.In mid-June, after the combat plan was determined, Imai Tatsumura decided to lead a fleet to expedition to the Indian Ocean.

In order to do a more decent job, Imai Tatsumura also asked the Indian Navy commander to issue a formal invitation through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to go to India with the fleet on the grounds of military visits. If it was just a military exercise, at most a lieutenant general would be arranged, and there was no reason for the Japanese Navy commander to take action personally.

After the decision was made, Imai Tatsumura set out to prepare for the war.

According to his arrangement, the Akagi aircraft carrier battle group completed training in the Korihara Islands, returned to Yokosuka to replenish oil and ammunition, left the port on July 15, entered the Indian Ocean on July 21, and the Indian Army will launch an attack on July 22.

On July 7, the Akagi returned to Yokosuka to prepare for the expedition.

What happened the next day completely disrupted the arrangements of Imai Rimura.

When I received the news, Imai Rimura was stunned on the spot.

Although the Intelligence Headquarters submitted a report on the same day that the accident was because an ordnance chief violated the operating rules while inspecting the ammunition and did not remove the fuse from the bomb during the power-on test, causing the bomb to detonate, Imai Tatsumura did not believe that it was an accident because it was too coincidental.

Two days later, the Intelligence Headquarters submitted a second report. The Ordnance Chief, who caused the accident, received a huge remittance two days before the incident, and sent his wife and children to Australia the next day. Because the remittance was transferred from a private bank registered in East Timor to the Ordnance Chief's personal account, and then transferred to another private bank in East Timor. Both banks were cancelled on the day of the incident, so they could not track the whereabouts of the remittance and could not track down the source of the remittance. As for the Ordnance Chief's family, they left the hotel on the day of the incident, and their whereabouts were unknown.

It is obvious that this is a deliberate sabotage operation planned by an intelligence agency.

Although anyone can guess who is behind the scenes, the Intelligence Department cannot produce any evidence and cannot blame others in a formal way.

Even if evidence is obtained, what can we do?

The "Achihe" was seriously damaged. Even if the shipyard rushed to work, it would take two months to repair it, and it was impossible to participate in the India-Japan joint exercise.

Without the Akagi, what else does the Japanese Navy have?

Imai Tatsumura does not want to give up because it is likely to be the only chance to defeat the Chinese navy within a few years. If you miss this opportunity, the Japanese navy will have to face a stronger threat in a few years, and will miss the last opportunity to rise again.

Not only did Imai Tsukumura refuse to give up, but even Toshio Nakajima refused to give up.

On the day of the incident, Toshio Nakajima came to the Navy Command, inquired about the situation in person, and then ordered Imai Toshimura to make up for the losses.

To put it bluntly, it is to continue to implement the established combat plan.

Strategically speaking, the damage to the Akagi almost forced Japan into a dead end.

China can afford to delay, India can also delay, but Japan can't. Because in a few years, the rapidly tightening resource noose can cut off Japan's trachea and suffocate Japan. China is trying to strangle Japan without any effort in resources, especially strategic resources.

What should I do if the "Achihe" cannot get to the Indian Ocean?

Imai Tatsumura first thought of two "Shoka"-class amphibious assault ships.

The Shochi-class amphibious assault ship is also a masterpiece of Imai Tomomura, or in other words, it is a necessary transition to build the Akagi.

When designing the Akagi, Kobe Shipyard encountered many difficulties, mainly because it lacked experience in building large aircraft carriers. Although the United States provided most of the drawings of the Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers and provided other help, for Japanese shipyards that have not built large aircraft carriers for decades, the threshold for directly building large aircraft carriers is too high, and it is necessary to build a transitional warship.

In fact, the previous "Hyuga"-class large helicopter destroyers were transitional warships.

According to the proposal of Kobe Shipyard, Imai Tatsumura finally decided to build two small aircraft carriers with a standard displacement of about 25,000 tons before building the Akagi.

In order to avoid the sensitive word "aircraft carrier", the "Xianghe" class was formulated as an amphibious assault ship.

During the design, Kobe Shipyard adopted a modular construction method and borrowed a lot of the concept of amphibious assault ships. Because the Navy needed a small aircraft carrier, Kobe Shipyard built a set of aviation combat modules for the two "Shoka"-class ships.

However, the performance of the "Shokha" level is not ideal.

After adopting the aviation combat module, it can carry up to twenty-four F35bs and twelve large helicopters. As an amphibious assault ship, the maximum speed of the "Xianghe" class is only twenty-four knots, the maximum range of 8,000 nautical miles at twelve knots, and the 3,000 nautical miles at twenty-four knots. The biggest problem is that the speed is too low. You only need to taxi 180 meters, and the F35b can take off with heavy load. Like the Indian aircraft carrier, the "Xianghe" class does not have a catapult, cannot carry a fixed-wing early warning aircraft, and can only carry four early warning helicopters.

The East China Sea War has proven that early warning aircraft have irreplaceable value.

Without early warning aircraft, the "Xianghe" class has no practical value in naval battles.

