Chapter 334 Eagle over the South China Sea
June 30, 14:30.
Lingshui Airport, Qiong Province.
In the afternoon light, six tactical aircraft were parked on the tarmac next to the runway, lined up.
The surrounding ground staff are skillfully connecting cables and compressed air pipes to the aircraft from the power supply truck and air supply truck parked nearby, preparing to complete the preparations before takeoff.
A little further away, four J-8D fighter jets belonging to the Air Force were undergoing a similar process in the hangar.
Since the Air Force model aircraft have not specifically considered the use in a salt spray environment in the painting and surface treatment of some parts, they will appear more vulnerable at such seaside airports, so they put the four sides of the host The J-8C was squeezed into the temporary parking area.
The two large IL-78 tankers, which also belong to the Air Force, do not have the facilities to match their size, so they had to be wrapped in raincoats and parked outside.
According to the plan, in order to avoid coordination problems caused by cross-service command, these Air Force aircraft will not directly participate in the combat plan, but will go to a location about 650 kilometers south of Qiongdao to establish a refueling area to handle the return process. A naval aviation formation short of fuel.
At the same time, the flight briefing room is located under the tower at the end of the runway.
Nearly 40 crew members involved in the embankment building operation had just finished lunch and began preparations for the flight.
Everyone has already become familiar with the relevant mission details through countless trainings and simulations.
Compared with the earliest plan, the biggest change is that in the past month or so, the 172nd Factory and the Electronics 14th Institute have exerted amazing efficiency to complete the modification and testing of the second J-H aircraft. Dian-7 was delivered to the troops ahead of schedule, giving the attack formation more flexible operating space.
Therefore, a total of 6 aircraft will be split into two parts when approaching the opponent's Wave 97 fleet.
Division Commander Tang Yiping will fly No. 10, and lead another No. 11 and the newly delivered electronic warfare aircraft with tactical number 21 to maintain the original flight altitude to attract the attention of the enemy fleet.
The other two J-8Cs, plus the first J-Handian-7 with tactical number 22, will descend to ultra-low altitude at a distance of 50-60 kilometers from the target. They are the most important and risky in performing this mission. The mission - fly over the opposing fleet and photograph the British reaction.
Captain Wang Wei’s No. 12 aircraft will carry a photographic reconnaissance pod in the belly to record the entire process.
An hour later, at 3:30 in the afternoon, the pilots who had finally determined their respective missions completed the change and boarded their own planes.
As a suspect, a Y-8J first started its engine and taxied to the runway.
According to the operational concept, it has no self-defense capability and will not fly directly into the mission airspace. Instead, it will hover at the edge of the combat radius of the Sea Harrier aircraft, attracting the attention of enemy carrier aviation, and if necessary, it will Under such circumstances, the water-searching 2000MS radar imported from the UK was used to indicate targets for friendly forces.
Although the 164 Jingjiang ship and the 552 Rongzhou ship that left port five days ago are already close to the mission sea area, they will complete the search and tracking of the enemy fleet, and may not necessarily need an aircraft with an already tight range to find needles in the haystack, but this 8J is actually It also shoulders the task of conducting a tactical training exercise at a higher level.
That is to simulate an early warning aircraft and command the other six naval aviation aircraft that are directly involved in the battle.
Of course, the command is also simulated, and the real orders will always be issued by the tower at Lingshui Airport.
But for the Chinese Air Force, which was exposed to air command posts for the first time, this was a huge leap.
For this reason, Kang Shijun, deputy chief of staff of the Naval Aviation Department, who had just recovered from serious injuries and returned to the team, specially boarded the plane to take charge.
"Set the call channel to 55.7 MHz."
The instructions from the tower came from the earphones.
"Received."
Wang Wei in the cockpit of Unit 12 spoke calmly, and at the same time adjusted the radio frequency to the position required by the tower.
This is a band commonly used for ionospheric scattering communications.
