Chapter 96 Return to the main position

On the morning of February 16, Mu Haoyang handed over the important task of commanding the fleet to Zhang Yuting, and flew to Pakistan on a carrier-based transport plane under the cover of eight fighter jets and an early warning plane. The escorted fighter jets would not return immediately, but would wait until the afternoon to return to the fleet with the additional fighter jets.

At that time, the fleet was still in radio silence.

For security periods, it is necessary to decide whether to break the radio silence after determining the specific combat plan of the fleet.

After arriving in Pakistan, Mu Haoyang did not rush to return home, but stayed in Gwadar Port for a day to inspect the situation of the Western Indian Ocean Fleet.

The "Yangtze River" returned to Gwadar Port on the 13th. The situation was very bad, and the condition of several escort warships that returned with them was not ideal.

Although Gwadar Port is the first military base of the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean, the largest military port, and the home port of the West Indian Ocean Fleet, after gaining a comprehensive understanding of the damage to the "Yangtze River", engineers believed that it could not be repaired in Gwadar Port.

At that time, the engineers had proposed two solutions. One was to wait for the cargo ship to deliver some necessary parts, first repair the power system at Gwadar Port, so that the aircraft carrier could reach the maximum navigation speed, and then return to the local area. The other was to return to the local area with the escort warship when the time was ripe.

Because the task force had just wiped out the Indian fleet, engineers were more inclined toward the latter.

In any case, the Yangtze River will undergo a major renovation after returning to the mainland, so there is no need to delay more time in Gwadar Port.

Mu Haoyang also believed that it was most appropriate to return to the local area as soon as possible, so appropriate arrangements must be made for the task force's combat operations. For example, let the task force go south with the "Yangtze River". After arriving near Sri Lanka, the Nanhai District fleet that arrived to pick up the "Yangtze River".

After making the arrangements, Mu Haoyang left Gwadar Port on the morning of the 17th.

On his way back, he stayed in Islamabad for several hours, met with the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Army and discussed the joint combat between the two armies.

There is no need to say much about the Army and the Air Force. The 13th Army is heading to Pakistan. With the opening of the sea route, Qi Kaiwei will definitely invest more troops in Pakistan and regard the Western Front as the main battlefield. On the air battlefield, the air forces of China and Pakistan have long been working together.

The key is the Navy's business.

At that time, Mu Haoyang did not intend to cooperate with the Pakistani Navy, mainly because the Pakistani Navy was not large in size and did not have much combat effectiveness. On the contrary, the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani General Staff was very eager to cooperate with the Chinese Navy to improve the status of the Pakistani Navy.

Finally, Mu Haoyang had to make concessions and promised to cooperate with the Pakistani Navy during the anti-submarine and blockade operations.

It can be said that the most prominent problem at that time was anti-submarine, because the Indian Navy had more than a dozen submarines, of which eight of them were very advanced, not worse than conventional submarines in Pakistan, and posed a fatal threat to the mini-Pakistan ships sailing in the Indian Ocean. To ensure that the route is unobstructed, one must work hard on anti-submarine operations and cooperate with the Pakistani Navy.

According to the results of Mu Haoyang's consultation with the Chief of Pakistan's General Staff, the Pakistani Navy is mainly responsible for anti-submarine and escort tasks within a range of 1,000 nautical miles offshore, that is, the Pakistani Navy assumes the main responsibility within the range of the Arabian Sea. The Chinese Navy only needs to cover the route from the Maldives Islands to the East Indian Ocean, and use anti-submarine patrol aircraft deployed in Sri Lanka, South Andaman and other places to deal with Indian submarines.

In fact, doing so is equivalent to reducing the combat burden of the Chinese Navy.

At that time, in addition to the task force, the Chinese Navy could also use only the South China Sea Fleet and the remaining ships of the West Indian Ocean Fleet. While keeping the scale of the task force unchanged, it would be possible to form two escorts at most. Even if some warships were drawn from the task force, three escorts could only be formed. There is no doubt that if the Chinese Navy had all escort tasks, the three escorts would not do anything at all. To put it simply, these three escorts could only ensure that five to six transport fleets sailed on the Indian Ocean, but in fact

There are more than ten fleets that need to be covered. With the cooperation of the Pakistani Navy, regional anti-submarine tactics can be adopted, that is, the route is divided into four areas, and an escort team is arranged in each area. The Pakistani Navy undertakes anti-submarine missions in one area, thereby maximizing the utilization rate of the escort team. In this case, the navy of China and Pakistan only needs to organize four escort teams to cover 16 fleets. If the ashore-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft and the full-speed fleet is covered by submarines, it can basically ensure that the Indian Ocean route is unobstructed.

Obviously, without the Pakistani Navy, the Chinese Navy could not do it at all.

However, in this way, the task force has a new task: bombing Indian naval bases and eliminating the remnants of the Indian Navy's ships and combat aircraft.

This is not to eliminate potential threats, but to ensure that Pakistani naval ships can go out to sea.

You should know that the largest warships of the Pakistan Navy are four frigates with a displacement of less than 5,000 tons, and in addition, there are more than a dozen missile speedboats and eight submarines. The surface ships of the Pakistani Navy do not have fleet combat capabilities at all. If they are attacked from the sea and the air during the escort operation, the consequences will be unimaginable.

