Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1294 The Correct Use of "Air-Fast" (4k)

"Yes, the typhoon is weakening and its area is shrinking. According to the latest data, the typhoon will disappear in two days." A marine meteorology expert in Beijing gave his latest assessment.

This assessment was sent to a certain department, where several comrades gathered to begin final discussions.

"The preliminary investigation went very smoothly. We have already left equipment and personnel at more than 70% of the planned investigation sites, including some large and comprehensive sites, where we have also reserved boats."

"Very good, have the follow-up fleets set sail yet?"

"They've set off, carrying even more supplies and personnel."

"What about small agricultural machinery?" a comrade asked, not knowing why this was so important.

"We brought agricultural machinery, diesel fuel, and also a lot of quick-drying cement and various other materials."

"Good! Now that the typhoon is almost gone, I wonder if the people on the east side of South Reef will continue with their original plans."

Judging from the actions of the Jiaozhi people to the west, we already had a general idea of ​​the American plan; their intentions were exactly as expected.

"These American guys were originally planning to lead a yellow dog on the left and a falcon on the right, but they were scared off on the way to the right..." This comrade's words were quite interesting. According to the map, the west is on the left and the east is on the right, so the way to the west should be "leading a yellow dog on the left," but for some reason, he still said the way to the left was "leading a falcon on the right."

"Yes, you're right. Now we need to see if the remaining Zuo Qianhuang group will come out to test the waters again."

"Are you all ready?"

"Don't worry, everything is prepared according to the inspection plan and contingency plan."

"That's good. There are still two days until the typhoon dissipates. Where is the follow-up fleet now?" Right now, the comrades are more concerned about the follow-up fleet. After all, compared to the last area still shrouded in the typhoon, the area where the plan has already been completed is temporarily more important. As the saying goes, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

"I just checked again, and it went up as planned without any problems."

With a communication system that has already achieved a certain degree of automation, contacting specific targets under the highest authority and priority is now quite fast, except for underwater targets, which has greatly satisfied the troops.

This alone made them feel like they had wings.

However, now is not the time to summarize this system, because as you all know, the big picture regarding communications is yet to come. What we have now is just a small-scale, emergency response, and it is still far from the system that Comrade Zhendong originally proposed.

This also fueled their expectations. If this initial attempt was already so impressive, what would it be like when it was fully completed?

"That's good, that's good. The typhoon is about to dissipate, and the final test of this plan is about to begin. Are you all confident?" As for what the test was, everyone understood without saying it outright.

"No problem, we are confident!"

"Have confidence!"

Colleagues from different units and positions expressed their opinions.

"Based on the current situation, which plan do you intend to adopt?"

"Based on the reactions from all sides in the west, we are prepared to adopt Plan Two—to be more polite and peaceful. It's not easy to take action against others right now, but we can always handle our own situation," one comrade said with a smile. The others nodded in agreement, indicating that this plan was a collective choice.

Regardless of which plan was chosen, the comrade who asked the question was already aware of it, as there had already been a detailed report beforehand. Now it was simply a matter of choosing a plan, so he did not ask for details. Instead, he nodded and said, "Yes, that's acceptable. The enemy is just a paper tiger. In fact, if we were the real tiger, they might not even dare to be considered a paper tiger. That's the situation in the west."

Seeing that he agreed, the comrade who selected the plan added, "However, we have also made contingency plans. After all, the enemy in the west is fighting, so we dare not be distracted. But the enemy in the east is not doing much. Although their overall strength is weaker than that in the west, they may have more mobile forces that they can mobilize, at least no less than those in the west. So we have also made the worst-case scenario plan."

One red heart, multiple preparations—this is an old tradition.

"Yes, you've thought this through very well, so we're relieved," the comrade who had been asking questions said with a smile.
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We are not the only ones with the technology and experience in marine weather; in fact, it should be said that the Citibank people are more familiar with and understand it than we are. After all, they have been at sea longer than us, have more ships, and have more experience.

