Chapter 69

Wilhelm easily solved the problem proposed by Oberth, leaving Oberth even more impressed and in awe of him.

"Your Highness, you truly are a genius, and this is a good idea. However, won't this method be limited in its range? After all, even the best pilot can only spot enemy planes about 30 kilometers away, but how can we control a V2 missile with a range of 300 kilometers using wires? Moreover, the weight of the wires themselves is a significant issue! It's likely that the missile's flight will be affected once the wire exceeds a certain length!"

Wilhelm nodded. "I'm just offering a concept here. This wired guidance method might have its limitations and can only be used for short-range missiles, specifically for dealing with enemy tanks and bunkers. Once we have fiber optic technology, we can replace the wires and have no problem dealing with enemy bombers." The weight and length of metal wires, as well as the signal attenuation, restrict the missile's range to within 2000-3000 meters, primarily used for anti-tank and anti-bunker warfare.

In the future, the conductor used for wired guidance is the optical fiber. Optical fibers are highly favored due to their light weight (a kilometer of copper wire weighs 3 kg, while several kilometers of optical fiber only weigh a few hundred grams), excellent concealment (image data and control instructions transmit through the internal laser beam of the fiber, with no external light or electromagnetic signal radiation, providing strong attack concealment), and long control distance (extending up to 60 kilometers).

Speaking of "optical fiber," there are probably very few people in the future who are unfamiliar with it, especially its close connection to broadband. Just browsing the internet makes it clear that optical fibers transmit data faster than traditional cables, as light, being the fastest known speed, carries the signals through them.

Some might think that this sophisticated-sounding "optical fiber" is a high-tech invention from the past few decades. However, as early as 1887, a scientist created a 2-meter-long optical fiber.

Manufacturing optical fibers can be considered both easy and difficult. It's easy because optical fibers are made of glass (and sometimes plastic), similar to the optical glass used in windows. The difficulty lies in making the glass pure enough.

How pure is pure enough? Even if the optical fiber is several kilometers thick, you can still see through it clearly, unlike regular glass windows that become increasingly opaque with thickness due to impurities. After achieving this level of purity, the glass is drawn into optical fibers.

Wilhelm, of course, wouldn't overlook this strategically important product, but unfortunately, until now, there hasn't been a breakthrough in equipment and processing bottlenecks, preventing mass production. Nevertheless, he believes that it will only be a matter of a few more years.

"Since wired guidance has its flaws, we can explore wireless guidance methods. For instance, using radio or television guidance. We can install a camera and signal transmitter at the front of the rocket's warhead and continuously send signals. At the control station, we'll have a television and receiver to receive the camera's signals, allowing the operators to control the missile while watching the TV screen."

This is not an unreasonable request, considering that the world's earliest wireless guided weapon was the "Fritz-X" used by Germany during World War II.

The "Fritz-X" bomb weighed 1570 kilograms, with a length of 3.2 meters and a maximum diameter of 562 millimeters. It had cross-shaped wings with a span of 1.6 meters. The tail of the bomb had a circular control wing structure with four control surfaces operated remotely by radio and five light-emitting tubes to help the pilot accurately determine the position of the "Fritz-X" wireless-guided bomb and make necessary adjustments to its course.

Similarly, television guidance systems were also used during World War II, with the earliest application being the Hs294D type air-to-ground guided missile used by Germany.

As for their combat performance and results, they remain debatable, but they are indeed the ancestors of modern guided missiles in the future.

However, both methods have their drawbacks. Radio-guided missiles have poor resistance to interference and can be easily disrupted by the enemy, leading to loss of control. On the other hand, television-guided missiles, as one of the radio-guided methods, not only share all the mentioned shortcomings but also can only operate during daylight, greatly affected by weather conditions. Their operational effectiveness decreases in situations with low visibility due to smoke, dust, or fog. Additionally, the equipment on the missile is quite complex, making the guidance system costly.

Regardless of the drawbacks, Wilhelm is determined to develop anti-aircraft missiles. The thought of the overwhelming fleets of American bombers sends shivers down his spine.

In the original timeline, Germany's anti-aircraft artillery units were facing a crisis in the middle to late stages of World War II because the number of enemy planes shot down was disproportionately high compared to the amount of ammunition expended. It was estimated that for each enemy aircraft shot down, the German forces needed to consume 16,000 rounds of 88mm shells, equivalent to 6,000 rounds of 105mm shells or 3,000 rounds of 128mm shells.

Any person with foresight could foresee that with technological advancements and an increase in aircraft speed, the situation would continue to deteriorate. If they were to use surface-to-air missiles, where one missile could down one aircraft, the operational effectiveness would undoubtedly be significantly improved. After all, present-day aircraft were not the jet planes that would come and go without a trace as seen in the future.

However, even in the original timeline, despite the development of various surface-to-air missiles such as "Löwe," "Hecht," "Wasserfall," "Schmetterling," and "Rheintochter," Germany did not hastily adopt this advanced anti-aircraft method. Such a transformation carried significant risks, not just in terms of the changes in weaponry but also the changes in operational methods. The notable change was the shift from a predictive mode of defense to a radar-guided mode, involving numerous technical challenges that made the Germans cautious.

Wilhelm believes that as long as they focus on research and development, they can deploy these anti-aircraft weapons before the Allied forces launch large-scale bombing raids on Germany.

The effectiveness of these anti-aircraft missiles may not be perfect, but even with poor accuracy, they would be deadly against densely packed formations of bombers. If the bomber formations dare to disperse, the German fighters will undoubtedly teach the Americans a lesson. With a combination of anti-aircraft missiles, proximity fuzes on high-explosive shells, and high-altitude interceptors, they will shoot down as many of those so-called "air fortresses" as possible.

"I believe that unless new technologies emerge, these two types of missiles won't experience any major qualitative leaps in the short term. We can divide our research department into three groups: the first group will continue to find ways to improve these two missiles, the second group will research air-to-air, air-to-ground, and sea-to-sea missiles, and the third group will start researching sounding rockets."

The current rocket science institute is undoubtedly a gathering of talents. Besides domestic scientists like Wernher von Braun, Hubertus Strughold, Ludwig Prandtl, and others, many foreign talents have been absorbed as well.

Sergei Pavlovich Koroliov, the Soviet scientist, was secretly brought to Germany by German intelligence (thanks to Wilhelm's intervention) after his lab had frequent accidents, causing dozens of deaths in the last explosion. The authorities directly sent several responsible people to Siberia and permanently banned such research. It took more than a year of both soft and hard persuasion to get him to agree to work for Germany.

Robert H. Goddard, the "father of space rockets," and other scientists, such as Theodore von Kármán, were also "persuaded" to join Germany and participate in rocket development. The current Americans probably have no idea about the rocket propellants, let alone the complex technological engineering of navigation, rocket engines, and materials.