Chapter 91 The Price of Brave

This f-35m was one of the reconnaissance planes departing from the Indian fleet at around 11 o'clock on the night of the 14th.

When he was flying more than 1,400 kilometers southwest and about to reach the maximum reconnaissance radius, the pilot received an order from the fleet.

Although the remaining fuel on the fighter plane was not enough to return to the fleet, the pilot, who had been trained in the United States for half a year, did not hesitate and immediately turned his course and flew south to the Maldives Islands. More importantly, when the remaining fuel could no longer return to the fleet, the pilot chose an ultra-low altitude route instead of flying at a height of 6,000 meters in the previous way.

At that time, a total of six f-35m flies turned toward the south of the Maldives Islands.

Because the fighter pilots of the Indian Navy have received rigorous training in the United States, they have an in-depth understanding of fleet aviation combat tactics, and are more clear about the essence of fleet aviation combat. They are much higher in quality than those Air Force pilots who are mainly trained by American instructors in China, so these six F-35m pilots all used ultra-low-altitude flight routes when they knew they could no longer return to the fleet.

It can be said that they all made self-sacrifice.

To put it bluntly, the fleet breaks the radio silence, indicating that the fleet has been exposed, and the new reconnaissance arrangement shows that the enemy fleet is likely to be south of the Maldives Islands. For reconnaissance aircraft, if the enemy fleet cannot be discovered in time, they cannot launch an attack in time. Perhaps, they cannot change the fate of the fleet being hit, but at least they can win a counterattack opportunity for the fleet.

The key is whether you can hide and get close to the enemy fleet, rather than being discovered hundreds of kilometers away from the enemy fleet.

Ultra-low altitude entry has become the only option, and this is also the only way for the F-35m to avoid task force early warning aircraft and hide from the task force.

You should know that if the flight altitude of f-35m is 6,000 meters, it will be detected by the task force's early warning aircraft within 400 kilometers. If the flight altitude is reduced to less than twenty meters and the interference caused by the sea facing electromagnetic wave scattering is used, the task force's early warning aircraft will definitely be less than one hundred kilometers in passive detection mode, and can only reach more than two hundred kilometers in active detection mode.

If the early warning aircraft adopts active detection mode, there is no advantage.

The reason is very simple. There is a passive radar detection system on the f-35m, which allows the fire-controlled radar to work passively, detecting the radar signals sent by the early warning aircraft, thereby determining the approximate orientation of the early warning aircraft, and then adjusting the route to avoid being discovered by the early warning aircraft.

In fact, after the passive detection technology is mature, the early warning aircraft will only work in active detection mode when conducting air defense operations. When performing alert tasks, the early warning aircraft mainly works in passive detection mode. If the task force has not exposed its whereabouts, the early warning aircraft can work in passive mode. Rashly actuating the active radar will only expose the task force to early expose its whereabouts.

At that time, the four early warning aircraft over the task force did work in passive mode.

More importantly, when the f-35m approached, the j-32 fleet was returning, and according to the landing regulations, they entered the landing area one after another along the six-sided channel.

The result is that the early warning aircraft regards the f-35m as a return j-32.

Although the radar signal characteristics of f-35m and j-32 are completely different, the two fighters are of the same size and have similar interference effects on the electromagnetic field. In addition, the low-altitude electromagnetic field is more complex, so when the early warning aircraft operates in passive detection mode, it is difficult to distinguish between these two fighters.

At that time, the first person to discover the f-35m was the landing guide on the "Nanling".

Because it was found that the f-35m did not enter along the hexagonal channel as required, the landing guide also issued a light signal, requiring the pilot to return to flight and enter the landing channel in turn according to the regulations.

Obviously, the signal sent by the landing guide was useless at all.

Immediately afterwards, the F-35m fired the Nanling with a machine gun, which also exposed its identity.

Although the strafing did not cause much damage, only two air servicemen who were clearing the flight deck were killed, a trailer was destroyed, and a shell hit the directional communication equipment on the island, causing the "Nanling" to resume fleet communications five minutes later, but the impact was great, that is, the six J-32s who were preparing to land immediately gave up their landing and began to attack the F-35m.

At that time, the "Nanling" was at the left rear of the "Kunlun Mountain", about twenty-five kilometers apart.

When receiving the news, Mu Haoyang was also shocked.

After attacking the "Nanling", the F-35m sent a crucial telegram and was immediately shot down by two J-32s with fighting missiles. After the Indian pilot ejected and parachuted, the J-32 had not given up and killed the brave Indian pilot with machine guns.

"What should I do now?" Zhang Yuting was also shocked. Indian fighter jets could break through the fleet air defense network so easily.

If it was not a reconnaissance aircraft but a large number of attack aircraft, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Mu Haoyang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "As per the plan, let the j-32 take off first, and then arrange for the j-25p to be launched, so there is no need to strengthen the fleet air defense for the time being."

