.Chapter 62: Making mistakes turn out to be a waste of time

In tactical planning, especially aviation operations, Reagan's ability is unquestionable. The Burning Ocean Complete Works

According to his deployment, if the sixth batch of reconnaissance aircraft finds the Chinese fleet, the Fourth Fleet will be responsible for the first round of strikes, striving to paralyze the Chinese fleet, and then the third Fleet that follows up will be responsible for the second strike. At that time, Reagan also made very clever arrangements for the air strike operations of the US joint fleet, that is, after the first round of attacks, the Third Fleet will immediately dispatch fighters to launch the second round of attacks, and the fighters of the Fourth Fleet will land on the aircraft carrier of the Third Fleet, and when the fighters of the Third Fleet return, they will land on the aircraft carrier of the Fourth Fleet. In this way, the round-trip range of the two batches of fighters is comparable and can exert the maximum strike power at the maximum combat radius. If this arrangement is not made and the strike radius is very large, the Third Fleet will not be able to participate in the war in time.

The problem is that Reagan's tactic must meet two prerequisites: one is that his judgment of the battle situation is accurate, and the other is that reconnaissance aircraft promptly discover the Chinese fleet.

As long as one prerequisite is lacking, all his clever tactical arrangements will not come in handy.

In addition, the US fleet has a very serious problem.

By the afternoon of the 26th, when Reagan arranged the sixth reconnaissance, the carrier-based aviation of the Fourth Fleet had already undertaken three reconnaissance tasks. Because there must be enough air defense fighters, the reconnaissance task fell on the six fighter squadrons.

Relatively speaking, reconnaissance missions are a very boring and exhausting task that poses a pilot's physical strength.

The reason is very simple. Including the preparations before takeoff and reporting the reconnaissance after landing, a reconnaissance operation took a total of six hours. When only six squadrons were allowed to undertake reconnaissance tasks, the pilot would only get less than four hours of rest between every two reconnaissance tasks.

There is no doubt that this is a huge test for the pilot.

The Chinese Navy has long recognized this problem and knows that large-scale reconnaissance will consume aviation combat capabilities. Therefore, as long as there is a chance, the Chinese fleet will use shore-based aviation as much as possible to reduce the burden on carrier-based aviation and keep the pilots energetic enough.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy has not yet recognized this problem, because the U.S. Navy has not fought such a big battle in decades.

More importantly, Reagan was not aware of this either.

Although he served as an aviation combat staff for several years, he served in the fighter unit for less than four years (the US Navy's aviation combat staff were all pilots, and most of them were fighter pilots), so he did not understand the pilot's sufferings.

As a result, at 2 pm, the reconnaissance pilots sent by Reagan were exhausted.

At that time, some pilots were complaining, thinking that the commander did this to consume valuable aviation combat capabilities for no reason.

In fact, these complaints make a lot of sense.

After the reconnaissance plane set off, there were nine fighter squadrons left in the Fourth Fleet, and the pilots of three of them had just completed the second reconnaissance mission of the day. In other words, there were only six squadrons who could be mobilized immediately, with 144 fighter jets.

If the battle breaks out at six o'clock, there is no big problem.

At that time, the Fourth Fleet will be able to use three squadrons to increase the fighter jets to 216 to ensure that two-thirds of the fighter jets perform attack missions.

The problem is, Reagan is not sure that the sixth reconnaissance will be able to detect the Chinese fleet.

As a result, in the afternoon of that day, he did not prepare for the fleet aviation force to attack, but began to deploy the seventh reconnaissance mission of the day.

In his opinion, if the seventh reconnaissance still has no results, it means that the Chinese fleet has fled.

Of course, Reagan didn't think this was a bad result, because it showed that the US Joint Fleet could successfully reach Digo Garcia and prevent the squadron from landing.

In fact, as long as the Chinese fleet withdraws, the Chinese Marines will not land on Digo Garcia.

You should know that preventing the Chinese Marine Corps from landing in Digo Garcia is the top priority of the US joint fleet, followed by a decisive battle with the Chinese fleet.

Being able to complete the first task is also a good result.

The problem is that the Chinese fleet has not withdrawn and is approaching the US joint fleet.

It can be said that in the afternoon of that day, everything happened to be around four o'clock.

