Luneburg Lens? It's Not Installed
"Eagle's Nest, do you copy?"
"Affirmative. What's the situation?"
"The target is very fast, currently exceeding 1.5 Mach. We can't lock onto it. Requesting activation of the electronic warfare pods."
"Eagle's Nest, permission granted for activation."
"Roger that."
Click!
Tang Rui pressed the electronic warfare activation button, and all six electronic warfare pods mounted on the J-16D were simultaneously activated.
Tang Rui, watching the J-16D on the screen getting further and further away, breathed a sigh of relief.
But then, the next second, the screen started flickering with interference.
Electronic warfare information suppression.
As Tang Rui realized the situation, he immediately activated the anti-jamming mode.
The signals returned to normal. However, the radar on the drone was rendered useless at this point.
But he didn't care about radar or anything else. In high altitude, he didn't have to worry about mid-air collisions.
He continued to accelerate.
The speed of the drone continued to soar and quickly reached 2.5 Mach, entering the thermal barrier zone.
At this speed, the J-16D could no longer catch up.
After flying for another five minutes, he would adjust the drone's direction and start decelerating.
As long as he didn't get too close to the fighter jet's radar, with the stealth capabilities of the drone, ground and airborne radars wouldn't be able to detect him.
"Calling Eagle's Nest on the radio."
"Eagle's Nest, go ahead."
"The target is lost, radar unable to track, lost its trace."
"Eagle's Nest, please provide a detailed explanation."
"The target is very fast, I have engaged the afterburners, reaching a maximum speed of 2.15 Mach, but the target is even faster, exceeding 2.5 Mach. The electronic suppression did not work well, and the drone's flight trajectory is normal."
"Eagle's Nest, continue with the original training mission."
"Roger, continuing with the training mission."
The J-16D's pilot pulled back the throttle to reduce the flying speed.
Although they had just refueled, if they continued to fly at maximum speed, the fuel would be depleted in no time.
Tang Rui was unaware of the situation on the ground.
After shaking off the fighter jet, he also began to decelerate.
If he didn't slow down soon, the drone wouldn't be able to return.
"Sir, should we contact the military to avoid any misunderstandings?" Tang Rui raised his head and asked the teacher in charge of the activities at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
"No need to contact them; they are already here," the teacher replied with a wry smile.
Tang Rui was taken aback and followed the teacher's gaze to see what was happening.
Oh my!
A senior colonel was standing in the crowd, smiling at him.
The onlookers also restrained their smiles.
"Hello, sir," Tang Rui awkwardly smiled and greeted the senior colonel.
He had made a mistake and got caught red-handed.
"Hello, young man. Is there anything else you need to test with your drone?" The senior colonel asked with a smile instead of being stern.
"Um... we still need to test the extreme flight altitude," Tang Rui replied.
"No problem. You can continue your test as if I'm not here," the senior colonel said.
"Or... Sir, could you give the order, and I will follow your instructions?" Tang Rui suggested.
"Sure, I'll give the order. Now begin testing the extreme flight altitude," the senior colonel said.
With those words, everything became more straightforward.
Tang Rui immediately pulled the control stick, directing the drone to fly higher into the sky.
The students around him mentally gave him a thumbs-up.
He was really impressive.
His composure is incredible.
Being caught red-handed by the military and still sitting calmly, even letting them give orders.
Tang Rui didn't think about these things. He looked at the altitude display on the screen, and the current altitude of the drone was 13,500 meters.
However, the drone's power was not an issue, and there was still a considerable gap to the extreme flight altitude.
It continued climbing to 15,000 meters, and the drone's power was still fine.
It continued climbing to 18,000 meters, and the drone's power was still fine.
At this point, the engine power showed a slight attenuation.
But it could still continue climbing… 21,000 meters.
The engine power significantly decreased, and the internal pressure resulted in incomplete fuel combustion at 21,500 meters.
The drone reached its climbing limit and couldn't ascend further. The engine output occasionally stalled, and system warnings began to flash.
Seeing this situation, Tang Rui knew that 21,500 meters was the maximum altitude the drone could climb to.
However, this altitude was meaningless.
According to the data from earlier, 18,000 meters was the highest altitude the drone could fly under normal conditions.
Going higher would result in inefficient power loss.
After completing the test, Tang Rui controlled the drone to return.
However, he didn't need to manually control it; he could simply activate the automatic cruise mode.
He let go of the control stick and turned his head to the military colonel.
"Is the test over?" The colonel asked, smiling as he met Tang Rui's gaze.
"Yeah, the test is over," Tang Rui obediently nodded.
"Since the test is over, open the Luneburg Lens on the drone."
"It's not installed."
"... "
Tang Rui felt helpless. The system panel upgrade and enhanced drone didn't come with this feature.
In the system's view, the Luneburg Lens was unnecessary.
But why did stealth fighters like the Eagle and F-22 carry the Luneburg Lens?
It was to confuse the enemy.
A normal radar would be able to detect the F-22 because it also carried the Luneburg Lens.
The purpose was to prevent ground radars from obtaining the radar cross-section data of stealth fighters.
Without this data, in case of war, ground radars wouldn't be able to adjust their parameters to target stealth fighters.
So whether it's the Eagle, Damao, or our own stealth fighter, they usually had this.
The colonel didn't pay attention to Tang Rui and turned to the people around him.
"All of you are students from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology and the China Southern Airlines. Regarding confidentiality matters, I don't think I need to say much.
"If any of you have taken photos or recorded videos, please delete them now.
"This includes the footage you've captured of this student's drone; please delete them all."
He said it with a serious expression.
In fact, since he arrived, he had been observing the situation and didn't notice anyone taking out their phones to take pictures.
This made him have a favorable impression of the students from the two universities.
"I took some pictures of Rui's drone earlier, but fortunately, I didn't post them on my Moments."
"I feel the same. After all, Rui's drone is so cool."
"When the drone comes back, let's take another look, but keep it a secret if you want to see more."
"Why don't you say, 'If you want to see more, you must pay and go to an air show'?"
Those who had previously taken photos of the drone were deleting them one after another.
The colonel nodded slightly when he saw this scene.
However, this was just a temporary measure. Later, personnel from the confidentiality department would handle it specifically.
Half an hour later, the drone landed slowly on the runway of the stadium.
The colonel's driver immediately covered the drone with a pre-prepared rainproof cloth and loaded it onto the vehicle.
Others followed the teacher to the lecture hall to receive confidential education and sign an NDA.
Tang Rui was somewhat special.
He carried his laptop and went directly to the military district with the colonel.
Li Shuyao naturally followed Tang Rui.
This date was really amazing.
They went directly to the military district for the date.
"Did Rui get taken away? I hope nothing happens to him."
"Something's up; it's a big deal."
"You're just making things up."
"Why are you all overthinking? How could anything happen? Rui's taking off directly. He got a special invitation from the military. How awesome is that?"
"Oh, wow... that's quite a fortunate turn of events."