At 10 a.m. on November 12, the much-anticipated 2024 China Aerospace Expo opened grandly at Zhuhai Jinwan Airport. To be honest, as a senior spectator of the Zhuhai Air Show, Junwujun has participated in several air shows. There is no doubt that this air show is the largest

At 10 a.m. on November 12, the much-anticipated 2024 China Aerospace Expo opened grandly at Zhuhai Jinwan Airport.

To be honest, as a senior spectator of the Zhuhai Air Show, Junwujun has participated in several air shows. There is no doubt that this air show is the largest, has the most surprises, and is the most cutting-edge. Not to mention anything else, the sight of three stealth aircraft competing on the same stage is already worth the price of admission.

However, while everyone was paying attention to the lively fighter jets, robot wolves, cat-cat cars, as well as various radars and drones, Junwu Jun discovered the biggest secret of the Zhuhai Air Show in the corner of the Zhuhai Air Show. .

I believe that most netizens who have visited the air show will have a feeling that China’s military industry has exploded. Whether it is land, sea, air, space, or electric and fire networks, all kinds of equipment are available. It feels that as long as it is not something extremely cutting-edge, no matter what you want, Whatever you want, Zhuhai Air Show can provide it.

There is no doubt that everyone is pleased and proud of the various cutting-edge weapons that are emerging one after another. But here comes the problem. The military industry is an industry with long investment and slow output. Its progress does not happen overnight and requires a long process. From basic theory to troop requirements, from research demonstration to project establishment, from overall design to subsystem development, time is often calculated in years.

Why does it give people the impression that China’s military industry can just “swish” it?

Junwujie has always been puzzled by this problem. It wasn’t until he went to the toilet and saw the rows of small grids in the corner of the air show hall that he suddenly realized that this is the secret to the rise of China’s military industry!

I believe most people have heard the story of the Varyag aircraft carrier. When the Soviet Union collapsed, only half of the Varyag aircraft carrier was built. Someone asked Makarov, the factory director: "What does the factory need to complete the aircraft carrier?"

Makarov replied: "I need the Soviet Union, the Party Central Committee, and the country Planning Commission, Military Industry Commission and nine defense industry ministries, 600 related majors, 8,000 supporting manufacturers, In short, it takes a great country to complete it, but this country no longer exists. "

The aircraft carrier is a symbol of a country's comprehensive national strength. To build an aircraft carrier, of course you need a strong leading department, but at the same time, you What is more needed is "8,000 supporting manufacturers", which is a symbol of a country's strong industrial system.

You may have no idea. Let’s give an example.

For example, aircraft carrier steel plates must not only be magnetically repellent, have high toughness, and be resistant to low temperatures, but also must have high fracture toughness, high temperature resistance, no deformation, corrosion resistance, and bulletproof properties. Without this kind of steel, you can't build an aircraft carrier.

Why did the Varyag aircraft carrier not start construction after it had been soaked in the sea for several years after returning to China? It was precisely because there was no company in China that could produce aircraft carrier steel at that time. In the end, Anshan Iron and Steel Group took the lead and spent several years producing 2,000 tons of aircraft carrier steel to ensure the continued construction of Varyag.

Another example is the valves of an aircraft carrier. Although the valves are small, there are tens of thousands of them on the aircraft carrier. If the quality of the valves is not up to standard and a certain pipeline leaks or cannot be opened, something big will happen.

In addition, there are heavy pressure vessels, metallurgical equipment, large castings and forgings, ship power distribution systems, ship engine room automation systems, carrier-based aircraft landing gear and wheel brake systems, anchor chains and marine engineering mooring chains, gas turbine integrated products, steam turbines The assembly and waste heat boiler, high-performance lead-acid power battery, etc., etc., etc., if one link cannot be handled, then the equipment of the assembly plant will not be able to be installed.

This is the complexity and importance of systemization. Its level may not determine the upper limit of the entire product, but it can definitely determine the lower limit of a product.

At this Zhuhai Air Show, Junwuji discovered that in the corner cubicle, there were such "8,000 supporting manufacturers" hidden one by one, and many of them were hidden bosses!

Let’s take a booth that Junwujun passed by as an example: Feiwo Technology.

This booth is so low-key that at first glance I thought it was selling stainless steel pots! But actually? They are still listed companies!

What does this company do? Mainly engaged in the processing and manufacturing of hot-end precision sheet metal components for aerospace engines and gas turbines, such as combustion chambers, flame tubes, tail nozzles, fasteners, turbine disks, casings, compressor parts, etc. Does

sound nb? It was a high-tech and sophisticated technology in the past, but what about now? A private enterprise has made it!

