Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 710 Two-pronged approach
A "Wild Weasel" electronic warfare aircraft flies silently south of New Delhi.

The pilot, Major Wilson, is from the 77th Squadron of the U.S. Air Force and is an active pilot. He is not a "volunteer" defined by Congress as a "volunteer" who voluntarily participated in the war in order to defend a free India, but he and his aircraft, most of the expenses for coming here include a sum of more than Calculated on a daily basis, a considerable amount of subsidies will be paid by India in the form of mortgages of overseas assets.

It may be feasible for those retired personnel to join the ground forces and drive tanks again, but if a pilot who has retired for more than 5 years is allowed to return to the cockpit, it is very dangerous. Must have missed quite a few new tech upgrades in 5 years.

The F16CJ Wild Weasel is an electronic warfare aircraft that the U.S. Air Force can rely on. Of course, electronic warfare itself has its own emphasis. This type of aircraft does not implement electronic jamming, but it is more suitable for deep penetration and attacking the opponent's radar than the Growler.

This mission performed by senior officers is the starting point of the second round of strikes, specifically, to attack the encirclement of the enemy that is about to close.

Because the Chinese army's ground offensive is very fast, it has added a new threat to Air Force pilots.If he is shot down and jumps, the possibility of falling into the hands of the opponent is greatly increased. Compared with Chinese pilots, the opposite is true, which is very conducive to their initiative in the air.

Although some American pilots have fallen into the hands of the Chinese, and the Chinese have handled it in a low-key manner, the US Air Force still does not want the pilots to be captured one after another.The air force itself is desperate for the prospect of this war, mainly because the preparation time is too hasty, and the originally planned combat location is in Pakistan, which suddenly becomes New Delhi, and New Delhi's position is too far to the north.

The air defense network covering each other with horns covering each other in New Delhi and the Agra base is being compressed. The airspace over New Delhi may still be the most heavily fortified airspace in the world, but this air defense network is becoming smaller and smaller.The fighter jets of the China-Pakistan Air Force can circle from the west to the south of New Delhi to support its ground forces. The situation is very different from 24 hours ago, or even 12 hours ago.

From time to time, Wilson looked down at the map and the surrounding radiation sources. As a single-seater aircraft, he must be an all-rounder.In the first stage, he had to try to use the terrain to avoid the surveillance of S400 or other long-range radars. The S400 has an amazing range, so he must be careful. In addition, there are hundreds of experienced enemy pilots over New Delhi, and he does not want to fight hand-to-hand.

The range of the Hamm missile is not ideal, and it is destined that he must be very close to the enemy's front.Unlike most of the anti-radiation warfare scenarios that the Air Force imagined, this attack did not have a large fleet of aircraft to cover it, and only a few F15Cs were watching from behind. They would not follow too closely, so as not to expose the attack route of the wild weasels.The U.S. Air Force is deploying at Indian airports and is still unable to implement large-scale operations.

According to the analysis of satellite photos, the tactical missile attack in the morning was partially successful, at least destroying an important bridge of the Chinese group attacking in the west. Therefore, after communicating with the Army, the assistant chief of staff of the Air Force Staff Office believed that it is now time to focus on attacking this group. It would be a good starting point to destroy a Red Flag 16 radar at the core of this unit. This unit has some fixed targets (such as pontoon bridges) that can be attacked.Of course, in reality, the Air Force doesn't have much choice. The other Chinese armored force rushing from the east seems to have no decent radar to attack, and there is nothing fixed, waiting for the arrival of cruise missiles. attack.

The pilot flew over the battlefield at low altitude from south to north, and he could see the smoking equipment on the ground, but he didn't know which side it belonged to.Although he was a veteran pilot, this was his first time flying to a real battlefield.

As a part of the whole attack, just next to the appearance of tactical missiles, a mere tactical aircraft seemed a bit thin.The cautiousness of the Air Force may be caused by the broken wings of the Raptor. They do not want to accommodate Washington. Launching a large-scale air strike in a very inappropriate area and time can only carry out some theoretically feasible speculation.

The AN/ASQ-213 pod carried by the Wild Weasel is effective in finding and targeting an adversary's radar as long as it is in the forward hemisphere of the aircraft.

At the same time, the fighter's electronic threat analysis equipment has been indicating the presence of a large number of radiation sources in the surrounding area.

