Invasion of America

Chapter 149 Air Defense
At noon, Xiao Jinlang walked out of the "Holy Light" canteen in Avini Town, let out a satisfied burp, and thought about going back to his room for a short rest.

Several technicians from China greeted him warmly as "Director Xiao," and chatted casually for a few minutes, talking about their lunch and complaining about the problems they encountered in their daily work.

"Director, four 'Catalina' aircraft are simply not enough; we need a more powerful transport fleet."

"That's right, transportation capacity is too tight, and there are restrictions everywhere. But 'traditional oil refining' has also encountered a bottleneck, and production cannot be increased."

"The camp's housing is also inadequate; it either needs to be expanded or relocated. This small place is too limiting."

"The nearest city to us is Richmond, but unfortunately we don't have enough manpower to control it."

Since Kelly returned to "Dongda" seeking assistance, more and more "our own people" have arrived in North America via transoceanic flights and then gathered here.

The camp in Aveni is the largest stronghold of the Holy Light on the east coast of North America, with more than a thousand members, as well as about five hundred local collaborators, white slaves, and black overseers.

The more people there are, the more urgent the need for management and security becomes—if the camp is attacked by hostile forces in the surrounding area, the painstakingly built camp will suffer incalculable losses.

Therefore, while Kelly was working on the "Low Altitude Sentinel" project, Xiao Jinlang was also considering that if the project could not be delivered on schedule, there had to be an alternative.

To this end, he organized an intercontinental transoceanic route in Los Angeles, using Boeing 787s with a range of tens of thousands of kilometers as transport aircraft to bring in technical personnel and equipment from "Dongda" (Eastern University), and naturally, weapons and equipment were also included.

He had just finished lunch and was walking towards the camp office. As he passed the air defense position, he couldn't help but glance at the two monitoring devices that had only been delivered a few days ago.

One is a long-range three-coordinate air monitoring radar, and the other is a tethered airship low-altitude blind spot filling radar, both of which are lightweight and mobile.

With these two radars, activity within a radius of hundreds of kilometers can be monitored in real time, greatly enhancing the security of the camp.

The only drawback is that these two radars are huge "energy hogs," consuming enormous amounts of electricity while operating around the clock, almost consuming the majority of the electricity generated by the photovoltaic system.

Old Xiao sighed: "Now we can only hope that the 'Stream Lake' hydroelectric power station in Famvi Town can provide more electricity, otherwise the development of the camp will reach its limit."

Zhou Qing led a team to Famvi Town, and it is said that he had a good talk with the survivors in the town, exchanging electricity for supplies, so that neither side would suffer a loss.

Just as Lao Xiao was calculating how much electricity he could secure and how to distribute it, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the camp.

Everyone was stunned at first, then like startled ants, some dropped their rice bowls, some jumped off their beds, and some rushed out of the toilet, hurrying back to their respective posts.

Xiao Jinlang abandoned his plan to return to his office and strode towards the air defense command center.

The command center is located in the indoor stadium of the town's primary school. Dense cables and network cables are arranged to form three rows of command seats, along with more than a dozen display screens and a large electronic map.

Lin Anquan, who was in charge of the camp's defense, was sitting in his seat, while more than a dozen combat staff officers stared intently at their respective monitors, talking to each other in hushed tones.

Xiao Jinlang was in charge of civil affairs and did not interfere in military matters. Seeing that the scene was tense but orderly, he found a quiet corner to sit down and waited for the time to step in.

Lin Anquan stared intently at the few red dots on the electronic map. After issuing a series of orders, he turned to Lao Xiao and said, "I'm afraid Famvi Town is finished."

The red dot on the map is hovering over the town of Famvi, about 100 kilometers away. The fully automated command system has marked the red dot with information, suggesting it may be a helicopter approaching at low altitude.

By analyzing electromagnetic signals, flight speed, and rotor echoes, some of the red dots were even marked with model numbers, indicating that they were UH-60 "Black Hawk" series aircraft used by the US military.

A dozen minutes later, the Warthog, which had taken off urgently, used its pod to conduct a side-view reconnaissance at an altitude of 3,000 meters and confirmed that the town of Famvi was engulfed in flames and that there were heavy casualties in the town.

"It should be the air force of the Richmond Guard. They are the only ones in the area with a large number of helicopters and corresponding ammunition."

Lin Anquan's face was grim. He called over his staff officer and ordered, "The enemy's helicopters are withdrawing. Send a small team to Famvi town in 'Warthogs' to check their casualties."

A short while later, a staff officer reported: "Jiang Menglong from the reconnaissance team sent a warning that the 'Richmond Garrison' has dispatched a combat group, leaving their camp in over a hundred vehicles, with their target being Famway town."

On the electronic map, the towns of Famvi and Aveni are located on the same highway.