"But……"

"We have exposed our whereabouts. There is no need to keep the radio silent. Let the early warning aircraft work in the active mode." Mu Haoyang paused for a moment and said, "Contact the first batch of j-32b to return, let the two squadrons return at full speed, and take off immediately after landing. The other two squadrons search for flights in the southwest. Remember to send two early warning aircraft over, and then send four additional early warning aircraft to perform the alert mission."

Zhang Yuting didn't talk anymore and nodded to the aviation combat consultant.

"Also, let the escort warships activate radar and prepare for air defense operations."

This time, without Zhang Yuting conveying the order, the fleet combat staff made arrangements.

After the staff became busy, Mu Haoyang called Zhang Yuting aside and said, "Now, what we need to worry about is not the fighter jets of the Indian Air Force, but the anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the Indian Navy. It is obvious that Simba believes that we are near Digo Garcia, otherwise the reconnaissance aircraft of the Indian fleet would not fly from the northwest direction. In other words, if the Indian Navy had prepared for a long time, the anti-submarine patrol aircraft should be in the northwest direction."

"But, we have too few fighter planes left."

"Are they rare?" Mu Haoyang smiled and said, "Forty fighters are enough to deal with anti-submarine patrol aircraft."

Zhang Yuting nodded thoughtfully, without expressing his objection.

"The Indian Air Force will surely send air defense fighters to the Indian fleet immediately, and we cannot miss the best opportunity to wipe out the Indian fleet."

"In this case, the escort fighter jets we dispatched would not be sufficient."

"This is all the remaining fighter jets."

"Do you want to send a few early warning aircraft?"

Mu Haoyang frowned and nodded immediately.

Zhang Yuting didn't ask any more questions, and immediately went to find the aviation combat staff and asked him to arrange early warning aircraft for the escort fighter fleet.

To be precise, it is to let four early warning aircraft in the second batch of reconnaissance aircraft group exit and cooperate with four early warning aircraft in the first batch of reconnaissance aircraft group.

In this way, during the second attack, eight early warning aircraft were moving forward.

Obviously, this is much more than the actual number required. You should know that commanding thirty-two j-32s requires only four early warning aircraft at most. Increased early warning aircraft to eight can also allow some j-25p to be supported when performing attack tasks, thereby improving attack efficiency.

In fact, Mu Haoyang has seriously considered the problem.

At that time, forty anti-submarine patrol aircraft sent by the Indian Navy took off less than an hour. Although they flew to Digo Garcia according to Simba's arrangement, they immediately turned south after the F-35m sent reconnaissance information and flew straight to the task force along the Maldives Islands.

Don't forget that Simba thought he would encounter a task force in the early morning, so he arranged for anti-submarine patrol aircraft to arrive at the attacking waters around 5 a.m.

However, the anti-submarine patrol aircraft were much slower than fighter aircraft, so they did not encounter the first attack aircraft group of the task force.

At the flight speed of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, it will take at least about four in the morning to reach about five hundred kilometers from the task force.

In other words, the task force has more than two hours of air defense preparation.

Obviously, this is sufficient.

Not to mention, all fighters carrying out the first attack mission will return to the fleet before the early morning.... After retrieving the last batch of j-32bs, the task force will have about twenty minutes to prepare for air defense. If necessary, Mu Haoyang can even take up the second batch of j-32bs and let these fighters carry air ammunition while carrying air ammunition, while refueling the third batch of j-32bs and the escort j-32s, delaying their landing time, so that the fleet has enough time to allow the ninety-six j-32bs that had returned to the air and patrol.

That is to say, by four in the morning, the task force can dispatch at least ninety-six air defense fighters.

Of course, if it is just to deal with anti-submarine patrol aircraft, there is no need for this. As long as the early warning aircraft can detect anti-submarine patrol aircraft in time, more than a dozen j-32bs will be enough.

In addition, there is another thing that cannot be ignored.

India's anti-submarine patrol aircraft went south directly, so it is very likely to encounter a second group of attack aircraft and be intercepted by escort fighters and attack aircraft.

In this way, India's anti-submarine patrol aircraft had no chance to get close to the task force.

Of course, Mu Haoyang was not aware of this situation, and he had to start from the worst perspective, that is, the Indian Navy's anti-submarine patrol fleet had arrived near the fleet.

At 155, the first j-32 filled with fuel was lifted off.

Because only fuel is needed and no ammunition is needed, all operations are carried out on the flight deck, and three recharge points can replenish the six fighter jets at the same time. More importantly, half of the j-32 has more than half of the fuel box, so the recharge efficiency is much higher than normal.

After two o'clock, the first j-25p was launched.

At that time, only the "Nanling" had a slightly lower aviation operation efficiency, mainly because the flight deck had to be cleaned to avoid accidents when the fighter planes were dispatched.

Chapter 91 The Price of Brave
Chapter completed!