In order to make up for this defect, Imai Tatsumura had to discuss with the Indian military to adjust the combat plan, that is, the Japanese Air Force would send four E3Gs to participate in the exercise. Cooperating with the four "Felcon" early warning aircraft of the Indian Air Force and the early warning helicopters in the aircraft carrier battle group are enough to meet the combat needs in both directions.

If an additional early warning aircraft is dispatched, we naturally have to consider increasing the deployment of air combat forces.

Taking this opportunity, the Indian military proposed that the Japanese Navy send carrier-based aviation troops to deploy them on the Virat. The reasons are also very good. The battles purchased for the Virat will not be delivered until 2028. The Indian Navy does not have enough carrier-based fighter jets.

Imai Rimura didn't say much and agreed immediately.

The inability of the Akagi-Cheng-Chen does not mean that the carrier-based aviation cannot participate in the war. The Virat is generally no different from the Akagi-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng-Cheng

After the matter was settled, Japan and the Indian military began to discuss how to allow fighter planes to fly to the Indian Ocean.

It is obviously not realistic to transport it by ship.

The only way is to conduct a long-distance transition flight. The straight-line distance from Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa to Visakhapatnam in India exceeds the maximum transition flight distance of F35c, and it also needs to bypass the airspace of countries along the way. The actual flight distance is more than 8,000 kilometers. In theory, after carrying four large external auxiliary fuel tanks, f35c only needs to refuel once. In reality, it is impossible to do it because the refueling location must be in the middle of the route, and it is carried out after flying 3,500 kilometers and running out of the fuel inside the aircraft. At this time, the group of flights has arrived near the Anambas Islands. Whether it is a Japanese refueling aircraft or an Indian refueling aircraft, it is impossible to fly so far and refuel the fighter jets. Therefore, when a transfer flight is arranged, two refuelings must be performed.

This is not a bad thing either.

When performing two air refueling, the f35c does not need to carry an external auxiliary fuel tank, and can also carry several air-to-air missiles in the internal bomb bay. As long as the pilot is energetic enough, the f35c can be directly engaged in combat without landing after arriving at the destination.

Of course, no one will do that.

After flying for eight hours, no matter how good a pilot is, he will be exhausted.

Because the F35c needs to do a transition flight, when deploying the early warning aircraft, Imai Tatsumura decided to let the early warning aircraft and fighter aircraft switch. The maximum flight distance of the e3g exceeds 9,500 kilometers, and there is no need for air refueling, and the entire journey can be covered by fighter aircraft.

If it is intercepted by Chinese fighters during flight, e3g can also support f35c operations.

After the plan was determined, both parties began to arrange the refueling machine.

In order to support sixty F35cs, one K767 carries 120 tons of fuel and replenish the eight F35cs, at least eight K767s need to be used. This is exactly the total amount of Japanese Air Force refueling aircraft. If there are a few more F35cs, another arrangement must be made. Because the second aerial refueling is not far east of the Andaman Nicobar Islands, only 2,000 kilometers away from the destination of the fleet, the Indian Air Force only needs to use five large tankers, and the Indian Air Force has six large tankers, which is enough to meet the needs.

Such careful planning naturally requires more careful schedule.

Considering that the Indian Army will launch an attack after the Japanese fleet arrives, Imai Rimura arranged the time for the fleet to be dispatched after the fleet leaves the Strait of Malacca and enters the Andaman Sea. In this way, when the fleet arrives, the fleets of the two countries have already met.

Of course, Imai Tatsumura did not make the plan dead because the Chinese Navy's actions had to be considered.

Just as Imai Tatsumura was busy adjusting his combat plan, a piece of news related to the Chinese Navy gave him the opportunity to avenge his revenge.

Two Chinese Navy's rapid support ships returned to Guangzhou.

Subsequently, the Intelligence Headquarters sent news that the two warships would replenish fuel and ammunition in Guangzhou, and they could only leave the port after July 25 at the earliest.

As a naval general, Imai Tatsumura could not have no idea of ​​the importance of the rapid combat support ship.

Because the endurance of the "Akagi" is very limited, the Japanese Navy relies more on fast combat support ships, and he will understand the value of this support ship more.

If the Chinese Navy wants to expedition to the Indian Ocean, it is absolutely inseparable from rapid combat support ships.

Because the continuous combat capability of the "Yangtze River" class aircraft carrier is very limited, there are a large number of escort warships in the aircraft carrier combat group that use conventional power. Therefore, at long-range times, the Chinese Navy also needs to equip the aircraft carrier combat group with fast oil tankers and ammunition ships. Without these ships, the Chinese fleet could not make an expedition at all.

From this, Imai Tatsumura made a judgment that the Chinese fleet is likely to set off on July 26.

If the two "Xianghe" class complete the modification on July 21, then leave the port and meet with the escort warship, and then move south as quickly as possible, you can enter the Indian Ocean before the Chinese fleet. If you delay for a few days, the situation will be bad when the Chinese Navy arrives first.

Imai Tatsumura has no other choice, so you must act immediately...

Chapter 13: The careful plan is
Chapter completed!