According to the task force's combat records, no new reconnaissance report was received until the afternoon, that is, the anti-submarine patrol aircraft did not discover the US joint fleet again, so... after that, Mu Haoyang decided to arrange a reconnaissance operation and sent a transport plane to the air force's air force to dispatch refueling aircraft for this purpose, and asked the navigators to fly 500 kilometers after flying 500 kilometers.

The reason is very simple. Mu Haoyang believes that the US joint fleet is two thousand kilometers away, and the search radius of reconnaissance aircraft must be expanded to 2500 kilometers. Therefore, the reconnaissance aircraft does not have enough fuel to return to the fleet and must be supported by the Air Force's tanker during the return journey.

Although carrier-based fighter jets could be arranged for partner refueling at that time, Mu Haoyang did not want to spend much of the carrier-based aviation force.

This arrangement has a dramatic effect next.

…50, the early warning aircraft patrolling the south of the task force detected the US reconnaissance aircraft, but it was more than 400 kilometers away from the fleet.

Now, Mu Haoyang strengthened his previous judgment that the US joint fleet was still far away. The full collection of the burning ocean

However, the US reconnaissance plane did not turn back and was still approaching the task force.

…Fifty-seven minutes, the task force's air defense fighter jets were dispatched and shot down the US reconnaissance plane with four interception missiles 180 kilometers away.

The interceptor missile is guided by information provided by early warning aircraft, and the air defense fighter does not start the fire control radar.

As a result, before being shot down by a missile, the US reconnaissance plane sent only an incomplete telegram, including the location where it was shot down.

The telegram was quickly sent to Reagan and became the basis for his attack.

Interestingly, Reagan did not break the radio silence at this time and ordered other nearby US reconnaissance planes to go to the area to find out the truth.

Perhaps, at the time, Reagan thought there was no need to expose his whereabouts.

Just a few minutes later, Mu Haoyang received a news that shocked him: the reconnaissance report in the morning was incorrect, and the location of the US joint fleet was likely to be even higher, with an error of about 300 kilometers. In other words, the distance between the two fleets was within 2,000 kilometers at this time.

Mu Haoyang did not doubt this news because the previous US reconnaissance planes had already made him suspicious.

Mu Haoyang did not hesitate and immediately asked Gong Jifei to arrange an attack.

At this time, Mu Haoyang made a very correct decision: no longer send reconnaissance aircraft, but let the escort fighter jets and early warning aircraft act in concert, and adopt the tactics adopted during the Second Indian Ocean War, and the escort fighter jets and early warning aircraft carry out forward reconnaissance missions.

It can be said that this is equivalent to saving two hours.

At 4:15, the four "Taishan"-class aircraft carriers each dispatched two early warning aircraft, and then dispatched sixteen j-32s to cover the early warning aircraft.

In other words, the total number of forward fighter jets arranged by Mu Haoyang is as high as 64, and they have received effective support.

Immediately afterwards, Mu Haoyang sent eight fighter jets to each of the four aircraft carriers to form the second batch of escort forces to clear obstacles for the attack aircraft group.

As a result, the task force dispatched up to ninety-six escort fighters.

According to Mu Haoyang's judgment, even if the US joint fleet did not part ways, the number of air defense fighters would not exceed ninety-six.

At 4:25, fighter jets carrying out attack missions took off one after another.

This time, Mu Haoyang sent all the remaining fighter jets without reservation, and clearly informed the pilot that if there was not enough fuel to return, he could go to the Air Force refueling opportunity, or fly to the air force base in southern India to refuel and then return to the fleet.

At this time, Mu Haoyang did something crucial. The ranking of historical novels

At that time, the transport plane sent to southern India had only set off for less than an hour and a half, and had flew about 800 kilometers, and had sent a telegram twenty minutes ago. More importantly, the transport plane was only about 400 kilometers away from the nearest carrier-based early warning aircraft, which was within the maximum working range of the directional communication system. Therefore, Mu Haoyang issued an order to the transport plane through the early warning aircraft, allowing all the refueling aircraft deployed in southern India to take off to support carrier-based aviation operations, and allowed the Air Force to send four large early warning aircraft and at least three squadrons of air defense fighters to the task force within one hour to provide air defense cover for the task force.

The result was that the transport plane sent a telegram again at around 4:30.

Two thousand kilometers away, the US Joint Fleet intercepted the first telegram from the transport plane after four o'clock, but it did not attract Reagan's attention because the communications consultant accurately judged that it was a telegram from a small radio station on the plane, not a telegram from a warship.

