Invasion of America

Chapter 150 Shot down
Inside the operations command center, Lin Anquan could clearly hear Lao Xiao's barely suppressed cheers outside.

On the air defense system screen, the first wave of over a dozen loitering munitions had already roared into the sky, and the second wave was in preparation. However, his gaze remained fixed on the large electronic map, and he still felt uncertain.

Logically speaking, for the protection of key locations, even without the HQ-9, at least a HQ-17 air defense system should be provided. It can effectively intercept various aerial threats, whether they are fighter jets, helicopters, or cruise missiles.

However, given the capabilities of the "Katrina" system, transporting a single HQ-17 air defense system was an impossible task. The only system available at the camp was a multi-functional "Low Altitude Hunter" air defense system.

The advantage of loitering munitions lies in their long loiter time. This type of equipment was originally designed for ground attack, allowing it to keep its eyes on the target and search repeatedly.

However, the industrial support is not yet perfect. In order to reduce the difficulty of production, piston engines have been used instead, but speed has been sacrificed. Using a speed of 100 kilometers per hour for air defense is a joke.

"If those helicopters notice something and immediately turn to flee, those loitering munitions will be wasted, and they won't be able to catch up at all," Lin Anquan muttered to himself, his brow furrowed.

The Black Hawk helicopter has a cruising speed of up to 240 kilometers per hour, and its top speed can exceed 300 kilometers per hour. If the enemy is determined to escape, the camp's existing air defense system will likely be powerless.

On the electronic map, the approaching "Black Hawk" aircraft did indeed show movement.

They quickly split into two groups and lowered their flight altitude again to fly close to the ground, attempting to evade radar detection by taking advantage of the complex terrain.

Lin Anquan felt a slight sense of relief and thought to himself, "The enemy is indeed very professional, but they would never dream that we would use a low-altitude blind spot radar tethered to an airship."
-
Lieutenant Colonel Hampton was indeed concerned about being attacked by anti-aircraft missiles after discovering that the other side possessed radar. However, after careful consideration, he concluded that the possibility of encountering specialized anti-aircraft weapons was low.

"It's not surprising that those yellow-skinned monkeys have long-range radar, after all, they are equipped with a lot of low-altitude aircraft."

"But professional air defense missiles are not easy to deploy; at most, they only have some portable missiles like the Stinger."

"There's no need to scare ourselves. Let two special operations Black Hawks lead the way, flying close to the ground. There shouldn't be any problems."

Lieutenant Colonel Hampton reasoned that his eight Black Hawks were all equipped with chaff specifically designed to counter man-portable air defense systems, so there was no need to worry too much about their safety.

Moreover, the effective range of missiles like the Stinger is only five kilometers, so they are not really a threat.

Ultimately, the lieutenant colonel decided to continue flying as planned, at most activating the infrared and radar warning systems so that he could react immediately should a missile attack occur.

Fifteen minutes passed just like that.

Eight Black Hawk helicopters rapidly approached from 100 kilometers away to within 40 kilometers of Awoni town. In a few minutes, they would be able to launch a fierce bombing raid on the town's camp with their mounted rockets.

During those fifteen minutes, the Black Hawk helicopter fleet was not attacked in any way, and the entire route was silent without the slightest disturbance.

"Those yellow-skinned monkeys are indeed no match for me." The lieutenant colonel couldn't help but feel smug. "Since they have the funds, they should at least purchase some weapons like 'Stinger'."

Even without the Stingers, setting up a few M2HB heavy machine guns around the camp would have been better. Now they're completely unprepared, like naked women, just waiting to be ravaged!

Eight Black Hawk helicopters, sixteen pilots, including two MH-60Ls carrying four special operations soldiers—a total of twenty white soldiers—awaited yet another massacre with great excitement.

Their plan was to first carpet bomb with rockets, then strafe with Gatling guns, which would surely make those yellow-skinned monkeys cry out in despair and be routed.

Just as Lieutenant Colonel Hampton was getting carried away with his victory, more than a dozen bright silver loitering munitions locked onto the target at an altitude of 500 meters and swooped down with a sharp whistling sound.

The first bullet hit its mark precisely, instantly unleashing a deafening roar.
-
Kelly's loitering munition was a cheap, emergency solution, embodying a simple and crude pragmatism. But aside from its slightly slower flight speed, this inexpensive creation was almost entirely advantageous.

Compared to powerful rocket engines, piston engines are weaker, but their infrared signature is as faint as a firefly in the night, almost negligible.

A speed of 100 kilometers per hour is not fast for a car, and it is as slow as a snail for an aircraft. The airflow is so gentle that it will not heat the missile body at all.

As a result, the infrared warning systems on the eight Black Hawk helicopters remained completely unresponsive, as if they were asleep.

After being roughly guided to the target area by long-range radar, these loitering munitions rely on optical means to find the target, without the need for illumination by rear fire control radar.

