Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 243 Unpredictable whereabouts
"Engine, maintain 12 knots."

"Adjust the heading to 300, release the towed sonar."

Marin gave a turning instruction, and the submarine made a full right rudder movement, drawing an arc on the seabed. This turning is beneficial to the sideboard and towed sonar to collect more sound information to judge the distance of the enemy.Since submarines can only use passive detection methods, ranging is always a big headache for all captains.Of course, on the other hand, Marin is confident that he has found (guessed) the transfer method of the Indian fleet. After about an hour, the fleet should retreat to the south, and there will be a period of noise and chaos. As far as he is concerned, there will be a good opportunity (if Marin guesses well).

The range of heavy torpedoes is far lower than that of missiles. This is where Marin needs to be particularly cautious; opening the torpedo tube or using the impeller pump to push the torpedo to shoot is likely to be detected by the opponent. How to break away will be a problem. The short attack radius makes it difficult for the submarine to disengage safely after the attack.Marin buried his head on the chart table, hoping to find a way to get around from the topography of the seabed in this area.

"Report, the torpedo compartment is ready, and the torpedo tubes No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are ready."

"very good."

The four heavy-duty torpedoes that have been de-fuzed have been loaded in place, and what needs to be done now is to arrive at the position quietly and wait for the enemy to come.

"The enemy fleet is 45 nautical miles away, and it still maintains the situation 10 minutes ago. The main engine of the Villant stopped, and there was no major maneuver. Only one Derry class was still running at high speed."

"Continue to monitor."

"Old horse, I always wonder if Vikrant will come over obediently. Now they are still parked 50 nautical miles away. If we use an hour to go over and launch missiles, we still have some chances."

Deputy Captain Sun Xiangdong said.

Due to the error in Marin's prediction, No. 411 watched the Indian fleet running wildly at a speed of nearly 30 knots and passed by. No. 411's speed is only a third of the opponent's speed, and it will not be able to reach the torpedo range within an hour anyway (not to mention the high speed will increase the risk of exposure), so now it can only wait on the predicted enemy's retreat route. with.

"No one can be sure, now we can only resign ourselves to fate."

"I think that kid on the sea likes to play his cards according to the routine. Maybe he will go straight east, which is closer to their coastline."

"What would you do if you were him?" Marin looked up and asked Sun Xiangdong.

"If it were me." Su Changjin, the political commissar at the side, cut the conversation. "Of course the primary concern is their land-based aircraft, so I will run north immediately and out of the radius of the fighter jets."

Seeing that the political commissar was helping the captain, Sun Xiangdong couldn't say anything. There is an interesting tradition in No. 411. The political commissar is always on the side of the captain, and it is often young officers who disagree.

"I agree with the political commissar's opinion. In addition, in terms of weapon effectiveness, if we only launch a few missiles, it will be difficult to cause a fatal Shanghai."

Marin nodded.Sun Xiangdong on the side thought to himself that the captain's ambitions were big enough, and the result he wanted was to sink the Villant.

"But Ma, we can't put everything in the best light. The experience of this aircraft carrier is unusual, and there is always some luck." The political commissar leaned on the fire control console and said.

"You want to talk about the naval battle in 82?"

"According to reports, she suffered a lot of bombs back then. She was much luckier than the Sheffield. None of the bombs exploded."

"Luck is like a floating cloud. According to my estimation, such an old ship is enough to be hit by a heavy torpedo. And I fired three torpedoes, and our fuze is fine." Marin said, he had already figured it out Three torpedoes were fired at Villant, and one torpedo was fired at the Derry-class destroyer suspected of being the second ship.These torpedoes are different from direct torpedoes. Not only can they sail towards the intercepted target, but they can also explode under the keel of the enemy ship according to the setting. For ships that are not of good quality or are old, such an attack is more deadly than hitting the surface. much.

On the calm sea, Captain Gould's formation was quietly flying towards the target.Like the attack on the submarine base in Almara, this time the Sea Harrier formation still turned and flew towards the port of Karachi from the east. Sea Harriers will naturally guess that the aircraft carrier is nearby), and if they encounter enemy planes, they will also have some advantage in sight.

"Lower the altitude, let's turn and fly to the old port of Karachi." The captain looked at the navigation signs on the HUD, and there was a mission statement tied to his feet. cargo ship.Information already in the possession of the Naval Command indicated that the bulk carrier had been moored at the second wharf in the Old Port.This civilian ship transported a batch of generator equipment and hospital equipment to arrive here last month. These seemingly civilian diesel generators could easily be used by urban air defense systems, so the Ministry of Defense decided to attack them. After the attack, diplomacy The ministry will express its regret to China in accordance with the planned wrong wound.As a soldier, Captain Guert has always been a little curious. China and India have already been in a combat situation in essence, but the pretended diplomatic channels are still communicating with each other.

"Watch out for the high ground flak on the right."