"The typhoon should dissipate around this location within a day." A Citibank employee kept comparing the typhoon data in his hand, which came from a sea patrol aircraft. However, apart from the typhoon data, they knew nothing about the situation west of the typhoon. Crossing the typhoon was too dangerous, while going around it was too far. It was also difficult for the sea patrol aircraft to fly to a height that the typhoon couldn't reach.

"Where are the Easterners located?" a Citizen commander asked his staff officer.

The staff officer shook his head: "I don't know."

"Don't know? You mean we have to formulate the operational details and requirements for one day from now without any prior knowledge?" The commander was extremely angry about this: "I know the sea patrol aircraft can't get through, but what about our deployed U-2s? The U-2s are high enough to fly over this typhoon!"

"Commander, the U-2s are in the enemy's hands, and we've lost quite a few." It's like they've been traumatized. The problem with reconnaissance aircraft is that once the enemy has reliable air defenses, the chances of survival for high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft are extremely slim, especially the slow-flying kind, which already have little maneuverability and fly slowly.

In this respect, reconnaissance aircraft modified from the mainstream main fighter jets of the same period actually had a certain chance, since air defense requires reaction time.

The Citizens' RF-104, our J-8 reconnaissance variant, and the Polar Bear's Foxbat reconnaissance variant are all in this situation. These models are relatively high-flying and fast. If we disregard the RF-104, which has almost no maneuverability, the latter two can even perform some maneuvers within a certain altitude and speed range by relying on their fighter/interceptor base.

"They're using S-75s; that missile couldn't possibly be placed on any of their ships! Furthermore, their fighter jets have very little fuel in this area, making it difficult to intercept high-altitude aircraft." The commander wasn't stupid; in fact, he was highly proficient in the specifics of the operation. He must have worked his way up from the bottom, not relied on family connections and a prestigious military academy for a meteoric rise. The former is more likely to be able to fight; the latter is more likely to be able to escape.

“Commander, don’t forget, we have concrete intelligence indicating that they have mastered a small-sized medium-range air defense missile. Based on their characteristics, we believe that the operational altitude of this medium-range air defense missile must not be lower than that of the S-75,” the staff officer explained patiently.

Despite the fact that the JINGQ-3 family of missiles is nearly 5 meters long, this length is considered "very small" among current air defense missiles. Otherwise, the Gauls wouldn't have been interested in this missile and would have come to us to exchange technology.

From the staff officer's perspective, given the pride and pragmatism of the East, although the specific parameters of this missile are not clearly defined, its parameters should not be inferior to those of the S-75. Otherwise, the East would not have replaced it with this as a medium-range air defense missile on a large scale.

Meanwhile, based on the combat situation of the US forces in the North Bay and other places in the Gulf of Tonkin before this, it is almost certain that the range and altitude of this missile are no worse than those of the S-75, and even the radar of this air defense system is far superior to that of the S-75.

His words calmed the commander down. He thought about how many U-2s the enemy had shot down before, and how the Gauls who had been to the East said that the collected wreckage was kept in their museums, and that the amount of wreckage was so great that it could be pieced together to reconstruct a complete aircraft.

"Firebee..." He stopped abruptly after saying that. It had only been a few days, and he hadn't forgotten the consequences of the things that had been sent out by the Vietnamese.

He thought for a moment and changed his mind, saying, "Then we'll overwhelm them with numbers. The number of destroyers and frigates we send this time will be more than double that of the west! And we'll maintain sufficient air pressure as well!"

He spoke with great confidence in the first half of his statement, but the second half sounded somewhat hollow.

Although his naval power is not very strong compared to other hotspots in the Asia-Pacific region, with eight destroyers and frigates being almost the limit of his naval strength, he still believes that he can easily overwhelm the Easterners.

He knew that his side still didn't know exactly how many ships the Easterners had or what their sizes were, but according to the Easterners' "air, submarine, and fast" strategy, most of the ships in this fleet should not be very large, and when facing destroyers, numerical superiority would not be able to control the course of events.

