As an example of Chen’s obsessive-compulsiveness, he ensured that the Black Scorpion was the only version assembled in a certain section of the half-mile-long manufacturing facility. Once Black Scorpion was ready to leave the delicate production line, she was cautiously rolled into a windowless, multistory, two-hundred-thousand-square-foot aircraft final-finishes facility. Black Scorpion was parked in a paint bay, where laser-guided robots sprayed radar absorbing material on all her surfaces. This was a delicate, five-day process, ensuring everything was done properly.
“Let’s climb up to flight level two hundred, level off, and get out the test cards and prepare,” Dai announced.
As they were in the climb to twenty thousand feet, the maintenance and engineering chiefs were delighted to see the oxygen and carbon dioxide readings transmitting successfully to the laptops in the hangar. What they didn’t notice was that the data streaming to the ground were on unencrypted frequencies. Looking at the laptop screens open and displayed on the portable hangar toolboxes, many technicians in the hangar were on the encrypted and password-protected Wi-Fi system, but the data flowing in was in the open.
“Pilots healthy. In the green,” the chief of maintenance said, with just a small hint of pride, to the chief of engineering.
“Yes, yes. I see,” the other responded, nodding his head. “This will keep Chen off our asses. That asshole.”
Black Scorpion was pushing out and transmitting the data, as her combined engineering and maintenance team had designed, as if she were an AM radio station broadcasting out of Chicago, Illinois. The signal went from the aircraft, up to the satellite, and down to a receiver, then over Wi-Fi to their computers. To the Black Scorpion team, it worked perfectly. They had not a clue as to the implications of their actions.
Black Scorpion was inbound to the weapons range, nearly level at her planned altitude, and the flight crew could see the Su-35 visually on their night-vision goggles. Fluctuating between a third of a mile and two miles off their right wing, Black Scorpion’s pilots double checked their onboard radar. Both jets were still blacked out to the naked eye, but lit up well with infrared lights for air-to air-safety. The Su-35 did the external radio calls for the airspace, contacting range control on the UHF frequency, but both cockpits knew only one aircraft would be conducting the show tonight.
Black Scorpion had two significant weapon-system additions that Devil Dragon did not have, ones that were still closely held secrets even to most people who knew about the stealth program. Devil Dragon was a distinct aircraft because of its speed and stealth capability, enabling it to fly long distances undetected at unbelievably amazing speeds, with the specific purpose of delivering both conventional and nuclear weapons.
What made Black Scorpion superior and different was her new weapons, certainly not known to most of China’s military and political leadership, or any other country on earth. Her new systems would change warfare forever, as she carried a new airborne laser weapon and an electromagnetic pulse weapon. Both systems were virtually unheard of outside of initial test phases.
Chen was no dummy and was a well-informed student of history. He had read that US President Ronald Reagan had put together a commission some thirty years ago on electromagnetic pulses, and, as usual, Chen saw opportunity in it. The commission’s report stated there would be major loss of life from a weapon like this: if you lost the US electric grid over a five-year span, two-thirds of the population would be dead due to social disruption and disease. Experts have warned members of Congress very recently that igniting a pulse like this could destroy 90 percent of the US’s food supply and electrical grid, including phone lines and internet. To Chen, opportunity.
Because the United States’ global national security environment caused it to continue demonstrating their attraction to nuclear weapons, China felt the need to always keep up the arms race. This Reagan report fueled the Great Power competition, and the US used nuclear weapons as an effective deterrence. It was also a bet against an ambiguous future; they used it as an insurance policy.
China was a unique nation when it came to nuclear technology, too. Since 1977, China had been interested in radiation weapons, but never deployed them. Their specialized nuclear weapons had a smaller blast with enhanced radiation, which made them the perfect tactical option. Then, in 1988, China tested them. But what was interesting to strategists was that China shelved the technology, meaning they built and tested the technology and weapon, but did not develop it for use. Was Black Scorpion a change to their national-security decision making? Was Black Scorpion an extension of their hypersonic glide vehicle system?
Chen’s vision was for Black Scorpion to use her laser weapon for strategic close air support and long-range air-to-air interdiction, which was a crucial and important platform for a laser. Because Black Scorpion was larger than any fighter aircraft, she had the size, weight, and power to carry these two new weapon systems, making her a terrific platform for delivery. Of course, she was also nuclear capable.
The Chinese laser that Chen’s team built was at least five years ahead of the United States’, leveraged from the Defense Department’s third offset strategy, which the secretary of defense was publicly touting in America. Every defense publication, television talking head, industry lobbyist, and trade magazine, preached this now-famous third offset, yet to Chen, the United States was all talk and no action on the subject. Certainly, the defense industry would be happy to take on the business, but Chen knew the industry needed the Defense Department money to develop it. This was where Chen took advantage of someone else’s problem: the United States had just finished multiple wars, had a relatively new administration, and was stressed on funding and resources.
China, though, was smart about its development. In fact, development was an overstatement, because China really didn’t develop it. The laser was inexpensive enough to manufacture after stealing the plans from the United States, and it was a very reasonable way to achieve weapon effects in combat. As any true strategist would know, the real secret sauce was that the aircraft never needed to reload physical ammunition.
The Chinese team was able to lift the technology from the Air Force Research Laboratory, a robbery of years of studies and learning from the mistakes of America. The larger study from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia, was where much of the research associated with the laser weapon system was conducted. A close second was the US Navy, where in one easy phishing scam onboard the USS Ponce, all their studies were captured in one simple and quick evening.
A few years ago, Chen’s cyber team pretended to be employees from a US-based defense contractor working with the navy. Over an email, they asked targeted sailors to send them their username and password, and unfortunately for the United States, some young and naive sailors did so. It was similar to the way the Russians were suspected to have infiltrated the Democratic National Committee computers, apparently affecting the US presidential election. Chen walked in through the open front door, and walked out with everything.
What Chen also loved about the Department of Defense was that they publicly broadcast their exercise assessments and systems tests. He adored that the department had four key categories of vulnerabilities published for all to read! Chen couldn’t believe it when their director of operational test and evaluation wrote in a public release that they had “exposed or poorly managed credentials… that their IT systems were not configured to identified standards… that their systems were not patched for known vulnerabilities, and that their system/network services and trust relationships provided avenues for cyber compromise… [and these] were all areas they need to improve upon.” How exciting! To Chen, this was a cyber invitation to come in and shop around and take what he wanted. He once boasted at a general officer symposium that it was like “taking candy from a baby.”