Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 511

"Come on, old man, let's play with you crazy Chinese again, just like in the past," he thumped the angle-of-attack indicator with his hand, and with a bang, the pointer returned Reset to zero.Many parts of this old plane have not functioned normally. In the morning, he found that the pointer of the indicator instrument never recovered after the go-around. Although it did not seriously affect the flight performance, 6 hours had passed. However, the ground crew did not fix him.Maybe they couldn't find a replacement part either.

"Tower, the sharp-tailed swift is requesting to take off."

He flipped the VHF communication switch and said.

"Please wait a little longer and wait for the MiG-21 in Leh to arrive at the designated location. They took off a bit late."

"clear."

Due to the lack of a data link, he had to patiently communicate with the command post to master the entire air travel, and everything seemed to return to the 80s.Of course, the mission of the year did not require a cover fleet, and the Hongqi-2 missile positions deployed by China could not pose a real threat to the triple-sonic squadron at all.Today's situation is very different. The opponent's air defense network is extremely dense, and it is necessary to find gaps through the feints of the rest of the fleet.The reconnaissance plan this time is more complicated than in the morning, and it may not be enough to communicate only through the radio. From the perspective of navigation, the Chinese Air Force has destroyed a large number of navigation facilities in the past few months, and now it even needs to use civilian radio as a Lateral backup means, but what can be done?Lieutenant General Meneam called him personally, and wept in tears. He promised that after this reconnaissance, he would directly ask the Ministry of Defense to give him the highest honor.

Taking advantage of the last opportunity, Simlan took out the mission plan tied to the anti-G suit, and carefully checked every step. There are some links that must not be missed, and other links cannot be helped by the plan and need to rely on luck.The entire flight through the ground formation must be completed at the average speed of sound. In some moments, it must reach more than 2 times. High speed can compress the enemy's countermeasure time. It is the best way to destroy the ground radar position shooting, but in fact The plane could only maintain a flight time of about seven minutes at Mach 2, and had to lower altitude during the reconnaissance phase, which meant slowing down.

"Sharp-tailed Swift, both batches of cover planes have taken off."

"I demand immediate takeoff."

he said.Although there is no need to meet the MiG 21, or even to see them, he hopes to take off early to consume some fuel. In addition, some aging instruments and hydraulic pipelines on the plane need to be able to operate normally after takeoff. Like a dying body.

"Allowed to take off, good luck."

He watched the engine speed increase slowly, and the moment he released the brake, he saw Yunxuan appearing again, but he recovered in a blink of an eye.The speed-up of the plane may not be as good as before. For the mission in the morning, he never dared to push the throttle valve to a sufficient position. He weighed the risk and felt that he would only do it when necessary. Of course, even so, he was confident No Chinese plane can catch up with them, they can only increase the impact for a short time, and consider the fuel for the return flight at any time; even with the guidance of an early warning aircraft, they can guess their approximate route, and the time window for firing is very short.

It wasted some time for him to maintain a flat flight to the west. The sun is gradually setting in the west. When he crosses the sky over the target area, the enemies approaching from the east will encounter the dazzling sunlight, which will destroy their visual search to some extent. This is of course part of a well-planned plan; the MiG-21s currently taking off from Leh's front-line airport are confusing the enemy's sight, and everything is going smoothly.

The ground radar constantly informs Samland of the general situation, which is a bad experience, but he has to force himself to accept all the information and form a route map in his head, and the preset navigation path signs on the HUD are not reliable, because the situation It is changing rapidly, and the route must also be adjusted at any time.Sure enough, the counterattack of the enemy plane was tougher than in the morning. Unfortunately, a MiG-21 that took off from Leh fell into the trap of the anti-aircraft missile and was shot down in one fell swoop.The ground quickly notified the location of the shot down, and it seemed that the enemy had adjusted their anti-aircraft firepower.

"Make a big circle to the west, waiting for a bigger gap," he kept taking deep breaths and reminding himself, "Every mountain pass must be careful not to be seen by the enemy's ground radar. But this is not up to you, MiG The 25 has no terrain avoidance capability, so it can't fly too low."

