Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 711 Lancers

About 15 F[-] fighter jets are flying from south to north.This is the latest hostile situation after a small-scale sneak attack by an enemy plane temporarily damaged an air defense system deployed by the Chinese army in the far south.

Some of the attacking fighter-bombers were forced to abandon their plan, some of them turned back, and others with stronger air superiority turned to the south to prepare for the battle.Due to the huge air defense zone across New Delhi, the actions of the Chinese Air Force are quite restricted, and it is difficult to exert a numerical advantage for a while.

According to intelligence, the U.S. Air Force that appeared in India is only equipped with F15C fighter jets, and is not an all-rounder who can take care of the ground, so the intention of its appearance seems a bit suspicious.These planes flew over the head of the Chinese expeditionary force and seemed to have no effect, but the threat to the early warning aircraft always existed.

Sammy was always quick to smell conspiracy in the air.The Eagle Wall is heading towards the Type 2000 early warning aircraft. Their plan should be to interfere with the command aircraft?He judged that the plan was likely to succeed.They fly to the southernmost tank group just in vain. From an altitude of 000 meters, it is impossible to hit any target when flying over the tank group. Their advantage is that they can fly directly over New Delhi, while the Chinese and Pakistani air forces have to detour.

The 15 F3s were divided into 2 teams, and the [-] in the middle continued to line up and rushed to the north. The two formations scattered on the east and west sides formed a surveillance of the two wings.Fighters from the Indian side finally reappeared over New Delhi.

Several J-11 fighter jets that were dropping bombs near Sami responded immediately and flew to the side of the enemy, trying to rush forward and fire a round of medium-range bombs, but the enemy dodged skillfully, as if they were luring the Chinese aircraft into the surface-to-air missile package inside the line.

As the most experienced pilot in the air, Sami has always linked these sudden appearances of enemy planes with the actions of the destroyed Red Flag 16 position. The Americans have always had a method of fighting, which is completely different from the Indian army's fighting style. , so things are not as simple as they seem.The purpose is mostly to attack ground troops.

He hopes to be able to fly to the south of New Delhi in time. He still can't guess the opponent's plan, but destroying New Delhi's encirclement is the enemy's only unavoidable goal, so no matter how all the plots develop, they will eventually come to this.

Song Ning did not interfere with Sami's decision-making, he knew that the old man's intuition was always reasonable.Sitting in the command plane himself, he was under tremendous pressure from the oncoming enemy planes. Now, he had to turn and leave in time, and he would lose a lot of reconnaissance distance.In addition, the long-range radar deployed in central Pakistan once again saw the movement of the Arabian sea tanker. These radars made the opponent a little hard to guard against, but still did not see other targets outside the tanker. This is quite a suspicious sign.He reminded Sami's enemies that they might deploy some weapons that cannot be detected by satellites and deployed outside India, which means things coming from the Indian Ocean.

According to the current situation, to deal with the mobile clusters on the ground, the weapons outside the defense zone are no longer effective. Only by flying to the tanks and dropping cluster bombs, there is a chance, and it is the only chance. The enemy cannot miss it.

At the same time as Sami was operating, the enemy F15 fighter jets began to circle over New Delhi, just at the edge of the theoretical range of the S400. They did not continue to fly northward, nor did they rashly contact and exchange fire with the surrounding Chinese fighter jets, just like a group of third parties who were suddenly placed in the war zone. , but their existence itself greatly limits the activity area of ​​China's early warning aircraft.

"I found a Hawkeye at the 140 position, maybe 300 kilometers away, or more, the signal strength is not strong." Major Latif was on guard at a higher position, and was the first to spot the enemy's early warning aircraft, or it could be said that it was detected by the enemy's early warning aircraft. Found.This is the first time that US-made early warning aircraft have been spotted over India, although satellites have seen them appearing on the edge of the runway at Pune Airport 24 hours ago.

"Black Spider 2, keep the altitude. Continue to monitor and let him see you."

Sami stayed at an altitude of 3 meters, and the enemy's early warning aircraft may not have seen him. He is used to observing the enemy's movements in secret.All three Chinese early warning aircraft in the air retreated at least 50 kilometers, so the enemy's first move seemed to be successful, and they made room for their next plan.

"Squadron leader, I think we are in a good position to sneak attack those F15Cs." Hassan suggested eagerly.In such a chaotic moment, he still only stared at the targets in front of his nose.

"Ambush them? If you fly towards Xi for one more minute, you will be killed by S1."