It is impossible for the Chinese Navy to deploy a data link system within a month, so direct communication between the escort fleet and the aviation force is still not possible. However, thanks to a communication relay airship placed at high altitude in the name of "meteorological research", The tower can act as a communication medium between the two.
After finishing what he was doing, he raised his head again and watched the Y-8J leave the runway and disappear into the distant horizon.
That is exactly the direction due east.
Wang Wei knew that just 700 kilometers away, a ceremony that all Chinese people had been waiting for nearly a century was being prepared intensively, and the sacrifices they had made in the previous month and in the next few hours were being made. The ultimate goal of all efforts is to protect this.
At any cost.
...
"Yuejiang received news from the fleet ahead. They came into contact with an RN warship at 9°08' north latitude and 112°12' east longitude. It was determined to be a Type 22 frigate, and the radar The target signals of four fixed-wing aircraft were captured after taking off. "Yuejiang received it."
Tang Yiping's voice was already difficult to maintain calmness.
Although the opponent's main fleet was not directly captured, since even the low-altitude search radar on the 051D could see the Sea Harrier that had just taken off, it meant that the aircraft carrier was not far away. It's time to take off.
The six long-prepared aircraft started their engines almost simultaneously.
The pipelines connected to the aircraft body were then quickly removed.
"Yuejiang, please take off."
"Permission to take off, and I wish you a triumphant return."
The 12 engines roared simultaneously and drove onto the taxiway one after another.
The three planes led by Tang Yiping took off first, and then it was the turn of the other three planes led by Wang Wei.
After finally entering the take-off position, the latter took a deep breath and then put on an oxygen mask.
Due to his excellent performance during the training in Qingtang Province, he was finally selected to carry out the photo-taking mission with a reconnaissance pod.
This is what Wang Wei has dreamed of since joining the embankment operation task force.
As a pilot, his cultural level is higher than that of the soldiers on warships or tanks, so he knows that the Chinese Navy and the Royal Navy are closely related.
Although it is not a good thing.
Not just that one time in 1840.
Also in 1953, the newly born People's Navy used a gunboat converted from a transport ship to drive away an RN ship trying to stir up trouble outside the mouth of the Guangdong River.
That was the navy’s first foreign war after its establishment.
Now, more than forty years later, he is more than willing to teach the short-memory British a lesson once again.
Wang Wei slowly pushed the throttle valve to the end with his left hand, and then released the brake.
As the body of the aircraft shook slightly, the fighter jet began to accelerate rapidly.
After just a few hundred meters, he felt the plane's strong tendency to raise its head, so he pulled up the plane.
The captain looked back and made sure that his wingman Zhao Yi had also taken off with him.
Only the No. 22 JH-7 was still taxiing on the runway.
But this was originally part of their training results.
Three aircraft of two types share the same runway.
Although it has been about 4 months since he installed this new aircraft, Wang Wei still feels an unreal feeling every time he takes off.
The performance improvement is too obvious.
In the previous confrontation training, when faced with the combination of the Blue Army's J-7E and J-8D, they could not fall behind in one against two.
Although the appearance is not much different from the J-8B he drove in the past, as a pilot, he can feel that these are two completely different models on the inside.
The new J-8C does not have the clumsiness that an interceptor should show at low altitudes and during takeoff and landing.
Even though it now carries two auxiliary fuel tanks, a photo reconnaissance pod and two of nearly four air-to-air missiles, it can still take off with only a short runway.
Engines with more thrust certainly play a role.
But it is said that most of this is due to the slit on the leading edge of the wing.
“If this is indeed the case, then the designer is really a genius, using such a simple method to solve the most troublesome problem on the old model.”
Wang Wei turned his attention back to Put it back straight ahead, and thought like this while retracting the landing gear.
Deputy Chief of Staff Kang Shijun encountered an accident during a flight training in August 1996 and was injured while parachuting.
This name may not be familiar to book friends, but you must have heard of a young pilot student named Dai Mingmeng in the back seat of the J-6 he was driving.
(End of this chapter)