.Submarine warfare is very secretive and very safe.

After confirming that the "Sea Snake" discovered a Japanese submarine that had attacked the East China Sea Fleet and had already exchanged fire with the Japanese submarines, Teng Yaohui asked Zhou Yusheng to adjust his anti-submarine combat operations, dispatch more anti-submarine helicopters to assist the "Sea Snake", and dispatched an attacking nuclear submarine from the fleet.

Next, Teng Yaohui focused on air combat.

At less than five o'clock, the fighter jets of both sides exchanged fire for the first time about fifty kilometers east of the Diaoyu Islands.

This location is not the location where the fighter jets on both sides are located, but the centerline of the fighter jets on both sides.

The first to face HNA's J and Air Self-Defense Force's F-15j aircraft fleet.

There is no suspense in this air battle.

Although the f-15j aircraft group was also supported by early warning aircraft, without fleet cover, the e-767 did not go forward, but stayed near Okinawa, more than 400 kilometers away from the battlefield, and could only barely detect the j group. Behind the j group, the kj-2000, which had previously been active in the east of the Zhoushan Islands, had moved the patrol area and reached a 100 kilometers behind the East China Sea Fleet and less than 200 kilometers away from the Diaoyu Islands.

This means that kj-2000 can accurately grasp the whereabouts of the f-15j machine group, but e-767 cannot track the dispersed j group.

Subtle differences determine the victory or defeat of air battles.

Using the battlefield information provided by the KJ-2000, the four J-leading J-leading aircraft leading the way were the first to launch pl-12d medium-range air-to-air missiles to the F-15j fleet 120 kilometers away.

At this time, the missile gap also had an impact on the results of air combat.

In the Second Korean War, the PL-12 was proven to be a medium-range air-to-air missile with advanced performance, which is almost the same as the Ai20c, but it is still a little different in front of the Ai20d. The main reason is that the solid-fuel rocket engine used is too short, making the missile's power range only 60 kilometers, which is much shorter than the Ai20d, making it difficult for the Volunteer Fighter fighter jets to open fire first.

After the war, the Chinese Air Force and the Navy jointly invested in the development of the pl-12d using ramjet engines.

Strictly speaking, the pl-12d is a brand new missile, which is also significantly different from the pl-12 in its aerodynamic layout, such as the use of a grating tail wing similar to the R-77. Because the pl-12 became famous in the Second Korean War, many countries came here. For example, when Pakistan purchased the J-20, it called for the pl-12 to purchase the pl-12 simultaneously. Therefore, in order to open up more overseas markets, the pl-12d followed the number and was launched with a comprehensive improvement of the pl-12. This marketing strategy has achieved great success in foreign trade. The pl-12d opened up the overseas market after the equipment team in 2016 and sold thousands of pieces in two years.

Compared with the pl-12, the biggest improvement of the pl-12d is that the power range has increased to 120 kilometers.

Of course, the maximum range of pl-12d must be exceeded 150 kilometers, so it is necessary to be able to lock the fire control radar 150 kilometers away for support.

At HNA, J is the first air-control fighter that locks a target of 150 kilometers.

Relatively speaking, the medium-range air-to-air missile used by the f-15j does not have such obvious range advantage.

Before the Second Korean War, the main medium-range air-to-air missile of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force was the AA-4, that is, Japan developed a semi-active radar-guided air-to-air missile using the Aim-7f "Sparrow" technology, with a maximum power range of less than 30 kilometers. At the end of the Second Korean War, Japan was greatly stimulated and decided to develop a new generation of air-to-air missiles by itself, and it was clearly stated that the performance should exceed AI20d. However, it is very difficult to develop a new missile, and even if it increases investment, it will not be possible to achieve results in the short term.

At the end of 2017, Japan also introduced a batch of Ai20 when purchasing F-22a.

Interestingly, there are two models of this batch of missiles, one is the Ai20d used on the F-22a, and the other is the Ai20c, which is being eliminated by the US military.

Japan does this simply because it is a price issue.

It must be admitted that in the Second Korean War, the performance of the Ai20d was also proved. After the war, it became the hottest medium-range air-to-air missiles with the PL-12, and the price naturally rose. When the orders were overwhelmed, Resin had no reason to sell them at a low price.

As a result, the export price of Ai20d rose from $5.5 million before the war to $12 million.

This price exceeds the affordability of many countries.

At that time, even the wealthy Saudi Arabia signed a purchase order for 48 F-22a, but only purchased 300 Ai20d.

Japan purchased sixty f-22a in the first batch, and as an additional part of the order, only one thousand ai20d were purchased.

