.Chapter 4: Each one counts its own

Li Mingyang's judgment was very accurate. By the end of 2052, the problem faced by the US authorities was no longer whether to fight World War III, but when to fight the US would be most beneficial.

In early 2052, the Pentagon submitted a war plan to the White House.

According to the information disclosed after the war, the plan was proposed by US President Lucas through National Security Adviser Powell, and was organized by Secretary of Defense McCarthy and Admiral Jordan, the chairman of the Joint Conference. It mainly refers to the intelligence and the evaluation report of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The main content of the combat plan is how to annihilate the Pacific Fleet of the Chinese Navy in one fell swoop when the war broke out.

Obviously, this war plan is not very feasible.

The reason is very simple. The Chinese Navy's Pacific Fleet has three large naval bases. More than one-third of the warships are active in the Pacific Ocean all year round. One-third of the warships can leave the port at any time. Only about one-third of the warships are maintained in the home port. Sudden attacks can only eliminate the Chinese fleet remaining in the port at most. The Chinese fleet patrolling the sea and the Chinese fleet that urgently leave the port when the war breaks out still have strong enough strength, so they are confident that they can turn the situation around the Pacific.

Affected by this, the Pentagon began to modify the war plan.

At that time, the most critical question was how to bring the Chinese Navy Pacific Fleet together and give the US military a chance to launch a surprise attack.

Obviously, this is almost impossible.

As long as there are no unexpected situations, the Chinese fleet will not return to the military port at the same time, and there is no reason to concentrate on activities.

In fact, under the dark clouds of war, the US fleet adopted the same deployment strategy, always maintaining more than one-third of the warships outside.

To do this, we have to find a way to get the Chinese fleet back to the port at the same time, or appear somewhere at the same time.

The former is unlikely to be realized, so we can only make a fuss about the second possibility.

What the Pentagon thinks about is China's weakness: the Indian Ocean.

According to the plan formulated by Admiral Jordan, as long as the United States announces the dispatch of three aircraft carrier battle groups to Australia, and is deployed in western Australia, mainly in the Indian Ocean, the Chinese Navy will send additional fleets to the Indian Ocean, and may even believe that the war is about to break out. At this point, the United States only needs to do one thing to allow the Chinese Navy to send its main fleet to the Indian Ocean.

This is a simple matter: send the fleet to Digo Garcia.

Strategically speaking, Digo Garcia is the main foothold of the US military in the Indian Ocean and the main support point for the United States to burn the war into China's backyard. After the Second Indian Ocean War, the Chinese Navy regarded Digo Garcia as a thorn in his side, so he left all the two aircraft carrier battle groups in the West Indian Ocean Fleet, and only retained two cruisers in the East Indian Ocean Fleet, and did not deploy aircraft carrier battle groups.

This deployment of the Chinese Navy also proves that the Chinese Navy pursues an offensive strategy.

To put it bluntly, when the US military did not deploy an aircraft carrier battle group to Digo Garcia, the Chinese Navy will attack Digo Garcia after the war breaks out, remove this thorn in his side, and then move the troops westward to block and destroy the main military bases in western Australia.

Of course, the main purpose of the Chinese Navy's move is not to defeat the US Navy, but to protect the strategic routes of the Indian Ocean.

Against this backdrop, the United States will send an aircraft carrier battle group to Digo Garcia, which will definitely be regarded as the main signal before the war is started by the Chinese Navy.

From another perspective, we can be sure that as long as the US military makes big moves in the Indian Ocean, China will prepare for war.

Military speaking, China must first ensure that the sea control in the Pacific is not the first thing it has to do with China's navy, because the area controlled by the Chinese navy in the Pacific is less than one-tenth of that of the US Navy. In addition, it has been carefully constructed on the local periphery defense line for more than ten years. The Chinese navy is confident that the US military will be kept a thousand kilometers away from the local area, ensuring that the local area will not suffer large-scale strikes, and its Indian Ocean route is more fragile.

In this way, the Chinese Navy will definitely strive to consolidate the sea control in the Indian Ocean after the war begins.

To put it bluntly, even if China does not provoke a war on its own initiative, it will send its main force to the Indian Ocean after the United States sends additional fleets to the Indian Ocean.

Admiral Jordan's intention was clear: to start when the Chinese fleet headed to the Indian Ocean.

You should know that the Chinese Navy's access to the Indian Ocean is very limited, mainly the Malacca Strait, the Sunda Strait and the Longmu Strait. Therefore, as long as these three Straits are controlled, the US fleet can launch a sudden attack and destroy the gathering of Chinese fleets in one fell swoop.

Of course, this cannot guarantee the complete defeat of the Chinese Navy, because the Chinese Navy cannot send all its fleet to the Indian Ocean, and will definitely leave some fleets to guard the Pacific Ocean, but this is the only way to defeat the Chinese Navy and help the US Navy seize strategic initiative after the war begins.

