It is not easy to figure out the situation of the US fleet, because the only strategic reconnaissance method at that time was a submarine, and if the US fleet did not enter the port, intelligence personnel would not be useful at all. The complete collection of the burning oceans As for strategic reconnaissance aircraft modified by strategic bombers, they are often only suitable for performing specific reconnaissance missions.

Of course, when making major strategic judgments, direct intelligence is only one of the basis.[]

In the morning, Mu Haoyang called Li Mingyang and asked him to provide information on mobilization of the US Navy, especially the supply ships and combat materials.

At that time, Mu Haoyang didn't have much hope.

As early as twenty years ago, when the Chinese Navy was still working hard to achieve full nuclear power, the US Navy had already achieved full nuclear power. Theoretically, the US fleet had almost unlimited continuous activity. Although the warships did not carry too much food, they could still last for more than half a year. If air supply was carried, they could last longer. Before this, the US fleet in the Western Pacific performed very limited combat missions and did not consume much ammunition. Perhaps when traveling to the Indian Ocean, there was no need to replenish ammunition.

Based on the information obtained before, it can be preliminarily judged that the US fleet does not need to return to port before the end of April.

Of course, the US fleet must provide supplies, especially aviation fuel. The ranking list of overhead historical novels should know that even if the carrier-based aviation force has no combat mission, it will consume a large amount of aviation fuel during training and patrol. Based on the aviation fuel carried by the US aircraft carrier, it must be supplemented at least once a month. Because the theater deployment mission was performed before, the activity intensity of the carrier-based aviation force has increased a lot, so on the way to the Indian Ocean, the US fleet is likely to perform fuel supply once, but it is not certain where to supply.

In fact, it is impossible to be sure whether the US military will use fast combat support ships.

You should know that as long as the US military deliberately hides the whereabouts of the fleet, it will not use fast combat support ships, but will use other ships to supplement aviation fuel for the fleet.

The information provided by Li Mingyang also proves Mu Haoyang's inference.

Before January 3, the U.S. Pacific Fleet's fast combat support ship was either at Pearl Harbor or on its way to the mainland.

In other words, there is no fast combat support ship to the southwest Pacific.

From a time perspective, even if the fast combat support ship heading to the local area turns, it is impossible to catch up with the fleet.

In this way, other ships have to be used to replenish aviation fuel for the fleet.

Now, the problem is here.

You should know that the Southwest Pacific is the main active waters of the US fleet. Hundreds of ships are sailing on routes from the United States to Australia, or the United States to New Zealand at any time. Among these ships, there must be many tankers. As long as there is a class of tankers carrying aviation fuel, even if there is no transportation pipeline for supply to warships, vertical air freight can be used to complete the supply operation.

What's even more troublesome is that the Military Intelligence Agency does not have the specific navigation status of these ships.

In fact, at that time, the Chinese Navy had only four attack nuclear submarines in the Southwest Pacific, and all of them were active in waters far away from Australia and New Zealand. As for the numerous fully electric submarines, due to their limited endurance, they could not reach the Southwest Pacific at all.

At this time, Li Mingyang was also thinking of a solution.

At that time, he made a very important inference, that is, when the US fleet went to the Indian Ocean to fight, it would replenish fuel as late as possible to ensure that there was still enough fuel when fighting with the Chinese fleet. As long as this inference was true, the US military would not replenish the supply in the Southwest Pacific, but would replenish the supply after entering the Indian Ocean, and the supply location was likely near Perth.

Next, Li Mingyang put forward a more important point, that is, the US military did not send the fleet to the Indian Ocean after it had been planned and deployed well, but made this decision based on major changes in the war situation, so there was still a lot of preparations not in place. Ranking of supernatural novels

Now, the problem becomes simple.

You should know that the one who is most likely to supplement aviation fuel for the US fleet should be tankers, because only tankers can transport aviation fuel without modification. Although other freighters can also transport aviation fuel, they are very troublesome and not very efficient.

Obviously, tankers do not account for the majority on the route from the United States to the Southwest Pacific.

The main reason is that Australia's demand for oil is not high, and its electricity has long been provided by fusion nuclear power plants, and there is not much chemical industry. As for the United States, there is no need to import oil or other fuel from Australia, because the United States itself is an oil-producing country and a major chemical country.

At that time, oil tankers in the Southwest Pacific mainly carried various military fuel.

There is no doubt that these tankers have relatively fixed navigation schedules and are under surveillance by the Military Intelligence Agency.

What Li Mingyang needs to do is to use the exclusion method to find which tanker did not arrive at the port in Australia in time, and then deduce its new destination based on its navigation information.

This time, Li Mingyang quickly gained something.