"Why don't we fly higher? Let them see us, maybe they will come out and challenge?"

"Why don't you shut up?"

Hassan stopped talking, it was difficult for him to understand Sammy's thoughts.He just wants to do a good job before the end of the war. Generally speaking, the identity of the pilot is always kept secret, but if he can do what Sammy did, he will definitely be able to appear in newspapers and TV as a battle hero.Of course, Sammy just let his name appear in the newspaper, but refused to promote it on TV programs, which Hassan couldn't understand.He had no idea what the old man was worried about.

About a day ago, when the U.S. Air Force Staff and the Army were coordinating their plan to participate in the war, they had already prepared for the worst, that is, the situation where Frings’ troops could not get through the New Delhi passage; Indians are different, Indians are always more optimistic.

If the ground forces are unable to cut off the enemy's supply line, then a powerful blow is needed to completely stop the enemy's attacking force. It is of course good if the tactical missile can accurately destroy its headquarters. If not, it must direct the powerful and destructive firepower Throw it on the tank head.

The half-ton CUB105 cluster bomb is the ideal ammunition.But the technical problem is that this kind of smart ammunition is not a guided weapon. It must be calculated using the traditional CCRP continuous throwing point. Generally speaking, it is a horizontal bombing flying method, which requires the bombing plane to pass over the enemy's head. Maintain automatic level flight for a long time.

Of course, radar can be used to find the target, but the final bombing timing of these free-fall bombs must be guessed after the target group enters the blind spot of the downward-looking radar, so the few seconds after the bombing will be very dangerous.

The Air Force has several strategic bombers and tactical aircraft to consider. The stealthy B2 does not have the ability to find targets by itself, and the U.S. Air Force does not yet have the ability to conduct uninterrupted reconnaissance and intelligence support in this area, so the B[-] is ruled out first. outer.

The B[-] has an ideal bomb load, but it is too old, and no matter how far it drives the opponent's AWACS, this large platform is easy to be seen at long distances by various radars, so it is also excluded.

The F[-] fighter-bomber is the ideal option for such a mission, but it has been retired.

The final option is only the B[-]B strategic bomber.

After calculation, the amount of bombs carried by four modified bombers is enough to cut off the attack of the enemy tank group, and even wipe out more than one brigade of the enemy, if the bombing accuracy is reliable.

This weapon has never been used in harsh wars, and it has actually participated in fewer battles than the more expensive B[-], and its missions are not very confrontational.

In fact, the strategic bombing of stealth aircraft is more mature in theory than that of low-altitude penetration. Although the latter appeared earlier, there are only some actual combat tests of small tactical aircraft, because the war between the United States and the Soviet Union did not end. However, these behemoths have not really been put into the battlefield with a strict prevention and control system to carry out deep strikes.

Whether it is worth taking such a risk for India is the focus of discussion in the combat department. In the end, political correctness prevailed, which means that regardless of whether there will be losses, the mission must be launched.

Saving India may be an unavoidable key part of the fate of mankind that will determine the next 100 years, and the action that can prevent the fall of New Delhi must be carried out within [-] hours, which has reached the point of no delay.In the end, all the tactical wrangling was resolved by a phone call from the president during the meeting.

Before the president made up his mind, the details being discussed by the staff were that the enemy's tank group might deploy a large number of accompanying low-altitude defense systems.

These systems are designed to defend against systems such as helicopters or drones, but it is doubtful whether they could threaten large targets with supersonic penetration.

In theory, a single mobile air defense system like this cannot pose any threat at all in terms of surveillance capability and weapon range. Even if a bomber flies past them, the shooting window will be compressed to a size that is too small to open fire, but if They can form a theater network among them, and a small surveillance radar group may also play an early warning role.Such a thing has not happened on the ground battlefield, but if we learn from the air defense theory of naval ships, there seems to be a chance.But the overwhelming political decision-making has cut off the room for tactical discussion, and all doubts are forced to be left on the battlefield to wait for practice.

Due to the need for secrecy, these aircraft were not deployed to India or even the Gulf base. They took off directly from the Daye base in Texas, then flew across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, flew over a series of allied countries, and finally arrived at the mission area.

During the long flight of more than ten hours, the bomber had to go through refueling three times, and had to wait for news from the front during this period.If the earlier missile strikes succeed, or if the nearest enemy field air defenses are not suppressed, they will all be flown with their missiles to the U.S. military base in Bahrain, reducing the risk.

