What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 559 Naval and Air Battle
Airland, Aldgrove Air Base
As Tang Wen guessed, Dai Ying did indeed mobilize a large number of aircraft to head north, but it was slightly different from what he had expected.

For example, it underestimated the significance of the first two words, "United Kingdom."

As is well known, there is a minor grudge between Ireland and the UK, which has resulted in Ireland refusing to allow military forces to be stationed there, and even its airspace and territorial waters are highly independent.

The main port of Belfast usually only has a few patrol boats and minesweepers, and Aldergrove Air Base has fewer than five auxiliary aircraft and no fighter jets.

It was at this point that the Empire could no longer tolerate it and forced the Royal Air Force to restart the Oldgrove. However, only seven or eight aircraft were deployed at this time, and the ground crew had already risked their lives to get two Sea Harriers back into the air in just over twenty minutes.

However, the aging Harrier is only good for the undulating desert terrain; it struggles against any decent opponent, let alone the Gnatant equipped with the AIM-9L Super Rattlesnake missile. The two are evenly matched at best.

The only thing they did was to reconfirm the bad news with Philger!
……

"Tap—tap—tap—"

"Hard to port, heading 270!"

The red alarm lights flashed wildly. Philger gripped the control panel tightly to stabilize himself, and screamed hoarsely into the microphone:

"Quickly, quick, take off, take off, take off! Forget about payloads, forget about attacks, launch everything that can fly, and then run away without looking back!"

From the control tower, one after another Harrier jets have abandoned the more efficient ski-jump takeoff and are instead taking off vertically, wobbling, before they have even come to a complete stop after being pushed onto the runway.

The powerful engine airflow made the ground crew stagger, but they still struggled to reach the next Harrier.

The mosquitoes only had less than half an hour to keep them occupied, so they had to abandon all flight safety checks and just focus on dragging the plane out and launching it as quickly as possible.

Philger's order was only one:
Take off and head to the nearest land.

The planes can be lost, but the pilots must survive, as they may be the only survivors of the fleet.

Twelve Harriers and ten helicopters—that’s all Philger thought could be preserved.

The reason is simple: the two Type 42 destroyers and two Type 23 frigates are already going crazy.

Type 42 includes HMS Southampton and HMS Essexcote, while Type 23 includes HMS Iron Duke and HMS Monmouth.

The 1022 radar on board the Southampton was immediately overwhelmed by the dense array of aerial targets as soon as it was turned on.

两艘42型总共有44枚海标枪（40公里射程），两艘23型有64枚VLS海狼导弹（10公里射程），按照标准的2枚拦截一枚……根本就不够啊！
The example of the 300 gnats attacking the Enterprise formation at night has been repeatedly studied by various countries. The final conclusion is that naval air defense alone is not enough to counter it; only fighter jets can stop it.

But now there's no hope of relying on the HMS Royal Ark, and the air force is far behind. We have to fight even if it means gritting our teeth!
At 12:54 p.m., after Admiral Band, representing the home fleet, made a difficult statement to the fleet that no support could be provided, HMS Southampton began firing Sea Darts at the approaching Gnats.

To ensure a high hit rate, Philger insisted on using two missiles per aircraft, hoping to gamble that the enemy's dense formation of aircraft would suffer fragmentation damage.

……

[Enemy destroyer detected! x4]

[Enemy carrier detected!] [Flagship random battle: Sink the HMS Ark Royal carrier strike group]

[Introduction: Royal Ark is the name of a legendary Y-line navy. As a D-line navy member, sinking her will bring the highest honor, and you will also obtain the special banner "Revenge".]

[Special Flag "Revenge": Applies to German warships; when the enemy is a British warship, main gun shell accuracy is increased by 5%]

[Time Limit: 3 hours]

The battle that was triggered this time had an extra gift, which made Tang Wen somewhat tempted:
With an accuracy increase of 5% and the "skilled gunner" skill, the shell dispersion error can be reduced by up to 30%, which would almost achieve a hit rate close to that of a missile.

As for the Royal Ark...

If Tang Wen could still feel a little regret about the Enterprise, the 2-ton ultralight boat was simply not worth mentioning in his eyes; being able to change the flag was an unexpected surprise.

What was initially a bit of intimidation quickly turned into a devastating attack. The 77 Gnats no longer concealed their strength and viciously switched to an ultra-low-altitude sea-skimming attack at 5 meters!

The two Type 42 missile launchers still use outdated cantilever missile launchers with a loading time of 45 seconds, and can only launch a maximum of 5.3 missiles per minute!
Compared to the Arleigh Burke, Perry, and Ticonderoga missiles, this level of firepower is like a tickle, especially since the gnats are attacking at a speed of 1200 kilometers per hour. With a range of 40 kilometers, it would only take 2 minutes to hit them, and they would be hit by a maximum of 10 missiles!
77架蚊蚋分散成25、25、27架3个机群，每一个机群又由5架每组的队组成，并且一个大机群前出充当诱饵吸引火力，另外两个机群从两翼径直将目标定为慌忙逃窜的皇家方舟号！

Even with their 114mm main guns, the two Type 42 ships seemed powerless to attack, and could only watch helplessly as the gnats skimmed the sea at extremely low altitudes.

In the end, the two Type 23 destroyers desperately launched Seawolf vertical launch close-in weapon systems, and it was only just in time that the Gnat was able to lock onto the target after it pulled up slightly.

Because it uses a VLS vertical launch tube, the Seawolf rockets were launched almost all at once, leaving long plumes of smoke on the sea surface, which were most effective against mosquitoes.

Unfortunately, its range is only 10 kilometers, which happens to fall within the range of the AIM-9L.

诱饵机群也已经拉升，丝毫不管直奔自己而来的导弹也唰唰射出了携带的54枚AIM-9L，并且两翼的机群也凑出了50枚，总共104枚AIM-9L用来打击4艘防空舰。

Both sides were hit by each other's missiles almost simultaneously. At close range, even the grubs could not escape the agile short-range missiles and exploded continuously in the air. The sailors could clearly see the debris falling into the water like snowflakes from high altitude. The estimated kill count was at least 20 aircraft.

But they had no time to rejoice. The 104 AIM-9 missiles were almost evenly distributed across the four warships, each with the power of a 203mm cannon shell, and the air-to-air missiles had a near 4% hit rate when attacking the warships.

The British-made, thin-skinned warships had absolutely no defensive capabilities. Not only were they covered in a rain of explosions, but what was even more terrifying was that their warships contained a large amount of lightweight aluminum alloy. Almost simultaneously, all four warships burst into flames!

The 104 Super Sidewinder missiles nearly destroyed the warships' radar and electronic equipment, rendering the four warships completely blind.

But the captains knew the real blow was yet to come, so they disregarded the damage and went full throttle, turning at full speed, causing the damaged hull to groan under the strain.

boom!
The first Gnat plunged into the bow of the Iron Duke at a speed of Mach 1.2, and then directly into the hull from the bow.

150 kilograms of RDX explosives detonated simultaneously, accompanied by a deafening explosion. The bow of the Iron Duke was torn open at the junction with the hull, leaving only the upper half still connected, while the lower half disappeared.

Seawater rushed into the ship's cabin, causing the warship, which was turning right at full speed, to suck in a huge amount of seawater, causing the ship to tilt violently and almost capsize.

However, the gnats that operated in squadrons were all grouped together in groups of five. However, two of the squadrons were shot down by missiles, but the remaining two still followed closely and fearlessly crashed into the Monmouth.

(End of this chapter)