I work as a mercenary in northern Myanmar.

Chapter 551 Emergency Repair
"Where is the airport?! We need to land!"

In the re-established temporary command center, Ivan called into the radio with a serious expression, but the answer he got made him almost fall into despair.

“There is no airport anymore!”

"All runways have been destroyed, including the Damascus civilian airport!"

"There are no conditions for landing. Currently, there is only one airport in Latakia that can be used!"

"There are other fighters in the air waiting to land! They are running out of fuel!"

"Our fuel won't last much longer!"

Ivan spoke in a hurried tone because he knew that the fighter formation currently deployed in the air was in complete trouble.

In order to carry enough bombs, all fighter jets did not carry auxiliary fuel tanks, and even some ground attack aircraft did not even have full fuel!

Before the battle officially began, these fighters had been on standby in the air for up to an hour. After nearly 30 minutes of fighting, in order to avoid possible attacks from enemy fighters, they turned on the afterburners and evacuated in the opposite direction.

Such maneuvers resulted in a huge amount of fuel consumption. Up to now, the fuel tanks of almost all fighter jets have been empty, and the average time they can stay in the air is less than an hour!

Of course, under normal circumstances, this one-hour flight time is enough for them to find the next suitable airport and complete the emergency landing.

But now, all the airports in Syria have been destroyed. If you want to land, you can only queue up in Latakia!

The amount of fuel required to fly from here to Latakia would reach 50% of the existing fuel, plus the fuel needed during waiting and landing, this is almost an impossible task in reality!

How to do?
While waiting for a reply, Ivan quickly unfolded the battle map.

On that map, all possible landing airports were marked. Ivan first crossed out all the airports in Syria, and then said:
"We now have only two possible landing locations."

"The first one is in Tartus, where we have a temporary naval base under construction with two runways for fighter jets to take off."

"Although it's not done yet, there shouldn't be any problem in barely completing the landing."

“The only problem is that the distance from here to Tartus is too far and the fuel consumption is too high.”

"Moreover, the enemy's air combat formation has obviously not withdrawn yet, and even some radar stations are still being subjected to electromagnetic interference from the EA-18G."

"If we fly in the direction of Tartus, our intention will be exposed and they will certainly intercept us."

"They didn't even need to initiate an attack. They just kept harassing us, and we couldn't get there. In the end, we had no choice but to abandon the plane and parachute."

Hearing Ivan's words, Chen Chen nodded slowly.

Ivan's words were extremely conservative, but Chen Chen also knew that under the current circumstances, their room for choice was indeed extremely narrow.

There is no way. According to the original prediction, it is impossible for the United States to launch a full-scale air strike at this time. The air force threat they may face is at best those transferred by France from Egypt and Turkey!

But the reality is that we don’t know what agreement the United States and France reached after a round of communication that made the United States choose to wade into this muddy water at this time!
Therefore, even the "backup plan within the backup plan" has become invalid, and all the alternate airports have been destroyed. Even if Chen Chen is a god, he cannot create a new airport.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen sighed and continued to ask:

"What about the second option?"

"The second option is that all fighter jets fly to Iraq, and we will find a way to coordinate an alternate landing site."

"However, this plan has too much uncertainty. We cannot guarantee the success of the coordination, let alone the safety of the pilots after landing."

"I do not recommend this option because it not only involves the risk of loss of equipment and personnel, but also serious political risks."

"I see."

Chen Chen nodded again.

“So, we actually have no other choice.”

"Tartus is not a good place to go. We can only land nearby."

"The airport has been completely destroyed. Let's make an emergency landing on the highway."

"Our pilot."

Ivan's words were a little hesitant, and Chen Chen knew very well why he was hesitating.

In fact, a few weeks ago, the flight academy in this air force base had almost completely completed its "update", and most of the people now sitting on the planes are "retired flight instructors" transferred from Russia.

For Ivan, the value of these people is of course far greater than the value of the equipment itself. If he really has to, he would rather choose the relatively safe parachuting option.

