Chapter 379 Calculation

Under the order of Vice Admiral Guterres, the 13th Federation Fleet began to gradually disperse from the dense assault formation and switch to the arc-shaped artillery formation.

The battleships and heavy cruisers, which were the absolute main force in the artillery battle, also opened the heat sinks originally stored on both sides of the rear half of the battleships.

Compared with the gorgeous "Angel Wings" of the Star Dragon Empire Royal Navy, the heat sinks of the Federation Navy ships are relatively simple, at least in appearance, they do not have the "gorgeous" feeling of the other side.

In this process, although the relative speed of the entire fleet and the Atlas fleet will be affected, it will even be reduced.

However, in Guterres's view, his fleet does not lack such a little time for pursuit.

After all, the Atlas fleet has been pinned down in the planetary orbit, which is basically equivalent to meat on the chopping board. If they want to leave here and try to enter the jump, the first thing to do is to change orbit to a high orbit.

But if it does so, the fleet will be within the attack range of the federal fleet for a long time.

According to the information of the enemy and our fleets obtained by Guterres, if the Atlas fleet dares to do so, it will definitely suffer heavy losses under the salvo of the federal army.

At present, the commander of the other fleet is obviously aware of this, so he has been leading the 13th federal fleet in orbit, obviously delaying time.

Now at this juncture, it is estimated that he has found that he can't drag it on, so he is ready to break the jar and turn around to fight.

Guterres believes that he has completely grasped the mentality of the commander of the other fleet, and it also gave him a kind of confidence that "everything is under control".

Although there have been emergencies in the previous battles, and even watched an orbital attack ship detachment being destroyed by a single aircraft under the escort of a cruiser.

But he believes that there cannot be many such heaven-defying existences in the Atlas fleet, otherwise it would not be chased like it is now.

In addition, the "killer god" has now entered the atmosphere and headed for the surface, so the next headache is the ground forces. He and his naval fleet only need to enjoy the joy of completely crushing the enemy.

"Report! Anti-ship missiles and torpedoes launched by the enemy have entered the fleet's air defense circle!"

On the bridge, the voice of the tactical information coordinator interrupted Guterres's thinking. Looking at the torpedoes coming from the front and the anti-ship missiles coming from other directions with the help of attitude control engines, the federal navy vice admiral shook his head disdainfully.

"I thought there would be some new tricks to intercept torpedoes, but he can use it. Destroyer formation, start air defense operations!"

The destroyers and frigates of the 13th Fleet have been distributed to the outer circle of the fleet after the fleet was deployed into an arc artillery formation.

After receiving the order from the flagship, they immediately "swimmed" like a school of fish, and while continuing to disperse, they began air defense operations according to their assigned air defense blocks.

Compared with air defense operations in the atmosphere, air defense operations in space have reduced the overall process and complexity.

The clean cosmic background and extremely long engagement distance. These factors make weapons such as missiles and torpedoes, as well as independent combat units such as HCP, discovered from a long distance and attacked by directed energy weapons.

Just like now, the periphery of the 13th Fleet is constantly flashing with thin laser beams and charged particle beams, as if shrouded in a wide range of light rain.

In the front hemisphere of the fleet's course, groups of fireballs are constantly exploding, announcing the failure of these anti-ship missiles and torpedoes to penetrate.

When directed energy weapons become extremely popular, the probability of traditional anti-ship missiles and torpedoes breaking through the front of the fleet's air defense network has been infinitely close to zero.

So in many cases, this type of weapon is more used for "lottery" after both sides enter the shooting stage.

Anti-ship missiles equipped with rocket engines that can continuously maintain acceleration are generally used to find weak points in the air defense network from other directions for breakthrough.

Torpedoes, weapons originally used in the ocean, have retained certain characteristics of their ancestors after entering the era of space warfare.

Large charge - replaced by plasma warheads from traditional warheads. If attacked from the side or stern of a ship, except for battleships, it can basically be paralyzed or even sunk with one shot, especially when the plasma warhead hits the plasma propulsion array at the stern, it can cause devastating blows to some small boats.