For such a mission, he didn't even carry a single dogfighting missile; the mission itself was a life-and-death game of hide-and-seek, and any encumbrance affecting the aircraft was unnecessary.

He kept observing the terrain ahead, those high and low mountains quickly disappeared under the huge nose, and at the same time he had to constantly observe the instruments.Be aware of speed and radar sirens, and of course fuel flow must be kept an eye on.Just before take-off, the ground staff told him that there might be a problem with the oil circuit of the left wing, and if the flow rate is abnormal, it needs to be solved in advance, otherwise the balance of the aircraft will be affected.This was a factor in his decision to release wing fuel first.

The radio compass seems to be ineffective. On the one hand, the high mountains have blocked part of the signal. On the other hand, the Chinese have been extremely poor recently. Even the civilian long-wave radio station in Kashmir has begun to interfere. The original intention may be to destroy the communication link, but it happens that this old-fashioned The plane does not have GPS navigation equipment. In addition to ground guidance, it occasionally needs to use the long-wave transmitter to go sideways. The Voice of Kashmir radio station, which is fixed at the 5000-meter mountain pass, has always been used by the Air Force as a backup navigation station.Fortunately, there are many high mountains that can emerge from the clouds in this area, which can be used to supplement navigation.

"Sharp-tailed Swift, the enemy planes are in your direction at 2 o'clock and are moving away from you. It's a good time."

"clear."

Semlan looked into the distance, and on the other side of the snow-capped mountains, there was probably the enemy's flight fleet. He knew that the next thing would be very simple and rough, just like Lieutenant General Meneam said on the phone with a crying voice A: The fate of India is like a sacred shackle, and all Indian soldiers, whether they are retired or not, cannot escape their personal fate and are closely linked with it.

He threw away the auxiliary fuel tank under the wing, and moved the joystick to his arms.The plane is pulled up with its head raised, and the thrilling chase is about to begin, and the enemy's radar will see itself within tens of seconds.He had a premonition that things would go very smoothly, as if he was destined to use such a plane to escape those dexterous but slower enemy planes.

China's ground radar and early warning aircraft saw this MiG-25 almost at the same time. Despite the strictest and most targeted defenses, the enemy dared to repeat the same trick again after only a few hours. In line with expectations, the Air Force believes that the next reconnaissance should be in a few days.

According to the established hunting plan, no fighter jet will use the fire control radar to illuminate the frightened bird, so as not to change its course recklessly. Obviously, the enemy lacks ground guidance and must rely on the established route to fly, and its established route can be predicted.

The early warning aircraft followed the order and asked the J-21 formation chasing the MiG-10 not to return to participate in the interception, but to directly break into the sky above Leh to track and interfere with the landing of the MiG-21. The runway in that mountainous area was not long enough, and part of it was hastily repaired after being bombed. It is also surrounded by mountains, which is very unfavorable for the MiG-21 to land; if it is forced to rush, it may cause a crash; once the enemy plane fails to land and causes a go-around, it can be attacked with medium-range bombs.Since there is a hidden Indian blue sky air defense missile system near Leh, the fighter planes should not chase too close to avoid their own losses.

It was the Su-35 fighter jets newly joined the air force that really launched the attack.This kind of aircraft does not have supersonic cruise capability in the strict sense, but if it only carries four missiles, it can keep the aircraft at an altitude of 1.05 meters at a speed close to Mach 1.1 without using afterburner. It was just tested by the Air Force, which is lower than the Russian Mach 25 manual data.The Indian MiG-25 will fly at a similar speed for most of the entire voyage, which will theoretically make interception much easier.Especially when the MiG 35 is close to the reconnaissance area, it is bound to reduce its altitude and speed at the same time.When this frightened bird began to climb and accelerate, trying to escape, the Su-[-] lurking at high altitude could use its excellent acceleration ability in a short period of time to obtain stable shooting opportunities for a period of time.

The plan itself is very simple. If the general route of the enemy plane can be predicted, any other type of fighter plane can also complete similar tasks, but the Su-35 seems to have a greater chance depending on its own performance.