On December 22, a 300,000-ton fast oil tanker departed from Long Beach Port, was incorporated into the UA12 fleet, and headed to the Port of Wollongong in Australia. The Burning Ocean Online Reading Results When the fleet arrived on January 3, there was no such tanker. More importantly, this tanker, called "Australia Star", carries aviation fuel, but is provided to the US Air Force, not to the US Navy.

Of course, there is no difference, and the U.S. Navy fighter jets can also use Air Force aviation fuel.

Li Mingyang did not hesitate and immediately launched the intelligence network deployed in Australia.

On January 5, spies came with unconfirmed but valuable information. The Australian Star left the fleet when it was about to arrive at the Port of Wollongong.

Comparing the sailing tables of the US and Australian fleets, it can be seen that there were no other fleets nearby at that time.

In other words, the Australian Star went to another place alone.

However, this information cannot be confirmed because it was a spyman who brought it out of the mouth of a fleet crew member, and the crew member saw the Australian Star turn to leave the fleet. More importantly, the crew member said this after getting drunk.

Of course, this was also the only valuable information obtained at that time.

Because there is no better source of information, Li Mingyang can only grasp this clue.

After concluding that the Australian Star would go to Perth, Li Mingyang arranged a special reconnaissance operation and dispatched a strategic reconnaissance aircraft to the South Pacific.

This strategic reconnaissance aircraft converted from the H-20 is directly controlled by the Military Intelligence Agency. After leaving Malaysia, it flies south along the western coastline of Australia according to the route arranged by Li Mingyang. After bypassing Australia, it flies eastward and finally returns north from east Australia.

The entire reconnaissance operation took twelve hours. Because there was no reliable transit communication method, Li Mingyang could only wait patiently for twelve hours.

In fact, even if he could conduct basic communication, Li Mingyang had to wait patiently for twelve hours.

The reason is very simple. The flight altitude of the strategic reconnaissance aircraft is more than 30 kilometers, and it uses a high-resolution camera and high-precision synthetic aperture radar to take photos. There is no intelligence analyst on the reconnaissance aircraft, so the digital photos can only be given to the Military Intelligence Bureau after returning to the base.

In this way, Li Mingyang has been waiting for more than twelve hours.

It was not until four o'clock in the morning on January 6 that Li Mingyang obtained the reconnaissance information that the "Australian Star" was indeed near Perth and did not enter Perth Port.

In other words, the tanker is on standby off the sea.

More importantly, the reconnaissance plane took a diagonal camera to capture the US fleet, but it was already tens of sunset when the photos were taken, and the resolution of the photos was not very high. What's more, several consecutive photos were taken failed to fully cover the US fleet.

After telling Mu Haoyang the news, Li Mingyang arranged a second strategic reconnaissance mission based on the information he had.

Based on the navigation of the US fleet, we can roughly determine when the US fleet will meet with the Australian Star, and we will be able to accurately dispatch strategic reconnaissance aircraft.

In order to obtain intelligence in a timely manner, Mu Haoyang asked Zhou Yusheng to provide assistance to the Military Intelligence Bureau.

That is, Zhou Yusheng sent the high-altitude long-distance drones that had just been borrowed from the army to the Indian Ocean to act as a communication transit platform for strategic reconnaissance aircraft.

In this way, the strategic reconnaissance aircraft can send back the digital information of the photos in a timely manner.

In fact, by this time, Mu Haoyang had basically concluded that the US fleet was rushing to the Indian Ocean, and the scale was probably much larger than he had expected.

However, Mu Haoyang was still not sure whether the US fleet was full of its territory.

From the imperfect intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, it can only be roughly concluded that the US military dispatched at least one complete three-aircraft carrier combat group.

Of course, this has exceeded Mu Haoyang's previous judgment.

Judging from the situation at that time, Mu Haoyang was able to make a judgment based on this.

The reason is very simple. If the US Navy sends three aircraft carriers to the Indian Ocean, the aircraft carrier battle group that stays in the Western Pacific will lose its absolute military advantage. Because the US Navy is unlikely to know where the task force is active, so doing this means taking huge strategic risks. To put it simply, Mu Haoyang completely ignores the three aircraft carrier battle groups sent by the US Navy to the Indian Ocean. He can draw the task force back, defeat the US Navy in the Western Pacific first, and then let the task force return to the Indian Ocean.

If we are on the safe side, Mu Haoyang is likely to command the task force to fight again.

In short, the US Navy has no reason to disperse its forces with only nine aircraft carriers left.

In this way, as long as three aircraft carriers go to the Indian Ocean, it means that the other six aircraft carriers are right behind and are also sent to the Indian Ocean.

However, Mu Haoyang was not in a hurry to make a judgment, after all, there were still many uncertain factors in it.

Judging from the situation at that time, only by mastering accurate information can we make decisions.
Chapter completed!