The rise of nanometers

at the same time.

On the interior coast of Texas, offshore areas off the Gulf of Mexico.

Two Huo Qubing-class ships and one Qin Qiong-class ship quietly appeared in the Gulf submarine plain of the Gulf of Mexico. The average water depth here exceeds 1,500 meters, which is very suitable for submarine navigation.

Although the Noah Society has increased the density of sonar deployment in the Caribbean after the previous Terror Island incident, their technology is still difficult to capture the sonar signals of the Huo Qubing class and Qin Qiong class.

In addition, they have always regarded the Gulf of Mexico as their own inland sea area, and their own defenses are quite lax.

This relaxation allowed three big black fish to quietly enter the submarine plain of the bay.

Song Yaomin, the commander of the submarine team, looked at the chart data and found that they had arrived at the first target area.

This sea area is less than 183 kilometers away from the west coast of Florida.

Song Yaomin picked up the walkie-talkie and ordered: "Start executing the mission according to the original plan."

"receive."

I saw the huge Qin Qiong launching a special submarine from its torpedo tube. The submarine stalked towards the continental shelf of Florida at a constant speed, about 25 knots.

As the submarine got closer and closer to the coast, the depth of the water became shallower and shallower. To avoid exposure, the staff controlled by the underwater ultrasonic communication system began to slow down the submarine.

Then the sonar detection system was started to detect the seafloor hydrology near the west coast of Florida. The staff soon discovered a suitable small trench.

The depth of the trench is about 330 to 410 meters, the width is 350 to 900 meters, and the length is about 16 kilometers. This depth will not be frequently approached by humans, which is conducive to concealment.

After more than an hour of careful exploration, the submersible finally found a suitable hiding place, a natural underwater cave, which could just accommodate the submersible.

The staff operated the submersible to park in the cave, and then extended a micro drill bit from the bottom of the submersible to drill into the ground.

This submarine is actually a downwind ear sonar for both land and sea use, and its purpose is self-evident.

At present, the land monitoring range of Shunfeng Er has been increased to about 2,200 kilometers, and the seawater detection range is about 800 kilometers.

Of course, the closer to the target, the clearer and more accurate the detected sonar data will be, which is why the submarine team entered the Gulf of Mexico.

Previously, Song Yaomin had led a submarine team to spread these downwind ear sonar devices throughout the Caribbean Sea.

In addition to a marine sonar and a land-based sonar, the submarine is also equipped with an isotope nuclear decay battery, which can work on the seabed for 15 to 25 years.

It is also equipped with a micro self-destruction device, a microcomputer, and a multi-channel ultrasonic communication system. The maximum communication distance is about 300 kilometers under the sea.

Generally speaking, the distance between submersibles will be maintained between 200 and 240 kilometers. In addition, the submersibles can be controlled remotely and move quickly through electric propellers.

Although the data transmission speed of the ultrasonic communication system is very slow, the amount of data that can be transmitted is not large.

But the advantage is safety and concealment. Every once in a while, the ultrasonic frequency of communication will be adjusted through remote control to reduce the possibility of being discovered.

This densely distributed ultrasonic communication network and sonar detection system on the seabed can monitor the global ocean without blind spots.

In order to deal with some emergencies, Suiren Security Company has permanently stationed two Qin Qiong-class ships on the seabed of the Caribbean Sea to serve as fixed sonar data centers in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and other waters.

Even if rest is needed, a shift system is adopted to ensure that at least two Qin Qiong-class ships are left in the area.

In fact, this kind of covert undersea monitoring system is spreading to the global sea at an alarming rate.

Especially in the Northeast Pacific, North Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, areas close to Noah's Club and Lucia, sonar points of the Downwind Ear System are being deployed.

As the saying goes, know yourself and the enemy and you will be victorious in every battle.

Although it has the strategic initiative and technological advantages, this is not a reason for arrogance. In Huang Xiuyuan's view, investing more than 50 billion to deploy this system is not a waste, but very necessary.

What's more, the downwind ear system can not only be used in the military field, but also plays a vital role in seabed hydrographic detection, seabed mineral exploration, plate movement, crust and mantle exploration, and seismic research.

For example, in China, the underground downwind ear system installed since last year has brought a wealth of stratigraphic data.

Including the distribution of various minerals buried below 1,000 meters, as well as groundwater distribution, magma layer distribution, plate movement data, etc.

These data have enabled the Institute of Geology of the Department of Sui Ren and the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences to receive generous scientific research returns.

In fact, the distribution of underground minerals alone is enough to make this investment return. The mineral situation in the shallow layers of the earth's surface has been fully understood after centuries of human exploration.

On the other hand, humans still know very little about the strata one thousand meters below the seabed and land.

Although minerals below one thousand meters do not meet the conditions for large-scale mining, this is limited to elements such as aluminum, iron, copper, zinc, and tin.

If it is a rare element that is scarce, even if it is less than a thousand meters away, it still has the value of mining. What's more, the current drilling technology is already very advanced. Mining at a depth of several kilometers underground is not a fantasy.

In the relevant internal geological exploration reports, many mineral deposits with mining value have been discovered.

For example, near Jiujiang in Gan Province, a small natural gas field was discovered in an area about 6,000 to 6,500 meters underground. If it were an ordinary natural gas field, this depth would not be worth exploiting.

The key is that this natural gas field is a helium-rich gas field, thanks to its closed formation, which firmly locks the helium inside.

According to the assessment of preliminary exploration data, the Jiujiang gas field contains 6,000 to 8,000 tons of helium.

Another example is uranium ore, which is very scarce in China. Several deep veins have been discovered this time, and they are rich ores with relatively high abundance.

There are also various rare elements. In addition to domestic minerals, a large number of minerals from Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Australia, as well as minerals from the surrounding seabed, have been discovered.

Even if these resources are not needed now, they may be needed in the future and can be used as strategic reserves.

Especially in the early days of the space age, due to the slow speed of the spacecraft, the cost of mining minerals from extraterrestrials was relatively high. During this awkward transitional stage, we would definitely have to rely on the mineral resources of Blue Star itself.

In this way, these minerals on the seabed and deep in the earth will become crucial.

Don't think that in the current aerospace field, those rare elements and the like can barely maintain the supply, and think that you can sit back and relax.

Once there is a real large-scale entry into outer space, the scale of the spacecraft must be expanded at least a hundred times to ensure the smooth development of the moon and Mars and realize preliminary space immigration.

At this time, resources will definitely be consumed quickly, and the role of many rare elements in spacecraft is almost irreplaceable in a short time.

For example, molybdenum, rhenium and tungsten in high-temperature resistant materials, rare earth elements in strong magnetic materials and superconducting materials, and plutonium in nuclear decay batteries are all very scarce elements.

Once the supply of raw materials is insufficient, aerospace development may be slow or even stagnant.

In the fiercely competitive space field, once the stamina is insufficient, the opportunity to advance to interstellar civilization may be lost.

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