It’s not that Mu Haoyang distrusts Gong Jifei, but that this combat operation involves fleet operations and landing operations, and has to cooperate with the Air Force and the Army. Gong Jifei is just a major general of the army. Even the most famous major general does not have enough influence to mobilize other military branches.

The problem is that fleet combat is the most important, and other combat operations must obey fleet combat, so the fleet commander must bear the main responsibility.

In this way, a fleet commander with sufficient influence is needed.[]

Of course, Mu Haoyang's official identity is not the commander of the fleet, but the chief of staff. His mission is to coordinate and command the entire combat operation on the fleet's flagship.

In the fleet combat, Mu Haoyang decided to try his best to let Gong Jifei make the decision.

In any case, the Chinese Navy needs more excellent commanders, especially young commanders.

After boarding the "Shan Tai", Mu Haoyang expressed his position. He would only make suggestions and opinions, and the fleet's combat operations were entirely responsible for Gong Jifei.

In fact, in February, Mu Haoyang thought Gong Jifei was a plastic material.

The reason is very simple. During the operation in February, Gong Jifei not only faithfully implemented Mu Haoyang's orders, but also led the task force back to the South China Sea very promptly and made an accurate judgment on the situation on the battlefield. It is precisely because of this that the task force did not fight with the US fleet under adverse circumstances.

In a sense, what the Chinese Navy needs is a commander like Gong Jifei who can advance and retreat.

You should know that over the past 30 years, the Chinese Navy has grown rapidly, and its offensive ideas have been deeply rooted. Almost all naval generals are "offensive winners". Although this cannot deny the essence of the navy, that is, the navy can only reflect value in offense, in actual actions, offense is not the only way to win, and at some point it is a wise choice to retreat.

Unfortunately, few of the young generals of the Chinese Navy truly understand the meaning of "retreat when you are in trouble".

The impact of this is that most generals like to take risks and always believe that only in adventure can they achieve decisive victory.

The most representative one is Zhang Yuting.

Fortunately, Gong Jifei's performance was enough to make Mu Haoyang hand over the fleet to him with confidence.

Of course, whether Gong Jifei is the fleet commander that Mu Haoyang is looking forward to must be tested by actual combat. He must at least win one victory on the battlefield to gain Mu Haoyang's full trust. Before that, Mu Haoyang would not take risks with the only fleet of the Chinese Navy.

In the early morning of April 1, the Chinese Pacific Fleet entered the Philippine Sea from the south of Okinawa Island.

At this time, the US Pacific Fleet was still thousands of kilometers away and was sailing towards Midway Island, and it is expected to reach the east of the Mariana Islands until April 4th.

Of course, this is just Mu Haoyang's speculation, because the intelligence he obtained was very limited, he only knew that the US Pacific Fleet left Pearl Harbor in the early morning of March 31, Beijing time. It was nine aircraft carriers, eighteen air defense cruisers, twenty-seven multi-purpose destroyers and twenty-seven anti-submarine destroyers, and there were no less than eighteen attack nuclear submarines, as well as a supply fleet covered by four anti-submarine destroyers.

From this scale, it can be judged that the US Pacific Fleet will come to the decisive battle.

Obviously, the opening game was very favorable to Mu Haoyang.

In terms of time, the Chinese Pacific Fleet will have at least two days to bomb US military bases on the Mariana Islands, and then one night to replenish ammunition. It will not be possible to encounter the US Pacific Fleet as early as the morning of April 5, so there is enough time to complete the preparations.

On the night of April 1, the Chinese Air Force first made efforts.

Although the battle on the mainland battlefield has not yet ended, Qi Kaiwei is trying to encircle and annihilate the Russian army on the eastern front of Siberia, the combat burden of the air force has been greatly reduced. It can draw up enough bombers to support the fleet to fight with fighter jets, and deploy dozens of tanker jets in Fuso. The main reason is that Guam is more than 2,000 kilometers away from Japan. Outside the combat radius of fighter jets, tankers need to be used to extend the combat radius of fighter jets.

That night, the Air Force used 300 strategic bombers and 200 fighters.

The battle was extremely fierce. All nearly 300 fighter jets deployed by the US military in the Mariana Islands were launched and extended the air defense scope to the sky above the Xiaoliyuan Islands, forcing the Chinese Air Force bombers to break through the defense line composed of US fighters before dropping cruise missiles.

Fortunately, the Chinese Air Force dispatched enough escort fighter jets.

More importantly, the Xiaoliyuan Archipelago is only a few hundred kilometers away from Fusang. The rear command and intelligence system of the Chinese Air Force can play the greatest role, while the US military has to fight far away from the rear base, and the command and intelligence support it can obtain is quite limited. In addition, the combat radius of US fighter jets is about 1,500 kilometers, while the combat radius of Chinese Air Force fighter jets is less than 1,000 kilometers. Therefore, the combat time of US fighter jets is only about half of the combat time of Chinese fighter jets, and the combat efficiency is naturally much lower.

