.When the air combat started, the Chinese Navy's submarines had been deployed.

The main force is the Type 093 attack nuclear submarine that accompanied the East China Sea Fleet before.

The person who commanded this submarine was Colonel Qu Shaofeng, who was also the captain of the attack nuclear submarine who was second only to Zhou Yusheng. He is also the most experienced among the eight current attack nuclear submarine captains. However, Qu Shaofeng has never participated in actual combat and has never received any opportunity to participate in the war.

Compared with Zhou Yusheng, what Qu Shaofeng lacks most is practical experience.

This cannot be blamed for him. After all, during the Second Korean War, the Chinese Navy did not send attacking nuclear submarines to participate in the war, and there were not many practical opportunities in peacetime.

Qu Shaofeng did not miss this opportunity. When the East China Sea Fleet was mobilizing, the "Electric Ray" commanded by him was performing routine maintenance in the port. After receiving the order, Qu Shaofeng completed the mobilization as quickly as possible, and led the submarines to sea before the outbreak of the war and caught up with the East China Sea Fleet.

However, Qu Shaofeng's luck is not very good.

In the early morning of May 29, when the war broke out, the "Electric Ray" was responsible for dealing with threats from Okinawa in the southeast of the East China Sea Fleet.

In other words, when supporting the "Sea Dragon", the "Electric Ray" was far away from the combat area and failed to receive the mission.

This made Qu Shaofeng a little depressed. After all, it was the first opportunity to fight, and no one could guarantee that he would get a better opportunity in the next battle.

As a submarine captain, especially a nuclear submarine captain, Qu Shaofeng’s most deficit is patience.

Patience brought him opportunities.

After receiving the combat order issued by Zhou Yusheng, Qu Shaofeng did not rush to the battlefield, but strictly implemented the tactical plan formulated by Zhou Yusheng.

Qu Shaofeng is self-aware and knows that Zhou Yusheng is the only captain of the attack nuclear submarine with practical experience.

Attack nuclear submarines do not lack speed, but there is a bigger problem, that is, they will produce obvious noise when sailing at high speed, thus losing concealment.

In fact, it was not until the Type 093 submarine was put into service that the Chinese Navy obtained attack nuclear submarines with real combat capabilities.

Before the 093 type, the 091 type only allowed China to enter the nuclear submarine club. As a permanent member of the Security Council, having a nuclear submarine is more symbolic. During the more than ten years of service of the 091 type, it has never been officially used by the navy, and it rarely even went to sea to perform combat readiness patrol missions.

Of course, the 091 type is just to solve the problem, and its performance is not outstanding.

In addition to the huge noise, the other tactical performance of the Type 091 is also very bad. For example, the maximum speed is only 24 knots and the maximum diving depth is less than 300 meters, far behind the contemporary "Los Angeles" and "Akula" classes, and even the nuclear submarines built by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

When designing the 093 type, the Navy proposed very clear technical indicators. For example, the maximum submersible speed must exceed thirty knots, preferably thirty-three knots, the maximum diving depth must exceed 450 meters, preferably 600 meters, and the noise when sailing at eight knots must be controlled below 115 decibels, preferably 105 decibels, and the self-sustaining ability must reach 60 days, preferably 90 days.

Such strict requirements have caused a lot of trouble to the design of Type 093.

The reason is that when designing the Type 093, China did not have a sufficiently powerful nuclear submarine design team, nor did it have enough technical reserves, so many work had to be started from scratch. More importantly, at that time, there was no expectation to receive assistance from the outside world, and Russia would definitely not help China design nuclear submarines. If the intelligence agency had not obtained some design drawings for V-type submarines from Ukraine, the design work of the Type 093 would have continued until around 2010, and it would have been impossible for construction to start in 2002.

Even so, the construction cycle of the first ship of the Type 093 is still as long as seven years.

The long construction cycle made the 093 type enter the Navy service very late.

But everything has both positive and negative sides.

Extending the construction cycle allows more new technologies to be used when building follow-up boats, so as to further improve the performance of the submarine without major modifications to the basic design.

Strictly speaking, the eight 093 types in service are divided into three batches.

The first boat was a batch in a single batch, and the first modernization was improved in 2014. Boat II and Boat II were the second batch, mainly replacing the combat command system and self-defense system, adding a fire control channel, and a set of tow baits used to fight torpedoes. The latter five were in the third batch, and the improvement focused on nuclear reactors, that is, a natural cycle pressurized water reactor with a core replacement cycle of 25 years, which can ensure that the fuel rods are not replaced within 25 years of the submarine service, and reduce the noise of the submarine at eight knots to less than 100 decibels, basically reaching the level of the "Los Angeles" class improvement and the "Akula" class improvement.

The "Electric Ray" commanded by Qu Shaofeng is the No. 5 boat of Type 093, which is the second in the third batch.

During the navigation test, the "Electric Ray" once made the reactor reach 115% of the output power, and the maximum submarine speed exceeded 35 knots. However, at this speed, the noise of the submarine was as high as 145 decibels, which could be heard two hundred kilometers away.