As for the air... recalling the intelligence sent by his colleagues stationed in Jiaozhi, that six fighter jets had implemented a "tactical retreat" when facing two enemy fighter jets, he felt that the requirement to maintain air pressure on the enemy was actually a pressure on himself.

"Fortunately, this place is far from places like Jiuxing Island, so the unique air superiority of the Easterners cannot be fully utilized..." In his mind, through the development of events in recent years, he acknowledged that the Easterners have some special asymmetric advantages in the air and at sea, and that the other side has made good use of these advantages.

But distance can solve everything; distance is a sharp knife that can cut through many things, such as... love. The commander couldn't help but think of his lover when he was young, who was separated from him because he went to serve overseas, and he almost burst into tears.

He quickly dismissed this somewhat inexplicable thought and made a decision: "Start now, set off at top speed! We must block their advance as far as possible!"
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Citibank was half right about the distance issue.

This distance is indeed very far, but compared to the initial mission area, the estimated contact area pushed forward by the typhoon is actually closer to Jiuxing Island.

To be precise, it's less than 800 kilometers away.

"Well, in this position, given the current state of the Zhan-7, it can still carry 2 fuel tanks, 4 medium-range tanks, and 2 short-range tanks, which greatly reduces the pressure in the air."

At the Cape City forward command post, a commander gestured on a map, looking quite pleased with himself.

If Citibank can predict the contact zone, so can we. Moreover, everyone's estimates are basically consistent, since the conditions are quite clear, and the results on both sides will not differ too much.

"If we also carry four Thunder-3 attack-5 missiles, there will be almost no pressure."

When necessary, the Attack-5 can protect the Sixth Master, while the Battle-7 can even seek opportunities to take the initiative, making it much more flexible and proactive in combat.

The Thunder-3, a missile with strong head-on attack capabilities and excellent other parameters, can fire indiscriminately at its range limit of about 10 kilometers, making it difficult even for dedicated fighter jets to withstand.

Once the enemy fighters have completed a maneuver and shaken off the missiles, they will be out of energy and facing the aggressively returning Zhan-7, so the outcome is unlikely to be good.

Of course, this is just a war simulation. If there is no war, that's fine, but surely we can at least conduct simulations.

The idea of ​​not actually taking action was also the comrades' idea. This time, we're here to complete a mission; there's no point in fighting to the death with the Americans.

"Sir, the comrades in the formation have sent back their ideas." An operations staff officer walked in with a document.

Don't be fooled by these few thin pages; they were relayed back by several Be-6 aircraft.

"Oh? They're very proactive, they already have a complete idea of ​​their own? Tell me about it."

The staff officer read from the documents: "Our unit's next steps are planned as follows: 1. The remaining guided-missile escort vessels will continue to cooperate with the survey fleet to complete its assigned tasks. We also request that patrol aircraft and attack-35 bombers be dispatched from Cape City to assist the unit..."

The comrade at the forward command listened and laughed: "Hmm, now they're bolder and their ideas are bolder. Their idea is to use small boats and air power to complete the reconnaissance coordination. Small things can be handled by small boats, and big things can be handled by the air. Judging from the current situation, it can basically be accomplished. It seems that they've figured out the 'air' and 'fast' in 'air-submarine-fast'."

Another person laughed and said, "Yeah, it seems they want to make room for the big ship to welcome guests. Keep reading and see if I guessed right."

"...Second, concentrate four destroyers and frigates, and with the support of bombers and fighters, move eastward to complete the established Plan No. 4."

"Hahaha, you guessed right! It seems the comrades at the front felt that the small boats and the large ships were difficult to coordinate, so they simply separated them and assigned them their own tasks. Now it seems that this idea was correct." The forward command commander laughed loudly.

The separate use of small boats and large ships signifies that the direction of maritime power's "going global" strategy has already been planted in the minds of our comrades.

(End of this chapter)