Shark-Hunting Plan

The current centrifuge array at the Ruby Base is far from sufficient in terms of cascaded capacity and must be further expanded.

But that's only one aspect.

Weapon-grade shaft 235 requires a purity of 90%.

It will take more time.

You can't expect ten pregnant women to give birth to a baby for you in a month.

"It will take six months for the Ruby Base to produce uranium-235."

After completing the calculations, Heguang reached this conclusion.

"The smallest nuclear bomb has a warhead of 15 kilograms, right?" Su Ming asked.

This mass is approximately one-quarter of the critical mass of shaft 235.

"Yes," Heguang confirmed.

"Detonation can be achieved without reaching a critical mass using neutron reflection technology."

"This type of small nuclear bomb has an explosive yield of approximately 20,000 tons of TNT equivalent," Jisu added.

"That's definitely not enough," Su Ming said decisively.

A 20,000-ton bomb, on land, would only create a crater a dozen meters deep.

When an explosion occurs underwater, a large amount of the shock wave's energy is absorbed by the seawater, forming steam bubbles.

Its energy tends to spread laterally rather than penetrate deep into the surrounding area.

Therefore, the craters from underwater nuclear explosions are typically large in area and shallow in depth.

"Our experts agree," Fengshou added.

"They believe it would be best to increase the yield of a single explosion to over 10 megatons."

"And we need five to ten to ensure they're all gone," he added, delivering another blow.

"How long will it take to produce these in Taya?" Su Ming asked directly.

Heguang quickly recalculated.

"One ton of weapons-grade uranium is needed, and the separation process will take one year."

A 10 million ton equivalent yield does not need to be entirely produced by piling up 235 shafts.

When the explosive power of shaft 235 reaches the level of a "nuclear trigger", it can be used to ignite lithium deuteride.

These are commonly referred to as two-phase and three-phase hydrogen bombs.

This amplifies the power.

Even so, this many shafts 235 are still needed.

"How much uranium ore is needed to refine this ton of uranium-235?" Su Ming asked the more crucial question.

"If all of them reach a medium grade, it would require approximately 300,000 tons," Heguang quickly replied.

Su Ming gasped.

The abundance of uranium in nature is extremely low.

And because they are so heavy, they are generally buried very deep.

If the content of uranium oxide (U₃O₃) reaches 0.03%, it is considered uranium ore.

If it reaches one in a thousand, then it's definitely a major mine!

Natural shafts were extracted from them, and then an astonishingly low proportion of shaft 235 was screened out.

The total amount of ore required would naturally inflate to an absurd level.

Su Ming sat back down in his chair, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Nuclear weapons are never just fancy gadgets.

It simply represents a massive, almost callous, input of productivity.

Industry has always been like this.

It possesses a beauty derived from the stacking of grand numerical values.

There are no shortcuts or tricks.

Most people only see the dazzling brilliance that's right in front of them.

They are unaware of the hardships and burdens they endured on their journey.

Su Ming had seen people discussing whether financial nations or industrial nations were more powerful.

This is not a question that needs to be discussed.

Simplicity is simply a result of ignorance.

****

Jin Rongjia got up and went out, smoked a cigarette, and after a while, he pushed the door open and returned to the conference room.

Sangzi glared at him without saying a word.

She didn't say much throughout, but she was definitely the most anxious person there.

The interdimensional communication system is now just waiting for the "satellite" from Taya to be launched.

Superconductors, and further space research—it all points to this.

A large number of researchers are eagerly awaiting this!

Seeing the somewhat heavy atmosphere, Jisu joked to lighten the mood, "We just ate ribbonfish yesterday."

"Comrade Su, didn't you knock a few pieces off with torpedoes?"

"Freeze a few pieces, so we can have some to try later?"

"I didn't have time to fish them out then," Su Ming replied irritably. "Even if I had, I wouldn't have given them to you."

"Mean."

"Didn't you guys say last time that you'd go deep-sea fishing for big fish during your vacation and catch one in a barrel?" Jin Rongjia joked.

"Don't worry," Su Ming said calmly, "You must trust my ability to cause trouble."

"There's no way I'm going to give you guys a holiday!"

As soon as he said that, a chorus of sighs erupted in the conference room.

An awkward silence followed.

Su Ming was taken aback.

"Hey - you guys haven't really been on vacation all this time, have you?"

He glanced around.

"Something keeps happening to you every few days," Fengshou sighed.

"Even on vacation, we can't have a peaceful rest."

"Yes, so stop with your crocodile tears," said the Dodder.

"That's right, once you're done with this whole thing, we're going whale fishing!" Jisu added.

"You can't catch those things by fishing." Su Ming was clearly an expert. "We'd have to go with a whaling ship."

2

He suddenly stopped halfway through his speech.

A whaling technique that had appeared in history popped into my mind.

It seems—it looks like there's potential?

Su Ming raised his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

The meeting room immediately fell silent.

Related ideas quickly connected in Su Ming's mind.

A moment later, he raised his head and looked at the crowd.

"I'm afraid this time, we really will have to go whaling!"