Sure enough, high-end ingredients only require the simplest cooking techniques. High-tech companies only need to rent a booth for 2,000 yuan a day and sit on a folding chair that costs 30 yuan...

Then Junwujun went to the booth next to it, Beiwei Sensing.

What does this company do? It develops inertial navigation systems, inclination sensors, attitude reference systems, electronic compasses, fiber optic gyroscopes and other smart sensor products. Don’t you understand? Translated, isn't this the guidance system of a missile?

Such a high-end company only has a 4 square meter booth?

If Shoigu saw this, thinking about his own Su-34 which can only throw iron bombs, would he be eager to pack this company and ship it to Russia?

What’s even more frightening is that there are still a lot of such companies in China.

Then Junwuji continued shopping and finally found an institutional unit: Tianjin University.

What are the products of this booth? They are UAV airborne optoelectronic pods, low-cost integrated patrol optoelectronic pods, strapdown imaging seekers, strapdown infrared imaging seekers, etc.

sounds high-end, but in fact it is probably just the productization of the "Tianjin University Smart Campus Sea, Land and Air Intelligent Unmanned System Security Inspection Platform". This platform was originally made by the teachers and students of Tianjin University to conduct campus security inspections. After inspecting it, I thought it might have market potential, so I sold it.

But if you think about it carefully, isn’t this thing a full-system unmanned combat platform for land, air and sea?

Seeing this, Junwuji no longer dared to look any further. Who knows what kind of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon boss is hidden in these inconspicuous little stalls?

Perhaps from a product perspective, companies that make subsystems are not as eye-catching as those companies that make overall products, but only those in the industry know that they are the foundation for the development of China's military industry.

The reason is very simple. Most of us participate in air shows just to watch the fun, but what about them? You really want to find customers at air shows and make money!

Judging from Junwuji’s visit to the exhibition these days, there are quite a lot of foreigners in front of these small booths.

There is no doubt that these small booths are the "hidden champions" of China's military industry.

What is the "hidden champion"?

This concept was first proposed by German management scientist Hermann Simon. It refers to those companies that are not well-known to the public, but occupy a leading position in a certain segmented industry or market, have core competitiveness and clear strategies, and their products and services Small and medium-sized enterprises that are difficult to surpass and imitate.

After proposing the theory of "hidden champion" companies, Hermann Simon classified companies from all over the world, among which German companies had the largest number. There are 2,500 hidden champions in the world, and Germany holds 1,307. Although the United States has a population nearly four times that of Germany, the United States only has 366 hidden champions.

Why was German industry strong at that time?

It is not because of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, but because of the thousands of "hidden champions" in the German supply chain.

The important development path for these hidden champions is to focus on being supporting experts, continuously improve their professional capabilities in the industry and become more refined and stronger, rather than blindly pursuing diversified development routes.

has been working hard on the track of specialization for a long time. A large part of Germany's "hidden champions" have grown into the only or a few suppliers in the industry that can meet the specific needs of the industry chain.

For example, Germany's Schaeffler Group is the best supplier of rolling bearings and linear motion products in the world.

and the German Würth Group, which have spent more than 70 years manufacturing the most complete range of screws in the world. It can provide more than 125,000 products ranging from screws, screw accessories and anchors to tools, chemical technology products and personal protective equipment, and can sell 19.95 billion euros a year.

is similar to Hanchen Company in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, which mainly designs and produces hydraulic cylinders and drive systems used in the industrial field. No one can surpass it.

Although the things these companies create are inconspicuous, it is precisely they who form the middle layer of the German economy.

They are like capillaries, transfusing blood to Germany's large enterprises at the top, and penetrating nutrients into the entire country's body at the bottom, connecting 80% of the entire employed population and 60% of the exported products.

With these "hidden champions", no matter what product the German industry makes, it does not need to start from scratch and has high-quality parts that are ready to use.

Of course, Germany's "hidden champions" also have problems. They have not caught up with the wave of electronics and intelligence. Today's hidden champions are still mainly mechanical products.

On the contrary, China is now advancing hand in hand with materials, machinery, electronics, and intelligence. In China's manufacturing industry, more "hidden champions" have been born. This type of enterprise has a special name in China: "Specialized, Specialized, and New" "Small and medium-sized enterprises.

For example, carbon fiber has a diameter of only 5 microns, which is equivalent to one tenth to twelfth of a hair, but is more than 4 times stronger than aluminum alloy! Therefore, it began to be widely used in aerospace products and industrial products.