Lin Anquan shook his head. "No, Famvi Town only has a hydroelectric power station, nothing else of interest. There's no need to use a combat group to deal with it. The enemy is coming for us; they're just wiping out Famvi Town along the way."

A while later, Jiang Menglong sent another message—the reconnaissance team had ambushed the enemy convoy, forcing it to stop on the road. But they couldn't stop the helicopters flying overhead.
-
In the sky, eight UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters took off from Richmond Airport and cruised westward along the interstate highway at a speed of 240 kilometers per hour.

These Black Hawks originally belonged to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and were originally equipment of the U.S. Air Force's First Air Wing.

The base is not far from Norfolk Naval Base, which was destroyed by Zhou Qingfeng's urine.

As the virus raged, the soldiers in the military base also needed to stick together for warmth and rely on military supplies to get through the most difficult period. They then instinctively formed a powerful looting force.

On the helicopter, Lieutenant Colonel Hampton, who was commanding the flight formation, looked down at the ground and clearly identified the battle group commanded by Major General Borg.

More than a hundred military vehicles were awkwardly stuck on the road, and hundreds of soldiers, along with their commander, were scorched by the blazing sun, unable to move forward or backward.

Fiber optic controlled robotic dogs and drones are really annoying. They often hide at some intersection and sit motionless for hours without making a sound.

If ground combat groups want to continue advancing, they must rely on their own two legs to search the grass and ruins on both sides of the road inch by inch; otherwise, they cannot ensure their safety.

The officers of the combat group soon realized that the workload was too great; if they continued searching along a road of one or two hundred kilometers at this rate, it would take half a month to reach their destination.

but
"If the Air Force weren't unable to take ground positions, I really wouldn't want to listen to that idiot Borg's orders," the lieutenant colonel complained over the radio.

Upon hearing this, the other colleagues flying alongside him burst into laughter. They were all happy to see the infantrymen's embarrassing situation, thus highlighting their own sense of superiority.

Langley Air Force Base once housed F-22 Raptor fighter jets and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters; however, the pilots who survived the ordeal ultimately chose the Black Hawk utility helicopter.

As for armament, it is not difficult to attach rocket pods to both sides of the Black Hawk. It can easily blast ground targets to pieces by launching 70mm Hydra guided rockets.

Major General Borg was also in a very awkward position. He could only hope that the flight squadron would be able to do its job and directly strike the 'Holy Light's' stronghold to break their fighting will.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to declare the 'expedition' a failure and slink back in disgrace.
-
"Be careful, our opponents this time also have planes. They're said to be equipped with machine guns."

"Don't worry, we brought anti-air 'Stinger' missiles. If those toys dare to show up, we'll take them out."

Of the eight Black Hawks, two were MH-60Ls from the former 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. These were special operations variants of the Black Hawks, capable not only of launching rockets but also equipped with anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, specifically to counter the armed Warthogs of the Holy Light.

"I've never had a kill record before, and now I'm actually hoping those yellow-skinned monkeys will be too presumptuous and crash into me," muttered Lieutenant Colonel Hampton, who was in charge of the flight. "I hope the enemy is tough enough to let me have some fun."

Eight Black Hawk helicopters reappeared in Famvi town along the road. The town had just been swept by rockets, and many buildings were still emitting thick smoke, while there were still corpses on the ground that had not yet been cleared away.

The survivors in the town either cried out in grief, cursed at the sky, or fired a few shots at the 'Black Hawk' with their meager firepower.

A special-purpose Black Hawk opened its hatch and used a Gatling gun mounted on the side of the door to sweep the ground. Under the bursts of gunfire, there were panicked people fleeing and corpses lying on the ground.

Over the past year, soldiers of the Richmond Guard have done this more than once, showing no regard for the people on the ground as their own.

On the ground, Mayor Ike of Famwi stood behind a metal wall, his anger flaring as he commanded his militia to desperately fire back into the air, shouting curses:

“Damn it, even the devils of hell are kinder than you. At least those Chinese from ‘Holy Light’ made deals with us, but you just want us dead.”

In response to the mayor's angry outbursts, the helicopters overhead merely unleashed a few volleys of bullets as a merciless mockery before continuing their westward flight. They would arrive in Awoni in half an hour.

"Alright, everyone, pay attention. Don't underestimate our next opponent."

"The leader of 'Holy Light' is said to be very rich. I imagine his lair must be overflowing with wealth, and he might even be able to acquire things like man-portable air defense systems."

"Activate infrared alarms. Although I don't believe it's a ghost, radar?!"

The MH-60L, used for special operations, is equipped with a full range of electronic countermeasures equipment. Its pilots soon discovered that although they were flying at a low altitude of less than 100 meters, they were being scanned by U-band radar.

