Chapter 223: Advantages and Disadvantages

Magnetic sense vision had various drawbacks, but the most serious was its limited perspective. Due to the Earth's curvature and obstructions from terrain, monitoring distant low-altitude areas, land, and sea was difficult.

Furthermore, the magnetic sense perspective suffered from a layering effect. This effect intensified with distance, interfering with the precision of magnetic information analysis.

Using data such as the Pythagorean theorem, Earth's curvature, and its radius, Li Qingye had already calculated the maximum effective range of the magnetic sense vision.

A monitoring station placed at an altitude of approximately one hundred meters could monitor the ground and low-altitude airspace within a 30-kilometer radius.

However, its range extended indefinitely for mid-to-high altitudes and outer space.

The limiting factor for observation at these higher altitudes was actually the supercomputer's ability to resolve the magnetic layering effect.

Based on data from hundreds of previous mid-to-high altitude tests, the current most powerful supercomputer (with a floating-point performance of 200 exaflops per second), combined with the most comprehensive magnetic layer-slicing analysis technique, could resolve changes in magnetic field information up to 360 million kilometers away.

Of course, this maximum range of 360 million kilometers had no practical application for humanity's current warfare needs. It was only useful for scientific research in astronomy.

Its practical monitoring ranges were within 30 kilometers for ground and ultra-low altitudes, 5,000 kilometers for mid-to-high altitudes, and 36,000 kilometers for outer space.

To compensate for the magnetic sense vision system's range limitations near the ground and at ultra-low altitudes, Li Qingye had also developed a specialized curvature compensation system.

This system leveraged the fact that magnetic fluctuations generate lines of induction in all directions. Combined with a supercomputer's brute-force processing, it could lock onto moving targets hidden by the Earth's curvature.

This technology allowed it to lock onto moving targets at ultra-low altitudes, on the ground, and on the water's surface within a radius of roughly 300 kilometers.

Naturally, placing the magnetic sense vision monitoring stations in high-altitude regions would further expand their surveillance range over ultra-low altitudes, land, and sea.

For instance, at an altitude of 1,000 meters, a station could directly observe ultra-low-altitude targets within a 100-kilometer radius. With the curvature compensation system, this range increased to 1,000 kilometers.

For the Luzon Islands, finding high-altitude locations for magnetic sense vision monitoring stations was essential.

This way, even if America planned a surprise attack on the Luzon Islands with drones or fighter jets flying at ultra-low altitudes, the enemy aircraft would inevitably be detected as soon as they entered the one-thousand-kilometer range.

Li Qingye had also devised plans to further enhance surveillance intensity.

One plan was to use airships equipped with magnetic sense vision monitoring devices, floating in the stratosphere above the Luzon Islands.

Observing from the stratosphere would minimize the effects of the Earth's curvature, extending the direct observation range for ultra-low altitudes to a radius of 700 to 800 kilometers. Adding the curvature compensation system would push this to a maximum of 2,100 to 2,400 kilometers.

Another enhancement involved installing magnetic monitoring equipment on submarines.

The magnetic monitoring equipment was very similar to passive sonar; it didn't need to emit electromagnetic waves, allowing it to detect changes in the surrounding magnetic field.

Submarines carrying this equipment could further expand the defensive perimeter around the Luzon Islands.

Alternatively, installing the equipment on large aircraft would fall into the category of early-warning aircraft.

With this technology, Homo Sapiens Company had shored up its weakness in radar surveillance.

Li Qingye spent the entire day busy at the research institute.

The precision of the magnetic sense vision depended on two things: the supercomputer's processing power and the very work Li Qingye was currently engaged in—formulating new combinations of magnetosensitive proteins within the magnetic sense cells.

The magnetic sense of birds and insects had certain limitations, which were related to their biological needs.

After all, as naturally evolved creatures, birds and insects didn't require a magnetic sense with a range of hundreds of kilometers. This also served to reduce the load on their brains.

The magnetic radar required by Homo Sapiens Company, however, clearly needed to have long-range, beyond-visual-range capabilities.

Li Qingye and his team of assistants continuously created new, genetically engineered magnetic sense cells, selecting the most promising samples from the batches.

Higher precision meant finer detection of magnetic fluctuations, which in turn allowed for more accurate target monitoring.

Currently, the most precise of the several hundred types of magnetic sense cells could detect the magnetic fluctuations generated by a moving, coin-sized object, though its effective range at this precision was only 7.2 kilometers.

The magnetic radar built from these cells was extremely precise when tracking various moving and metallic objects.

This was because man-made objects like fighter jets and warships, with their large metal content, produced very distinct magnetic fluctuations.

Especially against the relatively uniform magnetic backgrounds of the sky and sea, the moment a jet or warship moved within the radar's range, it would be instantly locked on to.

Even a submarine on the ocean floor would be unable to hide if it came within about 150 kilometers of a large, high-altitude magnetic radar.

Moreover, Homo Sapiens Company had already secretly deployed a vast network of undersea fiber optic cables and monitoring nodes on the floors of the Pacific and Ceylon Oceans.

As time went on, infiltrating Homo Sapiens Company's controlled territories would only become increasingly difficult.

Li Qingye wasn't aiming for perfection. The first-generation magnetic radars were already being secretly deployed.

It wasn't until evening that he took a moment during dinner to check on the development progress of Flying Fish Company and Qingye Aviation.

Flying Fish Company's drone technology was advancing rapidly. They had already developed over twenty drone models and four practical cruise missiles.

He scrolled through the internal documents on his tablet.

Unlike Qingye Aviation, Flying Fish Company wasn't pursuing launch vehicles and intercontinental missiles. Instead, it continued to specialize in drones and cruise missiles.

Paul and Fang Bai had recently established a new project: the Osprey Cruise Missile.

The project was actually quite simple. They would take the Eagle fighter jet, modify its aerodynamic layout, add an autopilot module, convert a portion of its payload capacity into internal jet fuel tanks, and leave it with a payload of about one ton.

This heavily modified Eagle fighter jet was transformed into the Osprey Cruise Missile, boasting a maximum range of 12,000 kilometers and a one-ton payload.

Li Qingye immediately understood what Fang Bai and the others were thinking.

This modification was clearly a way for Homo Sapiens Company to acquire a functional intercontinental missile in the shortest amount of time.

The one-ton payload was obviously intended for a B43 hydrogen bomb warhead.

Qingye Aviation's launch vehicles and intercontinental missiles, on the other hand, were designed to use liquid oxygen-methane engines with a Crystal Sponge core.

Despite "borrowing" a great deal of technology from America and Lucia through the Foreign Affairs Department, Qingye Aviation, designing a liquid oxygen-methane engine for the first time, was currently mired in development hell.

According to Qingye Aviation's recent R&D logs, improvements to the prototype and a finalized design for the liquid oxygen-methane engine wouldn't be possible until the second half of '22 at the earliest.

Therefore, Flying Fish Company's interim solution was crucial for Homo Sapiens Company. It gave them an intercontinental strategic delivery capability in the short term, at the very least.