America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 332 Third Generation War Eagle

The group had a pleasant conversation and signed the island transfer contract. The head of the organization also transferred the 2000 million dollars to the Colombian government account through the Hamburg Foundation, thus settling the matter.

After chatting for a while longer, the Colombian government members of parliament prepared to board a plane to return and issue an official statement.

Follett also needed to attend to his own business, so he didn't choose to linger there. After exchanging greetings, he and his entourage left Collection Island on a private jet.

Upon arriving at the airport and watching the group depart, Zhang Ailun received a message from Jehovah Island.

Gwen informed him that a cargo ship used for aircraft graveyards had docked in the harbor area, carrying fighter jet parts. The person in charge claimed it was a scrap metal recycling service ordered by the island owner.

Zhang Ailun immediately replied, asking them to cooperate with the other party to transfer all the parts to the island, and that he would be there soon.

After putting away his phone, Zhang Ailun informed Madison that he was leaving: "I still have some things to take care of on my island, so I won't stay here any longer."

"Okay. After all, you're a very busy person! Unlike me, who's so leisurely." Madison nodded and readily agreed.

Zhang Ailun immediately called Bailey, boarded his private jet, and told him to head to Jehovah Island.

Bailey readily agreed, took the pilot's seat, adjusted the equipment, started the Cirrus Fathead Shark, and sprinted off the runway, taking off from Collection Island and heading towards the waters off California and Mexico.

An hour later, they arrived at Jehovah's Island. The island's outline was visible in the distance. Zhang Ailun took out his binoculars and, through the window, saw a dozen or so blurry black dots high in the sky—undoubtedly spy balloons.

It's important to know that the Cirrus Fathead Shark's maximum flight altitude is at least 9448 meters, while their current flight altitude is around 8000 meters. From this distance, even with binoculars, you can only see a few small black dots, which is enough to show that those spy balloons are at least 10000 meters above the ground, making them impossible to see with the naked eye and impossible to hit using ordinary means.

Bailey contacted the mercenaries in the control tower, identified himself, and then landed safely at the airport.

After Zhang Ailun got off the plane, he called over several mercenaries and they drove to the bay area of ​​South Harbor.

When they arrived, they saw a cargo ship docked there. Qibatu was talking to them, and they set up an unloading platform in the shallows to move all the parts and crates down. There were more than a dozen crates of various sizes, all quite heavy.

"Boss, you're here." Mark and the others greeted the leader warmly as he arrived. Zhang Ailun smiled and nodded in response to each of them.

At his signal, the security team opened the largest crate on the shore and took a look. Inside were three F16 General Electric turbofan engines, and another crate contained two F15 F100-PW-220 turbofan engines.

When Qibatu saw the leader approaching, he asked with some confusion, "Boss, when did you order the F-16 and F-15 fighter jets? Why didn't you tell us beforehand? Now that this batch has arrived, we need to figure out how to deal with that destroyer and assemble the fighter jets. We don't have enough manpower, and it will seriously affect the modification schedule!"

"You haven't officially started construction on the destroyer yet, have you?" Zhang Ailun asked.

"No, we're still studying the design blueprints. We just moved the nuclear reactor here yesterday for separate storage. It's still a long way off before we can modify it," Qibatu replied. "We're also recruiting on the other side. Once we have more people who have received training to pilot destroyers or take turns piloting combat ships, we can officially start construction. We should be able to recruit about fifty to one hundred more people."

"Then we can allocate some manpower to assemble these fighter jets first; there's no need to rush to modify the destroyers," Zhang Ailun suggested.

"Okay." Qibatu nodded in agreement.

The person in charge of the aircraft graveyard responsible for transporting these fighter jet parts, along with Marushin, also arrived and said, "Some of the items have already been delivered to you. This is our account; as usual, the payments need to be made in separate transfers."

Zhang Ailun took the account handed to him and glanced at it. There were five accounts, including the official recycling account of the aircraft graveyard and several new, unfamiliar accounts.

The head of the company immediately notified Reco, the manager of Parker Corporation, to transfer money to the aircraft graveyard's recycling account through Parker Corporation's account. Then, he transferred the cost of the aircraft parts through the Hamburg Foundation.

The other party quickly received the payment notification, and Marushin smiled, saying, "This time I only sent you the parts for one complete F-16, along with its core engine and design blueprints. I'll send you the rest of the parts another day!"

"Okay." Zhang Ailun nodded, trusting them to handle the task. He also asked Qibatu and the other mercenaries to help transport all the items to the hangar on the island for assembly.

Upon learning that the Grand Master had returned to the island, White Wolf immediately drove over, sporting dark circles under his eyes, and proactively informed the Grand Master of the security situation.

"Boss, last night we discovered that outsiders had broken into the island. Two divers in diving suits attempted to plant listening devices, but our people spotted them in time and threw them into the sea to feed the fish. They were a group, and it seems they had some kind of leverage over the other side. They refused to talk, and we weren't able to get much useful information out of them."

"I saw it without you saying it." Zhang Ailun pointed to the sky above his head.

While the mercenaries were able to take down the frogmen who landed on the ground, they were clearly helpless against anything that flew high in the air.