****

Dry ice?

Chloe looked bewildered.

"Yes, to build a dry ice collection factory," Su Ming confirmed.

Newman, who was standing next to him, was also taken aback.

After confirming the urgency of the situation, Newman, Younier, and Stacy, along with over a hundred members of the Final Bone Mad Machines and a group of scholars, arrived here aboard the Kunpeng.

This is the strategic significance of transport aircraft.

"Time is of the essence." Su Ming didn't offer much explanation, but instead made the arrangements directly.

"I need 20,000 tons."

"How quickly can you give it to me?"

The people present not only have the ability to design solutions, but also the ability to actually implement those solutions.

Newman and Chloe pondered for a while, then Newman held up one finger.

"A month?" Su Ming asked.

"Ten days!" Newman proudly tossed his head.

"It's almost purely manual labor; there's not much technical difficulty involved."

Beneath the thick ice cap of Northern Ice Island lies a mineral deposit of carbon dioxide hydrate worth hundreds of millions of tons.

Su Ming originally thought he wouldn't need it for the time being.

Not long after, it was its turn to take the stage.

"Chloe can mobilize hundreds of thousands of Feather Race to participate in the gathering work."

Newman explained his plans.

"We can also utilize a large number of reconstituted crystals," the magic is purified.

"Okay." Su Ming patted Newman's skull head.

"Then I'll assign the next task."

"Manufacture one thousand super-heavy torpedoes, equipped with this dry ice."

Is there a problem?

As he spoke, he projected the torpedo blueprints onto the main screen in the conference room.

Everyone looked up and saw a massive jet-powered torpedo.

It has a diameter of 1050 millimeters and a length of 12 meters.

The warhead is entirely filled with dry ice and contains no explosives.

Beianqi immediately began to disassemble the solution.

"Both the outer shell and the main body can be produced," she quickly concluded.

As for the core components of the rocket engine, they obviously still need to be transported from Earth by Su Ming.

"Are there enough supplies here?" Newman asked.

Chloe was about to speak when Younier stopped her.

"I've already started scheduling," she replied.

"I intercepted a cargo ship bound for the Western Continent from Gray Ridge and Thousand Cellars Domain."

"Five thousand tons of various supplies can be gathered here within two days."

It appears to be a thousand large torpedoes, but after deducting the warhead, the actual materials required are only about two thousand tons.

Younier acted expediently in a crisis, while also having ample reserves.

Having taken on significant responsibilities at the Ruby Base during this period, the girl's growth has clearly been remarkably rapid.

Su Ming was clearly very pleased.

"Good!"

"As for some scarce components, they can be processed directly from the Ruby Base and then transported over by transport plane."

Younier added further.

"Then this part is yours," Su Ming said.

****

Su Ming continued to assign other tasks.

"Stacy, Quail, Xiwo."

"All of these torpedoes must penetrate Charybdis's body."

"You must not only find His weaknesses, but also the large cavities within Him."

"A detailed tactical guidance model has been developed."

"You will be in charge of guiding the torpedo attack!"

"Understood!" the three replied in unison.

"However, Charybdis possesses close-range destruction capabilities," the Hechun cautioned.

Chloe chimed in, "I'll deploy a supercavitating protective layer on the outer layer of the torpedo to prevent water from cutting through it."

"Supercavitation can also significantly increase speed," Su Ming added. "These torpedoes can reach speeds of over 200 knots."

Xiwo's eyes lit up.

"That's impressive speed!"

"We can use a curved attack trajectory, changing direction midway."

"Given the speed of reaction Charybdis has shown previously, he most likely won't have enough time to react."

"It can't change direction." Su Ming delivered the bad news.

These torpedoes can only fire in straight lines.

"While supercavitation significantly reduces water resistance, it also almost completely disables the control capabilities of the rudder surfaces."

Seeing that the three of them seemed hesitant, Su Ming continued.

"However, I have another plan for this part."

As he spoke, he turned to look in the other direction.

"Beianqi, Zijin."

"I'm going to use the Vermilion Bow underwater to launch jamming weapons."

Both of them pondered for a moment.

"What type of thing do you plan to launch?" Beianqi asked first.

"It's a shotgun type, with a firing speed controlled at around 100 knots," Su Ming replied.

He mentally calculated the required projection intensity.

"Is there a problem with a launch rate of ten tons per second?"

This speed isn't considered high.

Compared to launching a satellite, the kinetic energy requirement is much lower.

"No problem!" Beianqi answered readily. "The ' Zhurong ' reactor and battery compartment can withstand it completely."

Zijin also spoke up.

"At what depth should we fire?"

"One hundred to one hundred and twenty meters," Su Ming replied.

Upon hearing this number, Zijin breathed a sigh of relief.

"OK."

"I can use an enhanced vacuum array to isolate and separate the seawater from this pressure."

Underwater firing obviously cannot allow seawater to flow into the ship's hull through the Vermilion Bow.

Su Ming slowly stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the conference room.

"Then let's arrange it that way."

"Everyone, begin the mission immediately!"

"Yes!" everyone responded in unison.