Of course, in addition to the above tactical reasons, the choice of Su-35 is also mixed with some political considerations. India has always hoped to rely on its huge order restrictions to control the export of Russian-made weapons to China. They believe that at least Russia should not sell high-performance weapons. The Su 30MkI fighter was given to China, and Russia's abacus was clanging. On the one hand, it expected to make money on both sides. It is also to combat the unrealistic illusions of Russia and India.

Finally, the fact that the MiG 25 does not have counterattack capabilities is also a major factor that has been considered. As a newly acquired weapon that is not compatible with the existing data link and identification friend or foe system, the superiors have not considered allowing it to participate in complex combat missions. ; that is, the MiG-25 happens to be an excellent, tactically honed prey without being too dangerous.

Liu Zhaolin was driving this new type of single-seater plane, and was waiting for the fighter plane at 1 meters in the sky against the setting sun. Since he participated in the air combat in western Pakistan and had actual combat experience in piloting a Su-27 for long-distance interception, he became the main candidate for this mission .

The AWACS guides it to slowly enter the designated standby area, waiting for the enemy plane to play the last trick, and enter Aksai Chin with a feint shot. As long as he turns on the radar, he can see the opponent immediately, but it is not the best time to alert it.He would be very happy to fly this powerful aircraft to compete with the old-fashioned MiG 25 at the last moment. The Su 35 is not only a fighter with good combat performance, but also a superior interceptor.

Samland, just like in the morning, Yiqi Juechen broke through the control line on the Chinese side, making the illusion of going straight into the direction of Shache. This is the direction that the opponent must guard against. The radar alert found an early warning aircraft in the same direction, but no fighter jets were detected. Radar, obviously they are all cats in the dark.According to the plan, he accelerated and rushed straight to the hinterland of the north, and then made a sharp turn to throw off the pursuing enemy.The narrow field of view limits his observation of the sides and rear, but these are not important, even if he does not look at the side, the risk will neither increase nor decrease, and the probability of survival is about half and half.He doesn't know whether the same trick can be used twice in front of China?But otherwise, how to break into the enemy's line?
The temperature of the airframe has risen to nearly 300 degrees. Based on experience, he knows that his fighter has broken through the so-called thermal barrier, and the pointer of the airspeed indicator has always stayed at Mach 1.8. He believes in his own feelings rather than these unreliable instruments.The plane can stay at Mach 2 for about 10 minutes, and can break through Mach 2.4 if necessary, faster than he has ever attempted.

He carefully controlled the turning of the plane, reduced the throttle, maintained the speed by diving, and flew towards the real target area. This was probably the most dangerous moment.Fortunately, all the radars came from the north, and there was no ground missile force on the front. The enemy seemed to be unable to react in time, and completely gave way to the passage?Other than that he couldn't think of any reason.Of course, it is impossible for him to know that the ground radar is not illuminated, just to prevent unnecessary interference with another new fighter in this airspace. A fox that throws itself into a snare.

The early warning aircraft kept notifying the position and distance of the enemy aircraft, and the MiG turned and reduced its speed to Mach 1.5.Liu Zhaolin had already prepared to intercept the enemy plane from southeast to northwest, so as to avoid the glare of the sun.He knew that as long as he turned on the radar, the enemy planes would inevitably scurry around recklessly. This was the moment he had been longing for for a long time.

The MiG-25 immediately sensed that it was irradiated by a powerful radio pulse, and the direction was from the southwest, which was where it was going. It took only a second for Samlan to figure out the countermeasure: the plan must be abandoned, and it is better to turn to get out quickly. Best policy.

"Come on, let you young and energetic invaders see my speed."

He ignored the threat of engine surge and quickly pushed the throttle.The MiG 25 roared during the turn. It beat the opponent's pursuit with an ugly huge turn, and at the same time increased its height and speed.

Liu Zhaolin, who intercepted at high speed, got an excellent shooting opportunity. The enemy was turning 15 kilometers away. He saw the distance of the enemy plane on the HUD shrinking. Obviously, the high speed the enemy relied on to escape was failing.

(End of this chapter)