In the early morning of the 18th... After discussing with Li Mingyang, Mu Haoyang handed over the work of the General Staff to Zhou Yusheng and boarded a special plane to the "Taishan".

On the way, Mu Haoyang issued an order to Major General Gong Jifei, the commander of the Tarzan aircraft carrier battle group, asking him to lead the fleet through the Anambas Islands at full speed and head to the Java Sea, preparing to enter the Indian Ocean from the Sunda Strait, and strengthen air defense alert after entering the Java Sea.

At this time, four "Taishan"-class aircraft carrier battle groups had gathered together to form a task force.

Because the other three aircraft carrier battle groups were in the training stage when the war broke out, even if the carrier-based aviation team was replaced, they did not reach the best state. Therefore, according to Mu Haoyang's arrangement, Major General Gong Jifei served as the commander of the task force, responsible for commanding the fleet's operations.

At this time, Zhou Yusheng had already arranged reconnaissance missions as Mu Haoyang ordered.

In order not to alarm the US military, Zhou Yusheng did not dispatch strategic bombers from the Air Force, but used anti-submarine patrol aircraft deployed in Southeast Asia. At that time, these patrol aircraft were mainly deployed at three naval air stations in Malaysia and Indonesia, and their main task was to search for the US third fleet operating in the East Indian Ocean. By the night of the 17th, the size of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft had reached 120. In order to extend the search radius of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, Zhou Yusheng drew twelve large tankers with the same appearance as large electric transport aircraft, and sent all of these tankers to Singapore, but were all disguised as large electric transport aircraft.

The conversion of large electric transport aircraft into tankers can be said to be a contribution of the Chinese Navy and has nothing to do with the Air Force.

Before the war broke out, the Air Force did not have the idea of ​​converting large electric transport aircraft into tankers because the speed of such transport aircraft was too slow and difficult to meet the combat requirements of the Air Force. On the contrary, the Navy was very interested because the speed of large electric transport aircraft was not much different from that of anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and it could serve anti-submarine patrol aircraft. The main force of the navy's shore-based aviation force was anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

However, the Navy has only twenty such tankers in total.

Fortunately, for one direction, twenty tankers are more than enough.

You should know that the maximum carrying capacity of a large electric transport aircraft is as high as 240 tons. After being converted into a tanker, it can carry up to 180 tons of aviation fuel, which is enough to replenish ten anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Therefore, only 12 tankers are needed to support 120 anti-submarine patrol aircraft. In fact, because the logistics support of electric aircraft is simpler and the dispatch rate is much higher than that of ordinary aircraft, as long as it is properly deployed, eight tankers can support 120 anti-submarine patrol aircraft dispatched in batches.

The Navy did not purchase large-scale electric refueling machines, which was related to another grand plan.

Before the outbreak of the war, large electric transport aircraft had already been put into service in large quantities. The Navy was inspired by this and decided to develop a fully electric anti-submarine patrol aircraft. According to the Navy's plan, it will invest in the development of a charging aircraft to replace all tankers serving anti-submarine patrol aircraft. This charging aircraft has created its original form, which is actually equipped with a small fusion reactor on a large electric transport aircraft.

This project has a longer-term significance.

Although with the technical level at that time, it was impossible for large electric transport aircraft to use fusion reactors to supply energy, because this would occupy all their carrying capacity and make them lose their application value. Moreover, small fusion reactors were too expensive, the Navy had been inspired to use small fusion reactors to supply energy, which could enable large air platforms to obtain almost unlimited endurance, and it was possible to develop a large-scale air combat platform on this basis. In the Navy's secret project planning, there was even a "air mothership" based on this. However, the project had conflicts with the Air Force and the technical difficulty was too high, so the Navy was not very enthusiastic.

Of course, these are all off-topics.

Before dawn, Mu Haoyang boarded the "Taishan" aircraft carrier.

At this time, the fleet had passed through the Anambas Islands and was heading south at the fastest speed of the 45th quarter. It is expected to enter the Java Sea around 11:00 a.m.

When Mu Haoyang arrived, Gong Jifei was arranging a fleet's air defense mission.

In terms of ability, Gong Jifei is not bad, he is considered the leader among the young generals of the Shanghai Army. Otherwise, he would not be qualified to become the first captain of the "Taishan", nor could he be promoted to a major general before he was forty years old and became the youngest commander of the aircraft carrier battle group in the navy.

However, Gong Jifei seriously lacks practical experience.

Seven years ago, during the Second Indian Ocean War, he was the major captain of a destroyer. Although he participated in the battle, he did not have much chance of performing.

In fact, the problems of the Chinese Navy are reflected in Gong Jifei.

At this time, Mu Haoyang was already 66 years old, Zhang Yuting was already 68 years old when he was killed, Zhou Yusheng, Yan Yingbo and others were also over 60 years old, and in the Chinese Navy, the average age of colonels and major generals was only 42 years old, so there was a gap between these two backbones. To put it bluntly, it was that the Chinese Navy lacked senior generals who were between the ages of fifty and fifty-five and had rich practical experience.

