What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 536 Destruction
"Failure, what kind of failure?"

Wayne, who was staying up all night eating pizza at the Prism Building, looked up, his face full of question marks at the message conveyed by the waiter:
"Our operation was leaked, and our aircraft were intercepted by Hans?"

"No, the attack went very smoothly."

"Did the bomb miss?"

"All six bombs hit their targets and produced very violent explosions."

"Damn it, Charles didn't launch the attack on time. He assured me he would break in immediately. I should have contacted an airborne battalion."

"No, Your Excellency. The six bombs failed to destroy the anti-aircraft tower, and the tower released gnats to engage our fighters in dogfights before deliberately swarming them. This resulted in the loss of seven F-16s and two F-15s. The remaining brothers are evacuating!"

The servant spoke through gritted teeth, tears welling in his eyes, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

Stunned, Wayne stared wide-eyed, tossed the pizza aside, jumped up, grabbed the telegram, and asked incredulously:
"How is that possible? We have already conducted penetration tests, and even in field tests, it can penetrate at least 5 meters of cement fortification!"

And what about the chickens? They should be responsible for low-altitude cover!

"The Mirage 2000 losses were even more severe, with 5 out of 8 aircraft lost. Marvel has informed us that the Guyana base will transfer all high-value aircraft and will no longer be able to support our subsequent operations!"

Huai En's vision blurred, and he managed to steady himself by grabbing the table. He refused the servants' help and shouted:

"Quickly, send Charles to rescue them immediately! I can't afford to lose a single one of my pilots; I must bring them all back!"

At that moment, he felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. Don't be fooled by the small number of planes; they were not cheap at all!

The procurement cost of nine aircraft alone is close to $200 million, and the last major air raid also resulted in the loss of nearly $500 million worth of aircraft, bringing the total to $700 million.

The repairs to the Enterprise only cost a little over a billion!
Property losses can be recovered, but this sortie involved elite pilots, and the losses are far more painful than the loss of the aircraft.

The attendant nodded and hurried away, but returned shortly afterward, panting heavily.
"Chief, we can't reach General Charles by radio."

"Is it EC13H interference? Then try wired communication. I know they've definitely laid it out, and try a few more channels. Or maybe the garrison in Karakara City knows how to contact them."

"Yes!"

But a few minutes later the servant returned again:
"We've made contact with the Karakara City base. They... they said..."

The servant paused for a moment before mustering his courage to continue:

"The temporary camp in area C2 has been attacked by heavy artillery. The noise is so loud that it can be heard more than ten kilometers away. It may be a super-large caliber cannon!"

When the words "Hans" and "giant cannon" are put together, the first thing that comes to mind for Huaien is... a railway cannon.

No way? No way!
If it were a Gustav cannon, one shot would have left General Charles and his soldiers without a trace!

Wayne was in a complete mess at this point, but he eventually made a decision:

"Let the brothers who still have enough fuel hold on a little longer. Let's turn back and try to find enemy artillery positions. Maybe we've caught a big fish. Also, we must contact Charles!"

……

a few minutes ago.

As the air force's fighter jets scrambled away, the scattered ground squads, which had just launched their attack, were forced to retreat in large numbers.

The current Heavenly Soldiers are still the same batch born under the pressure of a world where nuclear explosions can happen at any moment. They can handle both regular warfare and small-scale battles with ease. Even in lightly armed combat, they withstood the "crocodile's" attacks thanks to their excellent combat skills and individual equipment. Most of them can escape once they gather together.

The first evacuation team arrived at the temporary camp half an hour after the evacuation order was issued. At this time, all high-value supplies except for medical tents were loaded onto vehicles in preparation for evacuation.

Charles was sitting in the command vehicle, staring intently at the map, contemplating the next strategic move.

Now, there's only one last, decisive solution left:
Tactical missiles.

The MGM-140's bunker-buster warhead is indeed not yet in service, but the Empire can't possibly be unable to find bunker-buster missiles. It's just that other types of missiles are not as convenient to deploy as the MGM-140, which can be launched from the M270.

At worst, we can remove the nuclear warhead from a W86 bunker buster and replace it with counterweight. The kinetic energy alone is enough to penetrate 30 meters and deal with anti-aircraft towers. The biggest concern is the incomplete preservation of data.

This is because the terminal velocity of the bunker buster was deliberately reduced to around Mach 3 in order to reduce the circular error probable. Otherwise, conventional warheads could reach speeds of Mach 5 to 6.

Using missiles wasn't a good idea, but that was the only option... The car suddenly started.

The sudden acceleration nearly caused him to fall, but at that moment a guard slipped into the carriage as soon as the vehicle started moving.
"General!"

He shouted:
"Artillery radar warning: A barrage of artillery shells is approaching from the north and will be landing soon!"