It is undeniable that speed is one of the most important tactical performance indicators of nuclear submarines.

However, most of the time, attack nuclear submarines will not sail at this speed.

From a tactical perspective, only when encountering enemy boats and fighting, attacking nuclear submarines will use their maximum speed to seize advantageous positions, either chase the enemy, or avoid torpedoes. Under normal circumstances, attacking nuclear submarines will allow reactors to operate in a natural cycle, thereby keeping noise to a minimum.

Whether it is a nuclear submarine or a conventional submarine, concealment is the most important tactical performance indicator.

To conceal the enemy fleet, the "Electric Ray" cannot sail at full speed, or even start the second cycle loop of the reactor.

When the reactor works in a natural cycle, the maximum speed of the "Electric Ray" can only reach eight knots.

Of course, this is the maximum speed at a still water speed.

To the south of Diaoyu Island, a tributary of the Kuroshima flows to Okinawa Island. With this ocean current, the speed of the "Electric Ray" can reach 11 knots.

At this speed, it will take at least five hours for the "Electric Ray" to approach the Joint Fleet.

The so-called approach means shortening the distance to within the maximum range of a 650 mm heavy torpedo.

Obviously, in actual combat, Qu Shaofeng will definitely not launch torpedoes at this distance.

To ensure the killing of the Joint Fleet, the "Electric Ray" will take more time, and at least shorten the distance to the maximum range of the 533 mm heavy torpedo.

This will take at least six hours.

By around 2 pm, the "Electric Ray" arrived at the ideal attack sea area.

However, Qu Shaofeng was still not in a hurry to take action because he encountered a problem that must be solved, that is, the passive sonar could not detect the warships in the joint fleet!

All twenty-two warships were paralyzed on the sea surface and made no obvious noise.

Although Qu Shaofeng knew that those warships were within 30 kilometers ahead and could not be avoided by maneuvering. As long as the torpedo was launched, he could reap the results, but he did not know the exact location of the target and could not guarantee that the torpedo could still hit the target at its maximum range.

The solution is not nothing, but there are two options.

First, use active attack sonar to determine the approximate position of the target, and then let the torpedo sail in a straight line. After reaching the nearness of the target, start the sprint with active sonar guidance.

The second is to float on the Shanghai surface, use radar to lock Japanese warships, and obtain attack data.

However, both methods will cause the "Electric Ray" to be exposed. When the sky is full of anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, Qu Shaofeng will only appear on his own initiative unless he is crazy. If the Air Force does not launch a feint attack in time, Qu Shaofeng would rather spend more time to arrive under the joint fleet and then launch a torpedo.

As long as it is close enough, the "Electric Ray" can detect the sound of waves slashing on the warship.

More importantly, when the distance is close enough, the "Electric Ray" can launch torpedoes in the general direction of the target without worrying about whether the torpedo has enough range. Tactically, Qu Shaofeng can even allow the torpedo to sail at a low speed for a while, and then accelerate the sprint after staying away from the "Electric Ray".

It can be said that Qu Shaofeng is not in a hurry at all.

The United Fleet is just a cooked duck that will definitely not fly.

Of course, after the Air Force had launched a feint attack, successfully attracted the attention of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and expelled the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's anti-submarine patrol aircraft, Qu Shaofeng had no such concerns. At that time, he only needed to consider a potential threat, namely, the Japanese submarines lurking in the sea.

Strictly speaking, the biggest threat to the "Electric Ray" is not the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, but the Japanese submarine.

Like the "Electric Ray", those Japanese submarines that entered the battlefield in advance were fully capable of launching a surprise attack and caught their opponent off guard.

Although the performance gap between conventional submarines is very obvious compared to attack nuclear submarines, in the Second Korean War, conventional submarines commanded by Wang Yuhan and Safemo and others have proved that as long as the tactics are used properly and the advantageous position is occupied in advance, conventional submarines can still sink attack nuclear submarines.

Qu Shaofeng has the caution that the captain of the submarine is all cautious. He will never take action rashly for the results of the battle before his eyes when he has not figured out the battlefield situation.

If a warship is a knight on the ocean battlefield, then a submarine is an assassin on the ocean battlefield.

Any minor mistake can lead to unpredictable or even disastrous consequences, and you will never buy the medicine for regret.

While the Air Force fighters were actively competing for air supremacy and expelling anti-submarine patrol aircraft near the Joint Fleet, the "Electric Ray" was still advancing slowly at the best silent speed of four knots, using sonar arrays mounted on the sidewalk to search the surrounding waters and paying attention to all suspicious signals.

Patience once again gave Qu Shaofeng a reward.

However, on the air battlefield, the time the Air Force has bought for the submarine force is passing. Even if it can seize air supremacy, it will not be able to maintain air supremacy for a long time. As the Air Force fighters run out of fuel and ammunition, Japan's anti-submarine patrol aircraft will return soon.
Chapter completed!