This number is barely enough for sixty F-22a to carry out three large-scale air combats.

In order to make up for the quantity shortcomings and replace the aa-4 that lags behind in performance, Japan had to turn its attention to the cheaper ai20c.

You should know that the unit price of ai20c is only four million US dollars.

As a result, while purchasing 1,000 Ai20d, Japan also purchased 2,000 second-hand Ai20c from the US military for a unit price of US$2.5 million.

Undeniably, these missiles are very expensive.

Three thousand missiles are worth $17 billion.

However, missiles are still very cheaper than fighter jets that are also rising. You should know that one F-22a can match thirty AI20d, and in the Second Korean War, the volunteers consumed an average of 18 missiles to shoot down one F-22a.

Of course, the ai20c purchased by Japan is not used on f-22a, but on f-15j.

In other words, the f-15j against j uses the ai20c, which has already lagged behind in performance, and its maximum power range is only 60 kilometers.

Even according to theoretical calculations, the maximum range of ai20c will not exceed 80 kilometers when attacking head-on.

As a result, after four J-fired missiles were fired, twelve F-15Js were still approaching their targets, striving to obtain the opportunity to launch the missiles.

Obviously, China's HNA fighter jets will not give Japanese fighter jets a chance.

After launching the missile, the four Js turned their course and began to accelerate avoidance.

Japanese fighter jets have two choices, one is to accelerate and keep up. After all, the acceleration capability of the f-15c is very good, and it can accelerate the speed from Mach 0.9 to Mach 1.5 in 56 seconds. Before j throws away the secondary fuel tank, the acceleration performance will not exceed the f-15j.

Another option is to turn back and not get entangled with Chinese fighter jets.

At that time, Japanese fighters made the second choice.

After all, Chinese fighter jets did not cross the East China Sea mid-line, nor did they fly over the Diaoyu Islands. More importantly, the East China Sea Fleet is in the northwest of the Diaoyu Islands. If you pursue Chinese fighter jets, you are likely to enter the East China Sea Fleet's air defense network and be attacked by long-range air defense missiles.

However, the choice of Japanese pilots did not change the results of the air combat.

When the f-15j was turning around, eight js surrounded from both wings had arrived and were accelerating the climb.

In order to avoid being discovered by e-767, these two batches of J dropped to ultra-low altitude before entering the battlefield. After throwing off the secondary fuel tank, they surrounded the Japanese fighter jets from both wings at the limit speed of Mach 1.2. However, the maximum shooting height difference of pl-12d is only 10,000 meters, and when the altitude difference is too large, the maneuverability will be seriously reduced. Therefore, before launching the missile, J must try to increase the flight altitude as much as possible.

As a result, before launching the missile, four js encircled from the left were discovered by the e-767.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was not 120 kilometers, but about kilometers.

After receiving the battlefield message from the early warning plane, the Japanese pilot immediately adjusted his tactics and turned to fight against Chinese fighters from the northwest.

Although it is still a little farther, at least missiles can be launched at this distance.

Unfortunately, before the Japanese fighter jets locked in the j group, the missile alarm plane rang out, and the sudden j-fired pl-12d arrived.

Immediately afterwards, four js surrounded on the left carried out a supplementary attack.

Although it is not difficult to get rid of the pl-12d, which has reached its ultimate power range, Japanese pilots have long gained valuable experience from their American counterparts in exercises and training. That is, when avoiding medium-range air-to-air missiles, they should try to utilize the vertical maneuverability of the fighter aircraft, consume the remaining kinetic energy of the missile with a large range of vertical maneuvers, and finally get rid of the missile through rapid climbing.

That's exactly what Japanese pilots do.

After the pl-12d entered the self-guided attack stage, the twelve f-15js immediately threw away the secondary fuel tank, then dived to the sea at the maximum speed, and then turned to a rapid climb.

This set of tactics can avoid the first batch of pl-12d, but cannot avoid the second batch of pl-12d that arrives in one minute.

More importantly, during rapid climbing, f-15j has lost almost all of its speed. Even if potential energy can be converted into kinetic energy through dive and speed up the flight speed, it is equivalent to flying head-on towards the missile approaching from below, thus losing the opportunity to climb again.

In this case, even f-22a is difficult to escape.

At 5:08, the first F-15j was shot down by pl-12d. Within the next thirty seconds, another ten F-15j were shot down by the subsequent missiles.

In the end, only one F-15j used the cover of the wingman to avoid two pl-12d.

To be precise, it was the wingman who helped him block the missiles fired.

Because f-15j did not get a chance to fight back at all, the j group was unscathed.
Chapter completed!