"What's up there? There's nothing there!" The white wolf looked up at the cloudless sky, somewhat bewildered.

"When I was on my flight back, I saw the spy balloon with binoculars at an altitude of about 8000 meters. Of course, you can't see anything from below at a distance of at least 10000 meters," Zhang Ailun said.

"What? A spy balloon? What do we do then?" White Wolf was taken aback and also a little helpless.

He didn't sleep a wink last night, constantly on guard against those ill-intentioned guys, and he never expected that someone would actually take the risk and dare to provoke them.

Didn't the other side see the destroyers and warships docked in the port?

Or do they think this thing is just a gimmick in movies, something that's only there to intimidate people and can't actually be driven, so they're not afraid?

"The fact that those frogmen were able to land on the island so silently means that those teams must have been prepared in advance, and there must be their supply ships nearby," White Wolf said.

I never felt this much pressure before, because I had no idea when the enemy landed or when they deployed their listening devices.

Now things are much better. With the Terminator cybersecurity system provided by the Grand Master, the enemy's every move is under their watchful eyes, and they are shocked to discover that so many people are eyeing the island!

The more than sixty listening devices they dug up yesterday were all in good condition, but they could only be used for a maximum of six months. Since Prien bought the island, built fortified facilities, and deployed an armed team, who knows how many listening devices have naturally broken down?

The devices that can be detected by anti-surveillance signals are all usable devices. There may be hundreds of devices that cannot be detected and will naturally break down or malfunction!

White Wolf didn't dare to say a word, because yesterday he had impulsively searched through his own place and found a damaged piece of equipment in the crack of the bricks next door.

He had no idea when it was installed inside, and he was completely unaware of it. Fortunately, the system had already malfunctioned, so it must have been done by the mole from the previous batch!

Because those people frequently use the guise of security to search their residences, doing so every so often, but it turns out they're just trying to install listening devices. They're traitors, their hearts are absolutely wicked!!

They've come to deceive me, to ambush me, this is an aging mercenary leader.

"I have already had people purchase sea mines and spy balloons in advance. We can then drop the sea mines in the shallow waters nearby and set traps in all suitable landing spots on the island. This will effectively prevent them from approaching the island by submarine or speedboat."

After Zhang Ailun finished speaking, he also took out his phone and notified Boketu, asking him where he was.

Boketu: Boss. I've already taken some men and are flying back in Black Hawk helicopters. We should be in Los Angeles in about half an hour.

Zhang Ailun: When you get back to Los Angeles, go to Armed Nation first, then bring over the mines and spy balloons that Sig bought. I need to take care of some trouble here.

Boketu: OK!

After seeing off the staff of the aircraft graveyard and the cargo ship, the mercenaries and Beggar Clan disciples also dragged the boxes and stored them in the hangar.

Zhang Ailun also took a car and arrived at the hangar area.

After getting out of the car and into the hangar, Chibatu and the sheet metal worker skillfully disassembled the boxes, took out all the fighter jet parts and sorted them out. Even the engines were lifted up and inspected one by one.

"Boss, we've inspected these parts, and there's nothing wrong with them. Many of the parts and wiring are brand new and unused. Although these engines are second-hand, the core components are basically fine and can continue to be used. If they're just used for routine missions, they can easily last another ten or eight years," Qibatu said.

Zhang Ailun nodded as well.

The F-16 is a single-engine, light, medium-sized fighter jet developed by General Dynamics in conjunction with Martin in the last century.

The F-15 is a twin-engine heavy air superiority fighter developed by the Air Force in conjunction with Douglas (Boeing) in the last century.

The latter is an air superiority fighter that the Air Force independently procured, developed, and manufactured during the Sino-Vietnamese War, bypassing the Ministry of National Defense. It features an all-weather, high-speed, high-altitude combat design, with a strong emphasis on air-to-air combat.

The F-16 was developed because the Department of Defense was dissatisfied with the expensive heavy fighter jet independently produced by the Air Force, feeling that it had too few functions and too low cost-effectiveness. Therefore, they chose to have General Dynamics, in conjunction with Martin, produce a low-cost multi-role fighter jet.

Its main selling points are cost-effectiveness and ease of export, and it also aims to compete with the F-15 in aerial combat.

But the facts have also proven that the more money is spent, the better the performance of the fighter jets. The Air Force has long been fed up with the Ministry of National Defense's stinginess and meddling, and its behavior of frantically cutting military spending during research and development. They have never been on the battlefield, so how do they know the needs and strategic requirements of the front-line air force?

Fighter jets should be designed for pure combat!

What ground attack, what bunker destruction, what bombing missions? Are those things fighter jets are supposed to do?

Fighter jets are all about pure high-altitude fencing!

The Air Force finally seized the opportunity, so it must have put all its efforts into developing an excellent heavy fighter jet, attempting to seize all high-altitude superiority, taking an unconventional approach, and suppressing the enemy to the death.

Although the result was a surge in research and development costs, making it extremely expensive and unsuitable for export, the F-15 did indeed earn the reputation of the "American Eagle".

Good news: The American Eagle is an eagle in the sky.

