The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

The fourth day of the Iraq War.

The United States issued a statement that the airspace over Iraq is a no-fly zone designated by the United States. Any flight over this area is illegal and may be shot down at any time.

This is the arrogance of the Americans. They dare to designate a country's airspace as a no-fly zone. This is an undisguised violation of a country's sovereignty.

But the Americans declared war on Iraq and launched the Iraq War, which in itself violated Iraq's sovereignty and trampled on international norms of behavior.

At this time, 200 nautical miles away from the Iraqi coastline, the "Nimitz" aircraft carrier was taking off fighter jets.

The "Nimitz" aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1975. The ship is 332.8 meters long and 40.8 meters wide, with a full load displacement of 9.15 tons, a speed of 33 knots, a cruising range of 80 to 100 million nautical miles, and can operate for 13 to 15 years on a single refueling of nuclear fuel. It has a crew of 6300 people, a flight deck that is 76.8 meters wide, and can carry more than 90 aircraft, with a maximum of 120 aircraft. The ship's weapons include three eight-unit Sea Sparrow missile launchers, three Phalanx six-barrel 3mm guns, and a number of radar, communication and navigation systems.

At this time, two rows of fighter planes were piled up on both sides of the runway on the bow deck of the USS Nimitz. This would make the deck more efficient and allow it to be pulled to the catapult position for takeoff at any time. And now, at the two catapult positions on the angled deck, two F-14 Bearcat fighter planes were ready for catapult takeoff.

In the white steam, two F-14 'Panda' fighters took off one after another almost one second apart. The catapults reset and the second batch of two F-14 'Panda' fighters also began to be launched.

This is a large aircraft carrier!
An 80,000-90,000-ton aircraft carrier has a large displacement and a larger deck. There are three elevators on the side of the hull, which greatly speeds up the efficiency of deploying carrier-based aircraft.

The advantage of large aircraft carriers is that they can carry more carrier-based aircraft and have rapid deployment efficiency.

A large aircraft carrier of 80,000 to 90,000 tons is far more efficient than the combination of two 40,000-ton aircraft carriers.

Not to mention light aircraft carriers!
美国航母弹射起飞了16架F-14‘熊猫’战斗机、16架F/A-18战斗机。32架战机起飞之后，向伊拉克方向飞去。

Four Phoenix missiles, two Sparrow missiles, and two Sidewinder missiles are the normal air superiority loadout for the F-14 'Panda' fighter. If it is loaded with the maximum payload, six Phoenix missiles, and if they are not used in air combat, then on the return flight, two of them must be thrown into the sea to ensure a safe landing.

The F/A-18 fighter can carry 13700 pounds of ammunition externally. It has a total of 9 external pylons. The two wingtip pylons each carry an AIM-1L air-to-air missile, the two outer wing pylons carry AGM-9 air-to-ground missiles or AGM-65 anti-ship missiles, the two inner wing pylons carry air-to-ground weapons, and the two pylons under the engine nacelle carry Sparrow missiles.

Following the F-14 'Panda' fighters and F/A-18 fighters, the carrier-based aircraft continued to launch, and two EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft were launched into the air, which will provide sufficient electromagnetic cover for the formation and carry out electromagnetic suppression on Iraq.

Then four F/A-18 carrier-based aircraft were catapulted into action. In addition to two short-range Sidewinder missiles, there were six anti-radiation missiles. This type of missile was specially designed to deal with ground-based air defense weapons.

Originally, F/A is a combat attack aircraft. As you can see from the name, the number of American aircraft, F stands for combat, A stands for attack. But I don't know what the US top leaders are thinking. They are determined to use such a medium-sized aircraft to replace the F-14 "Bearcat" fighter. Although the F/A-18 fighter has multi-purpose capabilities, it is not as good as the dedicated F-14 "Bearcat" fighter in air combat interception capabilities. The only disadvantage of the F-14 "Bearcat" fighter is that it is too expensive. It is expensive to purchase and maintain. I am afraid that this is the reason why the US Congress made a drastic decision. According to the current US plan, the F-14 "Bearcat" fighter will be retired in 2006.

Many American F-14 Bearcat fighters have been in service for 14 or 80 years and are old. The United States disliked the F-14 Bearcat fighters because they were too expensive, and the U.S. Navy stopped purchasing F- Bearcat fighters in the s.

If it weren't for the fact that the US military budget was drastically cut during those eight years, the US Navy might not have many F-8 'Panda' fighter jets now!
To be honest, the F-14 'Bearcat' fighter was rejected by the US Congress and eventually eliminated, which also caused great disgust within the US Navy. However, for the United States, the military will never interfere in politics and can only passively accept it. This Iraq War may be the last war that the US Navy's F-14 'Bearcat' fighter will participate in before it retires, and the US Navy also hopes that it can perform well.

In fact, from the outbreak of the Iraq War to the present, the best performing fighter jets of the United States are the Air Force's F-15 fighter jets and the Navy's F-14 'Bearcat' fighter jets.

Professional military journals in various countries have long studied the F-14 fighter and praised it highly, believing that it has leading advantages in many aspects, such as performance, weapons and equipment, avionics systems, etc. In addition, it is also very flexible and can perform a variety of tasks, such as aerial reconnaissance, aviation attack, air combat, etc.

Although the F-14 'Panda' fighter jet is no longer in service with the US Navy and Air Force, it is still considered one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world. Its maneuverability and performance are still among the most advanced fighter jets in the world.

美国格鲁曼公司虽然在1988年，对F-14‘熊猫’战斗机在雷达、航空电子设备和导弹挂载能力等方面经过了进一步改进升级，并命名为F-14D‘超级熊猫’。但是F-14D‘超级熊猫’并不是世界上最先进的F-14系列战斗机，最先进的F-14系列战斗机当属沈飞在F-14‘熊猫’战斗机基础上仿制改进的歼-14战斗机。

This time, the F-14 "Panda" fighter jets will carry out the mission of seizing air superiority, while the F/A-18 fighter jets will carry out the mission of seizing air superiority and attacking the ground and ships.

The combat objective of this formation is to destroy the naval fleet, ports, air defense positions and radar positions in the coastal areas of Iraq.

Originally, this combat goal should have been achieved on the first day of the war, but Iraq's air defense capabilities were unexpectedly strong, so this combat goal has not been achieved so far.

An E-2C early warning aircraft had taken off in advance and was flying over the Persian Gulf, monitoring the situation of the Iraqi Air Force.

The "USS Nimitz" aircraft carrier is equipped with a full range of military aircraft, including F-14 "Panda" fighter jets for air combat, F/A-18 and A6 and A7 for attack, EA-6B "Prowler" electronic warfare aircraft for electromagnetic suppression, E-2C "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft for early warning, S-3 "Corsair" anti-submarine aircraft for anti-submarine operations, and even refueling aircraft for escort and refueling.

Although the United States had suffered considerable losses in carrier-based aircraft before this, it still called in aircraft originally used in the war in Afghanistan to replenish them.

This means that, although there is one less aircraft carrier, the aircraft carriers on other aircraft carriers have been replenished. (End of this chapter)