After leaving Islamabad, Mu Haoyang sent Zhang Yuting a telegram, asking the task force to first bomb naval bases in western India.

In any case, it is impossible for the task force to hang out on the Arabian Sea, so they have to find something to do.

On the evening of the 17th, Mu Haoyang returned to Beijing.

He did not go home, but rushed directly to the General Staff.

Because he knew Mu Haoyang would come back in the evening, Zhou Yusheng made a special trip to stay and wait for him, and asked the chef to prepare some authentic Sichuan cuisine.

"How is the situation with the fleet?"

"Very good, at least morale is no longer a problem." Mu Haoyang smiled and said, "I have already negotiated with the Chief of Staff of Pakistan. Next, I will operate in joint operations with the Pakistan Navy to establish a regional escort system. You have to send the South China Sea area fleet as soon as possible."

Zhou Yusheng nodded, this was already under the plan.

Before the war broke out, Mu Haoyang assigned tasks to each fleet. The main task of the South China Sea Fleet was to escort the transport fleet after seizing the sea control power.

"Also, you have to send the submarine as soon as possible?"

“Processing a strategic blockade?”

"Strategic blockade is just a task. We have to find and eliminate Indian submarines to ensure that our route is unobstructed." Mu Haoyang paused for a moment and said, "Qi Kaiwei has sent the 13th Army to Pakistan. He must have adjusted his combat deployment and adopted an offensive strategy of first west and then east. Next, we have to try our best to organize ships to India so that India can't get war supplies."

"Okay, I'll make arrangements tonight."

"How is the situation in the Air Force?"

"A few days ago, Mother Qi Tie was still complaining, saying that the fleet's combat operations completely disrupted the war plan, but he had not complained since yesterday." Zhou Yusheng smiled and said, "This is understandable. In order to support the fleet's combat operations, the Air Force's combat operations have been greatly affected."

“That is, the strike mission was not completed as planned.”

"It took about two to three days to delay."

Mu Haoyang frowned and said nothing.

"Fortunately, the loss rate of fighter jets has been declining. Yesterday was only 0.7%, and the effect of large-scale air strikes has been revealed. As long as there is enough time, it will be no problem to defeat the Indian Air Force. My suggestion is to postpone the overall combat plan for two to three days."

Mu Haoyang nodded and said, "You can do this, but I will make arrangements after I finish reading the battle report for the past few days."

"It seems that you are not going back to sleep."

"I took a two-day break in Guadal Harbour and Islamabad, and I also slept on the way back." Mu Haoyang smiled and said, "If there is nothing to do, you go back first, I'll be on duty."

"How can I be so embarrassed..."

"What's wrong with me? You have helped me with the shift for a few days, so you have to breathe a sigh of relief."

"Okay, since you want to work overtime, I won't argue with you." Zhou Yusheng seemed to have not been home for several days. After saying that, he put down his chopsticks, "There is nothing else, I won't delay you. I'll come here early tomorrow. I want to eat something for breakfast. How about oil tea?"

"Oil tea?"

“The chef is ready for you.”

Mu Haoyang was stunned, then smiled and said, "I'm afraid it's not for me, but for you."

"Is it different?" Zhou Yusheng didn't talk much, and stood up and said, "Let's just do it. I'll bring you oil tea at 7 o'clock tomorrow."

Oil tea is a special snack in Sichuan and Chongqing, while Mu Haoyang and Zhou Yusheng are both from Chongqing.

After Zhou Yusheng left, Mu Haoyang asked the staff on duty to report the battle over the past few days.

In the first nine days of the war, the Chinese Air Force performed well enough that not only quickly reversed the situation, but also took the initiative on the third day of the war. It can be said that in these nine days, although the performance of the Air Force was not as ups and downs as the Navy and did not have many amazing actions, the results achieved were enough to prove that the Air Force's strike ability far exceeded that of the Navy and was a veritable protagonist in the battlefield.

During these nine days, the Air Force dispatched more than 30,000 combat aircraft and dropped nearly 100,000 tons of bombs.

You should know that there are only more than 2,000 combat aircraft participating in the war, which means that each fighter has performed nearly two missions every day and dropped more than six tons of bombs.

For this reason, the Air Force lost 348 fighter jets, with a combat loss rate of about one percent.

Obviously, the combat loss rate of fighter jets is rapidly decreasing, which means that the combat effectiveness of the Indian Air Force is rapidly decreasing, and the air strike effect has been shown.

However, this still did not meet the crackdown standards set by Mu Haoyang.

It is not that there are not enough fighter jets dispatched, but that more fighter jets perform air control missions, so the number of fighter jets used to perform strike missions is relatively low.

Of course, this problem is about to be solved.

As the combat effectiveness of the Indian Air Force decreases, the mother Qi Tie is gradually increasing its strike force and allowing more fighter jets to perform strike missions.

According to the current development trend, the Air Force will be able to seize absolute air supremacy in five days.

The question is, will the battle situation remain the same in the next five days?

Chapter 96 Return to the main position
Chapter completed!