“We’re still seventy or eighty kilometers away from those yellow-skinned monkeys, so how come there’s radar shining on us?” Lieutenant Colonel Hampton, who was commanding the squadron, had veins throbbing on his forehead.

Having radar and not having radar are two different things.

Maintaining the radar requires a team of professional technicians; it's not something you can just do by recruiting a bunch of screaming survivors.

"That damn rich man, could he have stationed an army in his own backyard?"
-
At this moment, four modified pickup trucks sped out of the "Holy Light" camp, serving as mobile anti-aircraft firepower.

Each pickup truck is equipped with an eight-cell "Qianwei" portable anti-aircraft missile launcher and a matching electro-optical sight on its rear cargo bed.

The advantages of this equipment are its lightness, flexibility, and adaptability; the disadvantage is its limited performance, making it difficult to cope with high-intensity combat.

Lacking radar guidance, these air defense pickup trucks rely entirely on radio communications from the rear command center to obtain information on the possible location of targets.

The missile gunner sat on the control panel in the rear compartment, his eyes fixed on the electro-optical display screen—this was only slightly better than searching with the naked eye, and the slightest carelessness could cause him to miss the target.

The purpose of deploying these mobile air defense vehicles is to create an additional air defense barrier for the camp, hoping to slightly improve the overall defense strength.

However, due to the limited range of man-portable missiles, the gunners at the control panel were uncertain – if the attacking helicopters were only equipped with rockets, they might still have a fighting chance.
But what if the enemy possesses standoff weapons...?

Air defense operations are often "ten defenses, nine misses"—the "Qianwei" missile's mere five-kilometer range makes these few air defense vehicles almost as good as "throwing meat buns to a dog, never to return."

Inside the camp command center, Xiao Jinlang stood before the electronic map, feeling deeply uneasy about the four anti-aircraft pickup trucks that had been dispatched. He couldn't help but ask Lin Anquan, who was in charge of the overall situation:

"Should we consider equipping ourselves with some large, medium- and long-range air defense missiles in the future? Such as the HQ-9?"

Lin Anquan glanced at Lao Xiao with a hint of helplessness and said tactfully, "If a target that requires the HQ-9 to deal with really appears, then it's not a problem that our camp of over a thousand people needs to consider."

Xiao Jinlang realized he had spoken uninformedly, chuckled twice, and said no more, but his expression became increasingly serious.

The core force protecting the camp is the "Low-Altitude Hunter" system, which was urgently developed a month ago.

A 20-meter-high electronic mast has been erected, and the phased array radar on top is rotating, scanning every target in the surrounding airspace.

Xiao Jinlang couldn't help but pray in his heart—that the suppliers of those "electric flight" technologies would not cut corners too much and that they would ensure that the two hundred multi-functional loitering munitions currently deployed could be launched normally.

The dozen or so staff officers at the combat stations all stared intently at the air situation information transmitted back by several radars. At this moment, there wasn't much they could do; they could only rely entirely on the operation of the air defense command system itself.

Because human reaction speed is far slower than that of a computer—the scenarios depicted in movies and TV shows where commanders give orders on the spot are almost impossible to happen in reality.

Lin Anquan was also nervous at this moment, his palms were sweaty. After graduating from military academy, he had only participated in exercises and had never experienced actual combat.

His soldiers and equipment were being used in battle for the first time, and he had no idea how it would end.

Xiao Jinlang, unwilling to look at the electronic map any longer, walked out of the command center to check the situation in the camp—the air raid siren had sounded three times, all personnel were in place, and no one was allowed to act without orders.

On the other side of the air defense position, the four modular launch boxes, which had been airlifted at great expense, remained silent, as if they had malfunctioned, showing no power whatsoever in their "bow and arrow" attack.

A bead of sweat trickled down Old Xiao's forehead as he thought to himself, "We can't just keep waiting like idiots, can we?!"

Just then, a launch box inside the position suddenly lifted up, and the opening quickly opened, revealing a honeycomb of densely packed launch ports.

With a "bang," a silver-white cylinder was launched from one of the launch ports, quickly rising to a height of over ten meters.

During the ejection process, the battery starts working, the propeller is ejected from the tail, the folding wings unfold in the middle section, and the two-stroke engine starts running with a "hum".

The loitering munition then veered off course and sped off in the direction indicated by the radar.

This cheap vehicle's power is far less than that of a rocket engine, and its flight speed is also slower. However, the motorcycle engine consumes less fuel, and its actual range is not compromised at all.

After the missile was launched, more than a dozen munitions were ejected from the launch box in quick succession, all of which deployed smoothly and took off normally.

It was as if a flock of birds flew across the sky, buzzing and rushing towards the enemy at speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour.

Upon seeing this, Xiao Jinlang felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders and smiled. "Thank goodness, thank goodness, those suppliers still have some conscience; the ammunition they made is not bad."

(End of this chapter)