What the US military owns is just the number of fighter jets.

After the combat operations against Okinawa were postponed indefinitely, the US military adjusted the air force deployed in the Mariana Islands, sent most of the bombers to Australia and deployed more fighters. By the end of January, the US military simply sent all the bombers to Australia, increased the fighter jets deployed in the Mariana Islands to 360, and added dozens of support aircraft.

Obviously, the US military has given up the idea of ​​launching an offensive in the Western Pacific.

According to information disclosed after the war, in early 2053, the US military turned its focus to the Southwest Pacific, that is, according to Lucas' commitment at the Western Alliance Group Summit, the United States will enter Southeast Asia at the appropriate time and eliminate the threat to Australia.

However, if the US military does not attack, it does not mean that the Chinese army will not attack either.

After basically abandoning the Western Pacific offensive strategy, the top U.S. military realized that China is likely to attack the Mariana Islands with confidence, thereby reversing the situation in the Western Pacific. In this way, the U.S. military will have to strengthen the defensive power of the Mariana Islands.

At that time, in addition to deploying 360 fighter jets, the US ground forces in the Mariana Islands had increased to four land divisions, with a total of nearly 80,000 officers and soldiers. The key defense areas were Guam, Saipan and Tinian Island, and there were only a small number of guardian troops on the small island to the north.

In the eyes of the US military, four land combat divisions are enough to curb China's offensive ambitions.

Of course, the key is the fleet, that is, the sea power.

As long as the sea control power is still in the hands of the US military, the Chinese army will not rashly attack the Mariana Islands, nor will it even change the overall strategic situation.

To this end, the US military withdrew the Pacific Fleet back to the Hawaiian Islands and used Pearl Harbor as its base.

The biggest advantage of doing this is to avoid sudden attacks, and the fleet can reach the Mariana Islands within five days from Pearl Harbor. Obviously, it is impossible for the Chinese army to capture the Mariana Islands within five days, and it is not even time to occupy an island large enough.

The result was that the Chinese army had to seize sea control before attacking the Mariana Islands.

Obviously, the advantage lies in the hands of the US military.

The US Navy still has nine aircraft carriers. The second batch of three US-class aircraft carriers have been completed in early March and are expected to be put into service by the end of June. The second batch of four Tarzan-class aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy will not be put into service until the end of June at the earliest, and the service time will definitely be in October.

In other words, in the next few months, the US military will not only maintain its advantages, but also expand its advantages.

The problem is that the advantages of the US military are not enough to bring strategic victory, because the Pacific Fleet of the Chinese Navy has the capital to defeat the US fleet.

In this way, the US military must adopt extra cautious tactics.

To put it bluntly, it is to try to avoid a decisive battle with the Chinese Navy, especially if you are not sure, and you can save the fleet as the main purpose.

It can be said that this is a very ridiculous phenomenon.

You should know that the US military has a relatively obvious advantage in military strength, but is able to defend the main body, while the Chinese Navy, which has no advantage in military strength, decided to take the initiative to attack.

Of course, this gap is only superficial.

In essence, if factors such as warship performance, aviation combat capabilities, officers and soldiers' quality, and strategic orientation are taken into account, the advantages of the US Navy are not obvious.

Not to mention anything else, the Chinese fleet is full of new warships, while the US Navy is full of old warships.

The impact of this is that the maneuverability of the US fleet is far less than that of the Chinese fleet, and its combat flexibility is far less, and its tactical conservativeness is more tactical.

French has a very clear understanding of this.

It can be said that the situation of the navy is similar to that of the army. Forces are not the main factor for decisive victory, and the comprehensive combat capability of the fleet is the real key factor.

There is no doubt that the comprehensive combat capability of the US fleet will not be much higher than that of the Chinese fleet.

In terms of air defense capabilities, the Chinese Navy has 16 large comprehensive warships. Even if only four of them have air defense configurations, its air defense capabilities far exceed 18 US cruisers. Especially in the crucial terminal anti-missile interception, the Chinese Navy's large comprehensive warships have extremely obvious advantages. Practical combat has long proved that when dealing with hypersonic heavy anti-ship missiles and anti-ship guided bombs, the advanced performance of the terminal interception system is the real main force, and regional air defense missiles can often only play an auxiliary role.

To put it vividly, the Chinese fleet has stronger defensive combat capabilities and can resist more violent air strikes.

On the contrary, the defense capabilities of the US fleet are not very good.

In fact, this is the conclusion that French came to after in-depth research on the Second Naval Battle of Digo Garcia, and it had an unreasonable impact on his tactical deployment. In his opinion, even if the US fleet has the advantage of military strength, it should try to defeat the Chinese fleet by surprise. If the decisive battle with the Chinese fleet head-on, the US fleet will not have much hope of winning, and may even be severely damaged.
Chapter completed!