The bad news: Eagle only cares about enemies in the sky, and doesn't care about ground combat. Not a single pound of its body parts are designed for ground attack.

In joint military exercises, an F-15's medium-to-long-range strike could easily crush an F-16, and an F-16 in beyond-visual-range combat couldn't even see the shadow of an F-15, leaving it as a defeated dog.

However, the F-16, as a low-cost light and medium fighter, is only suitable for close-range dogfights and air-to-ground strikes, while the F-15 is more suitable for gaining high-altitude superiority and suppressing enemy aircraft in beyond-visual-range combat. The two are inherently different in function.

The F-15's air-to-ground strike capability was also relatively problematic, as first-generation fighter jets generally lacked air-to-ground strike capabilities.

The Ministry of National Defense also felt that these air force personnel were completely focused on air superiority and winning 1v1 or 1v2 duels, rather than on the strategic intent of a full-scale offensive.

You're flying around in the sky, carefree and having a great time, while soldiers in their tanks and armored vehicles, in coordinated infantry-tank operations, are being blown up by enemy bunkers in the trenches, running for their lives, crying and screaming. Is this any way to make sense?

Army Commander: Have the F-15s entered?

Soldier: F15 is in.

Army Commander: The enemy's bunkers and radar stations should have been destroyed, right?

Soldier: No.

Army Commander: Why?

Soldier: The F-15s are still chasing enemy planes around in the air, saying they're only carrying air-to-air missiles, not a single ground-to-ground missile. They can't hit bunkers, and they don't have time to. All they want is pure air suppression! Fierce fencing!

The army commander's vision went black. Damn it.

He called the Air Force Command that very night, hurling insults at them. "What kind of crappy third-generation fighter jet is this?! Are you flying around my battlefield like a stroller? What's the point of it being fast and high if you can't even penetrate my territory? You've wasted so much money developing this monstrous fighter jet, do you think you're doing justice to the taxes paid by the American people?"

The F-16's versatility can effectively compensate for the F-15's lack of air-to-ground strike capability, ultimately creating a high-low mix for combat operations.

High and low matching:

The F-15s advanced rapidly, cutting straight into the sky like eagles soaring through the air, their momentum like that of mad dogs.

The F-16 followed closely behind, frantically scavenging for any remaining pieces of the ground. Heh heh, another one dead!

The F-15 air superiority strategy developed by the Air Force will ultimately leave the Department of Defense to clean up their mess.

The F-15 E variant, developed later, also added air-to-ground firepower. The new F-22 effectively addressed the shortcomings of the F-15, comprehensively combining supersonic speed, stealth capabilities, beyond-visual-range air superiority, and ground attack capabilities. It is also hailed as a fifth-generation fighter jet.

Seeing that the Beggars' Sect disciples had already begun preparing to assemble the F-16 fighter jet, Zhang Ailun didn't care about such a small detail and praised them, "Work hard and try to assemble that F-16 as soon as possible. Then everyone will get a big bonus."

"Boss, don't worry. We didn't have many people to assemble the A10 last time, but this time we have so many people and so much professional equipment. We'll be working in shifts, 24/7, without stopping. I'll assemble it for you in three days at most!" Qibatu said confidently.

"I trust you to handle things." The Grand Master nodded, leaving the assembly to Qibatu and the craftsmen. He then toured the hangar, found nothing wrong, and turned to leave.

He called White Wolf again before heading out, instructing him to prepare manpower and underwater bombs. He then led the group to the port area, where a dozen or so people boarded two speedboats.

Zhang Ailun took out his phone to check the submarine's coordinates and headed to patrol the nearby waters.

"Boss, what are we doing here?" White Wolf asked the leader with some confusion after preparing his equipment.

"Speak less, do more. Deploy underwater radar, turn on the signal detectors, and see if there are any unusual signals nearby!" Zhang Ailun said.

Upon hearing this, White Wolf immediately instructed a mercenary nearby to retrieve a portable detector and deploy radar equipment into the water. The sonic detection confirmed the presence of a small submarine in the nearby shallow bay. He was immediately astonished, "These guys actually deployed a submarine nearby?"

"Use depth charges and take them out!" Zhang Ailun gave the order.

Without hesitation, White Wolf ordered his mercenaries to pull out a depth charge from the armory. This was a small bomb made of TNT that Prien had purchased to deal with underwater threats. It was equipped with a turbofan resistance motor at the tail and relied mainly on a collision-type firing pin and fuse to explode underwater, making it easy to launch.

The mercenaries set up the launch equipment on the speedboat at sea, installed depth charges, and carried out the targeted launch.

The 20-kilogram depth charge was launched from the launcher and dropped into the water. Its onboard motor was activated, and it headed towards the underwater location of the signal source.

In a small civilian submarine at a depth of about 190 meters in shallow water, the driver was still monitoring the situation and transmitting reports back from time to time. Suddenly, the radar showed a signal source.

They were stunned for a moment, and before they could react, they saw an oval-shaped depth charge flying over from outside the glass dome, its rotating turbofan at the tail creating a series of swirling bubbles.

To their astonishment, the depth charge slammed into the side of the submarine with a violent crash, exploding with a loud bang!