Chapter 105 Soviet Reconnaissance Plane

At present, the Aegis system that the US Navy is proud of has not yet completed the final integration. The Allen-Sumner-class destroyers and Gearing-class destroyers built during the World War II are still in service in large numbers in the US Navy. Among them, the Allen-Sumner-class destroyers have gradually withdrawn from active service. Most of the main Gearing-class destroyers that remain in the US Navy have been modified and equipped with STIR radars and Sea Sparrow air defense missiles. Unfortunately, the Sparrow missiles are not mature yet. The sky over the Vietnam battlefield is simply full of uncontrolled rockets, which have not yet been transferred to warships.

As for the highly accurate standard missiles of later generations, they were nowhere to be found. Therefore, the main force of the US warship air defense is still the ship-borne air defense system developed in the World War II era to deal with the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes.

These include the Beagle, Tartar, and Brass Knight missile systems, which constitute the first generation of the United States' surface defense ship-to-air missile system. Since the first letter of the English names of the three models all start with "T", it is also commonly known as the "Three T" ship-to-air missile system.

Among them, the Beagle and Tatar are medium-range and short-range missiles respectively, with a firing height of almost 10,000 meters, while the Brass Knight is a big guy that uses a ramjet engine.

The Brass Knight air defense missile, formerly codenamed SAM-N8, is the earliest and most powerful long-range, medium- and high-altitude ship-borne air defense missile system developed by the US Navy. It is mainly used for fleet air defense to deal with attacks from various aircraft. The maximum range is 120 kilometers and the firing height is 3 to 26.5 kilometers.

However, for the MiG-25, which can easily climb to an altitude of 30,000 meters, all the air defense missiles of the US fleet are out of reach. This is why Andre can boldly use the MiG-25 for reconnaissance.

In order to prevent threats, the US aircraft carrier formation this time included two cruisers equipped with Brass Knight missiles, the CG-11 "Chicago" heavy cruiser and the CLG-5 "Oklahoma" missile cruiser.

At this time, on the Chicago at the front of the formation, the SPS-43 search radar was undertaking the formation's main air search mission. Unfortunately, the maximum search distance of this radar was no more than 200 kilometers, and its air surveillance was limited. It was far from the 400-kilometer detection distance of the later Aegis system.

Therefore, the fleet did not find the target, but the Hokkaido base discovered an aircraft flying from the sky over Sakhalin Island. Judging from the opponent's radar reflection wave, the echo was very large, and it should be a large aircraft, such as the Tu-95RT "Bear-D" reconnaissance aircraft. Judging from the opponent's flight route, it is very likely to come to the southern waters of Kunashir Island to cause trouble for our aircraft carrier formation.

"Well done!" said Colonel Ted. "A Soviet reconnaissance plane dares to mess with our aircraft carrier formation! We might as well knock it down!"

Last year, the U.S. Air Force was in a very bad state when one of its EP-3 reconnaissance planes was hit by the Soviets and forced to land at a Soviet base. Afterwards, the Soviets actually denied it and refused to hand over the reconnaissance plane and the personnel on it. All this made the Americans extremely angry. Now, the opportunity for revenge has finally come!

The Soviets actually launched reconnaissance planes to investigate their own aircraft carrier formation and simply crashed them down!

The Russian bear is very tough, and our pilots are no pushovers either!

Hearing Colonel Ted's words, Lieutenant General Jonard frowned. Would this ruin his plan? However, it didn't matter. If the Soviet planes flew over his head and he remained indifferent, it would be a disgrace to the US Navy.

"Mr. Lieutenant General, what do you think?" asked Colonel Steve, the captain of the aircraft carrier.

"I am not involved in this specific combat operation. This belongs to fleet air defense and it is up to you to decide," said Lieutenant General Jonard.

"Yes." Colonel Steve said, "Attention, deck, launch two Tomcat fighters! Head due north and prepare to intercept! Power compartment, increase the speed of the aircraft carrier to 20 knots. All warships, pay attention, prepare the anti-aircraft missiles!"

Shit! We are finally going to fight the Soviets at sea. Everyone is very excited. There is not even a blue team in this exercise. It is too boring. This Soviet reconnaissance plane flying over is simply an appetizer for our side!

Following his orders, the entire formation accelerated eastward, thick black smoke came out of the aircraft carrier's boilers, and the speed continued to increase.

Kitty Hawk is not a modified World War II aircraft carrier. It is a genuine aircraft carrier built with post-World War II thinking! The catapults installed can fully allow heavy air superiority fighters such as Tomcat fighters to take off. However, the current weather is too bad. In order for the Tomcat fighter to take off safely, the aircraft carrier still needs to provide a greater initial velocity and increase the deck wind. However, as the speed increases, the warship will shake violently. In this case, 20 knots is the best choice.

The cruising speed just now was only fifteen knots. Now, as the aircraft carrier speeds up, the personnel on the deck also begin to get busy.

Two Tomcat fighters were towed over from the parking area on one side of the bridge, and deck crew members dressed in various colors were working intensively.

The wings slowly rotated forward to the position of minimum sweep angle, and various control surfaces were rotated to check whether they were normal. Then the huge Phoenix missile mounted under the belly of the fuselage was checked to be correctly connected. Then, the Tomcat fighter was towed to the catapult in the take-off area, the front wheel was fixed, and the rear deflector was slowly rising.

In the cockpit, Major George, a pilot of the 27th Fighter Squadron of the 5th Carrier Air Wing of the United States, looked at his wingman Captain William on another catapult next to him, stretched out his hand and clenched it into a fist.

The other party also made the same move.

"Kitty, Kitty, Boxer requesting takeoff," George called on the radio.

"You can take off for interception mission. There are no early warning aircraft. Keep your eyes open." An order came into my ears.

"Got it." George looked at the gestures of the people on the ground and sent back a familiar signal. Then, he adjusted the thrust of the two rear TF30 engines to maximum.

When the guide squatted down and stretched his arms forward, George felt a huge push and for a moment, he felt dizzy.

The aircraft carrier was surrounded by steam. The huge Tomcat fighter plane accelerated away from the deck under the combined effect of its own power and the catapult. When it left the runway, the fuselage first fell down and then flew up again.

Take off and meet the enemy!