This device found a large number of radiation sources from the side of the field air defense system. They turned on and off one after another. Each time they appeared in different positions, it can be seen that they are still maneuvering. Preliminary guesses are that some of them are very close. The pilot is roughly along the Fly along their path.This Chinese army that surrounded New Delhi from the east relied on these things with a short range to fight all the way, and now it has completely escaped the protection of the S400.The pilot really admired the commander.As an old pilot who often participated in the green flag air-to-ground confrontation, he couldn't even launch a SEAD (Suppression of Surface Air Defense Fire Operation) against this unit, because there was simply no one worth hitting, and those small air defense systems were still very mobile. High, you can also search for empty space on the go.

Although these systems cannot threaten him, the major is still worried about one thing. He can avoid the long-range radars 200 kilometers away in the north, but these small surveillance radars all over the battlefield cannot be avoided. If the radar warning device can detect They, stating that they are under enemy surveillance, if they have a good enough information distribution system, then such an independent system can also form an effective reconnaissance node, experienced analysts can judge from the intermittent trajectory that they will eventually Where are you going?Air Force intelligence units have not been very clear about the development of the enemy's data link, which is estimated to be lower than that of NATO. Most NATO countries do not have such capabilities, but the dexterity shown by the Chinese military deviates from the above judgment.

According to the preset route, he flew south for a while, looking for the mountains southwest of New Delhi, firstly to hide, and secondly to make himself look like he was just reconnaissance on the edge.This is a bit self-deceiving, but in a chaotic battlefield, an aircraft is indeed not easy to attract attention.

The pod has already detected the phased array radar of the Hongqi 16, and its location and antenna direction have changed, and it seems that it is particularly vigilant against Agra.This gave Wilson the opportunity to approach it from an angle that was not easily seen.Regardless of whether this radar can be eliminated, B52 will launch cruise missiles 700 kilometers away, completely destroying the last few pontoon bridges of the enemy on the Najaf Gargil Canal, as well as part of the road on the north bank. The purpose of destroying the road is to prevent follow-up engineers The bridging facilities were brought up in time.This is the most resource-saving and opportunistic method that the Army can think of at present. They require the Air Force to cooperate as much as possible, including dispatching weapons that the enemy did not expect.

If the plan is successful, and the Frings forces in the east have opened up the connection with New Delhi, the two Chinese armies will be cut off from supplies and retreat.The plan sounds very tempting.

But Wilson didn't know that at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force thought this plan was too fanciful. He said: If this can be successful, it may soon be able to counterattack to mainland China.But as a compromise, he finally approved the plan, and eventually the F16 and other Air Force weapons will be put into this high-risk mission.

According to the feedback from the front-line radar, Lin Huaisheng's command noticed a fighter plane looming at the front, and some targets in the rear seemed to be covering its actions. From the signs, they were gradually approaching Wang Zhenbei's troops.Zhao Lin had just dropped the bomb and was performing a security mission in the air, so he was ordered to expel the plane.But soon the early warning aircraft lost the target information, and the enemy either went back or hid behind the rolling hills to the west.

Zhao Lin judged the situation hastily, and decided to lead the other two fighters to confront the new F2Cs that appeared in the south, then return to the refueling area for an aerial refueling, and then return. He felt that this was the safest way.

Wilson saw a huge turning wake in the air at low altitude, and several enemy captains were turning in the wrong direction. Obviously, the pressure brought by the F15C was enough for them to make wrong judgments.He was close to the edge of the blind spot of the opponent's radar, but the pod was still able to accurately capture the target position.

The air defense equipment on hand of the Chinese army seems to be very tense. This radar has hardly been turned off all morning, and has been keeping a close eye on the southeast.Seeing that the plan was successful, the major threw away the fuel tank and began to accelerate, hoping to be discovered a few seconds later.The missile seeker has already captured the target, but he must increase the speed as much as possible to increase the initial velocity of the missile, so that the enemy's reaction will be more hasty.

The launch prompt sounded, and the 2 hams flew off the pylon and rushed towards the target.

The Wild Weasel quickly turned and pulled up. Now he didn’t need to hide his tracks, and was soon spotted by the early warning aircraft. A J-11 that had dropped bombs from the periphery of New Delhi turned to the Wild Weasel and fired missiles, but it was too late, and the missiles had no time to catch up. board the plane.

At the same time, the Hamm missile hit the guidance radar of Hongqi 16, which Wang Zhenbei relied on most. He had been guarding against the opponent's missiles attacking the pontoon bridge on the canal, so that the radar was exposed for too long.And his other air defense system, deployed on the north bank of the river, could not fully protect his troops.Now it's time for the B52 to launch the AGM86 cruise missile.

