Chapter 1047 A Brand New Form of Air Combat!

2003, March 6.

Hao Jing, Yan Liang.

The weather is fine.

For an airport like Yanliang, which mainly caters to aircraft manufacturers and flight test institutes, it is rare to see such a "spectacular" scene.

After all, even if multiple models are tested here, considering the command department's capacity, it is almost impossible for multiple aircraft to take off at the same time.

But today, the situation is completely different.

On the tarmac, dozens of support vehicles and hundreds of ground crews were busy conducting various inspections and preparations for takeoff for more than a dozen aircraft of different models.

In addition to the most conspicuous Air Police 2000, there are also 4 J-11B/BS, 4 J-10A/AS and 3 J-7A.

Judging from the current production speed of China's military aircraft, this is almost all the new aircraft delivered in the past half year from August last year to now.

Without exception, all are equipped with data link receiving antennas during production, so they can be incorporated into the command system of the early warning aircraft.

As for those produced earlier...

There is no other way but to wait for the mid-term return to the factory and install it again.

As for those older models earlier than the J-8C, they are limited by the basic hardware level and there is no possibility of undergoing this transformation.

Obviously, these eleven aircraft will serve as "friendly forces" in today's test flight to test the communication, control and command capabilities of Air Police 2000.

At ten o'clock in the morning, following the flight commander's order, the first Air Police 2000 aircraft slowly slid out from the tarmac and came to the waiting area to prepare for takeoff.

Since the climb rate and speed of large aircraft are low, and the wake turbulence during takeoff may affect subsequent aircraft, for efficiency reasons, the other 11 fighter jets will take off 15 minutes later.

On the other side, for the first time today, Chang Haonan and others did not wait at the control center of the tower to watch the test flight as usual.

Instead, it appeared next to a communications vehicle on an SX2190 chassis.

There are already data links and relay communication airships anyway, so adding a ground terminal in addition to the 11 aircraft to check the situation is also a matter of piggybacking.

As a result, Chang Haonan, Wang Xiaomo and others became the first lucky ones in China to directly witness information-based air combat...

Half an hour later, 12 aircraft completed their assembly in four reserved airspaces——

In order to test the effective range of data link relay communications to the maximum extent, three types of combat aircraft were arranged in three airspaces about 80-100 kilometers apart.

Among them, the J-10 and J-11 each flew in the same direction at an altitude of 8,000 meters, roughly forming a straight wall in the air to simulate the interception of air targets in an entire area.

The JH-7 cuts in from another direction below 1,500 meters, simulating ground attack aircraft operating at low altitudes and interfering with ground targets on the battlefield.

Air Police 2000, which serves as a command post, hovers alone about 120 kilometers away from the first three.

Considering that the AIM120B that our army mainly faces only has a range of about 70 kilometers and the no-escape zone is even shorter, this position can basically ensure the safety of the early warning aircraft itself.

Of course, in actual combat, early warning aircraft, as high-value targets, will also have their own dedicated escort fleet.

But this is a test after all, not an exercise, and the Chinese Air Force currently has only 11 fighters equipped with data links, so it won’t be wasted on simulated escorts...

…

The targets that the early warning aircraft will detect are a group of J-7B fighter jets taking off from an airport in the northwest——

Although its own performance has fallen behind, thanks to its clean and simple appearance, the RCS of the MiG-21/J-7 is not too large when mounted without wings.

Compared with a target drone whose target features are too small, the corner reflector is too obvious, and cannot fly too high or too fast, sometimes it is a better test object.

Chang Haonan even thought about whether to refer to the American QF4 and QF16 target drones in the future and convert a batch of retired J-7s into professional unmanned target drones.

This can even be used for live-fire testing...

In short, for a mechanical scanning radar with the technical level of the 1473/1493 in the 1990s, it may have to be 150 kilometers away from the target, or even closer, to stably detect the two J-7 twin formations attacking from the opposite direction.

This distance is naturally enough for firing medium-range projectiles, but it is too short if you want to control the overall situation in advance.

Moreover, the scanning range of the nose radar is also very limited, and is only effective within a cone-shaped area of ​​approximately 40-60° directly ahead of the heading.

For example, right now, the two four-machine formations at the front are facing exactly this situation.

Because before taking off, they did not receive the specific direction information of the target's incoming attack, and they are currently only searching generally towards the west.

