Ballistic Silence of Special Years

Chapter 862
Early the next morning, the fleet arrived at the meeting point where the four merchant ships were located.

One of the merchant ships has already made contact with the formation, and the remaining three merchant ships are also on the way to approach.

It is about two days' voyage from here to the entrance of the Mandeb Strait, and it is these two days' voyage that is the area where pirates are most rampant in the entire Gulf of Aden.

Many merchant ships here would rather wait here and contact the escorting warships of various countries near the sea area through radio channels, rather than trespassing alone.

In this sea area, if a merchant ship is not accompanied by an escorting warship, it is basically a gamble on luck.

Many merchant ship companies have to hire private security companies heavily for cargo safety. Before entering the sensitive waters of the Gulf of Aden, the security personnel will board the ship by helicopter, or wait for the security personnel to come by boat to board the ship for escort in designated sea areas.

However, security companies are not omnipotent. They have a limited number of people, and there are also risks when encountering a large number of pirates besieging merchant ships.

Warship escort is completely different, not only safe, but also free.

However, warship escort also has disadvantages.

The disadvantage is that the number of warships is out of proportion to the number of merchant ships. It can be said that there are more monks and less meat.

Generally speaking, before entering sensitive waters, merchant ships will contact the warships escorted by various countries through the published international channels to see which warship has time or can escort in nearby waters.

For example, the international channel of the PLA Navy is Channel 16, which is also public. As long as you are in this sea area, you can call the PLA Navy through this channel.

Because there are few warships, and merchant ships have contracts, it is necessary to take into account the shipping schedule. If you wait too long and miss the shipping schedule, you will have to pay the owner a high amount of compensation.

Therefore, some merchant ships can't wait for the warship, so they can only organize the crew to do basic protection, and then fight for luck.

The means of anti-piracy of merchant ships are very simple.

For example, hang razor gill nets, non-lethal electric grids on the side of the ship, or use fire water cannons and boat nets to prevent pirates from boarding the ship.

It’s just that these are some non-lethal weapons. Don’t look at the Somali pirates here who use AKs that are extremely poorly maintained or even local hand-rubbed AKs in Africa. The most powerful heavy weapons are RPG rocket launchers, but in In front of the crew, these are big killers.

In addition, they are familiar with the sea conditions in this area, and they are all driving fast boats. Once a merchant ship is targeted, it is difficult to escape bad luck.

The four merchant ships were lucky this time.

At the beginning, one of the merchant ships called channel 16. The old escort formation told them that the new escort formation would arrive soon and asked them to wait in the nearby waters. The PLA escort warships would arrive on time tomorrow morning to escort them through the sea area.

This merchant ship happened to be a Chinese merchant ship. As soon as he heard that the escort formation from his own country would arrive here tomorrow morning, he immediately notified several other nearby Chinese merchant ships that were preparing to transit, telling them that a new batch of escort formation from the motherland would arrive here tomorrow morning.

Everyone was delighted to hear it.

It was only a few hours waiting, and there was no chance of missing any shipping schedules, so they all moved closer to the designated location, waiting for the formation escorted by Li Zheng and the others.

When the formation arrived, there were only two merchant ships in the designated coordinate sea area.

After contacting, I learned that the other two ships will arrive in about 40 minutes.

However, the commander of the formation is not in a hurry, let everyone wait here first, just in time to hold an escort opening ceremony.

Speaking of the ceremony, this is also the third time since Li Zheng set sail.

Once out of the port, once out of the country, and again after arriving at the destination for escort.

After simply queuing up, the escort mobilization meeting officially began.

As the three signal flares lifted off, everyone solemnly swore an oath with their clenched right hands——

"Resolutely obey the command, overcome all difficulties, not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, and complete the escort mission!"

The blue sky is the proof, and the sea is on the sidelines.

A new batch of Chinese naval escort formations announced to officially launch a new round of escort missions in this sea area.

After the ceremony, all the merchant ships arrived.

The members of the special warfare unit are fully armed and enter the combat duty position. There are three security positions on the front, middle and rear decks, and there is one special warfare member in each position, and they are divided into four shifts.

The shipboard helicopter team on the No. 1 ship took off and went 50 nautical miles forward to conduct reconnaissance and early warning of the route that the formation was about to pass.

Accompanied by the roar of propellers, Haizhi 9C quickly climbed to an altitude of 500 meters, lightened its nose, and flew towards the airspace in front of the fleet.

woo-

With a long whistle, the mixed formation consisting of formation and 4 merchant ships officially set off.

Fatty Wei was originally assigned to the second shift, but he slipped to Li Zheng's post and stood there looking around.

Li Zheng asked him why he didn't go to rest, and Fatty Wei stammered and said that he thought the weather was good today and wanted to come out to enjoy the sea breeze.

In fact, Li Zheng knew exactly what he was thinking.

Fatty Wei actually wanted to encounter pirates in his heart.

Encountering pirates means that the special warfare unit may be dispatched, which is much better than sitting in the cabin and waiting for orders.

However, he was embarrassed to say this.

You can't say, ah, I hope these merchant ships encounter pirates...

If the captain hears this, he must give him a good meal.

In fact, Fatty Wei's wish is basically difficult to realize.

Pirates are not fools, they also have brains.

They saw a merchant ship escorted by several warships, and it was absolutely impossible for Tou Tie to rob the ship.

Generally speaking, when merchant ships encounter pirates and need to be rescued and rescued, it is because there are too few warships to protect them. Some merchant ships register in the channel, saying that I will pass through the sea area when I arrive at a certain time.

At this time, the formation will record his coordinates and heading. Even if there are no ships that can send escorts, or warships from other countries cannot dispatch escorts, they will keep in touch and ask for help at any time.

Once this kind of merchant ship passing alone is really unlucky and encounters pirates, the formation carrier-based helicopters here are the first to go to the rescue.

After all, compared with warships, helicopters will reach the sea area faster than warships, and they will deter pirates and drive them away by means of warning shots in the air.

Of course.

Li Zheng was right.

The first escort was calm and smooth. After 44 hours of sailing, the mixed formation arrived at the entrance of the slow strait safely.

pirate?

didn't see...

Instead, I saw escort warships from other countries.

By the way, there are many seagulls...

When parting with the merchant ships, the formation received thank-you messages from several merchant ships.

"I am very proud to see you, I wish you a successful escort and a safe journey!"

"I would like to extend my highest respect to the soldiers! Thank you!"

"I hope you will win glory for the country, and wish you an early triumph!"

……

The plain blessings and thank-you messages, between the lines, poured out the best wishes of the Chinese sailors to the motherland and the motherland's navy, and they were also full of unconcealable pride and pride.

At noon on the day when he completed the escort mission for the first time, Li Zheng's appetite was twice as good as usual. Although he didn't seem to have done anything, he seemed to have done something big. Picked up two meals...

　Ask for a monthly pass!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)