Chapter 156 The Air Force's "Predator"? No, it's stronger!

The piercing sound of alarms echoed over the base, causing the originally silent Gobi Desert to instantly boil with activity.

In less than two minutes.

The heavy explosion-proof doors were pushed open, and the base Commander, draped in a greatcoat, strode into the command hall with a grim expression. Following closely behind were several grey-haired technical Experts wearing thick-rimmed glasses, clutching the data terminals they had grabbed upon being jolted awake.

"What's the situation? Is it an enemy attack?"

The Commander's voice was steady and powerful, instantly steadying the somewhat frantic atmosphere.

"Reporting to the Chief! Unidentified flying object detected in Airspace 03 at an altitude of fifteen thousand meters!"

The duty officer, drenched in sweat, pointed at the massive electronic screen in front. "The target's radar signature is extremely weak, and its flight path is highly irregular. Our conventional early-warning radars cannot maintain a stable lock!"

The Commander looked up at the screen.

The red dot representing the target was like a playful ghost, appearing and disappearing in the afterglow of the radar scans. One second it was at the top of the stratosphere, the next it seemed to have glided to the edge of the troposphere, completely ignoring the conventional logic of aerodynamics.

"Unable to lock on?"

The Commander gave a cold snort, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. "In our military's Air Defense Identification Zone, there is no bird that cannot be locked! Activate the Skynet Phased Array Fire Control Radar! Drag it out of the sky for me!"

Furthermore, not long ago, they had upgraded the radar. It was said that there had been a major civilian breakthrough regarding stealth coatings; correspondingly, their military units had conducted an upgrade based on reverse-engineering that technology.

"Yes! Skynet System activating!"

Following the command, on the outskirts of the base, that massive phased array radar antenna, tall as a skyscraper, slowly rotated, instantly releasing an electromagnetic beam of terrifying power.

This time, no matter how that ghost glided or remained silent, it had nowhere to hide in the face of absolute power.

Zzt—

The large screen flickered violently.

That elusive red dot was instantly pinned to the center of the screen, unable to move again.

Immediately after, the blurred silhouette captured by long-range optical observation equipment, along with real-time flight data derived from radar echoes, flooded the right side of the screen like a waterfall.

"Target locked!"

"Constructing 3D model... Analyzing flight parameters..."

The moment all the data stabilized.

The originally noisy command hall instantly fell into a suffocating silence.

Only the low hum of the supercomputers running at full speed could be heard.

The white-haired Chief Engineer standing behind the Commander took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and put them back on. He stared fixedly at the string of numbers on the screen that could only be described as science fiction, his lips starting to tremble uncontrollably.

"This... how is this possible?"

The Chief Engineer's voice was hoarse, filled with the bewilderment of someone questioning reality.

"Altitude: 15,800 meters. This is already the service ceiling limit for most conventional fighters; it's flying twice as high as a civil airliner!"

"Speed: 900 km/h. High subsonic cruise!"

"Radar cross-section... less than 0.01 square meters?"

The Chief Engineer suddenly turned his head and looked at a young staff officer nearby, asking urgently, "Can you calculate its payload and range potential?"

The young staff officer's fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, pulling up the target's flight attitude and energy consumption models from the past few minutes for extrapolation.

A few seconds later, a red warning box popped up.

Looking at the result, the young staff officer swallowed hard, his voice trembling as if he were about to cry:

"Report... according to the aerodynamic model reverse-calculation, the target's effective payload is... at least five tons or more."

"And based on its fuel consumption curve and gliding efficiency calculations, its theoretical maximum range... exceeds eight thousand kilometers."

"It might even... it might even reach ten thousand kilometers."

Boom!

These few numbers slammed heavily into the hearts of everyone present.

A five-ton payload?

An eight-thousand-kilometer range?

What did this mean?

It meant that if this aircraft were equipped with missiles, it could take off from here, drop five tons of explosives on some corner on the other side of the planet, and then fly back swaggeringly!

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

The Chief Engineer shouted, losing control of his emotions. He pointed at the screen, his fingers shaking. "We poured the strength of the entire nation and spent tens of billions on the Soaring Dragon UAV project. What is its current payload? What is its range? It's not even half of this ghost's!"

"If this is real, it means our technological path has been completely crushed! It means we are lagging behind by an entire generation!"

...

The Commander's face also became extremely unsightly.

He turned to look at another Expert responsible for foreign military intelligence: "Compare it with the Ugly Country's similar equipment. Is it the Global Hawk? Or the predator?"

The Intelligence Expert pulled up data charts for the Ugly Country's most advanced active-duty UAVs and overlapped them with the target on the screen.

That twin-boom layout, which closely resembled the predator but with smoother lines and a more menacing structure, bore some resemblance to the Ugly military's equipment.

But the data would not lie.

"Reporting to the Chief..." The Intelligence Expert wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Although the shape is similar... this is not a predator."

"The Ugly Country's predator has only half the payload and only two-thirds of the range."

"As for the Global Hawk, while its range can compete, that is a strategic reconnaissance aircraft costing hundreds of millions of dollars; it simply doesn't possess such a terrifying payload capacity!"

"What's even scarier is this..."

The Intelligence Expert pointed to a nearly linear fuel consumption data line on the screen, deep fear showing in his eyes:

"The energy efficiency of this target defies common sense. It seems to have mastered a type of dynamic soaring technology that we cannot understand. It isn't just flying; it's riding the air currents!"

"This..."

After hearing the Expert's analysis, the Commander took a deep breath.

He looked at the red dot on the screen that was still looking down on all others from ten thousand meters high. The shock in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a decisiveness and greed unique to a soldier.

Since it was even stronger than the Ugly Country's.

Since it had appeared in our airspace.

Then they had to figure out exactly what it was!

"If this is a new weapon of the enemy, then our current air defense system is nothing more than a scrap of paper."

The Commander said in a low voice, each word sounding as if it were squeezed out from between his teeth.

"But if... this belongs to one of our own..."

At this point, his gaze became incredibly fervent.

"Investigate!"

The Commander waved his hand sharply, issuing a top-level absolute order:

"Use every means of reconnaissance! Have the electronic warfare units reverse-track the signal source! Reposition satellites for an optical lock!"

"I don't care if it's a person or a ghost, or where it popped up from!"

"I want to know its entire history! I want to know exactly which laboratory it flew out of!"