Chapter 107 Dense Formation

"Altitude 20,000, speed 1,000, and still accelerating!" Almost at the same time, the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in the rear also received the pilot's report, and everyone frowned.

Damn it!

"The only target that could fly above 20,000 kilometers is the Soviet MiG-25," said Colonel Ted, the wing commander. "But the radar echo of the MiG-25 is definitely not that large. Our Tomcat fighters spotted it at a distance of 300 kilometers. Only a large target like the Tu-95 could do that."

It was so contradictory. What on earth were the Soviets doing? A Tu-95-sized aircraft with the same performance as the MiG-25? How was this possible? If the Tu-95 could fly at three times the speed of sound, then the U.S. Navy, no, the entire NATO would be in trouble, as they would be attacked by Soviet bombers at any time.

Fortunately, the voice of the radar officer of Captain William, the wingman, came over the radio later and cleared their confusion: "Damn, the target is divided into three. It's not a large Tu-95, but three MiG-25s!"

Fly in dense formation!

Since the Americans have an advantage in electromagnetics, ground radars and early warning aircraft can detect the MiG-25 flying at high altitudes from a long distance. Therefore, when setting off, the strategy that Andre formulated was to form a dense formation!

Three MiG-25s, one MiG-25R reconnaissance aircraft and two MiG-25PD fighters took off from the Kamenny Iruchii base and flew in a dense formation.

The distance between the front and the back is five meters, and the height difference is five meters. The three fighters formed a triangle formation. At this distance, they looked like a target to the ground radar station! In the Fourth Middle East War in 1973, Syrian pilots often flew like this. Although they could not escape the monitoring of Israeli early warning aircraft, the enemy could not understand the number of incoming aircraft and misjudged the number, which preserved the surprise.

However, this places very high demands on the pilots, and if they are not careful, they may collide in the air.

The MiG-25R reconnaissance plane in the front belongs to a brother unit, while the two MiG-25PDs behind, one is No. 032 piloted by Andre, and the other is No. 027 piloted by Lieutenant Alexander. Both are experienced pilots.

Just like that, after taking off from Sakhalin Island, it headed south and flew straight to Kunashir Island. During the flight, it maintained a cruising altitude of 10,000 meters and a speed of 700. It really deceived the Americans below, who thought it was a large Tu-95 reconnaissance aircraft!

Now, when they were still more than 300 kilometers away from the Americans' exercise area, the three fighters began to accelerate and climb. At the same time, the three fighters began to gradually separate. After the speed increased, the dense formation could no longer be maintained.

Three fighter planes roared in the blue sky, continued to accelerate and climb! When they reached the most suitable height and speed, they would just fly over the American aircraft carrier formation!

With brightly painted five-pointed stars, sickle and hammer emblems shining on the wings, the MiG-25 is the most advanced fighter jet in the Soviet Union!

Andrei was sitting in the cockpit, and he was even more enthusiastic about this operation. He flew over the heads of the Americans to see how they would react! Would the Americans open fire? Even if they did, they would find that they did not have any weapon that could shoot down the MiG-25!

The target of 3 times the speed of sound is the restricted area! In the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War, MiG-25s were shot down in the low-to-medium altitude airspace. If they really flew at Mach 3, the difficulty of shooting them down would increase exponentially! Even the trump card of the US Navy, the Phoenix missile, would not work!

Through the narrow field of vision of the helmet, Andre could see the distant space and the edge of the earth gradually appeared. This kind of scene that could almost only be seen on a spacecraft could now be seen clearly on the MiG-25. Every time, Andre would find it pleasing to the eye.

"Beep, beep." At this moment, alarm sounds came from the headphones.

The sound of the radar warning receiver, I have been locked!

"Report 032, illuminated by radar." Lieutenant Alexander of 027 reported.

Being illuminated by radar is not a good thing, because it means that the opponent will open fire at the next moment!

"Don't worry about him, keep climbing!" Andre said on the radio: "Fly according to the original plan, altitude and speed are our amulets!"

Altitude and speed! This was not the first time that the MiG-25 was deployed in the battlefield. During the 1973 Middle East War, the MiG-25 flew over Israeli airspace many times for reconnaissance, and the Israelis were not able to successfully intercept it once.

Now, even if we were facing an American Tomcat fighter, the result would be the same! Besides, would the Americans dare to launch missiles?

This was different from the incident in the Sea of ​​Japan. Both sides were anxious at that time, and it was normal for the Americans to shoot at them because they had shot down the defecting Belenko first. But now, they were only here to harass the Americans. If the Americans took the initiative to open fire, that would be an exception. During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union confronted each other, but they never really fought. Both sides had some unwritten customs that they had not agreed upon but abided by. For example, when they intercepted the EP-3, they could not launch missiles, but they could hit it!

"Report, the Phoenix is ​​ready to launch, requesting to launch!" On this side, on the two Tomcat fighters with high spirits, the weapon operators in the back seats requested to open fire one after another.

The Phoenix is ​​the most abnormal air-to-air missile in the U.S. Air Force. For example, its theoretical maximum range exceeds 200 kilometers. However, this range is the result of various optimizations. For example, after launching, the missile does not point directly to the target, but climbs to a high altitude first. Since the air resistance at high altitude is very small, the purpose of increasing the range is achieved.

At the same time, this is also the maximum altitude that the Phoenix missile can fly. For the current models, it can only climb to an altitude of 24,000 meters. Only the AIM-54C, which was further improved in the 1980s, increased its altitude to 30,000 meters.

At this time, the enemy is climbing rapidly and the altitude will soon exceed 24,000 meters. By then, even if we want to knock the enemy down, there will be no way!

Fire? How? Hearing the request on the radio, Steve shook his head. No!

This is the high seas. If missiles are launched on the high seas, it would be the initiative to provoke a war! Doing so is not in the interests of the United States, and there is no reason for it!

However, if they were not intercepted, the three incoming MiG-25s would definitely fly over our heads!