What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 581 A Thousand Machines Fired Simultaneously
Almost simultaneously, fighting broke out in the north and south of Sugau.

Eagle Vernis is the northernmost city in southern Sugolan. The transport highways basically only go this far; further north is mostly a nature reserve.

The main force of the Third Fleet was too close. Even though the Gnat slowed down the stealth Swift, it only took half an hour to reach the north of Eagle Furness. Then, the first thing they faced was the already deployed air defense forces.

The first to show their power were the two Patriot systems that the Empire had airlifted and deployed slightly behind. The full complement should have been 16 launchers, but 15 actually arrived and were deployed.

These two Patriot missile systems had just been deployed. As soon as the radar was turned on, the operators were overwhelmed by the sight of a screen full of targets. Without hesitation, they unleashed all 60 missiles.

The Patriot PAC2 is not a small weapon like the AIM-120. It weighs 1 ton, has enormous power, and a maximum speed of Mach 5 to 6. It can intercept ballistic missiles!
However, it is too expensive, and its production volume and price do not allow it to be consumed as freely as the AIM120.

The Patriot missiles, when they unleash their power, also operate on a hit-and-run basis, especially since the expensive phased-array radar command vehicles cannot be lost.

80公里射程对PAC2导弹同样是在1分钟内就能解决的战斗，由400架战机组成的攻击群立刻被轰出数个空腔，70架战机轰然坠地。

The missile, traveling at five times the speed of sound and carrying a large amount of explosives, achieved a kill rate of 110%.

However, after the Patriots were in their prime, all that was left were those old relics. The Empire generally threw over short-range air defense systems with a range of 5 to 20 kilometers. The newly acquired air defense forces didn't bother to distinguish between them; they just used whatever they had and deployed as many as possible.

After being hit by the Patriots, Tang Wen immediately realized that the ground defenses had been strengthened, so he once again used the ultra-low altitude penetration tactic. 330 fighter jets flew at the limit of their altitude, almost touching the ground, and the airflow from their jet engines was even enough to blow over the grass.

……

"Those shitty Americans, don't they know what 'sealing out' means?!"

鹰弗尼斯北部观鸟区，带英防空军22大队第1营1连的3排正在和3辆MIM46“拳击手”自行高炮较劲。

That's right, one platoon has three self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

In fact, the 22nd Squadron is one of only two land-based air defense units in the Air Defense Force, and it is scheduled to be disbanded in December!
Unable to contain themselves, the British first urgently canceled the reduction, then discovered that two regiments were simply not enough, so they directly split them up, using one regiment as three, and inflating them with a large amount of the shoddy equipment sent by the Empire.

These junks had been sitting there for decades. When they arrived, the first thing the soldiers did was clean out the poisonous insects and dried animal carcasses inside.

The vehicle's engine was relatively durable and could be started after some tinkering, but the electronic systems were almost completely destroyed, especially its early radar.

Unlike other military equipment, which tends to be more durable as they become less sophisticated, precision devices like radar actually have fewer broken semiconductor antennas. Early bulky, black-and-white devices made with vacuum tubes or transistors were far less reliable and have long since broken down.

Aside from that, rust and stuck bearings were minor problems. After half a day, the company still couldn't restore the combat capability of even one vehicle.

This is actually quite reasonable. The best manpower and the best equipment are prioritized to support air force bases and airports. All four airports around Eagle Vernes have been requisitioned, so they naturally need to be prioritized for support.

Of the 300 air defense systems, the best 150 were taken by the base, and the rest were simply thrown out without any regard for consequences.

The time was too tight and the deployment needed to be mobile, so the air defense forces were rushed away without any time for maintenance, and then encountered all sorts of problems when they arrived at their destination.

Apart from the shoulder-mounted "Stinger" weapon which was in good condition, all the other old equipment was in terrible condition, with only the recently decommissioned equipment being somewhat better.

For example, the MIM-23 Hawk missile air defense system that was delivered has been handed over to the National Guard. The Empire directly took it away on the spot and handed it over to the British, but the vast majority of it was given to important targets.

The position of the 3rd platoon is at the very front line, destined to be cannon fodder, so it is given to the worst self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

As the location of the enemy aircraft, broadcast over the radio, drew ever closer, everyone in the third row was nearly driven to despair:
Two self-propelled anti-aircraft guns still had their machine guns firing, but they lacked radar and could only rely on visual guidance.

