What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 477 Opening (1000 monthly votes in June)

Following the Sultanahmet bombing, the blitzkrieg's ultra-low-altitude penetration tactics had a profound impact on air forces worldwide.

A bunch of junk that can only be considered first-generation jets, how could they possibly withstand a carrier strike group protected by the world's strongest air defense ships with just this one advantage?

Although technical experts have repeatedly insisted that it is impossible to penetrate the sea surface at a height of 5 meters during a storm, countries have still invested a great deal of effort in research and have also placed greater emphasis on training pilots in ultra-low-altitude flight capabilities.

Pilots have even started imitating each other, leading to a sharp increase in the accident rate of air force training around the world recently.

The Empire was no exception. Although the rainforest below was pitch black, the F-15 pilots all lowered their altitude and tried to approach at a low altitude of about 100 meters above the rainforest.

The roar of the jet engines at low altitudes created gales in the rainforest below, accompanied by a deafening roar.

Many of the savage tribes that were already fast asleep were awakened. When they looked up, they saw a blurry, huge black shadow flying away in the night sky, trailing two balls of fire. They hurriedly got up and knelt down to worship the gods.

On the F-15's public radio, the pilots even had the leisure to joke around:
"Someone on Team A took down three planes in one go, did you guys hear that?!"

"Damn it, that guy almost peed himself while crawling through a ravine, but now he's almost become an ace. That's not fair!"

"Do you think Hans might have some other stuff, like the Fw190 or the Ta152?"

On the AWACS aircraft, Wayne, instead of being annoyed by the lively conversation, cheered them on:

"Young men, you must remember that what changed the course of the first Antigua naval battle was airplanes, and it was also airplanes in the second Battle of Sultan. Our air force is the king that flies the highest."

Your adversaries can't even afford a single AIM-9X missile; I'm confident you can wipe out those gnats.

"Should we save some fuel?"

"Come on, let's have an Amazon turkey hunting competition!"

"..."

Unlike the relaxed fighter pilots, there were also auxiliary aircraft such as the EF-111A quietly rushing to the front to scout, keeping their eyes wide open and not missing any abnormalities.

The Empire had discussed how to hide fighter bases in the rainforest, and after discovering that gnats could be easily launched, it was basically determined that they would be launched by catapults hidden on the ground or in the mountains.

However, catapult launch only allows the aircraft to take off; what about recovery?
It's impossible to just throw away all the fighter jets as disposable items, right? You can throw away mosquitoes, but the Russians must have some large, expensive planes, right?
The first two EF-111As to take off had already arrived at area C2, but had not yet been spotted.

The EF-111A is an electronic warfare and intelligence gathering aircraft developed from the F-111 attack aircraft. It is actually weaker than the EA-6B, but... the EA-6B is a naval aircraft.

After Johnson was blocked from sending an aircraft carrier, he also considered sending carrier-based aircraft directly, but Wayne rejected that idea as well.

After a fruitless search over half a day, an EF-111A decided to continue westward. After changing course, it detected the anomaly less than 20 minutes later.

One, two, three... the number of signal sources on the radar kept increasing until it reached nine, at which point it stopped.

But the radar officer knew this was because formation flying was not easily identifiable; looking at the dense cluster of aircraft, there were at least a dozen!

The other party may have realized they had been discovered and immediately began to increase their speed, easily exceeding the speed of sound!
The EF-111A has six hardpoints and can carry self-defense weapons even with pods, but at this moment they have no intention of being aggressive, because their radar signatures are already different from those of gnats, and their signals are much stronger.

When news of the discovery of the unfamiliar aircraft group was relayed to Wayne, the latter immediately traced the group on a map and determined that it must have taken off from the direction of Peru.

Sure enough, they were deep in the rainforest! And their purpose in taking off must have been to intercept the F-15 formation, so... my finger returned to area C2.

There's something wrong with Zone C2. If we stick to the original plan and stay in Santarém, we can reach this area by traveling at least 300 kilometers north. Clearly, there are some secrets here that are worth the cost of protecting.

"Group A, continue to protect the convoy and General Hunter. Group B, prepare for battle."

The radio crackled with "over" sounds. The F-15s, who had been waiting impatiently, didn't care about any dangers. Low-altitude penetration was of little effect on the aircraft, except for slightly interfering with radar.

According to EF-111A information, the unknown aircraft group is only 400 kilometers away, and it would only take a blink of an eye for the two sides to rush to each other!

……

"A lone plane?"

Meanwhile, in the cockpit of a Super Swift, Tang Wen, who was half-crouched, finally realized the mess he had made, but still endured it and looked at the radar.

The Super Swift has multiple versions. The ground and anti-ship versions are equipped with RDX, but the air combat version is actually equipped with a radar. However, it is just a vacuum tube airborne radar with a detection range of about 50 kilometers. It is not very useful except for searching for targets and cannot guide active radar missiles.

But at such close range, it was not difficult to spot two lone EF-111As.

So four Super Swifts went forward, going all out to chase the two lone Vanguard fighters.

The EF-111A did not flee at full speed, but merely maintained a distance and circled around. The Super Swift caught up with it suddenly and was caught off guard. After realizing what was happening, it immediately increased the wing sweep angle to accelerate.

This transition took about two minutes. When they discovered that the EF-111A had also begun to accelerate, the four Super Swifts finally activated their solid fuel thrusters, and their speed suddenly increased to over Mach 2. The wings vibrated continuously at high speed, and the fuselage, which contained a large amount of wood, creaked and made a strange noise of being unable to bear the load.

20, 15, 10... The two EF-111As couldn't understand why the incoming planes could accelerate so quickly, catching up with them in less than a minute. The four Super Swifts each launched an AIM-9B missile at the two targets.

Each EF-111A was unaware that it was being targeted by four missiles, but that did not prevent it from launching decoys when it was within 10 kilometers, creating a brief chain of fire.

One of the EF-111As suddenly spotted the heat decoy flashing several times and immediately realized that the decoy had worked. Using the maneuverability of its variable-sweep wings, it made a flexible low-altitude turn and also attempted to launch a missile.

Unlike the MiG-23, the F-111's variable-sweep wings are continuously variable automatic, while the MiG-23 can only be manually adjusted, resulting in a significant performance difference in combat.

However, each Super Swift carried six Sidewinder missiles and immediately fired a second and third volley of 24 air-to-air missiles at them, as if they were free.

The original AIM-9B was an absolute idiot, heading straight for the heat decoy, but the series of explosions also panicked the EF-111A, which quickly launched the missile as soon as it locked on.

At that moment, a Super Swift seized the opportunity to sneak behind it, and its four 30mm cannons opened fire simultaneously, accurately hitting its tail fin.

A failure of the tail rudder is extremely fatal for a single vertical tail fighter like the EF-111A. In the blink of an eye, it loses longitudinal stability, and another Super Swift seizes the opportunity to fly head-on, with missile belts flying from both the front and rear at the same time.

The intense firepower caused the unfortunate aircraft to immediately spin and plummet, the remaining kerosene exploding upon impact with the ground, producing a bright orange flame.

Another EF-111A, seeing its companion fall, still tried to struggle. After shooting down a Super Swift with a missile, it attempted to accelerate and break through at low altitude to escape. However, the three Super Swifts had only a little rocket fuel left. After accelerating, it sent the Super Swift to its doom with its machine gun.

Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away, the remaining 12 Super Swifts also collided with the F-15 formation.

(End of this chapter)