The technological competition starts with the integration of space-time memory

Chapter 240 The Lost Five Minutes
It was the second day after Operation Thunder, just half an hour after midnight.

The first wave of attacks in the "Freedom's Wrath" air strike launched by the Imperial Military has ended.

At this time, on the USS Ronald aircraft carrier cruising in the Sea of ​​​​Luzong, as the front-line commander of the "Freedom's Fury" operation, Major General Tiago frowned as he looked at the battle report he had just received in his hand.

Among our own losses, four F35s were shot down and an Aegis destroyer was severely damaged and lost its combat effectiveness, and urgently needed to dock for repairs.

What kind of hidden capabilities did this people's army have that allowed it to achieve such a great result?

What annoyed him was that the injured captain of the Aegis destroyer USS Rhode Island, Captain Garnett, came directly to him and sued the early warning aircraft on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald for inaction.

Failure to report the enemy's anti-ship missile launch in advance resulted in a significant shortening of the warship's warning time, which resulted in the warship's failure to completely intercept the enemy's anti-ship missiles even with six Standard 6 missiles.

He claimed that if Tiago did not punish the AWACS crew, he would complain to the Corner Tower.

As the captain of an aircraft carrier, Rear Admiral Tiago certainly knew the effectiveness of launching six Standard 6 missiles at a time to intercept two incoming anti-ship missiles.

But the reality was so disappointing that the battleship failed to completely intercept the enemy!

"Has Major Water's team returned?"

Hearing Major General Tiago's question, the adjutant beside him immediately replied: "They have returned, and the replacement Hawkeye has already taken off."

"Notify Major Water to come here."

"Yes, sir."

The USS Rhode Island Aegis destroyer belongs to the USS Theodore Carrier Strike Group, but was temporarily included in his command sequence during Operation Freedom's Fury.

He must deal with Garnett's complaint properly, otherwise it will cause discord between the two aircraft carrier battle groups, which will be troublesome.

After all, the "Theodore" aircraft carrier battle group will arrive at Lusonghai next, and the two companies will cooperate to launch follow-up operations of "Freedom's Wrath" and "Defend Freedom".

In particular, he still served as the front-line commander in Operation Defend Freedom.

This time he took the initiative because he was close, but Rear Admiral Brown of the "Theodore" must have been very dissatisfied.

If he were to catch me this time, he might just take over the command.

In the Indo-Pacific theater, this guy has always been known for being unreasonable. Even the Indo-Pacific theater commander, Serral, has a headache with him.

"Report, Major Walter Laubryn of Hawkeye Squadron 1 reports in!"

Tiago waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite. I'm calling you here to find out whether your early warning aircraft has complete control of the entire battlefield situation during the first wave of air strikes?

Was there any special interference that caused you to lose your sense of the battlefield situation at some stage?"

Walter Lawbryan heard this, a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes, and then he replied loudly: "Report, in the first round of air strikes, we are in full control of the battlefield situation!"

Tiago frowned, his eyes like swords, piercing into Walter's eyes.

"I'll give you one more chance to answer." The voice was calm, but full of coldness.

It seemed that the air conditioning in the war room was not turned on enough. Beads of sweat were already appearing on Walter Laubryn's temples, and there were some traces of sweat on his shirt on his back.

10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds...

"Report!" Walter Lawbryan finally couldn't hold it in anymore and shouted.

At this moment, his shoulders collapsed visibly.

"Speak." Thiago said only one word.

Walter Lawbrin shouted, "We lost situational awareness for five minutes, and no one on the crew noticed.

We discovered this when we were returning.

At that time, I thought that the first wave of air strikes had ended and there was nothing unusual..."

"In those five minutes, we lost four F35s and the 'Jordishan' suffered heavy damage. You call this normal?" Tiago interrupted coldly.

Walter Lawbryan's face flashed with shame, and he said, "I'm sorry, sir, we only found out about the damage after we returned.

The entire crew was shocked and afraid to take responsibility, so…"

"So you want to hide it, huh?"

"Reporting to the commander, we believe that this responsibility is not ours to bear. It is normal for early warning aircraft to be interfered with and blocked during war. We..."

Tiago said coldly: "This is not a reason for you to hide it! Tell me, what were you busy with during those five minutes?"

Walter immediately replied: "Report to the commander, we were monitoring the battlefield normally for those five minutes and directing friendly aircraft to drop the remaining ammunition into the target area."

Tiago stared at Walter for more than ten seconds, and then said: "You and your entire crew go to the inspection room to receive punishment."

"Yes, sir."

As Tiago watched Major Water leave, his brows did not relax.

It is not uncommon for an aircraft carrier's early warning aircraft to be interfered with or blocked by the enemy.

In recent times, there have been many confrontations between the Imperial Navy and the opposing aircraft carrier fleet in the Western Pacific.

