What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 566 Hunting Competition
Mark realized he had likely made a huge mistake by extending the gap between the fighter formation and the vulnerable anti-submarine fleet too much in an effort to protect them, and by adopting an all-air combat loadout.

In fact, the F-15E has considerable enhancements in ground attack capabilities, and if it carries ground and sea attack munitions, its attack power is equally strong... It's too late to correct this mistake now.

"After the first attack group eliminates the gnats, hold low altitude and then attempt to attack the submarine with machine guns or the remaining missiles, at least to destroy its catapult!"

Mark hesitated almost the entire time before issuing the order. In fact, he really didn't want his valuable aircraft to get too close to the enemy. After thinking for a moment, he added:
"If a large number of gnats are detected launching, immediately raise the altitude and attack together with the second attack swarm. Make sure the lads are alert!"

……

24架F15以0伤亡的代价解决了剩余的11架蚊蚋，然后赶去支援低空的F16。

9架F16面对53架蚊蚋压力也颇大，尤其是蚊蚋换装了AIM9L，和F16使用的AIM9M同属于第三代，后者只是稍微先进一点点。

在耗尽AIM120后，被迫用格斗弹的F16在击落第19架蚊蚋时己方2架战机不慎落单，被周围的蚊蚋一拥而上击落，当场1人跳伞1人直接死亡。

However, when 24 F-15s arrived, the remaining 7 F-16s immediately broke away.

They were also ordered by Mark to memorize the one-minute timeframe, fearing that the third wave of 80 gnats would take off again, but... it didn't.

Seeing their comrades killed or wounded, the F-15 fired all 48 remaining AIM-120 missiles, leaving the remaining 34 Gnats defenseless and unable to escape.

After dozens of clumps of metal debris continued to fall to the ground, 40 fighter jets from the second main attack group arrived and discovered the situation:
"Hey, those submarines are trying to escape!"

The U-boats that received Tang Wen's orders have begun a large-scale dive, which means that those 160 fighter jets are all that are left!

Mark learned of this immediately, and after a quick calculation, he obtained crucial intelligence:
"Including the squadron that attacked the Royal Ark, a U-boat can only carry 3 Gnats!"

This number is reassuring, and at the same time, the anti-submarine aircraft squadrons advancing from behind also made gains:
They discovered four "fast U-boats." In fact, the U2501 and U4501 formations reduced their speed and dispersed after breaking away from the old U-boats, deliberately concealing themselves.

但15架反潜机拉出的巨大探测网还是发现了4艘U2501，由3架P3C投放了8枚鱼雷和大量反潜炸弹进行攻击，成功击沉了它们！

Mark's fears were not realized; instead, the coalition forces achieved successive victories, and the seemingly large U-boat fleet was about to become easy prey!
The anti-submarine pilots, who were originally prepared to die, now wished they could turn on their afterburners and go on a rampage.

Unlike the Air Force's shooting down of a gnat, which is difficult to define as a battle achievement, a U-boat can be considered a legitimate achievement, and an anti-submarine aircraft can be assigned 5 battle achievements. This is definitely a result that no other colleague has ever achieved!

……

On the 24th, at 15:50 PM

"Report: All U-boats are diving and retreating, but they have no chance of escaping. The second attack group didn't even have a chance to make a move."

Almost 10 minutes had passed since the last Gnat was shot down, and the U-boat's defeat was unexpected.

Mark was overjoyed, and couldn't help but feel a little smug:
The saturation attack of mosquitoes is nothing compared to the saturation attack of the Empire. Half of its attacking force was enough to decisively and cleanly dismantle the enemy!
With the U-boats no longer a concern, his focus now shifted to the Third Fleet, approximately 600 kilometers away.

The coalition forces certainly hadn't forgotten the massive fleet of over 200 ships, and they certainly hadn't imagined that the Third Fleet could also launch a large number of fighter jets.

However, their original plan was for Mark to only be responsible for taking out the U-boats and then immediately retreat, which would completely avoid engaging the main force of the Third Fleet.

Imperial Air Force Chief of Staff Wayne was already on the plane. When he arrived, an even larger fleet would have already assembled before they would consider how to deal with the main force of the Third Fleet.