To put it simply, as long as the US military has the advantage of military strength, it will not be a problem to defeat the Chinese Navy in the Pacific.

Without a better choice, the US President approved the combat plan.

At this time, it was already late September 2052.

According to the arrangement of Admiral Jordan, the US Navy will first draw three aircraft carrier battle groups from the Atlantic Fleet to deploy to Australia in the name of protecting allies. After the fleet is deployed, the United States will announce the deployment of a fleet to Digo Garcia, but the deployment is not a fleet sent to Australia, but another three aircraft carrier battle groups of the Atlantic Fleet, so it can invest six aircraft carrier battle groups in the direction of the Indian Ocean. During this period, the US Pacific Fleet will not act rashly and will still deploy patrols in a normal situation. According to Admiral Jordan's judgment, the Chinese Navy has already

With twelve aircraft carriers, at least four aircraft carriers will be sent to the Indian Ocean and six aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean. If China intends to take action first, it will send seven aircraft carriers to the Indian Ocean, leaving only three aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean. No matter what the situation occurs, the US fleet can fight a beautiful ambush in the Northeast Indian Ocean, destroy the Chinese fleet in one fell swoop, and then turn around and kill the West Indian Ocean Fleet and remove China's military strongholds in the Indian Ocean. At this point, even if the Chinese Navy has six aircraft carriers left, it must remain in the Indian Ocean to resist the US Pacific Fleet.

If it really develops to this point, the situation will become very beneficial to the United States.

The reason is very simple. As long as the Indian Ocean controls the sea power, the US Navy can take defense as an offense and there is no need to rush to find the Chinese fleet to fight in the Pacific. At that time, the Chinese Navy hopes to fight decisively, because only through the decisive battle can the Chinese Navy be expected to recover the unfavorable situation.

The difference between naval warfare and land warfare is that the party that actively seeks a decisive battle needs to bear greater risks.

For the US military, this means that when the troops have an absolute advantage, they will fight against the Chinese fleet with their backs against the base group in the rear.

As for the chances of winning, all the naval generals with some common sense can figure it out.

Of course, if you have better luck, for example, the Chinese Navy only has three aircraft carriers left after the first round of war, and the United States is not far from victory.

It can be said that at that time, there is no need for a decisive battle, and the US military will be able to defeat China through a strategic blockade.

Of course, it is possible to have relatively bad results. For example, if the Chinese Navy's Western Pacific Fleet leaves the port in time and avoids the US fleet, then China and the United States will have to fight a real decisive battle.

The problem is that even so, the situation is good for the United States.

The reason is very simple. The first thing the Chinese navy has to do is to regain the sea control power of the Indian Ocean, rather than launching an attack on the Pacific Ocean, and then sending a fleet into the Indian Ocean again. Before that, the US fleet had enough time to unplug China's military base in the Indian Ocean region. That is to say, the Chinese fleet must fight the US fleet with an advantage in its military strength without a rear base.

If you take a step back, even if the Chinese Navy wins this battle, the situation will not be much better.

You should know that victory in the Indian Ocean is not decisive. China needs enough time to complete war mobilization and enough time to catch up with the United States. At least in terms of fleet size, in less than two or three years, China cannot surpass the United States and will not be able to turn defeat into victory on the Pacific battlefield. In the past two or three years, the United States has grasped strategic initiative and is in an offensive position, and has the ability to weaken China's war potential, such as defeating China's local peripheral defense line and using strategic bombers deployed in the Western Pacific and the Southwest Pacific to attack China's mainland.

It can be said that on the military level, the plan is foolproof.

On October 10, the US Department of Defense officially announced that at the request of Australia and New Zealand, three aircraft carrier combat groups will be dispatched to Australia and form the Third Pacific Fleet on this basis.

At this time, three US aircraft carrier battle groups had arrived in the Southern Atlantic Ocean and were on their way to the Indian Ocean.

According to the plan, by the end of October, the US Department of Defense will take the second step and announce the dispatch of an aircraft carrier battle group to Digo Garcia.

The problem is that the Chinese Navy responded before the end of October.

On October 17, Mu Haoyang personally held a press conference and announced that the Chinese Navy would conduct comprehensive maintenance of all main warships by the end of the month.

In other words, the main warships of the Chinese Navy will return to the port one after another.

Although Mu Haoyang did not disclose detailed content, such as why comprehensive maintenance was carried out and how hundreds of warships were arranged for comprehensive maintenance, this statement was still interpreted by the outside world as a signal of war, that is, the Chinese Navy responded to the United States' dispatch of aircraft carrier battle groups to the Southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean to prepare for the upcoming war. Some even believed that the Chinese Navy would take the initiative when necessary.

Now the situation became tense, and the plan formulated by General Jordan was no longer useful.

The reason is very simple. In the view of the US, China's response measures are not to increase troops to the Indian Ocean, but to prepare for a full-scale war to deal with the US military provocation.

Chapter 4: Each one counts his own
Chapter completed!