Such a choice is completely inconsistent with Chen Chen's current interests. The reason is very simple. Even if the pilots are left behind, where can Syria get new aircraft in the short term?
Without the planes, this air base is basically useless.

Our tactical level will return to the ground era, and this base that we have laid out with great difficulty will vanish in an instant!
Dilemma.

Time passed by minute by minute. Chen Chen took a deep breath and prepared to use his highest decision-making power as the commander-in-chief to force the fighter jets in the air to make an emergency landing, but at this moment, someone pushed the door and walked into the command room.

Everyone subconsciously raised their heads, and when Chen Chen saw the face of the person clearly, he couldn't help but be surprised for a second.

Xia Xing?

What is she here for?
Before he could speak, Xia Xing spoke first:

"I have basically grasped the situation."

"An engineering team responsible for the airport expansion has arrived at the airport and is assessing the damage to the runway."

“Give them 30 minutes.”

“They can complete the repair of a runway in 30 minutes!”

"you sure!?"

Chen Chen's eyes widened in shock, and only then did he suddenly remember that the expansion of this airport was indeed undertaken by a company he was familiar with.

Wait, the battle has gotten to this point, and they haven’t left yet?
Didn’t they withdraw after the last French anti-runway missile bombing?

A series of doubts exploded in Chen Chen's mind, but Xia Xing did not explain too much.

“They’re already doing it.”

"Mobilize your team. I need you to ensure their absolute safety during the repair period!"

"no problem!"

Chen Chen made the decision immediately, and then, without him having to say anything more, the orders were quickly passed on by the white dog one by one.

The helicopter, which had already started to return after the bombing, arrived at the airport with 12 mercenaries from the Dongfeng Corps. After completing the landing, it hovered at a height of nearly meters to provide guard.

All militias in training were mobilized to block the perimeter of the airport.

At the same time, the armored assault company that had finished the battle in Ahashiri also began to evacuate and return. It was expected that they would reach the Tabqa base in an hour. The iron barrel-like defense was formed in an instant. With this layer of defense, as long as the enemy did not organize a second round of air strikes, the 1-minute window period should be completely no problem!
Chen Chen walked out of the command room, and at this time, the so-called "hot" construction work had already been fully launched.

Amid billowing smoke and dust, several large bulldozers and excavators entered the site. They first removed all debris from the runway and cleared out a usable section of the road.

Then, the experienced project manager quickly divided the responsibilities of the entire track and subdivided the tasks among all the teams, while the team leaders did not stop for even a second and led the team into the work without stopping.

Clearing earth, mixing cement, building foundations, lifting obstacles
Chen Chen was dazzled by the series of actions. At this moment, he suddenly realized that such logistical and infrastructure work might also be a battle!
What surprised Chen Chen the most was that during the construction phase, these professional workers even carried out the work of cleaning up unexploded bombs, and the entire process was carried out simultaneously with the maintenance work.

They may not be true logistics support troops, but if you say that they have not received relevant training, Chen Chen does not believe it at all.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Chen Chen couldn't help but say:
"Professional matters should be left to professionals."

"But. With cement?"

"The fastest-setting cement now takes four hours to fully harden. Cement in its initial setting state cannot withstand high-intensity impacts. Can it guarantee that an airplane can land within half an hour?"

Hearing Chen Chen's words, Xia Xing smiled slightly, shook his head and said:

"I'm not good at fighting, but you're really not good at logistics."

"What you said is all old news from many years ago. Let alone the polymer mortar we use now, even the most common OPC-42.5R cement, after initial setting, has a hardness that is enough to support a small fighter jet to take off and land."

"The fastest repair record in the United States last year was 39 minutes to complete the repair and take-off and landing. Our internal record is much faster than theirs."

"How fast?"

"23 minutes."

"23 minutes?!"

"Yes. Ideally, 15 minutes is enough."