The Black Hawk's sophisticated radar warning system was also deaf and blind, completely unaware of the impending death.

This cheap aircraft is indeed slow, and the optical camera it carries is also a cheap one.

Although it cannot see targets fifty kilometers away, it is quite accurate and reliable in searching, identifying, and locking onto targets at a distance of more than ten kilometers.

Especially when the target is locked and the final ten kilometers are being prepared to launch a fatal strike, all loitering munitions seem to break free of their shackles, no longer pursuing range, and exiting the low-speed, low-fuel-consumption mode.

The propeller at the tail of the missile emitted a sharp screech as it operated at full power, its speed suddenly soaring from over 100 kilometers per hour to 300 kilometers per hour. Its maneuverability also increased dramatically, rapidly closing the distance to the target.

They are like silent, lurking assassins, quietly approaching their unsuspecting prey.

The moment they lock on, it's like death descends, unleashing all their energy swiftly and decisively, leaving their opponents no time to utter a cry of alarm.

The first loitering munition accurately struck the tail fin of a Black Hawk helicopter.

The helicopter was flying at a height of about ten meters, skimming the ground, with the pilot focused intently on maintaining stability using the altimeter and radar ranging.

At the moment of the attack, the pilot felt the entire aircraft shudder violently, as if it had been shoved hard by a giant hand.

Immediately afterwards, the control stick went out of control, and the helicopter, like a kite with a broken string, crashed sideways into the tilted roof of a two-story villa on the ground.

The rigid rotor tore through the roof wood like a meat grinder, making a clattering sound, and then the entire aircraft plunged headfirst into it, exploding in a cloud of dust.

The whole process happened so fast that no one in the formation realized they were under attack. They instinctively thought it was an annoying mechanical malfunction or an accidental collision.

Lieutenant Colonel Hampton roared "fuck!" He ordered the nearest Black Hawk helicopter to stop in the air and try to check if there were any survivors.

After all, it was only a fall of a dozen meters. Given the Black Hawk's robust airframe, the chances of the crew surviving should be high as long as there was no violent explosion.

But before the lieutenant colonel could finish giving his order, another Black Hawk helicopter burst into flames in the air.

This time, he saw it clearly: a blurry shadow, like a ghost, fell from the sky and slammed into the Black Hawk's fuselage a second before the explosion.

The shockwave from the explosion instantly tore apart an engine, producing a deafening roar.

The Black Hawk, like a bird with broken wings, shook violently before crashing headfirst into the ground, tearing through the churning mud.

"No, it's a missile!" the lieutenant colonel shouted hoarsely, his voice shrill with fear. "Quick! Deploy flares! Maneuver to evade!"

Without the lieutenant colonel's prompting, the pilots of the remaining six Black Hawks reacted instantly, as if struck by lightning.

The first action was to manually press the launch button for the flares, attempting to confuse the incoming missiles with the intense heat. At a height of several meters, bright spots of light with temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius shot out like a sudden rain, drawing conspicuous trajectories in the air.

If it were a simple infrared seeker, it would likely be easily fooled by such a dense array of decoys and deviate from its target.

But a third unfortunate Black Hawk appeared, as it was hit by two loitering munitions in succession. One of them, like a precise scalpel, pierced directly through the cockpit's fragile bulletproof glass.

The bulletproof glass was torn to pieces by the steel balls that flew out after the explosion.

The two pilots in the cockpit didn't even have time to scream before they were killed by the high-speed projectiles, leaving them riddled with holes.

Even after the helicopter crashed, its flares continued to fire due to inertia, leaving a trail of light hundreds of meters long in the air.

Damn it, it's not an infrared seeker! A thunderbolt seemed to explode in the lieutenant colonel's mind, and fear spread rapidly through his body like a cold tide.

"Pull up! Release the chaff!" Lieutenant Colonel Hampton yanked the control stick, and the Black Hawk's nose suddenly lifted, struggling to climb into the air like a wounded beast.

At the same time, countless strips of foil shimmering with metallic luster poured out from the belly of the aircraft like a flood, forming a curtain in the air.

In the face of life and death, the lieutenant colonel gritted his teeth and made a desperate prayer to God: "God, save your lamb! It must be the radar seeker! It must be the radar seeker!"

Unfortunately, his prayers went unanswered.

"Holy Light" launched a total of sixteen loitering munitions at the camp in Avoni, intending to completely annihilate the eight attacking "Black Hawks" in a two-on-one attack.

Some Black Hawk helicopters were hit directly in vital areas by a loitering munition, exploding in mid-air and turning into a burning wreckage.

Those loitering munitions that lost their targets quickly switched to autonomous search mode and relentlessly pounced on the next nearest target.

Lieutenant Colonel Hampton's Black Hawk helicopter was locked onto by three loitering munitions. Within just two or three seconds, he suffered three devastating blows.

The high-speed projectile tore apart the aircraft's tail, engine, and fuselage in succession.

