Chapter 18 Survey

When the war broke out, that is, on the night of the 20th, Zhang Yuting not only led the Western Indian Ocean fleet out of the port in time, but also sailed hundreds of nautical miles at full speed. He was very lucky to avoid the sudden attack of the US military, and was not discovered by the US reconnaissance plane. He spent the most difficult hours in the northern Arabian Sea without any danger.

In the early morning of the 21st, the Western Indian Ocean fleet turned south.

According to the information disclosed after the war, Zhang Yuting did want to attack Digo Garcia at that time and bombard the US military bases by a sudden attack.

In terms of time, on the afternoon of the 21st, the West Indian Ocean Fleet can launch an attack.

Judging from the situation at that time, if Zhang Yuting insisted on his own opinion, the assault would likely have achieved results, because it was not until the night of the 21st that the US military sent 60 F-44c fighter jets from Australia to transfer to Digo Garcia. Before that, there were only 24 fighter jets deployed in Digo Garcia, and the rest were bombers, early warning aircraft, electronic reconnaissance aircraft and tankers. Not to mention anything else, in the early morning of the 21st, 120 bombers who completed the bombing mission transferred back to their homeland or Australia through Digo Garcia. In the afternoon of the same day, the US military used 60 transport aircraft to transport ground support equipment for tactical aviation to Digo Garcia. That is to say, with the throughput capabilities of Digo Garcia Airport, fighter jets could not be accepted until that night.

Unfortunately, Mu Haoyang's order made Zhang Yuting give up his plan to attack Digo Garcia.

This cannot be blamed on Mu Haoyang, because in the early morning of the 21st, no one knew the deployment of the US military, and it was even more impossible to know that Digo Garcia had only twenty-four air defense fighters. In the case of a sudden blow and losses of more than 60%, Mu Haoyang must focus on preserving the strength of the fleet.

In fact, the time window left for Zhang Yuting is only about four hours.

The reason is very simple. Before the war started, the three aircraft carrier groups of the U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet, the Fourth Fleet, had entered the Indian Ocean, and the three aircraft carrier battle groups deployed in Australia outside had also left the port. More importantly, the three aircraft carrier battle groups entering the Indian Ocean through the southern tip of Africa are all the latest warships. The three aircraft carriers were all in service at the end of 2050, with a maximum speed of 45 knots, which is equivalent to the "Tarzan" class aircraft carrier. The escort warships are also a new generation of warships that were put into service after 2048, and can fight with new aircraft carriers throughout the journey.

In other words, this fleet can sail more than a thousand nautical miles in one day.

From the perspective of time, in the early morning of the 22nd, the US Fourth Fleet could reach a thousand nautical miles south of Digo Garcia and dispatch carrier-based fighters to cover Digo Garcia. Because the US military deployed more than 20 tankers in Digo Garcia, the fighter jets of the Fourth Fleet could extend the combat radius to more than 2,500 kilometers. In this way, if the Western Indian Ocean Fleet attacked Digo Garcia on the night of the 21st and did not immediately avoid northward, then in the early morning of the 22nd, it would be possible to be attacked by the Fourth Fleet.

If it is dragged until the afternoon of the 22nd, the third US fleet, that is, the fleet deployed in Australia, will also arrive, and the Western Indian Ocean fleet will have no chance of winning.

The problem is that Zhang Yuting did not know that the Fourth Fleet had entered the Indian Ocean.

At that time, the only thing that could be confirmed was that the Third Fleet had left the port and was likely to be rushing to Digo Garcia, so Zhang Yuting was likely to drag it until noon on the 22nd to order the turn, so he moved in front of the Fourth Fleet for more than ten hours, and he did not know the existence of the Fourth Fleet.

I'm afraid it's not hard to imagine what the result will be.

Judging from the situation at that time, the only way out for the Western Indian Ocean Fleet was to retreat to the northern Arabian Sea and operate under the cover of shore-based aviation forces, and try to avoid contact with the US fleet.

The problem is that on the 21st and 22nd, there are not many shore-based air forces that can cover the West Indian Ocean Fleet.

According to the Air Force's war plan, it will take until the 23rd day to increase the number of fighter jets deployed to Pakistan and India to more than 400, and only two-thirds can cover the Western Indian Ocean fleet. The rest must be used to perform other tasks, such as early warning aircraft and strategic electronic reconnaissance aircraft that patrol in front of cover.

By the 22nd, there were only 240 Chinese fighter jets deployed in Pakistan and India.

At this level, there are no more than forty fighter jets that can patrol over the Western Indian Ocean Fleet, and at least twelve cover early warning aircraft are scored.

Obviously, this air defense cover is better than nothing.

In this way, the Western Indian Ocean fleet still has to rely on itself.

In fact, the air defense power of the Western Indian Ocean Fleet is not weak. The two aviation corpses have 144 J-32 and J-33 fighters and ten carrier-based early warning aircraft. They can ensure that twenty-four fighters patrol over the fleet at any time and can dispatch forty-eight air defense fighters within ten minutes. The air defense network consisting of 72 J-32 and J-33 is enough to withstand more than two hundred enemy aircraft groups.

That's why Zhang Yuting did not turn the fleet north, but stayed in the central Arabian Sea.

According to the information disclosed after the war, the main purpose of Zhang Yuting's deployment was not for the fleet, but for expanding the scope of defense to prevent Pakistan and India from being hit again, especially to cover the Port of Cochin, which is of great strategic significance.