This answer made Chen Chen gasp, and when he turned around to look at the runway full of craters again, he found that in the few minutes he had been talking to Xia Xing, the condition of the runway had changed drastically.

All obstacles were removed and all craters were filled.

Now, workers are pouring mortar into the crater, and the mortar has begun to solidify rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The mortar in the center of the crater is still flowing, while the cement around the crater has turned gray.
At this time, only 30 minutes had passed since Xia Xing mentioned "10 minutes".

Five minutes later, all the mortar was poured. Chen Chen thought that all they had to do next was to wait, but he didn't expect that these workers had no intention of resting at all.

Large engineering equipment began to withdraw from the runway, and workers started repairing and improving the runway in advance with various portable equipment.

All the uneven surfaces were dealt with in advance, and some people even used steam spray guns to heat up and promote coagulation of craters that were deeper and solidified more slowly!

Amazing.

This is the only adjective Chen Chen can think of.

Ten minutes later, the runway was completely repaired. After a simple round of acceptance, the project manager sent an "acceptance passed" signal to Xia Xing.

"It's time to land."

Xia Xing turned to look at Chen Chen, and Chen Chen turned to look at Ivan.

"You can start landing now."

Ivan, who was also standing aside and watching the whole process, was completely dumbfounded. He could never have imagined that a problem that seemed almost unsolvable to him could actually be solved in this way!

Broken? Exploded?

Isn't it enough to fix it?!
One runway only takes thirty minutes, which doesn't mean that 10 runways will take five hours.

In fact, the larger the airport, the larger the team responsible for maintenance and repairs will be.

With higher-level coordination and unified command, they can be even faster!
You blow it up quickly, and I repair it even faster.

If you don't accept it, you will bomb me every 20 minutes!
Not to mention my own country, even the United States cannot organize such an airstrike.
This is the real strength
What's even more terrifying is that the team that demonstrated this strength was just an ordinary engineering and infrastructure team from "that country".
Ivan shook his head, turned around and walked back to the command room and began to guide the fighter jets in the air to land one by one.

It took less than 20 minutes for all the fighter jets to land safely.

This is definitely a miracle.
-
At least that's how it seemed to the pilots.

Because many of them even thought that this runway was lucky to escape the bombing.
Ivan had no way to explain to them, so he simply chose to keep silent.

When he walked out of the command room again, the workers who had completed the emergency repairs had all evacuated, as if they had never been there.

Xia Xing and Chen Chen were still standing at the side of the runway. Ivan walked up to them and said with a heartfelt sigh:
"You always bring surprises to everyone in all kinds of unexpected places - of course, maybe some kind of shock."

"If the Americans knew about our airport repair capabilities, they would probably upgrade their weapons again."

"The next time they bomb, they might use tactical nuclear bombs."

Hearing his words, Chen Chen couldn't help but laugh.

"Tactical nuclear bombs are impossible. Perhaps some kind of cluster bomb will be used."

"But this is meaningless. With this level of infrastructure capacity, even if we want to build an airport from scratch, it probably won't take much time."

"really."

Ivan sighed deeply, then said:
"No matter what, you saved our victory."

"If we are forced to abandon all our fighter planes this time, then even if we completely wipe out the JD elements, we cannot be considered to have truly won."

“It’s not necessarily a win now.”

Chen Chen shook his head heavily and replied:
"The Syrian government's air force has been almost wiped out, and their advantage against the Free Army has become even smaller."

"The frontal battlefield will be even more difficult, and with the US breaking the ceasefire agreement and intervening, the situation is not optimistic."

"Similarly, the pressure we face will be greater."

"Some of the military aircraft at Tabka Air Force Base will inevitably be transferred away, and our strength will be weakened."

"Those JD elements will not miss this opportunity and will certainly continue their massive attack."

"But this is not what we need to consider now."

"ISIS's forces in Ahashiri have been completely disbanded. Raqqa is ours."

"Now, we have to find a way to get the fruits of victory first!"

(End of this chapter)