What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 389 Night Attack
In the still of the night, the heavy warships pushed through the sea, moving forward under the moonlight, accompanied by the sound of the waves.

During the day, the USS Morrison shot down 3 aircraft and the USS Mitchell shot down 1, but neither warship was entirely sure whether these were truly kills.
Its radar cross-section was very small, roughly the same as that of a Cessna light aircraft. When tallying the results after shooting it down, the two captains were debating whether the three remaining aircraft were planes or sea-skimming missiles.

However, Fern firmly told them that they had shot down a fighter jet and congratulated the Morrison on its excellent results, saying that he would apply for commendation upon returning home.

The sailors had a pretty good impression of Fern; although he seemed a bit cowardly to outsiders, he was at least protecting their lives.

No one objected to the requirement for continuous combat readiness at night, and the entire fleet remained in a state of diligent combat readiness.

……

2:45.

Flying at an ultra-low altitude of 5 meters over the sea sounds thrilling, but it's actually not safe at all:
Most mainstream anti-ship missiles fly at altitudes of 30 to 50 meters, and only with the advancement of later control technology have they gradually achieved altitudes below 10 meters.

For pilots, this is an even greater challenge:
The vast majority of training accidents worldwide occur during low-altitude training exercises.

Air Force personnel generally consider anything below 150 meters to be extremely low altitude. Without a fly-by-wire control system, even a slight push of the stick will cause the aircraft to scrape the ground.

What is the concept of flying 5 meters above the sea in the dead of night in the early morning without radar or fly-by-wire control?

Tang Wen's field of vision appeared in the cockpit of a mosquito grub, at a height similar to that of someone standing on a fishing boat.

The three planes in this squadron were several dozen meters apart, and nothing could be seen except for their exhaust plumes.

Although the E2 has a maximum detection range of over 300 kilometers, its downward-looking detection capability is only 270 kilometers. If it is flying at extremely low altitudes over the sea, this number will be further reduced.

Meanwhile, the gnats kept an eye on fuel levels and the general movements of the main fleet. While stealthily flying at a subsonic speed of 650 kilometers per hour, they only accelerated to full speed at the last 300 to 400 kilometers per hour. At this point, due to the consumption of a significant amount of fuel, they were able to reach a speed of Mach 1.2.

Even if detected by E2, it would only take 6 to 10 minutes to reach the target, a time that is barely enough to launch a plane. Tang Wen did not believe that there were Tomcats in the sky every moment.

……

Lieutenant Brooke was very sleepy.

As the tactical information officer at E2, he is now in an awkward position:

The air traffic controller/pilot was taking a dump, and not only was the smell coming from the toilet, but he was also crying out in pain from constipation.

He tried to distract himself by leaning against the bulkhead and asking the radar operator:

Hey, wanna get some instant coffee?

"I've already had my fifth cup. Don't even mention that stuff, I need to poop too!"

"Joe, do you guys all like doing this on airplanes? I'm being suffocated by the stench!"

"Go to hell... you low-flying object!"

Joe's scream instantly snapped the group, who were still feeling dizzy from staying up all night, to their senses. The air traffic controller even grabbed a bucket and stood up.

The radar detected a cluster of signals flashing 190 kilometers away. Half a minute later, the signal stabilized after the computer distinguished it from sea clutter.
Extremely low-altitude targets are hurtling toward the fleet at speeds approaching 1500 kilometers per hour, and there are two or three of them very close together.

The extremely low altitude, which is considered absolutely risky, combined with its tiny size, reduces the E2's detection capabilities by about 7%.

Before Brooke could even report it, the radar issued an even more urgent alarm:
Four more groups of spaced-out flying targets have appeared, approaching the fleet in a fan shape!

……

"Speed ​​up, speed up, speed up!"

