bullyxtreme Chapter 320 Phoenix Active Missile, Beyond Visual Range Air Strike
Chapter 320 Phoenix Active Missile, Beyond Visual Range Air Strike
This time, the Royal Air Force of England has almost mobilized its elite aviation forces from the Black Sea and Central and Eastern Europe regions.
These more than 200 fighter planes consisted of Spitfire fighters and Lancaster heavy bombers.
The Spitfire and Lancaster bombers were both one of England's current main fighter aircraft, and also their last piston propeller aircraft models.
A transitional model in the jet fighter series.
Currently, the new turbojet engine independently developed by England has entered the trial production stage, and its performance may not be as good as the J-86 engine on the FC-47.
But it also reached the level of the Jumo-262 used by the ME004 Feiyan, reaching a thrust of nearly one ton.
It is foreseeable that within a few years, there will be jet fighters with performance not inferior to that of FC-86.
But this is the future. Now, apart from the jet fighters purchased from ancient countries, the main equipment is still propeller fighters.
All countries are now in the transition period between piston aircraft and jet aircraft.
In the dark night, under the escort of Spitfire fighters, the Lancaster heavy bomber fleet flew north at an altitude of 2000 meters.
"Will our bombing of Lai this time be intercepted by the ancient country's planes?"
They simply didn't have the courage to face the ancient country's air force.
Because they know very well how big the gap is between their own propeller fighters and jet fighters.
"That's why we choose to bomb at night. Unless they possess vampire eyes, they won't have any good way to deal with our attacks."
"God bless us, and I hope our operation can be successfully completed."
The anxious English crew members began to pray.
As time passed, the English fleet did not encounter any interception and approached Rai smoothly.
However, the ancient country's air force had already predicted their prediction.
Or perhaps he had already known their plan.
The RC-135 electronic reconnaissance aircraft intercepted and deciphered a secret message during an operation.
This secret telegram was sent by the China-Saudi Arabia Command.
It contains the action plan and time for attacking Salihan International Airport.
Therefore, the Southwest Military Region Air Force has already dispatched three E-3A Sentry early warning aircraft, an F-15 Eagle fighter squadron and an F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron to the base in advance.
The E-3A Sentry strategic early warning aircraft on duty over Rye discovered the traces of the English night attack aircraft group when they were still 400 kilometers away.
“发现目标机群，方位13、数量218架、高度1800-2500米、飞行时速270。
The 121st Squadron will be responsible for the frontal strike, while the 125th Squadron will split into two groups and encircle the enemy from both sides, ensuring that all incoming aircraft are destroyed."
第121中队正是F-14雄猫战机中队，第125中队则是F-15战斗机中队，各装备24架战机。
The AWACS arrangement allows the F-14 to act as a long-range sniper, launching beyond-visual-range strikes from tens of kilometers away.
Then F-15 fighter jets swooped in from both wings, completely encircled the enemy and ended the battle.
At Salihan International Airport, F-14 and F-15 fighter jets took off urgently from two runways.
30 minutes later, both squadrons were ready for battle.
The English night attack aircraft group was completely unaware of the approaching danger.
The AIM-54 'Phoenix' active air-to-air missile is an active air-to-air missile designed specifically for the F-14 Tomcat and cannot be carried by other fighter jets.
Even the F-14 Tomcat fighter, which is huge, can only carry six missiles at a time.
All 28 F-14 Tomcats that took off this time were equipped with 6 Phoenix air-to-air missiles.
Under the cover of night, one F-14 Tomcat fighter after another entered the attack position under the guidance of the E-3A early warning aircraft.
At this moment, the F-14's AWG-9 pulse Doppler radar has scanned this large fleet.
The outside is full of targets with small signal reflections, and they are not stable.
However, in the middle are some targets with strong reflection signals, and the signals are very stable.
And this is exactly what they are attacking.
"Swarm detected, requesting target assignment."
The purpose of doing this is to prevent two fighter jets from locking onto the same target, thereby enabling precise air strikes.
In the E-3A Sentry early warning aircraft, all system operators became busy and began to assign targets to each fighter.
"Target assignment guidance complete. Information transmitted via tactical data link. All aircraft are free to fire."
As the data sent down the data link reached the fighter's display screen, the weapons operator in the back seat of the Tomcat fighter also saw information about the attack target.
The E-3A Sentry early warning aircraft can track 200 targets simultaneously.
Therefore, 24 fighter jets will directly launch a saturation air strike.
"Target locked, fire!"
As the weapons were deployed, one huge AIM-54 Phoenix missile after another took off the rack and ignited in the air.
Soon, missiles with brilliant tail flames were seen whizzing away at an extremely fast speed, as bright as a meteor shower.
24 F-14A Tomcat fighter jets also launched 144 missiles at one time.
This was also the first time that the ancient country launched a saturation air strike against the enemy.
But it would be more accurate to call it an aerial massacre.