What is the largest carbon fiber market in China? It’s actually fishing! Fishermen love this lightweight, highly elastic and strong fishing rod, but imported carbon fiber is too expensive for most people to even think about.

What about the result? Weihai Guangwei, a "specialized and innovative" company, stepped forward and spent 6 years of research and development to overcome the difficulties of carbon fiber technology, successfully achieved a leap from disassembly to mass production, and successively launched the T300 grade , t700 grade, t800h grade products, the prices are as low as cabbage prices.

From then on, Chinese fishermen no longer have to be scolded by their wives when they buy a fishing rod.

Soon the country discovered that the carbon fiber used for fishing rods was mass-produced. It can be used not only for fishing rods, but also for fighter jets, missiles, and drones!

As a result, the problem of high-performance carbon fiber materials in China has been solved.

For another example, thermal imaging equipment was a high-tech device in the 1990s. China has never been able to find a reliable thermal imaging camera. Therefore, in the first generation version of Tank 99, only the installation position for the thermal imaging camera was reserved, and there was no actual installation.

And what about internationally? Because the infrared technology required by thermal imaging cameras involves core national defense technologies, Western countries have long adopted a strict technological blockade against China. High-end infrared thermal imaging sensors are prohibited from being exported to China, and there is no need to discuss technology.

The severe situation has forced China to be self-reliant. In order for "core and key technologies not to be controlled by others", from the state to private enterprises, they have been catching up and embarked on the development path of independently developing domestic infrared chips. In this process, companies such as AutoNavi, Arrow, and Dali have successively achieved breakthroughs, and there is a strong tendency for latecomers to take over.

In particular, AutoNavi Infrared took the lead in developing an independently controllable infrared detector chip in 2013, and subsequently reached the world's advanced level in the 1280×1024@12μm mercury cadmium telluride medium-wave cooling infrared detector. More importantly, in terms of low cost and large-scale mass production, AutoNavi Infrared is also the number one in the country.

In the past, an infrared night vision device cost hundreds of thousands, but now? Thousands of dollars were spent on a certain store such as Dongdong or Baobao, and even herdsmen began to use infrared night vision devices to find sheep!

In addition, there is HUD technology, which was originally developed by the United States for use by Navy carrier-based attack aircraft A-5 pilots. It allows pilots to obtain the flight information of their own fighter aircraft without looking down at the instrument console. Status, attitude parameters, navigation information, who would have thought that this stuff is now standard equipment for high-configuration vehicles in China?

Why is HUD so popular among Chinese car companies? It is because of the sudden emergence of HUDs such as Zejing Electronics and Yili Electronics in China that in just a few years, HUDs have become more affordable and have entered thousands of households.

To put it bluntly, China’s military products, automotive products, electronic products, and technology products have exploded like a blowout in recent years, and the “hidden champions” in these vertical subdivisions have contributed a lot.

Through observation, Junwu Bacteria also discovered an interesting phenomenon.

Most of the people who rent large exhibition halls are companies with Chinese prefixes and national prefixes, such as AVIC, China Ordnance, and China Shipbuilding Corporation. As for the "hidden champions" in the small booths in the corners, most of them are private enterprises.

How can a private enterprise become an arms dealer?

This may start with the "military-civilian integration" with Chinese characteristics.

We all know that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to cope with the severe international situation, China divided its enterprises into military and civilian lines. Military factories only produced military products, while civilian factories only produced civilian products.

However, after the reform and opening up, this model has become increasingly inconsistent with the needs of the situation.

On the one hand, with the rise of the private economy, the quality and technical level of civilian products are no longer inferior to those of military products. However, due to limited qualifications, they are unable to obtain military orders.

On the other hand, military industrial enterprises that are accustomed to receiving state orders often suffer from insufficient innovation motivation and low production efficiency. Sometimes even when private enterprises already have relevant subsystem technologies, they still know nothing about it and can only go through the R&D process again, which is a waste of money.

Therefore, in response to this situation, the national level has proposed "military-civilian integration".

Military-civilian integration is mainly divided into two levels. One is "military-to-civilian", which means transferring military technology to civilian use; the other is "civilian joining the military", which means private enterprises, private capital, and civilian technology enter the military industry.

There is no doubt that "military-civilian integration", especially "civilian participation in the army", is the correct path for the development of military industry.

Why? Because letting private companies join the military has three benefits.