The driver had obviously heard the news, and he sped off toward the highway without even closing the carriage doors.

Charles, who had barely managed to hold himself together, burst into a tirade:
"Damn it, get the driver to stop! The position is fortified!"

Unlike fighting small animals in the desert, the Prism Building, having experienced fleet battles and saturation air attacks, would not think that Hans was incapable of deploying heavy artillery. The temporary base built by Charles also had fortifications, which could withstand 155mm shells without much problem.

But the guards were devastated. They discovered that the incoming shells were from the AN/TPQ-37 radar system. As a new generation of counter-battery radar developed by the Empire, it only takes 7 to 10 seconds to react and has the ability to automatically calculate the trajectory and locate the artillery coordinates.

At the same time the target is detected, its coordinates are calculated.

The operator glanced at the coordinates and found that the launch coordinates were more than 30 kilometers away, and the total coordinates were unusually precise.

A range of over 30 kilometers can be achieved with a 155mm caliber missile and a 203mm caliber missile.

However, the trajectory shown by the AN/TPQ-37 this time does not belong to any known army equipment, and it looks very different from the conventional 155 or 203mm, and the radar reflection is unusually strong, and the warhead size may also be larger than expected.

And coincidentally, the operator was also a veteran artilleryman, whose memories gradually overlapped with the curves on the blackboard when he was in school.

This is a naval gun, and a large-caliber naval gun at that!

The landing speed is twice as fast as the 155mm, at least 381mm, or even 406mm naval guns!

That's why the guards, upon receiving the news, were determined to get Charles out of there at all costs, as the firepower of battleship cannons was many times stronger than that of army artillery!
Just as he was about to explain to Charles, he heard a rumbling, somewhat sharp sound outside, like a high-speed train rushing past in front of him.

Charles realized what was happening without the guards even needing to say it:
Although the shell is supersonic, its flight trajectory is parabolic. Its speed decreases at the top and then gradually accelerates. During this process, the ground can hear the sound of the shell cutting through the air in advance.

Veteran soldiers can roughly estimate what kind of shell it is just by listening to the sounds in the air.

This isn't a mortar, nor is it a 155mm or 203mm howitzer; this is... the kind of noise you'd hear from a heavy artillery piece at least ten inches in size!

Both men listened intently to the sounds outside, their hearts pounding. Just seconds later, Charles witnessed firsthand the shockwaves created by the impact of the shells—and not just one. Nine shells covered the entire makeshift camp, including the area where the command vehicle was located.

The heavy armored vehicle was torn apart in mid-air like a piece of paper, but Charles didn't have to suffer the pain of falling to the ground; the shockwave from the giant cannon had already reached his body and caused devastating damage.

Nine 800-kilogram high-explosive munitions landed at nearly twice the speed of sound, instantly flattening all the buildings on the open ground. Equipment and supplies that could not be moved in time were completely destroyed.

Fragments from a 155mm shell are enough to tear a human body apart, while shrapnel from a 406mm shell...

……

Tang Wen withdrew his gaze from the shells and continued to watch the USS Wisconsin fire another salvo with a blank expression.

In naval battles, battleships almost exclusively used armor-piercing shells, which didn't produce particularly spectacular explosions. But this was truly an eye-opener for him:

The 406mm naval gun struck the ground, and both the camp and the surrounding rainforest vanished as if they had been "cleared." The violent shock caused the surface soil to be thrown into the air, forming a layer of dust several meters thick, making the air filled with only sand and dust.

Six out of the 30 rounds of shells were distributed to the main camp. Under the cover of 45 .406 high-explosive shells, there was no possibility of any living creature surviving.

At this moment, the USS Wisconsin was slowly knocking down multiple air defense positions it had detected, guided by the drone. The armored vehicles hiding in the woods only needed one close-range missile to be completely destroyed.

Under the overwhelming force of its caliber, the 406mm naval gun destroyed all major military outposts around the city of Caracalla within 15 minutes, destroying hundreds of vehicles and more than twenty helicopters, the closest being only a few kilometers from the city.

Soldiers in the city could hear thunderous sounds cutting through the air all the time, followed by terrifying explosions that could be heard from a great distance in the direction of their comrades.

Fifteen minutes felt like an eternity, and the entire city was filled with the fear of shells falling on their heads.

This included Itamar and his more than 2000 soldiers who rushed to the scene.

Itamar was furious at the Empire's lack of prior notice, and even President Enrique felt he had lost face.

Karakara had a brigade of over 2000 men. It took Itamar a lot of effort to wake them up from their dreams. They had just finished reorganizing and were preparing to go to the anti-aircraft tower to grab information and merits.

