Text | "China Science News" reporter Han raised eyebrows
He has devoted himself to the development of the mainland's first- to third-generation air defense missiles; he has led the study of the "method of close and rapid warfare," which has commanded the mainland's "Aerospace Aegis" to repeatedly shoot down foreign reconnaissance planes that have violated the mainland's territorial airspace; and his students have grown up one after another to become leaders and pillars of China's aerospace industry.
He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert on air defense missiles of the Second Department of the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry - Yu Benshui.
May 1 this year is Yu Benshui's 90th birthday, and 2024 is also the 65th year of Yu Benshui's aerospace career.
"I never thought about what I could get, I always thought about what I could do for the country. Whenever I talk about this, the year of the mackerel's back shines in the eyes of Benshui.
Yu Benshui (Photo courtesy of the Second Department of the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry)
"From scratch" to start a new game
"In the missile industry, the development of anti-aircraft missiles is indeed very complicated, but I am willing to fight all my life to defend the territorial airspace of the motherland and defend national security. Yu Benshui said.
In 1960, Yu Benshui returned to China with excellent results from the aircraft design major of the Moscow Aviation Institute of the Soviet Union, a first-class university in the world's aerospace industry, and was assigned to the Second Branch of the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense - now the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry, and has since devoted himself to the creation of the continental air defense missile industry.
At that time, the central authorities decided that the mainland's first-generation air defense missiles should start with the imitation of the "543" missiles and follow a path from imitation to independent design.
This type of missile was imported from the Soviet Union and has a very high level of technology, "but at that time, it was only more than 10 years after the founding of New China, and the mainland's scientific, technological, and industrial base was very backward, so it was very difficult to imitate a sophisticated air defense missile." In the event of a natural disaster, I am also facing great problems in my life." Yu Benshui said.
Yu Benshui knows that whether it is an imitation of "543" or the development of a new model, the word "thorough" is the key. In 1961, he was appointed deputy head of the overall missile group, and he led several colleagues to the air defense missile assembly plant in the field.
Over the next year, he and his colleagues went deep into the production line. He went to the workshop to observe the methods and processes of important process operations and deal with the relevant technical problems in the process of missile production, which benefited Yu Benshui a lot.
After countless calculations, tests, and analyses, in 1964, the "543" was successfully hit at target with multiple rounds of live ammunition and completed production and finalization; in 1965, the mainland's "Hongqi-1" air defense missile was successfully imitated, and the following year it was finalized, thus achieving a breakthrough in the mainland's surface-to-air missile from scratch.
Prior to this, Yu Benshui's overall group had already begun the demonstration of the "543" improvement plan, and put forward the "Hongqi No. 2" minor reform plan and the "Hongqi No. 3" major reform plan, and the two sets of plans were carried out at the same time, and Yu Benshui was mainly responsible for the overall plan of the "Hongqi No. 3" missile.
The flight test of the "Hongqi-3" model telemetry bomb was a complete success in 1965, and in May 1967, the flight test of the independent loop telemetry bomb was successful. At the end of the 70s of the 20th century, the "Hongqi-3" was finalized and became the first anti-aircraft missile on the mainland with the ability to intercept SR-71 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
The "method of close and fast combat" played U-2
Yu Benshui treasures a copy of the "Yinghua Dictionary" in his home, and when it comes to its origin, Yu Benshui is quite proud.
In January 1962, hostile forces attempted to obtain strategic information about China, and in September of that year, the missile unit of the Continental Air Force successfully shot down a U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane with an anti-aircraft missile over East China for the first time. But soon, the U-2 learned to maneuver to escape. As soon as the guidance radar is turned on, it escapes from the SAM's kill zone.
The Air Force Command asked the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of Defense to help solve this difficult problem, and this difficult task fell to the Second Branch of the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of Defense. As a result, the research team with Yu Benshui as the subject leader began to tackle key problems day and night.
In order to shoot down the U-2 again, the key is to accurately calculate the kill zone and the launch zone. At that time, there were only two tube computers in the country, and it took up to 21 days to manually calculate a ballistic.
"Mr. Yu told us that foreigners can chew gum and do it to the computer, and we will use our brains and hard work!" Zhang Zhihong, a colleague of Yu Benshui and former director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Second Department of the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry, recalled that everyone was immersed in numbers and geometric figures day and night, and worked together to complete the simulation calculation.
In the end, Yu Benshui's research team came up with a set of effective plans. This plan was summarized by the Air Force commanders and fighters as a method of close and fast warfare. On November 1, 1963, the 2nd Ground-to-Air Missile Battalion used the method of close and rapid combat for the first time to shoot down an enemy U-2 aircraft. After that, the method of close and rapid warfare began to be popularized to ground-to-air missile units, and enemy U-2 planes no longer dared to easily reconnoiter and harass the mainland.
Yu Benshui was awarded a personal third-class meritorious service, and it was this "Anglo-Chinese Dictionary" that was rewarded. More than 60 years have passed, and Yu Benshui regards this dictionary as a treasure. In his opinion, this is the best witness to the defense of the country's airspace.
"We have to learn to raise our own chickens and lay eggs"
"Air defense is an eternal subject, and where there is a spear, there must be a shield. We must not rest easy just because we have achieved a little bit of success, and the struggle will never end. Yu Benshui said.
