fully risen. Just a few seconds of looking stung so much that his eyes could hardly stay open.

A few hundred ters away from Yuanwang Seven, a patrolling 052C destroyer was also lined with sailors, clearly aware of the launch news.

The tourist-laden cruise ship, however, was out of sight, as they were kept in a designated area and could not get close to Yuanwang Seven.

"If I were the Pacific Fleet’s commander, I would definitely take advantage of this opportunity to conduct an interception drill against the East Wind 15C as a hypothetical enemy. Such an opportunity is too rare," Lin Ju said.

Not knowing when, Zhang Zheng had appeared on the bridge, his gaze also fixed forward.

Lin Ju: "Hmm... So are our warships doing the sa thing?"

"..."