Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 309 The Thief Beside the Fire

The early warning aircraft has just increased its speed to a pitiful 3 kilometers per hour. For the jet aircraft roaring behind, it is in a very desperate situation.On the AWACS, the lieutenant, who was commanded by the child in an orderly manner, knew very well that there were only one or two last chances left, and it would be most effective to quickly approach Quetta. He knew that a Hongqi 0A field air defense system had just been deployed there to defend the airport. .On the surface, the range of this system is limited, and I may not be able to get within its range, but on the other hand, the C-band phased array radar at the core of the position is very close to the signal characteristics of the Type 16 radar of the Red Flag 9.In other words, for most of the world's air forces that lack electronic reconnaissance means to update data, the electronic threat analysis system on their fighter jets may not be able to distinguish the differences between these systems.

Can the bluff of a few radars scare the enemy away?The lieutenant has seen too many air confrontations. Most pilots will not be intimidated by the ground air defense system and abandon the mission, but sometimes, they will choose to bypass the threat area.

An instructor noticed that the J-11 fighter jet that had lost its speed was still climbing tenaciously, and was approaching the enemy plane, looking for an opportunity to engage in close combat.But at this moment, the three fighter planes in the Indian attack formation have been separated by more than ten kilometers. It is already difficult for this fighter plane to contain all the enemy planes at the same time.

The guide immediately reminded him that the third Su-30 approaching from the north was the most threatening, because it had already accelerated to Mach 1.2, and within 30 to 40 seconds, it would enter the attack range.The J-[-] fighter jets immediately turned around and turned to the north, preparing for the second interception operation.

This was the most organized attack that this early warning aircraft had seen in the short few days since it entered southern India. The lieutenant guessed that among the three enemy aircraft, there must be an extremely calm commander.

Eighty kilometers away, Captain Zarek has been carefully observing the surrounding threats.He was worried about surface-to-air missile systems because they kept showing up out of the blue.A search radar was always there in the direction of Quetta, indicating that there was at least one missile site there.He didn't know what kind of missile it would be, the surface-to-air missiles that the Chinese have deployed in southern Pakistan are not bad, but only the Hongqi 9 can provide the largest defense range.He thought that the early warning plane was heading there, perhaps trying to escape into the air defense network; however, the intelligence department told him that all the red flags [-] were deployed in the Suleiman Mountains, and the one in Quetta was probably just one. The battalion's short-range air defense missiles are used to guard against cruise missiles.

While guessing wildly, there was a scream of alarms in the cabin.This time it was an illumination radar that kept a close eye on the captain.The words "Main Threat" danced on the monitor, but no model was analyzed.

The wingman reminded him that he must guard against the J-11 fighter jet that had disappeared from the radar. Now she is hiding in the dark, and it may be very dangerous to be guided by an early warning aircraft.

All kinds of uncertain factors prompted the captain to make a new decision. He began to call the "Tari" closest to the target, hoping that he would not have to worry about the range and could shoot missiles at the edge of the envelope. After all, it was a very fast aircraft. slow plane.

The Indian Su-30 with the call sign "Tari" fired two R2 missiles 77 kilometers away, and the timing was very reluctant.Zarrick believes that the chance of hitting will not exceed half, but if he hits, his formation can continue to go deep without taking risks.

The wingman "Baya" gradually fell behind, and the pilot did not let go to speed up. He was afraid that the Chinese fighter plane might appear suddenly from a certain position from 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock, and he was also very afraid of the ground-air attack in the direction of Quetta. Missiles, this fighter plane is always hovering around Mach [-], unwilling to rush too hard.

The J-11 in the night is quietly launching a second round of attacks. Her climbing speed is faster than the Su-30MKI, which allows her to occupy a slightly more favorable position.Relying on the advantage of information, the plane on board cleverly avoided the enemy's limited field of vision radar, and flew quietly to the middle of the enemy's formation. Since he couldn't intercept all the enemy planes, he decided to deal with at least one of them.

The Air Police 200 early warning aircraft is still on the established course and maintains level flight. In this state, her radar can still work stably and provide guidance for nearby fighters.The J-1 pilot followed the guidance of the early warning aircraft and flew towards the craziest pursuer.The fighter plane rushing over from the north has already accelerated to Mach [-]. At this speed, the passive infrared detection sensor should be able to sense the heat of the plane at the longest distance.

J-[-] pilots carefully control their heading, and shuttle very carefully outside the scanning cone of the enemy's radar. The phased array radar on the enemy plane is unusual. Even when tracking the main target, it can still retain part of the energy to scan the surrounding airspace.

On the monitor, several hollow triangles were moving rapidly towards the same target. He flew towards the most prominent triangle, hoping to catch it by the IRST system when the enemy plane overtook his own. If a high-speed fighter plane flashes past your eyes in the night sky without being caught, the attack window of the infrared missile will disappear.

