Chapter 38 Shooting Down the F-4

Now, although there is still some distance from the carrier aircraft, under the explosion, the F-4 fighter plane was like a kite with its string cut in the wind. The whole body shook, and a cloud of black smoke came out of the tail. Then, with a loud bang, the whole plane turned into a fireball!

In order to increase the power, the warheads of air-to-air missiles are all fragmented. After the explosion, the flying fragments will become powerful weapons. A fighter plane will crash if it hits a bird, not to mention being scratched by the sharp fragments.

As for the F-4 fighter just now, because it released the infrared jamming bomb too late, the decoyed R-40 missile exploded too close to the tail of the aircraft. The huge warhead still killed the F-4 fighter, and the result was a failed operation to avoid the missile attack.

The two members didn't have time to eject and turned into fireballs along with the fighter plane. At this time, Major Dick no longer had time to observe a moment of silence for his wingman. As the sound of being locked by radar came from his headset, the MiG-25 fighter plane on the opposite side launched another missile and flew towards him!

The other party acted so quickly!

Before departure, Andre's fighter plane was equipped with four missiles, two R-60s and two R-40s. The two R-40s were equipped with one infrared seeker and one semi-active radar seeker.

In actual combat, due to the backwardness of the Soviet Union's electronic technology, the performance of the semi-active seeker was limited, so in the later period, the R-40 with a semi-active radar seeker was eliminated.

Now, after Andre launched the infrared-guided R-40, he used radar to launch the radar-guided R-40R. He did not expect this missile to kill the enemy, but only hoped to force the enemy to escape and leave him the ass.

After discovering the incoming missile, Major Dick did not panic but intercepted it head-on. The radar warning receiver also made a sound. It seemed that this was a semi-active radar missile. Due to the backward electronic technology of the Soviets, the hit rate of this interception method was very low.

In the example just now, Major Dick continuously released platinum bars while turning sideways. The platinum bars would bring a large number of radar reflection waves, making it impossible for the opponent's radar to process a large amount of data and causing the missile to be unlocked. Turning sideways is an effective way to get rid of the pulse Doppler radar.

What? The Tornado-A radar equipped on the MiG-25 fighter does not have a pulse Doppler function? In the case of strict confidentiality and Belenko's failed defection, the United States did not know much about the MiG-25 fighter. They always thought that the Soviet Union had caught up with and surpassed the United States in many technical aspects. The pulse Doppler difficulty had certainly been overcome, and perhaps even a flat slot radar antenna was available.

Major Dick was very lucky, as the MiG-25PD he faced, that of Andre, was equipped with a pulse Doppler radar.

As Major Dick turned sideways and released a large number of platinum bars, Andre's radar screen was filled with snowflakes, and the target had disappeared.

He had never expected that this radar-guided R-40R would work, and now seeing the opponent turning sideways, Andre pushed the joystick without hesitation and followed behind the opponent.

Hold on! Let the R-60 missile lock on to the target and get closer! Andre followed behind the opponent to create an opportunity for the missile to lock on to the target.

The F-4 fighter in front seemed to realize that it was being bitten on the tail, so it did not turn on the afterburner and pointed its nose downward, continuously losing altitude.

If it was the R-73 missile with a large off-axis launch capability, Andre could easily press the button, launch the missile, and then retreat, but now, the infrared seeker of the R-60 missile has a 5° reconnaissance angle limit. Only after locking the target, the seeker tracks the target with a search balance ring of 30 to 35 degrees.

Andre must keep the opponent within five degrees of the axis of his fuselage and maintain this range for more than two seconds before the missile can lock onto the target!

During the fierce pursuit, Andre's mind was quite clear. The opponent was leading him to low altitude. Although the F-4 fighter was designed with emphasis on high altitude and high speed, its low altitude performance was also quite good, far surpassing his MiG-25. The air was dense at low altitude, causing the MiG-25 to have the problem of excessive aerodynamic torque at any time, and it had to be operated with caution.

So, after carefully tracking for twenty seconds, when seeing that the altitude had dropped below seven thousand meters, Andre gave up the pursuit, turned on the afterburner, and started to accelerate and climb again.

It's time to return!

The MiG-25 is like a ranger in the sky, alone and seeking to defeat the enemy.

As long as the MiG-25 wants to leave, no one can stop it!

Andre retreated at the right time. Four F-4 fighter jets from the US Air Force base in the rear had already rushed towards the sea area, ready to encircle and annihilate Andre's lonely plane. When Andre rushed to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, they stopped chasing him.

Major Dick had jumped to a low altitude in a panic, his back was soaked. When the early warning aircraft told him that the MiG-25 chasing him had flown to a high altitude and was returning, he resumed level flight, untied his oxygen mask, and gasped for breath.

The enemy kept following him and he couldn't get rid of them no matter what. Several times, Major Dick had a premonition that the enemy was going to launch a missile. This was the sea, and even if he ejected, he would probably have a hard time being rescued.

Now, the other party finally flew away, and everything was over. That MiG-25 and that Soviet pilot were so terrible!

While he was catching his breath, four F-4 fighter jets had already arrived and were flying around Major Dick. Major Dick pulled the joystick and followed the fighter jets. This welcoming operation had failed!

They had originally planned to uncover the secret of the MiG-25 based on its defection, but who could have imagined that the Soviets would catch up and launch missiles to shoot down the defecting fighter!

Once again, they failed to gain an advantage! The U.S. troops stationed in Japan have experienced failure again and again!

The news reached Yokota, and faced with the result of failure, Lieutenant General Paul was furious.

"What is Major Dick doing? Why didn't he rush to meet the defecting plane earlier? And why didn't the E-2 early warning aircraft take off earlier to monitor the airspace?" Lieutenant General Paul shouted, "Who made such a bad plan?"

The angry Lieutenant General Paul was very scary. His subordinates dared not breathe a word, and no one would say that it was Lieutenant General Paul's idea. What if the Soviets defected here? What if it was a trap? The E-2 early warning aircraft was launched for monitoring. There might be danger. Just like last time, it would be enough to send two F-4s!

Now, the plan has failed and Lieutenant General Paul has forgotten the original situation.

"Actually, we haven't failed yet." A voice came from the corner.