But when someone told him that General Charles was being bombarded by heavy artillery, he calmed down, said he would go to the Prism Tower to check the situation, and then turned around and took his personal guards to the helicopter.

"It's over, it's over."

Paral cried out in terror:

"They've fired at least a dozen rounds of artillery shells already. Damn it, why is there a heavy artillery base on our land!"

Itamar's face was also very ugly. He had originally thought that the Lost Empire was a group of refugees who were barely surviving. Later, after witnessing the power of the empire, he even had the idea of ​​disbanding the "Brothers of Justice" and stopping Avilo from continuing to contact Hans.

But now it seems that Hans knows this land better than they do.
The Amazon rainforest is indeed sparsely populated, but as an important source of raw materials and economic output, it is not without towns and villages. Could it be that the area below has also been taken over?

Thinking hard!
Itamar was a smart man who had attended a proper school and understood that even a single armored grenadier division might be able to fight its way through the continent beneath its feet.

The world is inherently unequal, and even Hans from a few decades ago was far superior to them.

It now seems unrealistic to eliminate the Lost Empire's base on our own, but the Empire's presence may not necessarily be a good thing.

In particular, Prism Building is very dissatisfied with Itamar's relatively clean background and prestige, and is trying to support a new agent to counter him.

When the helicopter landed in the nearest city, Itamar immediately summoned Avilo, whom he usually suppressed, and pulled him aside to wipe away tears.
"Avila, my closest subordinate, I also have my own difficulties!"

……

Tang Wen was actually quite happy for the Empire to launch a night raid on the Amazon, because it would be daytime back home, which would be much more comfortable without having to stay up all night.

After dismantling the port and removing the USS Wisconsin, he first went to a shipyard in the South Pacific.

He still had a use for the Wisconsin; he needed to leave some other mark on the Empire, and he had just decided what to use it for:
Floating and sinking fortifications.

This thing was inspired by an abstract treasure that Japan prepared for homeland air defense at the end of World War II: the anti-aircraft cruiser basin.

The device is designed to house a 30mm autocannon or anti-aircraft machine gun within a miniature submersible, with a maximum diving depth of 30 meters. It remains submerged normally but emerges to conduct anti-aircraft attacks in critical moments.

Of course, this piece of junk didn't serve any real purpose in history, but Tang Wen is now making some minor improvements to it:

For example, upgrading its armament from anti-aircraft guns to battleship turrets, mounting a 406mm SKC34 gun, would only require a total turret weight of a few hundred tons.

It also uses a circular hull design, and normally only the semi-submersible turret can be kept above the water surface. When water is added, it sinks directly to the bottom.

However, most swamps cannot accommodate a single 406mm turret, so multiple chains need to be laid on the hull in different directions. Then, the Hornet will have to put in some effort to secure the turret that cannot sink.

This kind of bathtub turret can't be equipped with any decent anti-aircraft capabilities and has pitifully low health, but it is more concealed and has a very low cost and short construction time. As long as it hits with one shell before being destroyed, it is worth it.

With these bathtub turrets, Tang Wen was able to deploy a relatively complete defensive line in the western rainforest at a lower cost, thus increasing the Empire's strength.

Of course, in addition to this, there is also scriptwriting.

……

"Drafted an order requiring Base E56 in the western rainforest to dispatch submarines, river gunboats, and half of its fighter jets to support the evacuation of personnel and data from Base E01. Signed Wolfsburg."

"Remember, E01 base should send a farewell message first, and then request reinforcements."

"Base E56 requested assistance from Base E31 to assemble 100 fighter jets and requested more engines from Antarctica via submarine transport, as the underground arsenal was flooded and could not continue operations recently."

Tang Wen was immersed in role-playing, while Lüteyans faithfully recorded the orders as "evidence" that the empire might seize in the future.

Air defense tower number 1 is the E01 base. EXX are code names based on the scripts written by "novelists". The Antarctic headquarters is also referred to as "Wolfsburg".

At this time, Tang Wen was unaware that the Birmingham was a trap set by the empire, and still believed that there was a reason to continuously increase efforts and invest more resources in the empire.

Upon returning to China, he flew directly to the capital and went straight to Old Zhang's house for a meal. While the latter was cooking, he casually asked:
"Could you help me assess the risks of dismantling a submarine reactor if I am not a professional?"

Old Zhang's hand trembled, and he almost poured the whole can of salt in. He quickly stirred it a few times, turned off the heat, took off his apron, and asked:

What prompted you to have such a callous disregard for human life?

"It's not a big deal, it's still a Los Angeles-class reactor... You can think of it as me having another Los Angeles-class reactor. But I want to remove the reactor and take off the shielding. Is there any risk in cutting it off directly?"

"That's a huge amount of money!"

(End of this chapter)