This clearly proves that the Imperial Navy's electronic warfare capabilities have fallen behind those of its opponents.

Now the turret is urging defense suppliers to urgently develop new products in the hope of regaining control of their rivals.

Before the "Freedom's Fury" operation, the Corner Tower had informed him to keep some room when launching the war operation in order to deal with possible harassment from old rivals.

Despite this concern, the turret still carried out the secret mission of the accidental bombing.

The four F35 fighters that were shot down were the ones that were on the mission. There were no problems with the entire first wave of air strikes, but the four F35 fighters were shot down, especially at that time, the early warning aircraft was blocked for five minutes.

It seems that the purpose of the corner tower's test was achieved, and the old rival was indeed providing protection for the scientist.

In fact, it is easy to understand. If the empire had such scientists, it would do the same.

The question is, where did the missile that shot down the F35 come from?

His eyes suddenly fell on the Cruz base. Since the old rival had shown up, it was obvious that the equipment of the MRC Company, the first multi-domain combat task force there, must have fallen into the hands of the other party.

What attacked the F35 and the Aegis destroyer last night was actually the Empire’s own all-powerful Standard 6 missile!

Thinking of this, Tiago showed a bitter smile on his face.

He couldn't help but look at the battle report again, and then he noticed the battle statistics of the four F35 fighter jets.

"Huh? All eight anti-ship missiles hit fake targets? That fleet wasn't even at the Camilo Naval Base."

"Roger, show the latest radar scans and check the situation in the waters around Lusong Island. Look for that fleet of cargo ships that looks like two attack ships!"

Lieutenant Colonel Roger, commander of the war situation room, quickly called up the latest radar scan image on the battlefield situation terminal display screen, and led his men to quickly identify the radar signal of the suspected cargo ship fleet.

Tiago took a quick look and found that there were as many as seven or eight suspected targets.

Considering that this area is an important section of international shipping routes, there is no telling how many cargo ships or fleets pass through it every day.

Although the Empire launched the "Freedom's Wrath" military operation, it also gave the scope of the war zone and did not enclose international routes.

It is also impossible for these cargo ships to move away from the shipping routes at the first opportunity.

Thiago thought for a moment, then said: "Call up the previous radar chart between 0:19 and 0:24 for comparison.

During the five minutes when we lost battlefield perception, those suspected signals with large differences should be the most likely ones. "

Roger and the others were busy again, but the result was not what Thiago wanted.

"Reporting to the commander, there is not a big difference. Among the seven suspected targets, only two are more different than the other five.

Sir, in five minutes, even a warship can't get far, right?"

After hearing Roger's reminder, Tiago tapped his forehead and said, "I was wrong. Check where the AIS signal of the cargo ship fleet disappeared at the beginning.

In addition, look for a port in northern Lusong that can accommodate 10,000-ton ships.

Those suspected targets that are very close to this kind of port are most likely them!"

"Yes, sir."

About twenty minutes later, Roger reported: "Sir, please look at the situation map, these two radar signals should be the most likely.

Especially this one, according to our calculations, the speed of this signal should be around 25 knots.

The other one is slower, about 18 knots.

Since they look like two attack craft, I think they may have military speed, so this signal is more likely to be from them!"

Tiago checked the time and said, "Take off two F18 Hornets and go over there to take a look. Remember, just take a look, don't act on your own!"

"Yes, sir."

"In addition, we request Manila to immediately dispatch tugboats and other relevant rescue vessels to rescue the destroyer 'Rodishan'."

"Yes, sir."

Thiago looked at the battlefield situation map and always felt that he seemed to have missed something.

But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't remember.

……

……

Future Science and Technology Research Institute, Huarui Building No. 188, th floor.

"Oh, the first wave of attacks is over so soon?"

Li Tang stopped the testing work he was doing and handed it over to the Seiko assistant beside him to continue.

Then I went back to the office and made a cup of coffee.

Only then did he calmly look at the animated diagram of the "Freedom's Fury" air raid operation displayed by Zero.

Zero's commentary voice was synchronized with the scene, making Li Tang feel as if he was there.

"...Well, let's just talk about the results of the battle."

Zero said: “On the Empire side, four F35 stealth fighters of the Air Force were shot down, and only one pilot survived, who has been captured by the People’s Army.

One of the Navy's Aegis destroyers was damaged and is now sailing south at a speed of less than 10 knots.

As for the People's Army, there was no loss of equipment as they had made sufficient covert preparations.

However, 13 soldiers were killed and 29 were injured because they were trying to save civilians affected by the air strikes.

399 local civilian buildings were destroyed, including power plants, water plants and some important bridges that suffered varying degrees of damage.

Now, Lusong Construction Company, a subsidiary of Centennial Workshop Construction Company, is working with the newly formed People's Army Engineering Corps to repair the relevant infrastructure."

(End of this chapter)