Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 244 The Chaotic Fleet

On the radio, the wingman's rapid breathing came.The captain turned his head to one side and saw that the wingman and another enemy plane were also in a circle, but the situation was not good.The J-7 gradually took up a favorable position. For the Sea Harrier, which was not fast enough, the ensuing fight would be extremely dangerous.

Gurt hesitated for a moment, and instead of turning around to rescue his wingman, he continued to push the accelerator to pursue. The Sea Harrier's airborne radar was interfered by sea clutter during the downward scanning process, and could not track the target well.He simply turned off the radar, turned on the power of the missile, and tried to use the narrow field of view of the magic missile itself to try his luck. Since he was in an absolute advantage, he thought there should be some chances.However, the hot and humid sea breeze brought by ocean currents is a negative factor for infrared missiles to intercept targets.The captain's Sea Harrier pursued to a range of 1.5 kilometers, but the missile still couldn't find the target by itself, and then the J-7 gradually showed its speed advantage, and the distance between the two sides gradually widened.

Captain Gould turned his head back, and the other J-7 also gave up the fight and headed towards the Karachi plane. It seemed that the two planes were at the same pace; he suddenly felt that something was wrong. lift off?
He made a big circle, and saw a light gray dot in the distant clouds moving rapidly to the east, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.Judging from the heading, the plane was stealthily following the rest of the 300th Squadron.

"You are being followed, don't turn!"

The captain's warning came a little late.Lieutenant Abbas in the Thunder cockpit has clearly detected the front four Sea Harriers turning southwest by using the airborne radar.Judging from the limited range of these sea harriers, the approximate position of the aircraft carrier is not far from the final course.

Abbas' Thunderbolt carries two heavy anti-ship missiles.This limited his ability to turn and accelerate, but he had no problem getting rid of the Harriers.He threw away the fuel tank and quickly turned on the afterburner, and the plane slowly accelerated to 900 kilometers per hour, watching the four Sea Harriers one kilometer away fall behind.In order to increase the load, he did not carry air-to-air weapons or the support of a reconnaissance plane for this flight, so he could only secretly follow the enemy plane to determine the position of the enemy mothership.In fact, he wasn't even prepared to go back alive.

A sudden alarm sounded on the Weilante aircraft carrier, and the flight squadron received an order to scramble to intercept.A Sea Harrier of 300 Squadron has been parked at takeoff point 2. This takeoff point has a runway about 160 meters long, which is very suitable for ski jump takeoff, but the fighter on duty is equipped with anti-ship missiles and cannot take off immediately.A tractor towed the second Sea Harrier to takeoff point 1.The distance to this take-off point is a little too short.

After receiving the order to defend the flagship, the Derry's two vehicles turned at high speed, hoping to complete the air defense formation as soon as possible. In air defense operations, the Derry occupies the most prominent role in the entire fleet. Her warning radar has the farthest detection range in the entire fleet. The semi-active guided Gadfly missile can also increase the maximum air defense radius of the entire fleet to a measly 25 kilometers. Although the range of the USS Derry's fleet air missiles can't even provide enough air defense capability for herself, it can only be relied on for now Provides anti-aircraft fire for the aircraft carrier Villant.

The Indian fleet was 45 nautical miles south, and No. 411 quietly approached the position designated by Marin. The movement of the Indian surface fleet's frantic change of formation made No. 411's towed sonar catch it.The destroyer, which was searched between 411 and the aircraft carrier, made Marin's fear suddenly turn to the north.

"They seem to be in a mess by themselves?" Said the deputy captain Sun Xiangdong.

"If my guess is correct, they must have been attacked, most likely by the air, and there are no decent anti-aircraft ships in the escort formation. Now they are rushing to take this destroyer to fill the defense gap in the north."

"That's right," political commissar Su Changjin nodded. "The range of the Delhi-class SA-N-7 missile is only about 25 kilometers. Experienced pilots can pre-empt air-to-ship missiles at the edge of this range. If Pakistani aircraft can approach from a suitable altitude, I think it is very promising .”

"In any case, the Villant is approaching us, which is really what we wish for," Marin said.

"What are you going to do?"

"We can't wait for her to come to the top as planned. The chaos of the enemy fleet may only be temporary. We must take the initiative to approach and make a difference."

After Marin finished speaking, he walked to the edge of the chart and drastically revised his route again.He asked No. 411 to increase the speed and sail towards the Indian fleet.At present, the collection and comparison of the voiceprints of the ships of the Indian fleet has been basically completed. Except for the aircraft carrier Virant and the Delhi-class destroyer, the rest of the frigates have also been confirmed one by one.It can be said that this is an incomplete fleet, and there are loopholes in both regional air defense and anti-submarine. It was found that there was a Calcutta class in the fleet before, but in the latest search, this warship has never appeared, and it is obviously no longer in formation. bingo.