Relatively good concealment - unlike anti-ship missiles that sprint all the way with rocket engines, fearing that others don't know their position, the propellers of plasma torpedoes are only activated in the acceleration phase just launched and the sprint phase of the final attack. At other times, they sail silently according to the preset trajectory, and only maintain their track through the attitude nozzle powered by compressed gas.

In Guterres' view, the Atlas fleet on the opposite side is also a helpless move.

Their fleet commanders are obviously very clear about the gap in strength between the two sides, and know that there is no hope of winning after entering the exchange of fire.

That's why they use anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, weapons that can be fired from a long distance and don't need to be controlled, in the hope that they can steal some distracted warships like "lottery" before they are chased into the range of the bombardment.

If they are fighting against private armed forces or pirate fleets, this approach may really work wonders.

But when facing the fleet of the Federal Navy, it can't do anything except waste ammunition and let the other side know that you lack the courage to fight head-on.

No matter how bad the Federal Navy is, it is still better than the civilian armed forces in terms of combat discipline, and the air defense combat procedures written in the combat regulations will not be ignored for the sake of convenience.

"It's really a private armed force. I have dealt with other civilian armed fleets a lot on weekdays. Do you really think that the navy is as amateur as those small fish?"

The fleet combat staff looked at the air defense operations being carried out outside the fleet and said in a disdainful tone.

However, he did not wait for the response he expected from the fleet commander Guterres.

The fleet combat staff looked at Guterres calmly, and saw that the face of the vice admiral hidden behind the space suit mask was showing a trace of doubt and solemnity.

"Something is wrong"

"Admiral, is there any problem?"

"The number of torpedoes is a little too small. Look at the data sent back by the escort formation currently performing air defense operations. The other side is expected to fire less than 412 torpedoes. On average, each ship fired two torpedoes?"

Guterres pointed to the intercepted torpedo group marked on the three-dimensional schematic diagram, and the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened a little.

"Maybe they are saving ammunition? Or are they not stocked enough?"

The fleet operations staff spoke uncertainly. Although the current situation is indeed a little abnormal, it should not be a big problem in his opinion.

"Do you think that a fleet that has been forced to a dead end will save ammunition at the last moment instead of firing at full force. Or do you think that this company that can form such a large fleet and develop advanced weapons on its own cannot afford plasma torpedoes?"

"This"

After hearing Guterres say this in a slightly didactic tone, the fleet operations staff was also a little panicked.

Unfortunately, his panic was not because the actions of the opposing fleet were inexplicable, but because he was worried that his immediate superior would write him some bad comments in the annual personal performance evaluation.

Time passed for more than 20 minutes. When the Atlas fleet was slowly approaching the range of artillery fire and Guterres's doubts were growing, the tactical information coordinator reported a piece of news that made him nervous.

"At 84 degrees of the celestial north pole, 21 degrees of the ecliptic, and 18 degrees of the angle of the ecliptic plane, in the G7 area of ​​the air defense alert circle, unknown units were found! 63 in number! 3,200 kilometers in a straight line!"

"What?!"

If it weren't for the restraints on the captain's seat, Guterres might have bounced directly to the ceiling of the bridge in excitement.

He looked at the unknown units that suddenly appeared on the three-dimensional schematic diagram, his eyes full of disbelief.

A fleet that was carrying out air defense operations was actually approached to the rear hemisphere by more than 60 unknown units, and the straight line distance was only 3,200 kilometers.

"What's going on? Is the air surveillance in vain?!"

"Report to the general, the commander of the outer escort formation has sent a message. This is a group of small units and they seem to be in a stealth mode, so they were forced to this position. But he is now commanding the air defense operation."

The tactical information coordinator was interrupted by a series of alarms issued by the shipboard control personality before he finished speaking.

The next moment, more than a dozen ships in the outer escort formation also appeared in huge fireballs caused by the explosion.

"General, the air defense command ship was sunk"