But Mark's mind was already starting to wander:

The second attack group's 40 aircraft picked up nothing, but were laden with various missiles, making landing extremely dangerous. Unlike carrier-based aircraft, which experience high G-forces upon landing and can rely on long runways to reduce impact, landing with live ammunition is still risk-free.

A routine mission with 2 to 4 missiles on the ground is generally not a problem, but those F-15s were carrying as many as 14 missiles, with Tornado and Sea Harrier missiles also fully loaded, making the landing extremely risky.

Discarding them is not practical. Losing a few during a normal operation is not a big deal, but losing hundreds for no reason will definitely draw criticism. The best solution is to destroy some of them and land lightly.

Rather than wasting it, it would be better to send the second attack group to probe the main force of the third fleet. At worst, they could launch a salvo of missiles from a distance to test the enemy's firepower and then leave. The enemy would not have any fighter jets that could catch up with them.

As a newly promoted young player, he not only shouldered heavy responsibilities and completed the task in an emergency, but also went beyond expectations and did a lot more work...

The prestige of the Empire's generals goes without saying. Following the normal path, Mark would take about 10 to 15 years to climb to Wayne's position, which is already considered a very fast and smooth process.

But he was too eager to improve.

More than 40 years ago, General Mai had already achieved his combat objectives, but in order to make progress, he insisted on crossing the river.

This eventually became a fine tradition within the Prism Building; after all, the empire was large and powerful, and it could withstand failure!

At 4:00 PM sharp, the second attack group, grumbling that their colleagues weren't leaving them any food, received their mission:

The 12 F-15s in the squadron broke away and headed north in a small formation to continue searching for possible U-boats.

The F-15s, overjoyed upon receiving the order, immediately accelerated northward, leaving the pilots of the 28 accompanying British fighter jets astonished and prompting them to seek instructions from their superiors.

After all, where are there any submarines to the north? If we go any further north, won't we run into the main force of the Third Fleet?
Air Force Minister Terren immediately realized that Yankee had fallen into his old habit of being overly ambitious again. There was nothing to do with the U-boats in the north; it was just that Mark wanted to go and probe the enemy's main fleet!

However, he was also given a new perspective. Looking at General Band, whose eyes were still red with tears over the sinking of the Ark Royal, he gave orders to the eight new Tornado fighters, requiring them to follow the twelve F-15s northward.

However, there is one more order: disengage immediately if danger arises, and absolutely no prolonged fighting is allowed!

The pilot of the raging wind immediately understood, slightly folded the variable-sweep wings, and accelerated to catch up.

The remaining 20 Harriers, due to their outdated performance, were unable to escape and could only remain in place to replace the first attack group, which had run out of ammunition and returned to base, envying their colleagues who were about to continue to make contributions.

At 16:15 in the afternoon, the anti-submarine aircraft team, no longer on its way, deployed countless sonar detection nets over the sinking U-boat formation.

The old U-boat was practically transparent in front of 15 anti-submarine aircraft, and then a barrage of anti-submarine depth charges rained down.

Although the Hunter was a bit ugly, its payload was impeccable. The dense array of anti-submarine bombs fell into the water like raindrops, and the U-boats were detected and immediately exploded, causing enormous damage.

Fifteen anti-submarine aircraft became the main players in the low-altitude airspace, with pilots flying over the sea surface from time to time like whack-a-mole, while dropping anti-submarine torpedoes.

In actual combat, fighting U-boats is many times simpler than in regular training. In fact, because U-boats are so noisy, they are more conspicuous than fixed targets. If you can't hit them, you might as well make the operator a cook!

The massive underwater fleet that had been causing anxiety just hours before quickly disintegrated, with large slicks of oil rising to the surface, symbolizing one victory after another!
In particular, the three P-3Cs, which had better low-altitude performance thanks to their turboprop engines, were ruthless in their pursuit of kills, and the pilots were practically flying them like fighter jets.

Five, ten, fifteen... Hundreds of depth charges exploded, sending U-boats to their doom!

(End of this chapter)