A Hongqi 17 air defense system at the southernmost point of the battlefield was the first to see the low-altitude cruise missile. The missile was close to the ground and the speed was not high, but the flight was stable, which was very different from the Indian BrahMos encountered in the past.

Hongqi 17 is in a position where it cannot shoot, but the inter-vehicle information is transmitted to every nearby node at the same time, including those anti-aircraft vehicles that are not turned on, and the battalion-level headquarters.

A latent double-barreled 35mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, according to the data link information, directly used the fire control radar in front of the turret parallel to the gun to capture the target at one time.The commander in the vehicle was startled. He saw 4 targets, following almost the same route, about to slip past 1 kilometer in front of him. They flew so slowly, compared with the usual flashing targets , a few seconds more shooting window.

The ballistic computer quickly calculates the elements through radar speed measurement and angle measurement.A long string of ammunition flew out and immediately enveloped the first missile. A shell grazed the wing of the missile, and the missile lost its stability and fell headlong into a muddy pond.

This kind of missile flies at a nearly constant speed, making the advance very easy to grasp.The turret turned to the second target. This time, it shot down the missile with only a short shot. As the temperature of the gun barrel increased, the aim began to drop. The third one took some trouble, but it was still close to the fragments and destroyed.Due to further decline in accuracy, the fourth endurance missile finally escaped.

The higher-ups on the radio reported that more enemy cruise missiles were approaching. The commander decided to stay in place to reload and wait for the barrel to cool down. He thought that maybe the enemy would be confused and continue to fly past.In the era when cruise missiles need to use terrain-matching navigation, such mistakes are always inevitable, but when the enemy's plan has some special tactical requirements, and the preparations are very hasty, it seems that you can also look forward to looking at one place. to intercept these missiles in a waiting manner.

In He Fan's assault force, there are a large number of such small things that can fight independently. Although they can't complete the air defense of the area, they are a big net that makes the enemy hard to defend. When viewed from the B52 platform When launching a large number of cruise missiles and trying to fly over this seemingly weak air defense force, the Air Force staff will find that it is not so easy.However, the weakness of He Fan's air defense has long been discovered by the opponent. The attack against him does not rely on these cruise missiles, but has another plan.

The U.S. Air Force Staff estimates that 10% of the air-launched missiles will be intercepted by the enemy. Therefore, in the route setting, no changeable route is adopted, which will waste the range of the missiles, and it will inevitably make the old B52 too close to the front line. Some of the missiles flew over the advancing He Fan. If they could break through, they would fly straight over the western suburbs of New Delhi, and finally attack several targets of the Wangzhen North Team, including the pontoon bridge, the road, and the Red Flag 16 position.

As a two-pronged approach, Frings' ground forces, after several attacks, have been far away from Pasad's Indian army, and most of the Chinese and Pakistani air forces have been attracted by them to fight against the torrent of enemy armor middle.

Sammy, with his group of novices, also flew to the east, trying to stop the Indian troops attacking east from New Delhi.

Letting someone like Hassan carry out a ground strike mission means a lot of casualties, especially when the battlefield is covered with things like the Shilka River, but the essence of war is to create death, and there is no room for dodge . .

When Sami approached the combat zone, he could see a large number of aircraft in the northeast of the battlefield, flying in parallel with him at a slightly lower altitude, and the speed was not much different, but the data link did not show them. These were launched from Chinese positions cruise missiles, which rely on China's satellite navigation system to fly to the Agra base.

It is always easy for the commanders of the two sides to think of going together. After the first round of fierce ballistic missile exchanges, more economical weapons began to appear.

"Sir, why don't they attack New Delhi with these missiles?" Hassan asked cheerfully.

"Mind your own business and pay attention to enemy radar."

Sami saw enemy military vehicles crowded together on the highway, and he wanted to find one with a lot of antennas in the middle, which was more valuable, but Song Ning, who was on duty in the command plane, suddenly suggested that Sami had better throw the bomb, Because the situation in the south is very bad.He said that the troops there lacked a decent air defense capability, and the latest indications are that this round of enemy offensive is quite layered, and it is likely to carry out some large-scale air strikes against the southern tank group, and the weapons that the opponent can throw are likely to be in the other than those observed by satellites.

As the pilot with the highest rank on the battlefield, Sami has the right to choose the mission, but he feels that Song Ning's worry is not unreasonable. After an F16 rushed into the battlefield, he predicts that the situation of no air battle over New Delhi will not continue.He ordered his troops to fly over the enemy's heads, babbled about dropping bombs, and flew south.

(End of this chapter)