Using this approach of approximately violent minesweeping, Iraq's minesweeping ships advanced relatively quickly, and their working speed reached ten knots per hour. At this progress, a safe passage would be sorted out in less than a day.

The news spread throughout the cargo ships behind, and the crew members were very happy, with whistles ringing and cheering and celebrating.

Before dark, more than 30 nautical miles of passage were opened.

At the same time, the news also came back to Riyadh in the rear.

King Fahd was very happy to learn that the minesweeping formation sent by Kusai had quickly opened up the waterway. As long as the shipping could be restored, the Gulf countries would be afraid of nothing.

Especially now, Kuwait, which even needs to use toilet paper, is looking forward to the cargo ships outside entering as soon as possible.

"His Majesty the King, His Excellency Kusai of Iraq wants to speak to you on the phone." The secretary came in and said.

"Okay." King Fahd picked up the phone and the phone was transferred.

This is a secret telephone line between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, so don't worry about being eavesdropped.

"His Majesty the King, our minesweeping is going well?" Kusai said on the phone.

"Yes, it went very smoothly." King Fahd replied very happily.

"We have solved the minesweeping problem now, but there is another problem that has not been solved." Kusai's words on the phone felt a bit intriguing.

"What's the question?" asked King Fahd.

"We have cleared the waterway, but what if the Iranians re-drunk us in the evening?" said Kusai.

King Fahd felt a bang in his mind. He was just concerned about happiness, and he did not expect that this was an infinite cycle of chickens and chickens.

Although the Iranians have laid a lot of mines everywhere, maybe the Iranians themselves cannot confirm where it is safe, this does not mean that the Iranians dare not come in. They may record some possible safe waterways and then run to the main waterway where the threat has been eliminated. A few mines are quietly dropped.

If you see minesweeping on your side during the day, you can almost be sure that the Iranians will definitely do this at night!

What should I do?

"His Majesty the King?" Kusai asked tentatively on the phone, because he had already felt that King Fahd had been meditating.

"Yes. Iranians will probably do this." King Fahd said: "So, how should we deal with it?"

Until now, Kusai's military command genius has almost been recognized by everyone. Since Kusai has put forward this point of view, he must have a solution.

"We must ensure the safety of the waterway," Kusai said. "Iranian boats dare not come out during the day, but at night, they will definitely come out to mine again, so we have to monitor the sea. We can attack the Iranian boats at any time."

Surveillance on the sea? King Fahd asked: "What do we need to use to monitor the sea?"

The best way to monitor the sea is to use early warning aircraft. Kusai knows that although Saudi Arabia ordered e-3 early warning aircraft from the United States, these early warning aircraft were not delivered until 1986, so at this stage, there will be no good air early warning capabilities at all.

If there is no chance, it can only create opportunities. Iraq has shook all its assets.

"Our Navy has seven Super Hornet helicopters that can be used to temporarily monitor seas," said Kusai.

The sa321 "Super Hornet" helicopter is a three-engine medium-sized multi-purpose helicopter developed by the French state-owned Aerospace Industry Corporation. It was developed from the smaller sa320 "Super Hornet" helicopter. The aircraft has a large body, a total length of more than 20 meters and an empty weight of more than six tons. It can perform a variety of tasks, such as transportation, evacuation of wounded personnel, search, seeking assistance, coastal alert, anti-submarine, mine planning, etc.

Usually helicopters are twin engines on the top, and the three engines are quite unique. During the design process, they were helped by Sikorsky, the United States and Fiat, Italy. The output power of the three engines is transmitted to the intermediate transmission shaft through their respective free clutches and engine reducers. The rear engine and the front left engine share an intermediate transmission shaft and are merging together. Then they are merging with the front right engine and input into the main reducer through a pair of bevel gears. Then they are driven by the rotor spindle through the two-stage gauges in the main reducer. The tail rotor is driven by the left intermediate transmission shaft through the intermediate reducer and the tail reducer. The rotor brake is driven by the intermediate transmission shaft. The rotor speed is 207 rpm at low speed, 212 rpm at cruising, and the tail rotor speed is 990 rpm.

This helicopter began to be developed in 1960 and was tested for the first time on December 7, 1962. It was delivered in 1966. As a main naval helicopter, the main model of this aircraft is the sa321g and anti-submarine type.

