.After the thirty days, the most nervous one must be the officers and soldiers of the Indian Air Force.

Although after the fleet was defeated, Taemura Imai had no right to interfere in combat operations, and the Indian Air Force no longer needed to obey the command of a Japanese general, the situation became even worse. Without the support and cover provided by the fleet, the Indian Air Force did not have enough ability to keep the Chinese fleet out of the Bay of Bengal.

More importantly, Japan began to back down.

Before dawn, the e-3g aircraft group received an order to stop all combat operations and stand by at the airport.

The result is that when support is needed most, the Indian Air Force does not receive the most critical support. With only two "Felcon" and several domestic early warning aircraft with severely lagging performance, whether the Indian Air Force can ensure local security is a problem, let alone keeping the Chinese fleet out of the Bay of Bengal.

In fact, even if there are four "Felcons", the situation is not optimistic.

The reason is very simple. "Felcon" cannot effectively detect the j-25, so it cannot play the role of an early warning aircraft in air defense operations.

Relying solely on the ground air defense system, no matter how many air defense fighters are, they will not be useful.

At this time, the loopholes in India's local air defense network became even more fatal.

When building the local air defense network, the Indian Air Force focused on the northeast and northwest directions, respectively, to deal with air threats from China and Pakistan. Especially in recent years, as the Chinese Air Force has obtained more J-20s and excellent J-22s, Pakistan has obtained advanced fighter jets such as FC-25s and FC-30s. The air threat faced by India has greatly increased, and it has to pay more attention to the air defense forces in the northwest and northeast. The result is that with limited power, it has to reduce the air defense forces in the southern part of the local area.

In fact, in the southern region, there is no complete air defense network.

As long as the Chinese fleet is willing, it can bomb military bases in these areas at any time, and even allow fighter jets to attack mainland targets far away from the coastline.

Objectively speaking, passive defense itself has problems.

As an offensive service, the air force's advantage lies in offense, not defense. No air force that focuses on defense can survive in modern warfare.

As the most powerful air force in South Asia, the Indian Air Force is very clear about this truth.

That's why the Indian Air Force attaches great importance to the offensive.

In the confrontation with Pakistan, the main task of the Indian Air Force is to attack and defeat Pakistan's air defense forces through attack.

The result is that the Indian Air Force has a large number of attack aircraft.

Strictly speaking, not only is the F-35i a typical attack aircraft, but the Su-30mki, which was promoted by the Indian Air Force as an air defense fighter, also has ground strikes as its main mission.

The problem is that in the battlefield facing Pakistan, the Indian Air Force does not have too high requirements for the range of attack aircraft.

With Pakistan's territory and Pakistan's air force bases are mainly distributed at the north and south ends, namely near Islamabad and Karachi, the Indian Air Force's attack aircraft only requires a combat radius of up to 500 kilometers, and even if it is deployed at a rear, it only requires a combat radius of 800 to 1,000 kilometers.

The Indian Air Force has been following this standard for decades.

In the Indian Air Force, except for the su-30mki, there is no fighter mainly engaged in ground strikes with a combat radius of more than 1,000 kilometers. Even the newly introduced F-35i has strengthened its ground strike capabilities and its combat radius is less than 1,000 kilometers at normal ammunition capacity. Only by reducing the ammunition capacity by half and carrying an external auxiliary fuel tank can it reach 1,100 kilometers without air refueling.

Also affected by this, the Indian Air Force did not pay attention to tanker aircraft.

Before the war broke out, the Indian Air Force had only ten large tankers. The two initially introduced were grounded due to long-term lack of proper maintenance and lost five in combat, so there were only three tankers left, and at most they could support six to twelve fighters in one battle.

In this way, even if the Indian Air Force intends to take the initiative to attack, there is no suitable aircraft to attack the Chinese fleet.

You should know that the radius of the land strikes of the Chinese Navy's carrier-based fighter jets is about 1,500 kilometers. If you perform partner aerial refueling, it can be extended to more than 2,000 kilometers.

Relatively speaking, the impact force is not the most serious problem.

Although the Indian Air Force does not have suitable fighter jets, the Indian Navy has more than 30 P-8i, and they all carry anti-ship missiles to perform attack missions.

The biggest problem is that the Indian Air Force does not have the appropriate reconnaissance methods.

Although Japan has not stopped intelligence cooperation and still provides India with photos taken by reconnaissance satellites as planned, which can be updated almost every four hours, for sea-making operations, the delay of four hours of intelligence is useless because the fleet can sail hundreds of nautical miles in four hours.

Even if you are dispatched immediately after obtaining information, there is a delay of about three hours.

To attack the fleet, you must at least shorten the delay time to within one hour. Tactically speaking, the fighter planes that perform attack missions can only be launched in advance. The problem is that in this way, the intention of attack will inevitably be exposed, and the Chinese fleet has sufficient time to organize air defense operations.

Anti-submarine patrol aircraft are not fighter jets. As long as they are exposed, they will definitely be shot down by fighter jets.

Even if fighter jets are sent to cover anti-submarine patrol aircraft, because there are not enough early warning aircraft and the early warning aircraft cannot detect the approaching enemy aircraft in time, the result will not be much better.

The situation before the Indian Air Force is very cruel: if you cannot take the initiative to attack, you can only be beaten in passive defense.

Given the circumstances at that time, the Indian Air Force could only expect the authorities to change their minds as soon as possible and announce a ceasefire before the Chinese fleet launched a large-scale strike.

The question is, is the ceasefire useful?

On the morning of the 30th, Krusha received a call from Macmillan, and the US President formally proposed that India should announce a ceasefire at the appropriate time.

Although Macmillan was very kind and did not overstimulate Krusha, his meaning was very clear. The United States was willing to mediate and help India fight for its due benefits, at least to ensure that India would not suffer serious losses, and India must take proactive actions.

The problem is that for diplomatic and political reasons, Macmillan did not mention Japan.

This is understandable. Although India is an ally of Japan, its alliance relationship is not solid and has not signed an alliance treaty with the United States. If we know that the United States and Japan are not the same, the Indian Prime Minister will definitely consider it separately and will even be more inclined to reconcile with China in terms of strategic choices.

Let’s not talk about whether India is possible to form an alliance with China, even if it eases relations, it will not be beneficial to the United States.

You should know that it is India that can really contain China, not the very fragile Japan. If India cannot make good use of India's ambitions and influence in South Asia, the United States will not be able to contain China through India, and it is even more impossible for China to use South Asia to extend its hands to the Middle East.
Chapter completed!