Radar warning aircraft are not heavy or complex, but they still have their share of threats. After the E-2 Hawkeye detected them, the loitering EA-6B Prowler quickly moved forward, brazenly locking onto the target with its radar beam and using electromagnetic interference via its externally mounted AN/ALQ-99 electronic countermeasures pod.

From Tang Wen's third-person perspective, all he could hear was the frantic blaring of buzzers in the cockpit, ordering all aircraft to push their throttle valves to maximum.

The EA6B missiles on the Enterprise were on duty in 2-2 shifts, and each missile was specially equipped with two AIM-9 missiles due to special circumstances.

However, this is the later M-type, with a maximum range of 18 kilometers.

Without fighter jet protection, they dared not make any rash moves, but instead made a sharp turn to monitor the movements and provide information to the warships.

The radio channels were buzzing all the time. The gnats had no idea when the missiles would arrive. They were just focused on charging forward, practically flying close to the water's surface.

165 kilometers, 140 kilometers, 115 kilometers...

On the bow decks of the two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the USS Mitchell and the USS Barry, Standard Missile 2 missiles shot out of their vertical launch cells, trailing flames, and disappeared into the night sky at intervals of a few seconds.

The other Ticonderoga-class destroyers in the fleet were also launching missiles, but only the newer Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were the fastest, as their rotary launch arms required constant reloading and were much slower.

Within just one minute, the four warships launched a total of 16 missiles toward their targets.

In fact, Arleigh Burke's S-band radar failed to detect the target until the Perry-class destroyer launched Standard Missile 1 at a distance of nearly 100 kilometers.
Fortunately, E2 is able to boot across platforms, otherwise the lock would be a huge problem.

The 34 missiles are not the warships' inventory, but the limit of E2 guidance. Locking on and guiding an attack are two different concepts.

The three Perry-class destroyers were delayed by a minute due to the insufficient range of the Standard Missile 1 (SM-1). Eighteen rockets were launched in succession, their exhaust plumes illuminating a plume of smoke that reached the sky and made the bridges of each warship shine.

The gnat squad began to disperse to avoid affecting each other, while maintaining a sea-skimming altitude and steadily flying toward their target.

75 kilometers from the main formation, the first batch of 20 Standard Missile-2s encountered five squadrons.

The strike from the sky at Mach 3.5 arrived in an instant.

In reality, missiles don't fly around leaving trails of fire; in the darkness, they are silent, invisible metal blocks that are difficult to spot with the naked eye.

Tang Wen, who was piloting the Gnat, only saw a dark image flash by diagonally in front of him like a phantom, and then a splash of water erupted on the sea to the right of the cockpit.

【-twenty four】

A spark flashed across the right wing, indicating that it had been hit by shrapnel, but this did not affect flight.

Standard 2 employs a variety of methods to lock onto the target, including semi-active radar, inertial guidance, radio correction, and terminal infrared guidance. However, the extremely high terminal velocity and clutter from the sea surface eventually interfere with it. The Doppler radar cannot distinguish the target from the clutter on the sea surface, and the terminal infrared guidance is no longer sufficient to compensate for the damage.

With a delay of only 0.1 seconds, it missed its target, which was only 5 meters high, and plunged into the sea.

Two fighter jets were shot down.

Although they lost 20% of their combat strength in one wave, it was just in time to inform the Gnatant Squad that the attack had arrived, and they began to consciously maneuver and evade on the sea surface.

Twenty seconds later, at a distance of 65 kilometers from the formation, the Standard Missile 1 for the Perry-class launch also arrived.

However, compared to the more advanced Standard 2, they were not only slower, but also far less accurate. After the thrilling excitement, Tang Wen was presented with the following prompt:
Two fighter jets were shot down.

The remaining 10 aircraft were now only 55 kilometers away, and would enter the missile's minimum range in a maximum of 90 seconds, before facing the close-in defense system in the final 36 seconds.

Tang Wen looked at the moon in the sky; it was a calm and peaceful night.

[Commander: All aircraft, descend to 3 meters!]

(End of this chapter)