The captain reminded that the formation immediately hid on the south side of the mountain range on the coast.The anti-aircraft guns in the city complex fired a few bursts and then lost their firing range.

"Squadron leader, these bastards are always hiding anti-aircraft weapons in residential areas. They should be punished," one pilot complained.

"We're the Navy, and the dirty work is for the Air Force bastards."

The sun behind him was already rising, and the captain could see the shadow of the fighter plane flashing across the rolling sand.The masts of a large number of fishing boats line the beach, and the old port is in front of you.

"According to the usual practice, the bombs are dropped one by one. The ship is very long, I hope you will not miss it."

"understand!"

Six sea harriers filed in, and six pairs of eyes carefully distinguished the front, hoping to find the target quickly.

Behind a bunch of large and small civilian ships, a red flag waving in the wind was spotted by Guert at a glance. He still remembered the shape of the forecastle of the Wulong, so there was no need to compare the photos, obviously there was nothing wrong.

"Brothers, de-fuze."

He was not at all worried about not being able to hit, but he had to always be careful of the anti-aircraft weapons around him. The Sea Harrier's electronic system was old, and it had never been effective against anti-aircraft gun radar with a wavelength above 10 centimeters.

The plane passed by the side of the buildings along the coast like a shooting star, and he saw a flash of light on the roof of the building.

"Careful, anti-aircraft missiles," he yelled, circling to one side.

The missile did not fly to Gurt but went straight to the last Sea Harrier in the formation. The wingman pilot focused all his attention on the ship in front of him and didn't pay attention to his surroundings; he didn't realize it until the captain's warning sounded on the radio I searched the right side, but I only saw a wisp of white smoke remaining on a building, but I couldn't see where the missile was?
In the previous air battles, most of the pilots who were shot down failed to see the missile flying towards them. The pilot of the 300th Squadron was destined to pay the price for his carelessness.

This is a U.S.-made Stinger missile with very little flame when flying and almost no wake in the air, which makes it extremely difficult for pilots to find it in the first place.The missile directly hit the sea harrier, and it exploded into a fireball in an instant.

"Attention, disband the formation and launch their own attacks." Captain Gould shouted in the formation communication channel.He realized that dropping bombs sequentially in formation would easily give an ambush enemy an opportunity (of course, the first one is always safer).He looked back to see if his pilot had jumped, but the glare blocked his vision.This is the 300th aircraft and the first battle loss of the 30th Squadron since its establishment.

The Chinese cargo ship was already in sight. The captain adjusted the flight path to align with the longitudinal axis of the cargo ship. He could see someone in the bridge staring at him, as if they were watching the war. Maybe they didn’t quite believe that someone would drop bombs on this civilian ship; You are wrong this time, thought the captain.

Two 454 kg bombs hit the deck accurately and penetrated the thin steel plate.When the captain flew over the turn of the cargo ship, the delayed fuze detonated the bomb, which blew the 20000-ton ship in half.

"The ship's gone, you're dropping bombs on secondary targets."

A wingman flew to the roof of the building where the Stinger missile was launched. For the pilot, the constraints of war were gone. All he thought about was to avenge his dead comrades.

The bomb dropped by the plane penetrated the 6-story building in the old city head-on, and then blew up the building together with hundreds of residents in it.

In a few minutes, all six planes dropped their bombs, and the old city of Karachi was ablaze.Captain Gould, leading the fighter jets that had dropped bombs, headed back the same way facing the glare of the sun. He had to make the enemy think that the aircraft carrier formation was somewhere to the east.

Soon several Pakistani planes from the north followed.The captain had excellent eyesight, and he recognized Pakistan's J-8 fighter jet 9 or 7 kilometers away.

"No. 2 aircraft, I need you to stay and intercept the enemy aircraft, and the rest of the aircraft will return according to the original route." Gurt quickly made a decision. He hoped to interfere with the short-legged MiG-21, so that they would not be found by the formation. Aircraft carrier USS Villant.

The two Harriers turned their heads and immediately seized the altitude.The captain finally saw clearly that the following enemy was a two-plane formation.This will be a battle between the second-generation aircraft. The Sea Harrier does not have a big advantage against the MiG-2, but now the captain has no choice but to charge up against the enemy aircraft.When the two sides approached 21 kilometers, they used radar to scan each other at the same time.

Gurt immediately ordered the formation to disband and fight separately. He focused on the front plane in the formation of enemy planes, and judged it to be the lead plane.During the head-on approach that tested willpower, the opponent snaked left and right, showing some hesitation; the captain seized the opportunity to dive over; at the last moment approaching the missile range, the opponent timidly chose to circle away, and this decision made the captain quickly bite the opponent's chest tail.The captain knew that the J-7's backward vision was not good, so it would be very passive, but if the enemy pilot made up his mind to run away with all his strength, it would be difficult for the Sea Harrier to catch up.

(End of this chapter)