Chapter 1427 Fleeing
Affected by the curvature of the earth, ground or sea radars can only maintain a monitoring distance of about 40 kilometers for low-altitude targets. The early warning aircraft can see a distance of 350 to 400 kilometers in the air.
While Zhou Qingfeng was thinking about the Enclave's early warning opportunity and taking care of the 'Arleigh Burke' class destroyer, the Enclave's air force personnel were more daring than he imagined. They pushed the early warning aircraft over the Yucatan Peninsula.
It was Lieutenant Colonel Crowder, who was shot down by Zhou Qingfeng with the Thunderbolt-15 two days ago, who served as the air intelligence officer on the early warning aircraft. The old lieutenant colonel fell into the sea after parachuting and was supported by his own inflatable lifeboat until the arrival of rescue ships.
After returning to the Air Force Base in Florida, Lieutenant Colonel Crowder was very ashamed of his experience of being shot down. He suffered some physical shocks during the parachute jump, and after a two-day rest, he could not fly the F-16 again for a short period of time, so he simply went to the E-3 early warning aircraft to serve as the air situation commander.
Annoyed, Lieutenant Colonel Cloud vowed to retaliate against the Aurora Corps, and he dispatched a full eight F-16s. Six of them are equipped with AIM-120D with a range of nearly 200 kilometers, and two are equipped with 'LRASM' long-range anti-ship missiles.
'LRASM' is a sharp sword specially developed by the US military to attack high-value targets at sea. Its range is as high as 800 kilometers, and it is highly intelligent. As long as it finds a target, it can fly autonomously until it destroys the target. It can be launched outside the defense zone and penetrate the defense stealthily, posing a great threat to warships.
The reason why Lieutenant Colonel Claude brought this vicious weapon was because the Enclave executives could no longer bear the Aurora Legion's continued control of the aircraft carrier 'Kennedy'. Given the fact that Havana is obviously unable to hold on, they are afraid that the aircraft carrier will escape, so they have to destroy it if it cannot sink.
After the F-16 is equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, its combat radius can exceed 2,000 kilometers, and it can fly from Florida to the west coast of Mexico. After a recent period of combat analysis, this area is considered to be the activity area of the "Kennedy" aircraft carrier.
Lieutenant Colonel Crowder is currently in the cabin of the flying E-3 early warning aircraft, staring at the radar screen and looking at the airspace and sea area maps, thinking about how to find the target. His plan is to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and enter the west coast of Mexico, and use the phased array radar on the early warning aircraft to search the entire sea area.
Eight F-16s serve as E-3's personal guards, which can theoretically block any attack. With the presence of early warning aircraft, the fleet is not afraid of any sneak attack. As long as the target is found, this mission will definitely succeed.
"Sinking an aircraft carrier is the most glorious moment for a pilot. In the past few decades, no aircraft carrier has been sunk. Today I am going to make history!"
Lieutenant Colonel Claude felt that he was simply blessed by God, and the last time he was forced to parachute was a blessing in disguise.
Right now, this is a mission that can go down in history!
You must know that the current Aurora Legion is a toothless tiger, and the most important equipment in the end is the 100,000-ton war behemoth sailing on the sea. At the beginning, the Enclave was hemorrhaged by Zhou Qingfeng in order to obtain this war beast, but now it has reached the point of destroying it.
Seeing that the Aurora Legion would be unable to hold on in Cuba, Enclave was afraid that the backbone of the Legion would escape on this giant ship, and thought of simply sinking or damaging it.
In short, the scourge of Victor Hugo must never be allowed to escape again. The entire Enclave has been tortured enough by this guy. In order to kill him, he doesn't even want that precious aircraft carrier.
Now Lieutenant Colonel Claude came to kill with a powerful air strike force. This time he was full of energy and never underestimated the enemy. He must get rid of that demon for the United States.
While crossing the Yucatan Peninsula, the air force base behind Florida sent a message asking whether Lieutenant Colonel Claude would go to the Merida battlefield. The three Mexican divisions that were fighting in Merida were fighting inextricably with the army of the Mexican Liberation Army, causing heavy casualties.
Major General Brenita of the First Mixed Division of Mexico even begged on the radio: "Our battalions were thrown into the street fighting in Merida. Countless people died in the damned streets and houses. Our whole division has already More than half of the casualties, you can just shoot the ground!"
Lieutenant Colonel Claude did not respond to the pleas of the Mexican government forces on the ground. He directly rejected this tearful request for help, with only one goal in mind, and that was the aircraft carrier! Carrier! Carrier!
What feat can be achieved by sweeping the ground for the army? What we want to do is kill an aircraft carrier!
With excitement and a great mission, the Claude fleet flew in the air for more than three hours and finally arrived at the west coast of Mexico. The radar on the back of the E-3 "Watchtower" early warning aircraft scanned the surrounding sea area for hundreds of kilometers, and all personnel opened their eyes wide, and it turned out...
Didn't even see the hair!
Eh..., why not?
Lieutenant Colonel Crowder led the air commanders in the cabin to stare at the radar screen, looking at every pixel. But whether it is sea or land, the entire west coast of Mexico has only nine aircraft of their own. Empty everywhere else!
What about the aircraft carrier?
It doesn't make sense!
The propeller-based aircraft of the Aurora Legion was still attacking the Mexican government forces on the outskirts of Merida yesterday. Why are they not here today?
These grandchildren are not in this sea area, where can they go?
In anti-ship warfare, the most important thing is not how far the missile can shoot, let alone how powerful the missile is, but how to find the opponent in the vast sea. In the past, Americans had satellites, a huge aerial surveillance system, and various sensor vehicles, but now these things are gone.
Lieutenant Colonel Claude rushed to the west coast of Mexico with full of enthusiasm, but now he and his subordinates had questions popping up in their heads. The most important thing was where did the 100,000-ton aircraft carrier go?
"Climb up and expand the search area." Lieutenant Colonel Claude was not reconciled. He ordered the E-3 to fly to the ceiling of 12,000 meters so that the radar could see as far as possible.
But still no!
Is that aircraft carrier invisible?
The eight F-16s that followed E-3 played soy sauce all over the field, circling their own boss back and forth. The pilot who flew the plane asked the boss again and again on the radio, what now?
"You also expand the search area to the outside world." Lieutenant Colonel Crowder ordered unwillingly. The eight F-16s could only choose one direction to continue flying for a certain distance, and turn on the radar to search outwards.
However, flying over from Florida has almost reached the limit of the combat radius of the F-16. After flying another two or three hundred kilometers, the entire fleet still found nothing. Lieutenant Colonel Claude rushed over with confidence, but he missed it!
Is there a mistake?
"Where did this damn Victor Hugo go?" Lieutenant Colonel Claude, who was deeply shocked, was almost furious. But his F-16 must return now, otherwise there is no way to land safely.
God, why is this happening? Lieutenant Colonel Crowder really couldn't understand why the aircraft carrier 'Kennedy' disappeared for no reason?
I really came here in high spirits, and returned in disappointment!