There is a 18-24 month difference in the technological level between the United States and Germany in the field of jets, and the P-80 Meteor developed by the United States itself is still not catching up with the Gloucester Meteor developed by the United Kingdom, which is not at the level of the ME-262.

In other words, by December 1944, the U.S. military was two years behind the Jet Force, which was already equipped with the TA-183. In peacetime, 2 years is inconsequential or even insignificant, but in wars, especially world wars, it can really be fatal - it just so happens that the gap between the United States and the field of heavy tanks is also 2 years.

Of course, this gap will not develop linearly, and the United States is also catching up. After the establishment of the Air Force, the first thing Admiral Arnold, who had "returned from illness," grasped was the equipment of a new generation of jet fighters. Originally, before the TA-183 Raven showed its face, the United States had high hopes for the F-84 Thunderbolt Jet for the next generation of new aircraft, but after seeing the Raven on the battlefield in South Africa, the Air Force urgently launched the tender for the first jet.

Hearing that the Air Force vowed to launch the tender for a new generation of jet fighters, and then boasted of the "feat" of the manufacturers responding quickly and preparing the relevant application materials in less than three days, Nimitz instinctively felt that something was wrong, but he didn't say much.

Spruance, who is meticulous and is currently in charge of coordinating the Navy's logistics and equipment, thought about it more and more wrongly after he returned, and finally remembered that the Navy had launched four bidding projects for carrier-based jets in the early stage -- the NA-134 project. What a "feat of rapid response", this is clearly a few unscrupulous manufacturers who revised the Navy bid and sent it to the Air Force to cheat money! When the time comes, the same aircraft will make a sum of money from the Navy and another amount of research fees from the Air Force.

"These sons of bitches are capitalists!" After knowing the reason, Dewey slapped the table angrily, not that he was dissatisfied with the extra money, money is trivial, and he still plays small tricks during the critical period, isn't it a big joke to spread it out in the world?

Arnold's face quickly became gloomy, originally Lu Hai Airlines didn't like to use the other party's aircraft (the tradition has been maintained until now), like Hainan Airlines' F4U Army Airlines didn't use it at all, but listening to Spruance's meaning, these 4 manufacturers are all using naval carrier-based aircraft to fool him, how can he not be angry?

Of course, these manufacturers will definitely make some adjustments, and the same aircraft will definitely be fooled by what they will come up with with the Air Force version and the Navy version, but I don't know if they will deliberately set up two factories in the production workshop - the Navy operation area and the Air Force operation area.

Obviously, the same thing has to be different. This is the original method used by Mitsubishi, Nakajima and other aircraft companies to deal with Japan's army and navy, but I did not expect the Americans to learn it so quickly.

Dewey obviously didn't see it that way: "Everyone must unite sincerely and tide over the difficulties together, and now don't distinguish between the navy and the army, they are all American soldiers, they are all for the country, and they must cooperate with each other!"

Usually, saying this a hundred times has no effect, but now that the situation is so critical, how can Arnold be allowed to pick and choose, and immediately agree to work with HNA to determine the specifications and projects of the next generation of main jet fighters.

After the results of the preliminary naval bidding and the experts talked on paper overnight, the Air Force and the HNA finally jointly identified the XP-86 of the North American company as a key project for the next generation of jets, requiring that the prototype must be completed by March, which is much faster than the improved P.1101 project of the second generation of German single-engine jets.

In order to show his attention, Dewey, in the honor of the president, personally called the boss of the North American company and told him to hurry up at all costs, and as for the matter of the declaration of the sea and air bulls, he will not mention it for the time being—anyway, if he does not mention it, some people will say it privately.

Unfortunately, the aircraft design can be advanced quickly, but the engine problem is not easy to solve. Probably the United States has been alone in the field of traditional air cooling for too long, coupled with the help of the British side in the field of liquid cooling, so that they have been ignoring the development of jet engines, although they are catching up, the gap between the engine level and Germany is still very large, and this gap is of course also reflected in rockets and cruise missiles.

For aircraft, especially fighter jets, the engine is life, and the German jets basically use axial jet engines (the technical data of centrifugal engines have recently been obtained from the United Kingdom), while the American jets are all centrifugal engines because of the influence of the British.

ps: This book is blocked by the starting point, and the latest update can be browsed for free on the WeChat public account "Moon Shadow Wutong", welcome to follow......