In the early 80s of the last century, ultra-low-altitude penetration became a new form of warfare, and the main battlefield of air defense missiles changed from "above nine heavens" to "as high as a tree", and Yu Benshui undertook the heavy responsibility of the overall design of the second-generation air defense missile.
The development of ultra-low-altitude anti-aircraft missiles is technically difficult and demanding.
At the demonstration meeting, some people pointed out that the technological span is too large and the foundation is too weak, so it is better to import foreign missiles. Yu Benshui, who has always been as gentle as jade, suddenly said solemnly: "China is a big country, we can't just buy foreign 'eggs', we must learn to raise chickens and lay eggs by ourselves, and independent research and development capabilities can't be bought." ”
Therefore, Yu proposed to develop low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude anti-aircraft missiles with good maneuverability, fast reaction time, large maneuverability overload, and strong anti-jamming ability. In the end, this suggestion was adopted and listed as a national key development project.
Yu Benshui always attaches importance to independent innovation, and is also known as a great designer who "can change a hat trick" by colleagues and juniors.
In 1982, low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude models began missile flight tests at a certain test base. During a test test, the missile vibrated abnormally, and Yu Benshui, with his rich experience, deduced that the fault was caused by the resonance caused by the deformation of the missile launch canister cover. He suggested a change of "hat". Sure enough, the missile launch test after changing the "hat" was a complete success. The chief engineer of the base gave a thumbs up and said, "Old Yu, God!"
"Basic innovation is very important for the designers of missile weapon systems. Yu Benshui said that all kinds of problems will arise in the process of weapon development, and the brain of the system designer is like an innovative processing plant, and it is necessary to be good at grasping the key points and proposing ways to solve the problems in a timely manner.
Yu Benshui loves and is obsessed with his "innovative processing plant".
With the opening of the prelude to the development of China's low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude anti-ship missiles, the combat objectives of modern air defense missiles have also changed from the previous anti-aircraft to anti-precision-guided weapons. As a result, Yu Benshui successively undertook the research and development of a new generation of missile weapons systems on the mainland. At the age of 60, he successively served as deputy chief engineer of ship-to-air missile systems and chief designer of field air defense missile weapon systems.
"Turning land into sea" and "launching scalpers" is a challenging and pioneering work, involving a wide range of fields and an unprecedentedly high tactical and technical indicators. In the words of this water, "the development of a ship-to-air missile weapon system is a complex systems project, which objectively requires the overall coordination with various subsystems to form a joint force of gathering wisdom to tackle key problems."
In order to overcome the major key technologies of missiles, Yu Benshui participated in the whole process from the production and quality control of the parts on the missile to the test of the whole bomb. His "strict and meticulous" style has deeply affected everyone in the development team.
After years of hard work, Yu Benshui led the ship-to-air missile development team to finally overcome several major key technologies, successfully completed the finalization test, and delivered the product to users as scheduled. This project won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the first prize of the National Defense Science and Technology Award.
In the face of flowers and applause, Yu Benshui said: "The aerospace industry is a system engineering, and there are more than a dozen participating units at the level of the research institute, and there are hundreds of second-level cooperation units. The completion of the cause depends on everyone and the team, and I am at most a leader and foreman. ”
"I want to help young people as much as I can"
To this day, Yu Benshui is still tirelessly concerned about the construction of the aerospace industry, thinking about the future development direction of China's air defense missiles, and taking the lead in making suggestions to superiors on scientific research management, professional construction, and personnel training for many times, so as to contribute to the aerospace industry.
"Looking far, rescuing, checking, and educating people. This is what Yu Benshui is most concerned about at the moment.
He still likes to go to the front line of missile testing. On May 1, 2004, on his 70th birthday, he went to the test base to help young scientists analyze and deal with problems. The young people at the base bought a cake to celebrate his 70th birthday together.
"I wanted to help the young people as much as I could, and I wanted to make sure that the experiment was successful. Recalling these scenes, Yu Benshui smiled warmly, "That birthday was very meaningful." ”
Yu Benshui once talked about "what contemporary aerospace youth have more and less than the older generation of astronauts" and "what else is needed to build a space power", and talked about the "three longs and one short" of contemporary youth.
"First elder" means that the contemporary aerospace youth are proficient in using computers and other scientific research means, which greatly shortens the scientific research time; "Second Chang" means that the contemporary aerospace youth have a higher level of foreign language proficiency than the older generation of astronauts and can better learn and master advanced technologies in various fields around the world; and the "three elders" are the overall mental outlook of the contemporary aerospace youth who are more vigorous and more divergent in thinking. This "short" refers to the fact that compared with the older generation of astronauts, the contemporary aerospace youth have a little less spirit of hard work and simple study.
In the future, Yu Benshui hopes that China will embark on a development path of advanced defense technology with Chinese characteristics. He urged the younger generation of astronauts to keep in mind the sacred mission of "strengthening the army with science and technology and serving the country with space", inherit and carry forward the aerospace spirit of "self-reliance, hard work, vigorous coordination, selfless dedication, rigorous and pragmatic, and courage to climb", and make unremitting efforts for the mainland to achieve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance, and to build itself into a space power at an early date!