During the day of the 16th, the Second Fleet continued to sail towards the Great Barrier Reef at full speed, and the First Fleet remained north of the New Hebrides.

It was not until 6 pm that a reconnaissance plane sent by Gong Jifei discovered the US transport fleet and sent back a very shocking reconnaissance report, which made Gong Jifei suddenly realize that Tong Shaoyun had always been right, and that he had misjudged the situation of the battle, which had caused the Second Fleet to fall into danger.

This reconnaissance report says: All large transport ships in the fleet are sailing on no-load.[..com]

You should know that it is very easy to determine whether a ship is sailing without load, because the load rate of a transport ship is much higher than that of a warship. For example, a super cargo ship with a load capacity of less than 50,000 tons has a hull structure weight of less than 50,000 tons, and the no-load displacement after filling fuel is only more than 50,000 tons. You should know that the difference between the no-load displacement and the full-load displacement of super aircraft carriers such as the "Tarshan" class is within 15%. In this way, the freeboard of the no-load transport ship is very high, that is, the draft is very shallow. In addition, if the speed of the transport ship is about the same as that of the full load, the tail trace will be much weaker than that of the full load.

Of course, naval pilots all know how to identify the load capacity of ships.

There is no doubt that the fleet heading to the New Hebrides is a bait.

However, why did Gong Jifei believe that the US fleet was not here at that time? You must know that before that, he already knew that the transport fleet was bait.

The reason is simple, this is a bait that can be sacrificed.

Among the American transport fleet, thirty super cargo ships are nothing. After the war started, the United States lost an average of three super cargo ships every day. Some fleets that were ambushed by submarines often had ten or even dozens of transport ships sunk. Compared with expensive fleets, thirty super cargo ships were nothing. More importantly, these freighters were clearly victims of sailing on their own.

Intuition told Gong Jifei that the US fleet must have entered the Coral Sea.

The problem is that when he made this judgment, the Second Fleet had sailed southwest for sixteen hours, which was about 1,200 kilometers away from the First Fleet. That is to say, the First Fleet was about five hours late, and the US fleet would definitely be able to kill the Second Fleet within five hours.

In fact, this is not the most serious problem.

Tong Shaoyun dared to lead the Second Fleet into the Coral Sea. Based on the two guarantees, to be precise, it is a guarantee jointly provided by the shore-based aviation and the carrier-based aviation. This is, according to the combat plan, when the Second Fleet attacks the US fleet, the shore-based aviation and the carrier-based aviation will give priority to providing air defense cover for the Second Fleet to ensure that the Second Fleet can withstand air strikes and approach the US fleet.

There is no doubt that the Second Fleet now has no air defense support at all.

There is nothing to expect from the shore-based aviation force. Even if more than 500 fighter jets have been preserved, most of them have been transferred to the field airports of Bougainville Island, and will fly to the Philippines and Guam after dark. They will have to wait until the Marines repair the airport before returning to the Solomon Islands. Although the Marines have enough engineers and enough equipment and supplies, it is not easy to repair more than a dozen air bases. In addition, some of the US cruise missiles are equipped with anti-runway sub-munitions, and the restoration work will definitely last for several days.

Obviously, the fleet only takes a few hours to decide the outcome.

Now, all the pressure fell on the shoulders of the First Fleet, and the long distance made the air defense cover provided by the First Fleet seem insignificant.

You should know that at a distance of about 1,200 kilometers, the first fleet's air defense fighter jets can only patrol over the second fleet for up to two hours. In this way, to ensure uninterrupted air defense patrol, twelve batches of air defense fighter jets must be dispatched every day. In this case, even if the fighter jets are not considered, they can only perform up to three patrol missions a day.

In other words, even if the Second Fleet does not retain air defense fighters for itself, it can only provide at most about 170 air defense fighters for the Second Fleet at a time.

It seems that this is enough.

The problem is that the US military has very strong strike capabilities. The US fleet alone can dispatch 600 carrier-based fighters in one attack wave. In this way, the US fleet only needs to arrange 200 escort fighters to expel air defense fighters over the Second Fleet.

More importantly, it is not just the US carrier-based fighter jets that attack the Second Fleet.

Including the ashore-based aviation force, the US military can invest at least 1,200 fighter jets, plus hundreds of strategic bombers in one wave.

There is no doubt that one hundred and seventy air defense fighters cannot protect the Second Fleet at all.

Such powerful strike capabilities even the Second Fleet's own air defense capabilities seem insignificant.

You should know that if the US military uses 800 fighter jets and 400 bombers to launch an attack, it can invest 3,200 tactical anti-ship missiles and 4,800 heavy anti-ship missiles in one attack. On the twenty-eight battleships of the Second Fleet, there are only 100 sets of last-stage defense systems in total. When dealing with attacks from a certain direction, it can allow up to two-thirds of the last-stage defense systems to be put into combat, that is, sixty-seven sets. According to a set of last-stage defense systems, it can transfer to a set of last-stage defense systems.