Although the centrifugal type has the characteristics of simple structure and quick start, the mainstream jet engines in later generations are all axial flow - because this technology has a lot of room for upgrade, it can continue to develop and improve the power-to-weight ratio, and the centrifugal type can only stagnate at a certain stage. It's like walking, the axial flow type is the right way but it can't go fast, the centrifugal type is a shortcut, but it is a broken road, and to a certain extent, you have to go back to the axial flow road.

Germany has gone through the most difficult time in the field of engines, and the future of the world is basically laid; Britain has initially touched the ceiling and is pondering a difficult transformation; The United States has not even touched the ceiling, and is still complacent about its progress; As for Japan, it is entirely Germany that is playing with him, and he only knows what it is, but he doesn't know why; The Soviet Union and France did not even have the qualifications to enter, but they could be regarded as touching the handle......

The positioning of the F-86 is basically the same as that of the Raven, and the P.1101 project, which Hoffman personally inquired about, has focused on all-weather, supersound, out-of-line-of-sight, datalink, and precision strike operations, which is fundamentally a product of two eras. The F-86 is now determined to be weaker than the Raven, not to mention against the P.1101.

MacArthur's statement about air supremacy resonated with others: there is no good way to defend against missiles now, the only feasible thing is to launch a preemptive attack and destroy German missile launch sites on the ground, but if the jets do not have an advantage, there is no way to seize air supremacy, and then there is no way to avoid missile killing.

As a result, the war fell into a vicious circle - because there was no air supremacy, it could not defend against rocket scrubbing, and the risk of losing air supremacy increased. To put it another way: the US military does not have the confidence to win a land war without air supremacy, and even if both sides do not have air supremacy, they dare not say that they can win a ground war -- this is fatal.

Even if Dewey no longer understands military affairs, he still at least has staff members who understand military affairs and then give him staff officers, so that he can understand what the problem is.

"The only feasible way now is to use the Atlantic Fleet to seize sea supremacy, and as long as this can be achieved, there is still hope for the future......"

It's not been a day or two since a bunch of people shouted that the Atlantic Fleet would be dispatched, especially with the addition of the next 3 Essex-class, Mitchell's strength has finally recovered to 5 aircraft carriers, no matter how he shirks and explains, everyone is staring at him.

Of course, he also had a lot of troubles to confide in, which Turner understood him, but it was useless to understand, the situation on the battlefield had deteriorated dramatically, and the Joint Staff had to rely on the Atlantic Fleet.

In the end, Mitchell, who was forced to be anxious, went to Admiral King, who now holds the title of "Director of the Office of the Retired Admiral's Naval Affairs Adviser", and the first thing Admiral King said after returning shocked people: "I agree with letting the Atlantic Fleet go out to fight, but there is one more point I also agree with: surrender immediately if you lose the battle, okay?"

"This ......"

The army cadres looked at each other: the navy lost the war and demanded that the army surrender as well, what kind of theory is this? But if you don't surrender and you don't have a navy, are you waiting for the Germans to come and beat the east coast every day?

In the end, it was concluded that it would continue to drag on, as long as there was no fundamental deterioration in the situation of the war. First, if it drags on, the run-in of the fleet in all aspects will be more in place, and after it drags on, there will be more new warships in service, and 5 aircraft carriers can't beat it, and 6 or even 7 can always compete, right?

Because the rescue that Turner moved worked, now Dewey began to miss the authority of General King and Marshall, after Lehi retired, and now the Joint Chiefs of Staff still lacks a presidential chief of staff (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Admiral King is really not in good health, and he is wondering if he can let Marshall top it - although he is safe and caring with his own people, but no authority is equivalent to farting, and Marshall can at least form a constraint and complement with McCararthur.

But it was a big subject, and he had to think about it carefully, and it would be easy to get Marshall out again, but not so easy to go back.

While the United States was worried about the ensuing war, Stalin, who had retreated east of the Ura Mountains, was discussing the current situation with his marshals and generals—observing the war from an outsider's point of view.

"The Germans and Americans fought another big battle in South Africa?"

"Yes, according to what we have learned, the Americans have been defeated...... In less than 10 days, 300,000 Allied forces collapsed, and South Africa was lost on all fronts. ”

"The Germans have made new progress in their warfare skills?"

"They've come up with a bunch of new weapons and tactics, called Blitzkrieg 2.0, but admittedly, it's huge." Vasilevsky frankly admits that "we have a very big gap in this area." ”

"You and Comrade Konstantin and the entire General Staff must study this matter carefully, and in three days there will be a meeting of the Politburo, and you will be responsible for making a detailed assessment and analysis of the course, the results, and the future impact of this campaign, and in particular, to indicate whether the Germans will use this new set of tactics against us."

"Understood!"