After a heated discussion, the third row decisively decided to change their equipment for the entire group:
FIM92 "Stinger"

Rather than relying on sight to guide the anti-aircraft guns for air defense, it would be better for the whole company to run into the woods, carry poison stabs, and fire sniper shots!

Fortunately, the poisonous stingers were small enough, and the thirty-odd people simply carried them and hid in the woods, planning to attack when the gnats flew by.

The group of over thirty people waited anxiously, and as they gradually began to hear the roar of jet engines, they nervously carried their launchers and aimed at the sky, but they still couldn't see any planes.

The soldier in charge of observation climbed the birdwatching tower, held the binoculars, and looked towards the source of the sound, but saw nothing.

Could it be that it flew too high?

Just as he was thinking this, he put down his binoculars and looked down, when he suddenly noticed that a dark barrier stretching to the horizon was flying towards him from the treetops of the distant forest!
His mouth gaped open in an "O" shape. Before he could react, a massive swarm of aircraft, like a black tide, arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye, grazing his scalp and blowing up a large number of leaves and the wooden roof of the birdwatching tower!

The entire tower shook violently, nearly throwing people off. By the time those on the ground came to their senses, the attack window had already been missed.

After witnessing the black cloud formed by more than 300 fighter jets, all the soldiers felt as if they had their throats squeezed and could not breathe. It took them a long time to feel relieved that the anti-aircraft guns had not opened fire.

This was just a microcosm of the first line of defense; in the 150-kilometer stretch from the shore to Lossiemouth, the rudimentary air defense positions within the first 100 kilometers shot down only 15 aircraft.

When the intercepting fighter jets arrived on the battlefield, Fang Ran discovered that there were still 300 targets.

However, they had no choice but to proceed despite the difficulties, as the remaining 132 stealth Swifts began to accelerate!

Once the solid rocket motors were activated, 130 fighter jets easily reached Mach 2.2 on radar within 40 seconds of combustion.

好在洛西茅斯基地周围驻扎了2个40毫米高炮营（22大队）以及14辆MIM-72“小槲树”防空车、以及200多名经过紧急培训扛着“毒刺”分散站立的单兵防空体系。

MIM-72发射车可以发射4枚AIM9D，霎那间56枚导弹激射而出，同时24门40毫米高射炮全部开火拦截。

而在这之前，拦截机群中的8架F15和24架F16率先发射了多达208枚AIM-120，并且之后就刻意向两边散开避免进入AIM9射程。

Just as this step was completed, the AIM-120 arrived simultaneously, and more than a hundred stealth Swift aircraft immediately fell like dumplings being dropped into the ground, but the ground was not spared either.

The combined ground and air interception thwarted the advancing stealth Swift, and after discovering that the enemy aircraft could evade, it simply locked onto all ground targets and launched all 432 AIM-9L missiles!

While the Air Force's elite units can indeed dodge the AIM-9L and still take down enemies, ground-based air defense units cannot!

They were originally short-range air defense units, and when they opened fire, they were all at a range of about 10 kilometers. More than 400 AIM-9L missiles immediately rained down like a storm, each one equivalent to a 155mm shell—and the kind that was extremely accurate!
Ground-based air defense forces were immediately engulfed in flames amidst the continuous explosions, and some unfortunate individuals, especially those hit by munitions, even had their armored vehicles launched into the air!
The Air Force, however, had no time to worry about that, and the remaining aircraft immediately bared their fangs at the remaining hundred or so Gnats.

"Damn, so what if it's a medium-range missile!"

Tang Wen, far away in the center of the fleet, slammed his fist on the table, gritting his teeth:
He wants to report the Empire for abusing the super-powerful weapon AIM-120!

At this time, the AIM-120 was still the early A/B model with a range of only 70 kilometers, but it was too much of a problem for the Third Fleet, which only had AIM-9L. As long as they were kept at a distance, they could only take hits.

Yesterday, the Allied forces' medium-range missiles were limited due to the exhaustion of their British stockpile caused by the suffocation tactic, forcing them to engage in dogfights.

But who knew that the Empire was so rich and its transport planes were so powerful that the AIM-120 could handle everything in the blink of an eye?