First, it is conducive to absorbing the latest technology and reducing costs

For traditional military industrial enterprises, I will only do projects that have approval. Even if something is very promising, I will not dare to do it as long as the project is not approved. What about private enterprises? There are not so many restrictions. As long as the policy does not prohibit it, I will do it.

Capital is profit-seeking. In order to pursue profits, capital will invest in technology research and development with great enthusiasm and continuously launch new technologies and new products to occupy the market. In this process, the state does not actually need to invest in R&D, nor does it need to bear the risk of R&D failure. It only needs to directly purchase ready-made products after the private enterprise succeeds in R&D.

DJI, which has now spread all over the world, is a very typical example. The country has obtained the world's leading four-axis drone technology without spending a penny.

And what if the four-axis drone project was initially handed over to the military industry? It is conceivable that without the drive of profit, progress will never be as fast as it is now.

Moreover, military products are not sensitive to cost and price, while the most sensitive issue for civilian products is cost and price, which may vary by 100 yuan, which is a matter of life and death. Therefore, civilian products have the inherent advantage and motivation to sell high-end things at a bargain price, because this is the capital to live and work.

In this way, the military will directly include private enterprises in the procurement list, which is obviously much cheaper than asking military factories to start research and development from scratch.

Second, it is conducive to promoting technological iteration

How to technologically iterate military supplies? First, it is inspected and accepted, and then the troops try it out. Minor modifications are made based on the opinions of the troops, and then it is finalized and installed. After a few years, the opinions of the troops are collected and prepared to be improved in the improved model.

This process often takes several years or even more than ten years.

But what about private enterprises? The market has determined that you must constantly innovate in order to gain a firm foothold in the fierce market competition. If you don’t believe me, just look at the current car companies. If you install the CPU and radar that were popular a year ago, all kinds of wild car critics will say I'll make you bloody in no time.

So, whoever can roll out more advanced hardware will win.

In the process of rolling out, a considerable part of the technology is actually common to the military, such as millimeter wave radar and lidar. Even if the military uses it more frequently, can it be as high as the millions of cars running on the road every day? Correspondingly, the massive feedback data of civilian millimeter-wave radar and lidar, and the data fed back by military radar cannot even be matched. They are not of the same order of magnitude at all, right?

In this way, private enterprise radars can use accumulated data to quickly iterate algorithms, which is much faster than military technology iteration. Therefore, allowing "private enterprises to join the military" can allow private enterprises to quickly iterate technologies in the civilian market, and ultimately promote the upgrading and iteration of military products.

Third, it is conducive to maintaining production capacity

We all know that in peacetime, it is impossible to expand production capacity casually, so many military factories with a single product are often in a state of insufficient orders and can only barely maintain operations. , so as to ensure that if a war breaks out, there will be factories that can produce supplies.

But the problem is that due to insufficient orders, military factories have no incentive to expand production capacity. This means that once a war breaks out, although factories can continue production, their production capacity can easily fail to keep up with combat needs.

Whether it is Western countries or Russia, the shortage of artillery shells for more than a year reflects this problem.

And what if private companies are allowed to join the army? This problem no longer exists. Private enterprises usually have orders for civilian products and export military products! It is equivalent to using social funds and foreign orders to help the country maintain arms production capacity. In this way, once a war breaks out, the country can rely on the huge private enterprise industrial chain and supply chain to quickly achieve an explosion in production capacity and drown its opponents.

It is no exaggeration. He said that for weapons like Iranian motorcycle drones, as long as the country relaxes its requirements, Guangdong alone can easily produce 10,000 of them in one day.

Of course, because of the huge market for military products, it will inevitably attract a large number of private enterprises to participate, but the question is, how to allow information exchange?

For example, a certain project requires a subsystem of a certain weapon. Does anyone know which private enterprise has a ready-made product? Or, which private enterprise has R&D capabilities? You can’t do a thorough industrial survey every day, right?

At this time, the significance of the Zhuhai Air Show comes out. Although the name is still called the Zhuhai Air Show, it has become the largest exchange meeting in the entire Chinese military industry. This exchange meeting is not only a good opportunity to sell products, but also a good opportunity for technical cooperation and exchanges. Chances are, if a slightly more capable general research institute can find all the suppliers at the air show, wouldn't it be able to build whatever it wants?

Therefore, the entry of a powerful and complete civilian industrial chain into the military industry is the fundamental reason for the explosion of various advanced weapons in China in recent years.

Here, we wish the exhibitors in the small cubicles of the Zhuhai Air Show that they will gain something during the air show, sell their products well, and make a fortune!