50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 829 Bait
Not far south of Lauter Island, two Van Speck-class frigates are cruising northward at a steady speed toward Lauter Island.

Not far away in the sea, two submarines were in a semi-submerged state, moving quietly one after the other.

These are the four ships currently under Sun Zhiwei's command.

At this moment, on the bridge of the frigate 001, fleet commander Dong Haoyang held the telegram he had just received, his brows furrowed as he pondered.

Moments later, the commanders of the four ships connected via a secure channel and began discussing countermeasures.

Dong Haoyang spoke first: "Comrades, the situation is urgent. The MiG-21 is very fast. It can fly 50 kilometers in less than 10 minutes. If you have any ideas, please speak up quickly."

Captain Tao Yongqiang of Ship 001 added, "First, we need to decide whether to engage or not. I think we should. If the MiGs are heading towards Gran Natuna Island, the island's residents will be in great danger."

"I agree." "I agree." "I agree." "I agree."

"Okay, unanimously approved. So how do we fight them? The MiG-21 is so fast and flies at such a high altitude, we don't have many opportunities."

Dong Haoyang didn't know much about naval warfare, but he did know that the success rate of shipborne air defense weapons in defending against fast-moving aircraft was very small.

“Aren’t we south of Lauter Island right now? I think we can use the terrain here to launch an ambush.” The speaker was Ji Yongjia, the captain of submarine 004.

Captain Ji Yongjia was piloting the Type 209 conventional submarine, which Sun Zhiwei had captured in public, and which was produced in Xiaodezi.

Because the Type 209 conventional submarine has only average stealth capabilities, it is fine for dealing with surface ships without anti-submarine capabilities, but it is very dangerous when encountering ships with anti-submarine capabilities.

This forced Ji Yongjia to rack his brains and use clever tactics in every battle to reduce the risk.

Last time, it was his "empty city strategy" that made the Batam Island frigate run around in circles, and successfully drove it away, protecting Subi Island's back.

And it was precisely because of this that he was praised by Sun Zhiwei and his colleagues throughout the fleet.

Being able to fight clever battles instead of hard-fought or stagnant ones, and to minimize the disadvantages of weaponry, is undoubtedly an excellent command strategy.

Therefore, all the captains took Ji Yongjia's speech very seriously.

"Old Ji, time is of the essence, and no one has any ideas. Just tell us how you plan to arrange things. Whether it works or not, we'll arrange things according to your idea."

These words were spoken by Dong Haoyang, who is currently the fleet's interim commander, and none of the captains objected to his decision.

Therefore, Ji Yongjia revealed his entire plan.

In fact, his plan was not a brilliant strategy, but a simple ambush plan that made reasonable use of psychology and terrain.

But this is currently their only plan.

Considering the high speed of the MiG-21, they did not discuss it further. After all the commanders agreed, the fleet proceeded according to Ji Yongjia's plan.

They began to disperse their operations, with Lauter Island as the center.

Among them, the conventional submarine 004 sailed to the north of Lauter Island and faced the direction from which the MiG-21 was coming in a semi-submerged state.

The two frigates, 001 and 002, are hidden south of Lauter Island, lined up close to the island's coastline. This mooring method can effectively avoid detection by fighter jet radar.

Meanwhile, the 003H submarine was further south underwater, preparing for a missile launch.

In this operation, the Type 004 conventional submarine was only responsible for guidance and serving as decoy; it itself had no anti-air capabilities. The primary means of interception in this ambush was the combined anti-air firepower of the Type 001 and Type 002 frigates.

Both of these frigates are Van Speck-class frigates, and each of them is equipped with two Sea Cat close-in weapon systems with four-cell launchers.

When both frigates are firing at full power, they can launch 16 anti-aircraft missiles simultaneously.

The 003H submarine, located underwater, is equipped with 24 submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.

This is a multi-functional cruise missile; it can attack any target, whether it's air-to-air, air-to-ground, or air-to-ship, whenever needed.

The submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missile has a maximum range of up to 1000 kilometers, but its flight speed does not exceed the speed of sound.

Generally speaking, to intercept a supersonic fighter like the MiG-21 with a submarine-launched Tomahawk, one must launch it in advance and anticipate the interception.

Today, Ji Yongjia invented a new way to use it, but the effect still needs to be verified.

Now all four ships are sailing at full speed. Soon, the two frigates are in position and all anti-aircraft missiles are ready to be launched.

001 and 002 are now moored close to each other on the southern coastline of Lauter Island.

If viewed from a distance in the northern sky, only the dense jungle of Lauter Island can be seen, with the slightly higher coastline and large trees near the sea almost completely obscuring the hull of the frigates.

Meanwhile, to the north of Lauter Island, the 004 conventional submarine, commanded by Ji Yongjia, was sailing on the sea at a top speed of 14 knots, heading due north.

To the due south, the Type 003 attack submarine was also sailing at full speed on the sea surface, heading in the opposite direction, but all of its missile launchers were already open.

The Tomahawk cruise missile has a long range, but since the Type 003 submarine does not currently have satellites for navigation, its actual effective range does not exceed the detection range of the submarine's radar, which is 150 kilometers.

It is now trying to create distance because it only has 12 missile launch ports, and it needs to buy itself time for a second launch.

Time flew by, and soon, Ji Yongjia, the commander of submarine 004, issued a warning on the combat communication channel that its radar had detected the target formation.

Twelve MiG-21s are flying in formation at Mach 1, located northwest of Lauter Island, and they are turning, their target the 004 submarine.

However, Ji Yongjia was not too panicked. He simply ordered the submarine to turn around and return to Lauter Island immediately, while preparing to dive.

According to the intelligence sent back by Sun Zhiwei, all 12 MiG-21s in this formation were carrying aerial bombs.

The only thing on it that could pose a threat to its submarines was a single GSh-23 23mm twin-barreled cannon in the nose.

However, the range of the machine gun is very limited. To attack, you need to lower your altitude and slow down, otherwise the hit rate is worrying.

He's now gambling on whether the other side will come down and attack his submarine.

Seeing the data displayed on the radar, Ji Yongjia smiled.

"Ship 004, notify all ships that the target is descending. Current altitude: 9000 meters, 8000 meters, 7000 meters."

As Ji Yongjia continued counting down, the other three captains couldn't help but shout, "Old Ji, we've reached the right altitude. Don't take any risks, dive immediately!"

(End of this chapter)