In the cockpit of one of the J-10s, the lead pilot Xu Wenzhao was scanning the left and right sides of the aircraft.

Although he knew that it was impossible for those MiG-21s to break into positions within his visual range, as a Chinese pilot, he was used to fighting alone or with several aircraft of the same type.

In this case, detection blind spots are simply impossible to avoid.

Therefore, always paying attention to the situation around him has become a habit engraved in his bones.

If the flight plan does not allow it, he will even roll every once in a while to observe the blind spots below and behind the aircraft.

As for the big guy following behind, of course he knew it was powerful in theory, but he didn't have any particularly practical feeling.

"Qinling Squadron, report your respective situations!"

Xu Wenzhao said habitually to the radio.

During this test, the HF radio station used for long-distance calls was strictly required to only receive and not transmit, so it was unable to communicate with the early warning aircraft or the other two fighter groups.

However, in order to ensure basic flight safety, UHF radio stations used for short distances are still fully usable.

Soon, the deputy squadron leader and two wingmen responded respectively, but no target was found.

This result was not what Xu Wenzhao expected.

After all, if four planes line up and point in the same direction, the radar search ranges are actually about the same.

This made him feel a little awkward.

He even wanted to direct his four aircraft to fan out to cover a range of approximately 180° in the northwest direction.

Of course, this is clearly not allowed in the flight plan.

"Squadron leader, we have been in the mission airspace for more than ten minutes, but we haven't even detected the shadow of the target..."

The voice of wingman weapons control officer Duan Su Hao came from the radio:

"Is it possible that the early warning aircraft has detected the target, but because the high-frequency radio is turned off, it cannot notify us?"

As the useless backseat ballast on this flight, he had reason to be bored.

Xu Wenzhao lowered his head and glanced at the multi-function display.

No target appeared on it.

"Before takeoff, the technical staff said that the targets detected by the early warning aircraft will be directly shared with our aircraft..."

He didn't give a direct answer, but went around a bit.

However, Duan Suhao still felt something was wrong:

"But if this is the case, even if the target has not entered the detection range, at least the 11 aircraft on our side should be able to display it... But now there is nothing?"

This question made the four pilots' hearts sink.

Because they have to constantly pay attention to the flight situation, they don't have much time to think about this.

But after being reminded by Duan Suhao, they all felt that what he said seemed to make sense.

If the data link is really that magical, it should at least let us know where the friendly forces are, right?

But now the multi-function display is empty...

In fact, what they don't know is that this is part of the test -

In order to obtain data from the experimental group and the control group at the same time during a test flight, the data link and command system will be turned off by default and will not be remotely activated until a specific time during the flight.

And just right.

This "specific time" is now.

Just when Xu Wenzhao raised his head and was about to say something again, Duan Suhao's excited voice suddenly came:

"Report to the squadron leader, the monitor is responding!"

The former lowered his head subconsciously and found that a dozen symbols of different shapes appeared slightly abruptly on the multi-function display that was empty just now.

Almost instantly, he judged the meanings of those symbols.

A hollow diamond undoubtedly represents an early warning aircraft.

Four solid dots and four triangles represent two different types of friendly fighters.

The height of the three hollow inverted triangles after selection is only 2300, indicating that they are the three JH-7A.

Then, the remaining four T-shaped marks flying at high speed on the side of their formation are undoubtedly...

"My formation is in the direction of 270, 200km, two batches, four targets!"

He shouted over the radio almost instinctively.

Then prepare to assign interception missions to the four aircraft of this squadron.

However, before he could even say his next sentence, the information on the multi-function display increased again——

Eight dotted lines appeared between eight friendly fighter jets and four "enemy jets."

If you look carefully, you will find that there are exactly two corresponding to each enemy aircraft.

Moreover, they are all the closest.

Xu Wenzhao's order was stuck in his throat——

He suddenly realized that even the first sentence he just shouted could only serve as an emphasis, not a command.

Because the information on the display was far more accurate than what he conveyed by voice.

As for the more complicated command commands, there was no chance to even shout them out...

Although his whole body was wrapped in a thick flight suit, Xu Wenzhao still felt a chill down his spine at this moment——

It’s completely a dimensionality reduction blow!

Not to mention there are four J-7s on the opposite side.

Even if fighter jets and early warning aircraft are used with exactly the same model and quantity, the efficiency and accuracy of traditional command methods will still be crushed by this new combat form...