The AIM-54 Phoenix missile has an extremely high flight speed, with a maximum speed of Mach 5 and an effective range of 135 kilometers.
The guidance method adopts pre-programmed initial stage, semi-active guidance in the middle stage, and active pulse Doppler homing in the final stage.
This also means that the carrier aircraft needs to keep locked onto the target before the missile's active radar is turned on.
At an altitude of more than 2 meters, the tail flames of the missile group began to gradually disappear.
Because the missile's fuel has been exhausted at this time, the missile can only rely on inertia to fly.
Under the continuous radar scanning of the carrier aircraft, the missile group consisting of more than 100 missiles began to lower its altitude.
When the missile is about 20 kilometers away from the target aircraft group, the DSQ-26 missile-borne active radar is turned on.
In less than a second, the missile locked onto the target.
At this time, the carrier aircraft no longer needs to guide the missile's flight.
With the adjustment of posture, the missiles began to rapidly decrease in altitude.
The Lancaster heavy bombers flying at an altitude of about 2000 meters continued to fly forward, with the entire fleet maintaining lights and radio silence.
But at this time, one Phoenix air-to-air missile after another, transformed into the god of death, fell from the sky.
The Lancaster bomber seemed to deliberately crash into the missile.
As the Doppler proximity fuse activated, flames began to bloom in the air.
The linked high-energy explosive warhead burst out with violent energy.
The huge Lancaster heavy bomber was directly turned into a sieve.
The fuselage was easily torn apart, and the crew members were torn into pieces by the railing warhead before they could react.
Some bombers were even cut in half.
Even the B-60 can't withstand a 52-kilogram warhead, let alone a propeller bomber like the Lancaster.
The missiles were like fireworks exploding in the night sky, and the bombers and the fragments produced by the disintegration fell like raindrops.
The sudden attack gave the English pilots no time to react.
They only saw a burst of fire exploding next to the fighter plane, and then their fighter plane was easily torn apart.
The sustained strike lasted less than 20 seconds, except for 37 lucky Lancasters.
A total of 132 Lancasters were shot down.
Only 12 missiles failed to hit their targets for unknown reasons.
However, under such intensive saturation attacks, the hit rate is as high as 91.6%, which is already a very good result.
The English night attack aircraft group was immediately thrown into chaos.
They didn't even see what was attacking them.
Then, in just 20 seconds, the bombers began to rain down.
Almost wiped out their bomber fleet.
The Spitfire fighters that served as escorts were fine.
Such a strange scene left the English pilots stunned.
Many pilots scanned their surroundings with fearful eyes, fearing that they would be the next to be attacked.
The F-14 squadrons had completed their mission, destroying most of the bombers.
The F-15 Eagle fighter jets that have been in place begin to put on the finishing touches.
As a single-seat air superiority fighter, the F-15's main weapons are the AIM-7F Sparrow medium-range missile and the AIM-9 Sidewinder combat missile.
The F-15 fighter has a total of 11 mounting points. Except for the two outer AIM-9 Sidewinders, the rest are all AIM-7F Sparrow medium-range missiles.
Their target was the remaining bombers and Spitfires.
However, at this time, many fighter jets had already begun to turn around and flee.
So the F-15 fighter squadron also began to speed up the pursuit.
From time to time, an AIM-7F Sparrow would fly off the launcher at medium range and roar into the night.
For a missile with an effective range of 40 kilometers and a maximum flight speed of Mach 4.
Even if the Spitfires accelerated to 700 kilometers per hour, they could not escape unless they chose to fly close to the ground and use ground clutter to avoid attack.
But it was clear that the English pilots did not know how to do this.
"boom...."
One Sparrow missile after another caught up with the target, and the 40-kilogram warhead could directly blow the Spitfire apart in the air.
Even the Lancaster bomber was no exception.
For a heavy bomber with an empty weight of only 16 tons, it is only slightly more than the F-12 with an empty weight of 15 tons.
How could it bear a 40kg warhead?
Fighter planes were shot down one after another.
However, a very small number of fighter planes managed to escape pursuit by luck.
According to statistics, out of the 218 targets, 209 were shot down and only 9 were missing.
The only fighters that actually escaped the attack were three Spitfire fighters.
Among the six aircraft, four collided and crashed, and two crashed due to improper operation.
When the two surviving Spitfires returned to the airport in Babylon, they caused a huge shock.
Admiral Nelson couldn't even believe his ears.
218 fighter jets were dispatched, but only 2 returned.
In less than 20 minutes, the fleet was suddenly attacked.
During this process, they didn't even see a fighter plane from the ancient country before they were suddenly shot down by weapons that came from nowhere.
And there were only a few pilots and crew members who survived.
Because the missile warhead is too powerful.
In just one round, Admiral Nelson felt the power of the ancient country.
At this time, he suddenly became unconfident about this flood operation.
But he still gave the order to attack early the next morning.
The English Royal Army and its vassal troops assembled on the border launched a massive attack.