Of course, it was not Mu Haoyang who caused this phenomenon.

For a rapidly developing army, it is difficult for the Chinese team to avoid the problems caused by talent termination, and this is not just a problem with the navy. In fact, the problems had already arisen as early as the generation of Huang Hanlin and Teng Yaohui, but because Mu Haoyang's generation of soldiers performed well enough and gained enough practical experience when they were young, this problem has not been exposed.

In a sense, it was Mu Haoyang, Qi Kaiwei, Mother Qi Tie, Zhou Yusheng, Pang Yuelong and others who took the lead in middle age, which made the Chinese team become careless when they train the next generation of generals and did not give young generals enough opportunities.

The impact of this is that as the Chief of Staff, Mu Haoyang is still able to go to the front line to command the battle.

Fortunately, the rapid development of modern medical technology has made age no longer a major issue that restricts the ability of generals, and has greatly extended the service life of generals. With Mu Haoyang's physical condition, even if he served for another ten years, there will be no big problems.

In fact, thanks to the advancement of medical technology, Mu Haoyang's physical condition at this time was not much different from that at Huang Zhibo when he was fifty.

You should know that Huang Zhibo was still the deputy chief of staff at the age of fifty. He did not replace Lu Fenglie until he was fifty-five and became the pillar of the Central ** team.

Mu Haoyang did not have a rest and went directly to the fleet combat command center.

Before asking about the combat deployment, Mu Haoyang first asked about the status of the fleet.

It can be said that this is also his most concerned issue.

The "Huashan", "Hengshan" and "Songshan" were in service for less than half a year, and the six large comprehensive warships and twelve anti-submarine warships accompanied by were only half a year. Mu Haoyang was completely unsure of the situation of the fleet, especially the training of officers and soldiers.

In a sense, this is a brand new fleet.

Although Mu Haoyang took some flexible measures to improve personnel training efficiency, such as allowing the "Taishan" to serve three months in advance and training two batches of crew members at the same time. After the last three were put into service, one of the crew members was disbanded and incorporated into three aircraft carriers. However, these measures cannot fundamentally solve the personnel problems of the navy. First, the "Taishan" cannot permanently serve as a training ship, second, the "Taishan" class is a world of difference from any previous aircraft carrier, and third, naval officers and soldiers need enough training.

In short, the state of these three aircraft carrier battle groups is not ideal.

Of course, besides aircraft carriers, escort warships are also a problem.

According to the plan formulated by Mu Haoyang, starting from the Taishan class, the aircraft carrier battle group will only retain large comprehensive warships and anti-submarine warships as escort forces, and will be configured in a one-to-three-to-three ratio, that is, one aircraft carrier will receive three large comprehensive warships and three anti-submarine warships cover. In fact, the navy's shipbuilding plan is the same. The orders for large comprehensive warships of the "Heilongjiang" class reached twelve before the war. Unfortunately, due to other factors, such as the contract with the shipyard, the "Heilongjiang" class only built eight ships before the outbreak of the war, and the third batch of four ships had not yet been launched. The resulting impact is that each aircraft carrier battle group had only two large comprehensive warships. In order to improve the fleet's comprehensive combat capability, the number of anti-submarine warships had to be increased to four.

Although this configuration is already powerful enough compared with previous aircraft carrier combat groups, there is still a gap between the standards Mu Haoyang expects, especially in terms of air defense combat capabilities, anti-submarine warships cannot replace large integrated warships, and the biggest threat to the aircraft carrier combat group comes from the air.

Fortunately, one of the most critical issues has been solved.

At that time, the three carrier-based aviation corpses carried by the "Huashan", "Hengshan" and "Songshan" came from four aviation corpses of the Pacific Fleet. These four aviation corpses had very rich combat experience, and the officers and soldiers were in the best preparation state.

As for the aviation corps of the "Tarzan" it is even more of a leader in the navy.

In fact, this is the main reason why Mu Haoyang dared to send the task force to the battlefield. Without four powerful carrier-based aviation corps, Mu Haoyang would definitely schedule the counterattack in 2053 and would not let the fleet attack in 2052.

The configurations of the four carrier-based aviation corps are the same, each with four fighter squadrons, an anti-submarine squadron and a support squadron, ninety-six J-32 and J-33 carrier-based fighters, twelve ZQ-1 carrier-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, six ZJ-2 carrier-based early warning aircraft, four zy-2 carrier-based transport aircraft, six helicopters or tilted rotary wing aircraft, and can also carry four additional backup fighters.

From the perspective of aviation combat capabilities alone, the four "Taishan" class are equivalent to six "Kunlunshan" class.

After grasping the situation, Mu Haoyang began to plan a combat operation.
Chapter completed!