Homo Sapiens

While Li Qingye was monitoring the progress of the nuclear project in Black Tiger Canyon...

At the First Shipyard on Panay Island, Luzon.

A Super Luzon-class Amphibious Assault Ship with a displacement of 55,000 tons had already completed the construction of its main hull and was now in the intensive interior fitting-out phase.

Huang Weida, Yino, and the others, who had come from the Third Shipyard to provide support, gazed at the behemoth before them and finally breathed a collective sigh of relief.

During nearly a week of immersion tests, the hull had shown no signs of deformation, leakage, or fractures.

They walked toward another fully enclosed dry dock, which housed the second Super Luzon-class vessel. Its main structure was already about 76% complete and would be finished in another two weeks.

Meanwhile, Sen Shangzhe, the lead designer of the Super Luzon-class Amphibious Assault Ship, was also gazing at the colossal vessel, his eyes filled with excitement. It was as if the uniquely dramatic spirit of his East Japan heritage was burning brightly within him.

Yino, standing to the side, threw up his hands in exasperation. ”Designer Sen, I still can’t bring myself to agree with this design.”

”Designer Yino, your thinking is too conservative,” Sen Shangzhe replied, his expression zealous. ”We must fully leverage our company’s advantages in materials to develop asymmetrical tactics to counter our enemies.”

Huang Weida was long accustomed to their constant arguments.

Of course, the design of this second Super Luzon-class vessel was indeed highly unconventional—some might even say bizarre.

The Super Luzon-class was no ordinary amphibious assault ship. It was a tri-phibious assault ship; in addition to supporting landing operations and surface combat, it could also submerge.

Similar to a semi-submersible vessel’s design, and with its reinforced hull, its overall structural integrity was roughly 2.7 times greater than that of a conventional submarine. Its maximum dive depth was 2,400 meters.

Sen Shangzhe’s design incorporated a rapid-submersion system using negative-pressure ballast tanks, allowing the warship to sink beneath the surface in just 15 seconds.

This speed was crucial. It was the very reason Sen Shangzhe designed the Super Luzon-class as a ”submersible warship.” If it couldn’t submerge fast enough, it would be difficult to evade missile attacks.

The hull material of the New Luzon-class ships was incredibly strong. Conventional torpedoes, even 800mm-caliber ones packed with TNT, couldn’t breach it, to say nothing of little ”toothpicks” like the Tomahawk Cruise Missile.

However, simply tanking enemy fire was obviously a foolish approach.

Sen Shangzhe had realized something: given Homo Sapiens Company’s extensive undersea surveillance network, slow-moving torpedoes had no chance of getting near their submarines and warships. The real threat came from aircraft and missiles, which could use radar to lock onto surface vessels.

Therefore, he chose a strategy that played to their strengths and mitigated their weaknesses.

In the event of war, the Super Luzon-class could rapidly submerge to evade enemy radar and missile strikes.

As for sonar detection, the Super Luzon-class had little to fear. Homo Sapiens Company already possessed second-generation anechoic tile technology. At speeds below 10 knots, the ship’s acoustic signature was nearly indistinguishable from the ocean’s background noise, making it undetectable even by active sonar.

This was why Sen Shangzhe insisted on the submersible warship concept.

Homo Sapiens Company’s advantage in materials science was undeniable. His design was all about leveraging that advantage to engage their opponents asymmetrically.

Yino scoffed at the plan. ”You’ve got it backward. This is an amphibious assault ship, remember? Don’t you plan on recovering the aircraft you launch? How are friendly planes supposed to locate the Super Luzon-class? Are you treating them as single-use disposables?”

”No! No!” Sen Shangzhe laughed triumphantly.

”Designer Yino, you should pay more attention to the company’s confidential research journals. The magnetic field radar and magnetic field communication technology recently developed by the Chairman have already been deployed.”

”Magnetic field radar? Magnetic field communication?” Yino was completely baffled.

Huang Weida, however, had read some of the relevant internal journals. He asked in surprise, ”It’s already reached the operational stage?”

”Yes. It’s another one of the Chairman’s masterpieces.” Sen Shangzhe’s eyes were filled with a fanatical gleam.

”What’s the journal number?” Yino asked urgently.

”36-6605275,” Huang Weida replied offhandedly.

Yino opened his tablet, searched the internal journal database, and quickly found more than a dozen related academic papers.

After a quick skim, it all clicked for Yino.

Unlike conventional electromagnetic radar, magnetic field radar doesn’t need to emit electromagnetic waves. This means it can’t be locked onto, nor is its signal severely impeded by seawater.

Even at a depth of two to three hundred meters, a fighter jet’s magnetic field radar could still detect a clear magnetic signature.

Magnetic field communication, on the other hand, wasn’t a high-bandwidth technology. It was more akin to a signaling system, like semaphore.

For example, the submersible and its aircraft could have a prearranged signal: if the jet maintains a speed of Mach 2.8 for three minutes, or performs a specific wide-arc maneuver, it means the pilot is returning to the ship.

The submersible could then prepare to surface and recover the aircraft.

Furthermore, the ship was large enough to be equipped with an internal magnetic field fluctuation generator, allowing it to transmit signals to nearby friendly ships and aircraft by varying the intensity of its magnetic field.

This technology largely solved the problem of submarine communications, eliminating the risk of signals being detected by enemy signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft and ships.

As for the enemy tracking friendly fighter jets to locate the submerged warship—that would certainly be the most logical tactic they could devise.

Seeing Yino’s pensive expression, Sen Shangzhe asked with a grin:

”Are you perhaps pondering the problem of the enemy tracking our fighters, Designer Yino? I can assure you, if they think they can locate our submerged warship by tracking its fighters, they’re dreaming.”

He continued to explain, ”I’ve thoroughly studied our company’s current aircraft. Whether it’s the Army Aviation’s Eagle fighter, the Naval Aviation’s Sea Eagle Fighter, or Flying Fish Company’s Sea Ray Drone, they are all capable of ultra-low-altitude, sea-skimming flight. Trying to get a lock on a stealth-coated aircraft flying nap-of-the-earth over the ocean’s surface would be impossible—unless they also have magnetic field radar.”

Seeing Yino’s frustrated expression, Huang Weida changed the subject. ”How do the Sea Eagle Fighter and the Sea Ray Drone perform? Can they operate from the Super Luzon-class Amphibious Assault Ship?”

He asked because, to achieve its submersible capability, the Super Luzon-class had to sacrifice some of its flight deck area.

Its flight deck was only 220 meters long and 40 meters wide, slightly smaller than that of the 40,000-ton Wasp-class amphibious assault ships.

”Absolutely no problem.” Sen Shangzhe had read Qingye Aviation’s test reports for the Sea Eagle Fighter and had even personally gone to Flying Fish Company to observe the Sea Ray Drone’s flight tests.

The Sea Eagle Fighter was essentially a light fighter developed by Qingye Aviation. It was based on the Eagle fighter’s technology but incorporated vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) concepts from Lucia and America.

It was fully capable of taking off from and landing on both the Super Luzon-class and Luzon-class amphibious assault ships. Furthermore, it had a payload capacity of 4.3 tons, a top speed of Mach 2.8, and a cruising range of approximately 3,200 kilometers.

The fighter was currently in the final stages of development and tuning. An initial batch of twelve aircraft had been produced, six of which were already deployed on the amphibious assault ship *Mindanao*.

The Sea Ray Drone, meanwhile, had already entered mass production, with 85 units currently in service with the Luzon Navy.

This drone incorporated extensive biomimetic design elements. In low-speed cruise mode, its range could reach 6,000 kilometers, and it was capable of sea-skimming flight.