He felt as if he had been thrown into a raging storm, his body being violently struck again and again by the sweeping steel balls and the shockwaves from the explosions, his consciousness swaying like a small boat.

In his final moments, amidst his fear-driven thoughts, only one angry and resentful curse managed to emerge:

"Fuck, it's an optical seeker, this isn't a proper anti-aircraft missile at all!"
-
Inside the operations command center at Camp Avoni, the atmosphere was as turbulent as boiling water.

On the electronic map, the red dots representing the eight enemy Black Hawks dimmed and disappeared one by one, eventually falling completely silent.

The dozen or so operations staff officers at the command post could not contain their excitement and burst into cheers. Accompanied by loud table-slapping, the entire room was filled with the joy of victory.

Although the enemy was not strong, their own side was indeed "inexperienced"—the group of members temporarily transferred from the "Dongda" in the country were all fledglings who had never fought a battle.

Let alone practical experience, some people probably haven't even killed a chicken themselves, and in this respect they are not even as good as Zhou Qingfeng, who came to the profession later in life.

A group of armchair strategists, who had learned a lot of "dragon-slaying skills" and practiced them countless times, finally experienced the cruelty of death and the scalding heat of blood for the first time today.

Hearing the cheers from outside, Lao Xiao's face lit up with a smile. He walked into the command center with a grin, patting each of the young people on the shoulder to encourage and praise them.

When his gaze fell on Lin Anquan, who was covered in sweat, he couldn't help but step forward and tease him, "Little Lin, how does it feel to be on the battlefield for the first time?"

"How could this not be the first time?" Lin Anquan replied, half-laughing and half-crying. "When in China have I ever had the opportunity to experience this kind of real combat?"

He then changed the subject, asking curiously, "By the way, what exactly is the cost of this batch of loitering munitions? It seems to be working much better than I expected."

“Cheap, of course it’s cheap.” Old Xiao said casually, “These days a smartphone costs several thousand yuan, and the precision of a loitering munition is not as high as that of a mobile phone.”

A short-range missile with a range of 15 kilometers costs only 5,000 yuan, and there's plenty of it; it's specifically designed to target low-speed drones.

A medium-range missile with a range of 50 kilometers costs 15,000 yuan. As for the long-range missile, which can reach 150 kilometers, it's equivalent to a small cruise missile and costs only 30,000 yuan.

After all, two-stroke engines are really cheap, there's plenty of space inside the missile, and civilian components don't cost much either.

Lin Anquan listened with great satisfaction, "Stock up on more supplies. We probably won't be fighting too intensely in the future, but we'll definitely be fighting frequently, so we need these cheap and readily available items."

After all, the most expensive one only costs 30,000 yuan. Trading that little money for one or even several enemy lives is a bargain no matter how you look at it.

A Black Hawk helicopter can easily cost tens of millions of dollars, not to mention the two pilots it carries who require years of training to become competent. It's incredibly cost-effective to have it shot down by a few cheap loitering munitions.

"However, I have a small suggestion." Lin Anquan pondered for a moment before continuing, "The cruising speed of 120 kilometers per hour for a loitering munition is indeed too low, and the burst speed of 300 kilometers per hour is not fast either."

Even though it's a budget-friendly option, don't skimp too much on power. Doubling the speed would significantly improve the timeliness of striking targets and allow for a firmer grasp of the battlefield initiative.

Xiao Jinlang nodded in agreement, realizing that domestic suppliers were indeed somewhat conservative in terms of power output—less than 0.1 horsepower per kilogram, which seemed too weak.

If the speed can be increased to "0.3" or even "0.5", the speed of the loitering munition could be increased by two to three times, and the strike efficiency would be significantly improved.

Of course, fuel consumption will also double, and the range will be limited, which designers need to carefully weigh.

"I will immediately provide this valuable battlefield experience back so that the developers and suppliers of 'electric flight' can modify and test it as soon as possible."

Xiao Jinlang said confidently, "In the next battle, we will definitely have ammunition with better performance."

A burst of relaxed laughter erupted again in the command center. With the continuous support from home, their expansion plans in North America would only become smoother and smoother, with a bright future ahead.

However, before the laughter had completely subsided, the staff officer in charge of aerial monitoring strode over and reported urgently:

"Warthog has discovered something new! The enemy's ground convoy seems unaware that their air force has been completely shot down by us, and has restarted its operations, charging towards us with overwhelming force!"

A rapidly moving red dot reappeared on the electronic map, and everyone's expressions became focused again.

"They have already arrived in Famvi town and have no intention of stopping. They are continuing to advance westward, heading straight for our 'Holy Light' camp!"

Lin Anquan sneered, "If we're not afraid of the air, why should we be afraid of the ground? We just used a 50-kilometer medium-range missile, now let's try a 150-kilometer long-range missile. Let's play a game of beyond-visual-range attack!"

(End of this chapter)