With 120 battles, the interception hit rate is 80%, and the total number of anti-ship missiles can only be intercepted. The total number of anti-ship missiles used by the US military is 7,000, that is, 600 anti-ship missiles will not be intercepted. Obviously, in combat, the Second Fleet cannot allow the accompanying rapid combat support ships to supplement the last-stage defense system. Not to mention 600 anti-ship missiles, as long as 60 heavy anti-ship missiles escape the net, twenty-eight battleships can be killed.

In fact, this is still the most ideal theoretical calculation result.

According to the results of the previous naval battles, the interception ability of the last-stage defense system in actual combat is between 60% and 80% of the theoretical calculated value.

In this way, even if the interception capabilities of regional air defense missiles and medium-range air defense missiles are included, the Second Fleet will not be able to intercept all incoming anti-ship missiles. If the US military cooperates with anti-ship guided bombs, the Second Fleet will be even more unlikely to cope with the US air strikes.

It is conceivable that as long as the US military concentrates its efforts to attack the Second Fleet, the consequences will be unimaginable.

In Gong Jifei's opinion, this is very likely.

Don’t forget that in the previous few naval battles, especially the Second Battle of Digo Garcia and Solomon, the key roles were the integrated warships equipped with large-caliber electromagnetic guns. Especially in the Battle of Solomon, the Second Fleet almost killed the Third Fleet of the US Army alone.

As long as French has a little brain, he will concentrate his efforts to kill the Second Fleet and then clean up the First Fleet.

At that time, Gong Jifei ignored one issue, but this was the issue that Tong Shaoyun was most concerned about.

Before dark, Gong Jifei sent a telegram to Tong Shaoyun through the Marines on Ende Island, asking the First Fleet to reduce the navigation speed so that the Second Fleet could keep up.

As long as the distance is shortened to less than 800 kilometers, it will be much easier.

First, in this case, the air defense fighter jets sent by the First Fleet can patrol over the Second Fleet for three hours, thereby increasing the number of fighter jets per batch to more than 250. Secondly, with the cooperation of the Air Force's strategic early warning aircraft, it can provide the Second Fleet with more than 30 minutes of early warning time, and the air defense fighter jets of the First Fleet can reach the air above the Second Fleet within twenty minutes after taking off. That is to say, when necessary, the First Fleet can dispatch about 300 fighter jets within ten minutes and increase the fighter jets covering the Second Fleet to 550, which is equivalent to exerting the air defense cover capability of the First Fleet to the limit.

Of course, this is still not enough to repel the US air strikes.

What’s important is that so many fighter jets can significantly reduce the probability of US attack aircraft launching attacks, resulting in a significant weakening of the power of attacking the Second Fleet. Don’t forget that the Second Fleet has extremely powerful air defense capabilities and can cope with general-level air strikes.

To put it simply, what Gong Jifei has to do is to reduce the anti-ship missiles that attack the Second Fleet to 5,000.

According to his estimate, this is the limit of the Second Fleet's air defense and anti-missile capabilities.

At that time, Tong Shaoyun did not reply to the telegram.

This is understandable, because the Second Fleet has penetrated the Coral Sea, and the closest friendly forces are one thousand kilometers away, exceeding the maximum working distance of directional communication equipment. According to the fleet's combat code, radio stations must be avoided as much as possible before being discovered by the enemy.

The problem is that the Second Fleet did not slow down and still maintained its maximum speed of forty-five knots.

At that time, Tong Shaoyun was considering a problem, and it was a problem that Gong Jifei ignored, that is, without the support of shore-based aviation and carrier-based aviation, how to find the US fleet?

You should know that the Second Fleet only has dozens of tilted rotary wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and no carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft.

What's even worse is that these inclined rotary wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft are not long enough and are not suitable for reconnaissance missions.

Now, Tong Shaoyun encountered a problem.

Stop and wait for the first fleet, or continue sailing southwest?

At that time, Tong Shaoyun chose the latter.

The reason is very simple. The Second Fleet has already penetrated the Coral Sea, and it will definitely reach a place 1,200 kilometers away from the Great Barrier Reef in the early morning of the 17th. At that time, it will be able to use an inclined rotary wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft to perform reconnaissance missions, and Tong Shaoyun is very sure to find the US fleet. If you stop and wait for the First Fleet, then it will be as early as the early morning of the 17th that Gong Jifei will dispatch the carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft.

A few hours later is not a big problem. The key is that it means that the Second Fleet will risk approaching the US fleet during the day.

Experience tells Tong Shaoyun that the chance of shelling the US fleet at night is the greatest, and it will be even more difficult if the battle is dragged until the day.

Of course, this is not just experience.

For example, slow-moving tilt rotary wing aircraft are easily detected during the day and are more likely to quietly approach the U.S. fleet at night.
Chapter completed!