The status of Cochin Port is equivalent to that of Yokohama Port.

After the Second Indian Ocean War, the Chinese Navy took over the Port of Cochin and then bought the Kochi Shipyard that was completely destroyed in the war at an extremely low price, as well as related shipbuilding infrastructure. In the following five years, the Chinese Navy spent tens of billions of yuan to build Kochi into the most well-equipped fleet maintenance base in the Indian Ocean region, and thus made Kochi one of the most important naval bases of the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean.

At that time, Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Haoyang Port and Gwadar Port jointly supported the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean base group.

In terms of functional allocation, Visakhapatnam, Haoyang Port and Gwadar Port mainly support fleet combat. Only Kochi has relatively complete ship maintenance facilities that can repair all warships, including the Kunlun Mountain class aircraft carrier. Before the outbreak of the war, the Chinese Navy even planned to build a 150,000-ton dry dock in Kochi so that it can provide maintenance services for the Taishan class aircraft carrier.

From the perspective of military value, Cochin Port is definitely higher than the other three ports.

The reason is very simple. With the Kochi Port, China's warships deployed in the Indian Ocean do not need to return to the local area for maintenance. This is equivalent to increasing the deployment efficiency of warships by more than 20%. Moreover, being able to repair damaged warships during wartime is equivalent to enhancing the independent combat capabilities of the Indian Ocean Fleet.

In a sense, this is also a result of being forced.

You should know that Singapore is an ally of the United States. Although its land area is limited, it guards the Strait of Malacca and threatens all channels entering the South China Sea through the Lombok Strait and the Sunda Strait. If warships of the Indian Ocean Fleet want to return to their homeland, they must pass through the South China Sea.

The result is that if Singapore cannot be captured in the early stages of the war and there is no complete naval base like Kochi, the combat capability of the Indian Ocean fleet will be very limited, and the Chinese Navy will have to take the risk of allowing the fleet to pass through the South China Sea, and may even give up the Indian Ocean.

In fact, even without Singapore, Cochin is of great value.

The reason is very simple. Fighters and bombers deployed in northwest Australia can block the Strait of Malacca, Sunda Strait and Lombok Strait.

It was precisely because Zhang Yuting allowed the fleet to stay.

Because Kochi suffered not serious losses in the first round of attacks, Zhang Yuting believed that the US military would definitely bomb Kochi again.

According to the information disclosed after the war, Zhang Yuting had received a war report from the General Staff at that time.

In other words, he knew that the Air Force would not strengthen its combat forces in South Asia until the 23rd day, so before the 23rd day, the West Indian Ocean Fleet was the main force to cover Kochi.

According to the combat records of the Western Indian Ocean Fleet, Zhang Yuting made a decision to return on the evening of the 22nd, only setting the return time to 2 a.m. on the 23rd. By this time, the Air Force had deployed hundreds of fighter jets in India and had extended its defense range thousands of kilometers southward.

At this time, the problem arose.

This is, the West Indian Ocean Fleet was initially in the East 5th Time Zone, while Beijing was in the East 8th Time Zone.

In other words, when Zhang Yuting made the decision to return, it was still around the afternoon in Beijing. At this time, even Mu Haoyang didn't know that the Fourth Fleet had entered the Indian Ocean. It would take four hours later, when Li Mingyang came to him, Mu Haoyang could obtain accurate information.

These four hours are particularly critical.

You should know that on the afternoon of the 22nd, the Fourth Fleet had already arrived near Digo Garcia, and we had known that the Western Indian Ocean Fleet had left Gardar Port. More importantly, by this time, the US military not only increased Digo Garcia's air defense fighter jets to 84, but also sent twelve large early warning aircraft and twenty-four strategic electronic reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, the Fourth Fleet also has more than 200 fighter jets and more than ten carrier-based early warning aircraft. If the fighter jets deployed in Djibouti were included, the US military could invest more than 400 fighter jets in the Arabian Sea, hundreds of early warning aircraft and strategic electronic reconnaissance aircraft with large-scale search capabilities, which would have strong enough search and strike capabilities.

By the evening of the 22nd, the Third Fleet had also arrived in the waters of the Maldives Islands.

In this way, with the cooperation of large tankers, the US military can use more than 400 fighter jets from six carrier-based aviation corps to attack the Western Indian Ocean Fleet.

Before this, all the US military had to do was to find the West Indian Ocean Fleet.

In fact, starting from noon on the 22nd, the US military has strengthened its reconnaissance efforts in the Arabian Sea and used dozens of early warning aircraft and electronic reconnaissance aircraft.

More importantly, the US military has used large early warning aircraft.

In terms of detection capabilities, large-scale early warning aircraft far exceeds carrier-based early warning aircraft. Especially in passive detection mode, the detection distance of stealth fighters is more than 20% higher than that of carrier-based early warning aircraft, while for non-stealth targets, such as the detection distance of early warning aircraft itself is more than 30% higher than that of carrier-based early warning aircraft. In other words, the large-scale early warning aircraft of the US military can discover early warning aircraft and fighters over the West Indian Ocean Fleet hundreds of kilometers away without exposing their whereabouts, thereby roughly grasping the whereabouts of the West Indian Ocean Fleet.

Chapter 18 Survey
Chapter completed!