As a result, in less than half an hour, the US joint fleet intercepted the telegram sent by the transport plane again.

Through the triangular positioning method, the communications consultant determined the distance between the two signal sources and accurately determined that the telegram was a plane with a speed of 600 kilometers per hour. Those who met this condition were only carrier-based early warning aircraft, carrier-based transport aircraft and anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

This is not the most critical.

Don't forget that Reagan is a consultant in aviation operations.

At that time, he did a crucial thing: extend the locations of the two telegraph sources in reverse, and then extend the route of the downed reconnaissance aircraft forward, and the two lines eventually intersect. To be precise, the two conical radiation areas form an overlapping area.

That's why Reagan made the final judgment: the Chinese fleet must be in this area.

Unfortunately, after making such an important and accurate tactical judgment, Reagan did not do what he should do the most, but did the least thing he should do: break the radio silence and call a reconnaissance plane near the area to find out the situation.

Volume 2 Crazy Prelude Chapter 63 Go all out

Chapter 63: Go all your best

After the war, many people believed that after making so many mistakes, Major General Reagan still had the opportunity to rewrite history between four and five o'clock on the 26th, because he only needed to do one right thing: send an attack aircraft fleet immediately based on his own judgment, and make appropriate adjustments to the previous deployment: let the Third Fleet launch an attack at the same time, and the US Joint Fleet will have the confidence to win.

It is undeniable that this view makes sense.

The reason is that the Chinese Air Force did not send three squadrons of fighter jets to the task force within an hour, but the first squadron's fighter jets arrived around six o'clock. If the entire chapter of the burning ocean is assuming the previous idea, the two fleets of the US Joint Fleet launched an attack at the same time at 4:30, even if the attack aircraft group of the Fourth Fleet and the attack aircraft group of the task force were dispersed by the attack aircraft group of the task force, the attack aircraft group of the Third Fleet could miss the attack aircraft group of the task force, arrive before six o'clock, and then attack the task force without any obstruction. Without air defense fighter cover, the task force could not withstand the intensive attack of more than one hundred fighter jets.

In fact, even if the attack of the US joint fleet did not severely damage the task force, Mu Haoyang would have to evacuate the battlefield that night because of the loss of most carrier-based fighter jets. The US joint fleet is expected to save some of the fighter jets and be supplemented through Djibouti.

In other words, the Chinese Navy must give up its attack on Digo Garcia.

Unfortunately, Major General Reagan did not do so.

Judging from the situation at that time, it would be too harsh to ask him to do this.

Not to mention anything else, Major General Reagan himself didn't believe in the inferences he came to, because that sea area was northwest of Digo Garcia, which was completely opposite to what he had expected before.

Within the next half hour, Major General Reagan finally obtained the information he wanted.

To be precise, it was not intelligence, but all the reconnaissance aircraft he sent were intercepted near the sea area he inferred, and none of them could break through.

This forced Reagan to believe that the Chinese fleet was in that area of ​​sea.

At five-fifteen, Reagan gave up on exploration and decided to launch an attack, and dispatched all the remaining fighters.

The problem is that Reagan's movements are still not too fast.

In his opinion, the Fourth Fleet sent a telegram at 4:35, so it was exposed at this time. The attack aircraft group of the Chinese fleet would not arrive after 5:30. He had enough time to arrange all fighter jets to take off and get cover from the Third Fleet.

The result was that Reagan sent out the slower attack aircraft instead of the escort fighter jets.

According to his arrangement, after the attack aircraft group was assembled, it flew westward for 200 kilometers, while the escort fighter planes flew directly to the waters where the Chinese fleet was located. In this way, the attack aircraft group could not only avoid the attack aircraft group sent by the Chinese fleet, but also cooperate with the escort combat opportunity in the south of the Chinese fleet.

At that time, he arranged six squadrons to perform attack missions and three squadrons to perform escort missions.

In other words, there are only seventy-two escort fighters.

While making this series of arrangements, Reagan did not forget to tell Nixon that the Third Fleet would immediately provide air defense cover for the Fourth Fleet.

Unfortunately, Reagan did not explain the specific situation clearly.

As a result, Nixon sent only two squadrons of air defense fighters and left the other squadron over the Third Fleet.
To be continued...