On the sea, Colonel Zaara watched his fleet in chaos.The speed of the carrier itself made it difficult for the slower frigates to keep up with her and form a defensive formation around her.This made the acting fleet commander very anxious.As long as the aircraft carrier is scratched a little, he can't bear it.

According to the information sent by the Delhi, her warning radar has not found the plane. It is estimated that the enemy plane approached at a very low altitude and then found a loophole to sneak in. It is likely that the missile was launched within the line of sight. Not long ago, they attacked Galava. Xihao's attack was done in such a way, it was simply a case of carelessness.

When the fleet left its post, it was accompanied by a Calcutta-class destroyer. It was a capital ship with regional air defense capabilities. However, a few days ago, the hull suddenly leaked and withdrew from the formation. Now only the more "comprehensive" Delhi level to act as an air defense mission.The siren sounded across the sea, and the two frigates that turned around in the distance almost collided with each other.The Phalanx system under the flight deck of the Villant turned around from time to time, alert in all directions.

The fighter plane on take-off point 1 finally began to taxi, he jumped up from the end of the deck, and then sank quickly.Zaara's heart reached her throat, and she seldom used this relatively forward take-off point during training.

Two seconds passed, and the Sea Harrier finally climbed up, and the people on the deck let out a sigh of relief.The fighter turned to the left to complete a 2-degree turn.Fly in the direction where the enemy plane is most likely to appear.The Sea Harrier's airborne radar is a product of the 360s and has limited downward-looking capabilities. Pilots must rely more on their own eyesight to search for enemy aircraft.

At the same time, the Raiden fighter jets are approaching the enemy fleet close to the sea in order to shorten the enemy's early warning time. Abbas is not going to go back alive today. All he has to do is find the largest ship in the enemy fleet and sink it .

The plane shook gently under the push of the airflow, and Abbas bit the bullet and dropped the altitude to 20 meters.Ultra-low-altitude flying has never been his strong point, especially on seas that lack undulating reference.He knew that the squadron leader often saw himself as a pilot with little talent, which might be true; however, today he just wanted to prove that he could achieve greater results than others.

The masts and messy antennas on the Indian warships appeared faintly on the sea level, and they were indeed in the direction he guessed.But those were just some ordinary surface ships, not what he wanted.

The warning radar quickly discovered the thunder and lightning, and then the control radar of the Indian destroyer also began to track.Abbas turned the fuselage slightly and circled, which could destroy the Doppler radar measurement.He felt that one wing was about to touch the wave.

Those Sea Harrier fighter jets must have a provenance, the aircraft carrier can't hide very far.Smoke rose from an Indian warship in the distance, indicating what weapon had been fired.Judging from the flames, there were 2 missiles. They climbed to 200 meters, and then made a twisted downward turn. One fell directly into the sea, and the other flew towards Thunder.This is probably a semi-active guided missile.He quickly searched the 180-degree sea level in front of him, and finally found the warship with the upturned deck behind the Indian destroyer.Abbas immediately launched chaff to suppress the terminal guidance radar on the enemy warship. His current mobility is limited, so he can only hope that the interference will work.The chaff did the trick, the SA-N-7 lost its target update from the terminal guidance radar and flew by the side of the Thunderbolt without exploding.Still in shock, another Indian fighter jet rushed head-on.Abbas was convinced that the enemy's magic missiles could not help him in the front hemisphere, so he went straight up.The Indian pilot was taken aback. He was going to force the opponent to turn and fight again. Unexpectedly, a person who was not afraid of death came. The Indian pilot reluctantly fired 2 magic missiles at Thunder, but they failed to catch the infrared signal on the front of Thunder.

Abbas successfully slipped under the sea harrier, and the attack window left for him was not long. He had to launch the missile before the enemy's short-range weapons could take effect.

At this time, the airborne radar had tracked the Villant 15 kilometers away, so he stabilized the plane and pointed it at the target. At 3 o'clock, an Indian frigate 5 kilometers away began to shoot at it with a 100mm artillery. The water column stirred up by the shell was far away from [-] meters away, and Abbas remained unmoved.He looked back at the Sea Harrier, which was still in the turn, and saw that he could not catch up.He pulled it up a little bit, and still leveled off. The launch permission mark flashed on the HUD, and the launch button was pressed. A missile fell from the launcher and ignited and flew to the target, followed by the second...

The captain immediately raised the plane but did not turn to return, hoping to focus the attention of various sensors on nearby enemy ships on himself to cover the missile attack.Sure enough, the short-range defense systems on nearby warships turned to Thunder and Lightning to shoot.While the unlucky Sea Harrier was biting the thunderbolt, it was unfortunately also captured by a fire control radar, without any identification of friend or foe, and the barrage flying all over the sky was like two planes smashing towards it.

Throughout the war, only some sailors on the Verrant saw the missiles coming.

(End of this chapter)