Colonel Campbell drove this big guy, made several turns in the Arabian Sea, and finally flew towards Mumbai.

Before takeoff, his base commander told him there was a [-]/[-] chance the mission would be called off.Now he had a premonition that he would not be out of the war, and besides being nervous, he was also looking forward to showing his skills.

His crew consists of [-] people, he and Major Hudson are responsible for flying, and the other [-] are responsible for attacking.Like all soldiers, the colonel has been paying attention to the war in the subcontinent, but he did not expect the Air Force to send out the [-]th Wing, because this is not an ordinary tactical aircraft wing.Of course, when they heard that they were going to deal with an armored division of the enemy, all the [-] pilots who participated in the mission still took a breath. An enemy of this size is always difficult to approach. If you add early warning aircraft, but in the end The superiors assured that the enemy AWACS could be driven far enough during the mission.

After the fighter plane enters a verdant subcontinent, it starts to lower its altitude from [-] meters. Before approaching the battlefield, the altitude will decrease all the way, and it may drop to about [-] meters when it finally attacks. Of course, this depends on the situation. If everything can be predicted If so, B[-] is a more ideal platform.The task of searching for targets and deciding on the bombing area must be decided by B[-]B itself. There are indeed some uncertainties in the mission, which is also the reason why Campbell, as a senior pilot, appeared in the first lead plane.

Terrain avoidance flight even allows him to fly below [-] meters, but the bombs should not be too low, otherwise these smart ammunition will not have time to open the parachute and use infrared and millimeter wave means to detect the target.

The colonel was very worried that the ground fire would hurt him, but he was not worried about the enemy's air force. It was a slow-moving B[-] that should be feared, but not for him.

The enemy has not yet fully grasped New Delhi's air supremacy. At present, its air force can only operate in the narrow and long corridors around New Delhi, and it is difficult to play a role in time.

"Their AWACS retreated, and everything went as planned," said co-pilot Hudson.

"How about those S[-]s?"

"It was launched [-] minutes ago, it was too far away and missed the F[-]."

"I mean its radar?"

"As long as we fly lower, it will not pose a threat, but we still have to continue to use the terrain in the southwest. The enemy has [-] to [-] early warning aircraft in the air at any time."

Hudson saw from the data link that the remaining three aircraft of the [-]th Wing were still hundreds of kilometers behind, and they would carry out supplementary attacks as appropriate.

"Gentlemen, prepare to enter the war zone."

The two pilots reach out at the same time, operate the throttle valve at hand, and change the wing angle at the same time.There are about [-] kilometers away from the target, and they must lower their altitude to an area invisible to enemy ground radar.

The situation detected by the front-line drones is that the enemy's tank group is still concentrated, but they have been maneuvering. The drones can only indicate the approximate target area. Let's look at them next.

"I'm always worried about those annoying anti-aircraft fires."

"Don't worry, their surveillance radar is not powerful enough. By the time they see us, we will have flown far away."

The [-]-ton plane flew forward roaringly. The APQ-[-] radar equipped on the bomber was powerful, and it could map and search for ground targets while performing terrain-avoiding flight.There is also a fire control team of up to [-] people responsible for confirming the target location and selecting the firing route. There will never be a situation where the pilots on a general tactical aircraft are in a hurry to attend to one thing and lose another.

"Sir, the reconnaissance plane did not find any signs of recovery of the enemy's air defense system on the north bank of the canal. The second round of cruise missile strikes just now can ensure that the enemy's missiles are either destroyed or are being transferred."

"Very good. Keep on course, I hope things will be easier. Look, it's their Sukhoi fighter jets, and a JF[-]." The colonel saw from the data link that a group of aircraft was not attracted by the F[-], but was approaching , if he keeps his route, he may be spotted by their radar.There was also a lone Thunderbolt approaching, but it didn't seem threatening.

"In the worst case, the boys of No. [-] Squadron can provide us with some protection."

"Let's hope the enemy doesn't have too many experienced pilots."

"They have just destroyed the Indian Air Force. They may claim to be great, but they have no experience with a first-class air force." Hudson said rather conceitedly.

Sami's [-]-plane formation quickly flew south along the long and narrow corridor between Agra and New Delhi. He and Song Ning smelled an unusual smell at the same time. Behind him, there was another J-J [-]'s [-]-aircraft formation, they had just lost their ammunition, and according to Song Ning's instructions, they used their powerful radars to search to make up for some gaps in reconnaissance left after the early warning aircraft retreated.

(End of this chapter)