There was a weak reaction on the HUD, which was a small heat source, and compared with the position of the enemy plane on the multi-function display, it was not consistent.It is likely to be the interference caused by the missile launched by the enemy plane when it passed in front of the nose.The pilot held his breath and slowly pushed the throttle valve to accelerate the climb. Seeing that the enemy plane had difficulty breaking through Mach [-].The J-[-] climbed to an approximate height.As long as the enemy passes in front, he can launch two PL-[-] missiles within [-] kilometers. He electrifies the missiles and enters the preparation stage.

In a few minutes, the battlefield has changed a lot, but in the dark night sky, the advantage of the data link has been magnified to the limit.The pilot only needs to lower his head to see the general situation. The center of the vertical display is the position of his own aircraft, while the graphic representing the enemy aircraft is flashing at a high update frequency, passing ahead.Altitude, speed, distance, azimuth, all at a glance.He knew very well that in a few seconds, he would definitely find the enemy plane. At this moment, the seeker of the infrared guided missile had begun to cool down, and the missile had entered the irreversible final preparation stage.

On the HUD, the light spots of the virtual target appeared and began to gather. He knew that the enemy plane was passing through the narrow infrared scanning area of ​​the nose at a very fast speed.A beep sounded in the helmet, and an infrared missile had "seen" the target with its own seeker.Without any ranging and identification of friend or foe, the pilot decisively pressed the launch button. The two missiles flew towards the target one after another.

If all goes well, all the attention of the pilot on the enemy plane should be focused on the front at this moment, while the weapon controller in the back seat may be looking down at the radar screen. If things don't go so well, the backseat weapons controller of the enemy aircraft may see the incoming missile, so what happens next is completely unpredictable.

Zarick's radio has been on the formation communication channel. A few minutes ago, he could not hear the rear communication. Now he can only maintain the voice communication of the formation and the very limited data link information between the three machines. Outside the radar range of the rest of the fighters, only inertial navigation data can be used for position calibration. The update method of the three fighters on the screen is a long pause and a large jump. The captain knows that there has been a big deviation in the relative position of himself and his wingman. , It is already difficult for him to grasp the formation of the formation.

Suddenly, there was a shout of "Tari" on the radio, and the communication was cut off.On the monitor, the "Tower" logo stayed in place and was no longer updated.The captain knew something was wrong.

"It must be that Chinese fighter plane, this sneaky coward." Zarick cursed.It seems that the enemy is well aware of his weakness, and seized the opportunity to kick him hard.

"There is no devil more dangerous than an AWACS." He sighed, and took a deep breath.He knew that even if the Chinese made a huge mistake, he had the opportunity to get close to the AWACS.However, it is an early warning aircraft after all, and she is like a thief sneaking close to the fire in the night, and has nowhere to hide. Even if the Air Police [-] can only control one fighter plane for the time being, her counterattack is also fatal. .Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated, and continued to increase his speed to pursue. No matter what threat there was in the direction of Quetta, he insisted on knocking down this early warning aircraft today.

On Air Police [-], the commander's attention has been focused on the trailing missiles, and now he can confirm that they are two R[-] missiles, and the missile's active radar has also been turned on.The weak maneuverability of the Air Police [-] allows her to do a [-]-[-] circling evasion when she is far away from the missile. Of course, at the same time, she needs to sprinkle chaff at least one kilometer long to confuse the missile.But all of this is ineffective under the tracking of the enemy's fire control radar, because the high-power phased array radar can burn through passive interference at a long distance and provide corrections to the missile.

"The following enemy plane was killed." Someone shouted. "The second batch of enemy planes have been shot down, and we have lost track of the airborne radar."

There was no sound in the cabin, and there was no joy in shooting down an enemy plane. Everyone was waiting for the next thing.

"Emergency dodge. Launch passive jamming." The lieutenant issued a loud order.

The plane began to tilt violently, which meant that the radar would stop working, and the J-[-] would temporarily lose its data updates, but for the early warning aircraft, this was the best chance to get rid of the missiles.

Outside the plane, dense radar jamming chaff is flying soundlessly in the air along with the airflow, like a large cloud.

In order to effectively resist radars of various wavelengths, the passive jamming equipment of this large aircraft adopts the method of mixing chaff strips of different lengths. At the beginning of the design, the manufacturer had already imagined that the possible opponent in the future would be weapons like the R[-] or AIM[-].

The plane slowly turned to the west, and then slowly turned back. This process caused the speed of the plane to drop to [-] kilometers per hour, which was much faster than before. Everyone on board was anxiously waiting for the missile to miss.

Gradually, some clues were seen on the screen. The two missiles did not correct their course as the aircraft turned, and they crashed straight into the chaff strip.

"Damn it, it missed."

The lieutenant pretended to be calm and said that he tried his best to suppress his excitement, and even seemed a little regretful.

Then the cabin erupted except for brief cheers.The plane gradually leveled off amid the turbulent airflow.

(End of this chapter)