The one purchased by Iraq is the naval anti-submarine type. The most prominent feature is that it is equipped with an orb-32 search radar at the forefront. It looks like it has a big nose and is specifically used to search the sea surface. It can be found in the snorkel of a submarine. It is definitely a target of the size of a speedboat.

Moreover, since this anti-submarine helicopter needs to be active at sea all year round, in addition to the ordinary all-metal semi-hard shell fuselage, the boat-shaped belly is composed of watertight compartments. It uses a landing gear that cannot be retracted and can be lifted and landed on the sea surface if necessary.

(This kind of helicopter should be quite familiar to military fans, because, in China, it has a louder number: Naoba!)

The batch of helicopters purchased by Iraq have always been in Basra with the Navy. Now, Kusai suddenly thought about the purpose of these helicopters to monitor the Iranian minecraft on the sea!

It is impossible to monitor the entire Persian Gulf in a comprehensive manner, but monitoring the most important Strait of Hormuz is enough.

Moreover, this super hornet not only has a radar that can detect maritime targets, but also has weapons that can eliminate maritime ships: two flying fish anti-ship missiles can be mounted on both sides!

This type of helicopter comes with a complete set of detection, tracking and attack equipment, including an autonomous navigation system, an orb31d radar for target indication, and a suspended sonar. Two torpedoes or two "Flying Fish" missiles and their launch devices can be carried on both sides of the main cabin.

The only disadvantage is that this kind of helicopter has only four hours of battery life, so if you want to monitor it all night, you have to need at least three helicopters.

Then, there will be another problem, how to solve the take-off and landing of helicopters?

Not only Iraq does not have large warships, but also the Saudi Navy, and only the Medina class has a flight deck, but it will definitely not be that far. If you return to land, even the nearest Oman will take time, which will reduce the patrol time.

Fortunately, Kusai's mind changed and came up with a very simple solution: there are many maritime giants on the sea surface, a behemoth that is bigger than an aircraft carrier: super tankers!

The tankers all place crude oil in their big belly, and the deck of a hundred meters in front is flat, with the bridge at the rear, so prepare three helicopters to perform monitoring tasks in turn, and only the deck of the supertanker is used as a take-off and landing platform.

The helicopter takes off and landing on the deck of the rear of the warship, which requires repeated training and superb skills, and landing in heavy storms is even more thrilling. On the deck of this wide super tanker, there is almost no need for any landing assistance. As long as the tanker's searchlights are turned over, you can land!

Therefore, Kusai was keenly aware of the subsequent risks, arranged the situation in advance, and informed King Fahd.

"Our Iraqi Navy will dispatch several Super Hornet helicopters to monitor," Kusai said. "We use tankers as motherships and can monitor the Strait of Hormuz at night."

King Fahd was not like Prince Sultan, and he was not clear about these specific combat details, but he knew that as long as Your Excellency Kusai said it would be OK, there would be absolutely no problem!

"So, what do we need to do in Saudi Arabia?" asked King Fahd.

"Several countries that require peninsula defense forces jointly issued a statement that any ships sneaking into the main channel of the Strait of Hormuz at night will be regarded as carrying out mine-breaking operations that violate international conventions and will be severely hit by us. We should warn them that laying mines on the high seas, especially on the busiest seas, is a very bad behavior and will arouse strong opposition from the countries along the Gulf Coast!" Kusai said loudly.

The Iranians have done too much, so it is time for them to know that it is best not to do such things that cause public outrage!

King Fahd made up his mind: "No problem!"

"Also, even if we use helicopters to detect the sea, it can only be a short-term solution to the urgent needs." Kusai said: "As long as we are negligent, the Iranians may come out to lay mines at any time. Therefore, we need to have a more reliable means to monitor the movement of the ships on the sea, especially at night."

Fahd heard it very interested and asked, "So, what more reliable means should we use?"

"A radar on the coast guard is arranged there to monitor the entire Strait of Hormuz at any time," said Kusai.

There is a radar arrangement? King Fahd scratched his head, which means that it is a military station. You must know that it is Oman's territory.

"We can discuss with Oman, rent or other means, laying out a radar there, which can solve our current problems. Oman is our Arab brothers, and I believe they will agree," said Kusai.

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Chapter completed!