However, he also vaguely knew that the Empire currently had an annual production of more than 1800 AIM-120s, and a total production of more than 8000 since its successful development, with at least 5000 available in stock.

It was unexpected that 2000 coins could be mobilized from Dai Ying in such a short time. It can only be said that the empire 30 years later left a very deep impression on Tang Wen.

He had already retrieved the AIM-120 from the wreckage of the USS Enterprise, but the AIM-120 not only had high research and development costs, but also required compatible aircraft radar.

Replacing all the gnats and stealth swifts with advanced fighter jets would be expensive, and the cooldown time would be much longer under the new mechanics. It would be more worthwhile to wait until version 14.3 to enter the modern tech tree.

However, the current trouble is not the failed air raid by 400 aircraft, but that reconnaissance aircraft have discovered a dense swarm of fighter jets heading toward the main fleet.

Out of concern that the destroyer had been sunk, Tang Wen deployed 24 Gnats from the destroyer squadron to patrol and guard a range of 250 kilometers. When a large number of aircraft were spotted approaching, he began to launch Gnats and Stealth Swifts at full speed.

The coalition fighter jets, almost fully loaded, cannot fly at speeds above Mach 1.5, but they only need to be 70 kilometers away to launch the AIM-120. Based on this calculation, Tang Wen probably only has 7 minutes.

除齐柏林号以外，快速舰队剩下6艘战舰和慢速舰队10艘木质铁甲舰拥有共32个飞机弹射器，满打满算一起可出动224架蚊蚋和48架隐身雨燕共272架战机。

Judging from the massive formation of 400 fighter jets crashing into the AIM-120 wall and being destroyed, the numerical advantage has been greatly countered by the AIM-120.

In those crucial 10 minutes, Tang Wen's brain worked at its limit, and he came up with a solution in a minute and a half:
慢速舰队有16艘“国王”木质铁甲舰和80艘雷击舰、护卫舰选配的是V1发射架，总共有192个V1弹射器！
Because Tang Wen placed V1 in the same reconnaissance position as the gnats, its cooldown time was only a minimum of 60 seconds.

The V1 has a maximum speed of 600 km/h and a maximum flight altitude of 2000 meters.

Relying on air combat is unrealistic, but it can serve as cover!
Hiding "precious" fighter jets within a large fleet of V1 aircraft to disrupt missile paths!
Whether it's useful or not, let's do it first, even if it consumes some AIM120, it's worth it.

Almost as soon as the idea came to mind, the fleet began to carry out Tang Wen's orders. In an instant, 192 V1 missiles took to the air, and another 192 a minute later.

Because of their slower speed, these V1s all flew towards the coalition aircraft and simultaneously formed a three-dimensional box formation using simple rudders, allowing the fighters to weave and hide within it!
In order to intercept the F-15s first, the first batch of eight stealth Swifts (air superiority aircraft) took off and flew at full speed towards the formation.

……

"Let's send those sons of bitches into the sea and sink their mothership before those damned gnats can keep launching!"

In the waters off North Ireland, an E-2 and an E-3B were huddled together, guiding the attack formation.

Coordinating an attack with hundreds of aircraft is a major undertaking. Under Wayne's guidance, 80 air superiority fighters were placed under the command of the E3B, while the 48 anti-ship fighters were handled by the E2B.

The current situation was immediately detected when the E2B guided the shooting down of the alert gnats:

At this time, there were only a dozen or so Jungars scattered in the airspace where the Third Fleet was located. The F-15s that took the lead only needed to fly more than 200 kilometers to launch missiles. Even if all the Jungars were ejected, it would definitely be too late!

To seize this precious opportunity, the 36 F-15s that took off climbed to an altitude of 10000 meters where drag was less, and engaged afterburners to fly at Mach 1.5.

With a full load of 8+6, this is the limit allowed by aerodynamics, posing a significant risk of rack detachment and extremely high fuel consumption, but the advantages are also enormous:

In just 6 minutes, it will be within the range of the AIM-120!
Even if the Third Fleet has a lot of minnows, it's impossible for them to launch them out and overwhelm the superior aircraft!

At the same time, the 23 bombers that were originally lingering on the coastline immediately moved forward. The B1B only needed 8 minutes to reach the Harpoon range, while the B52 was a little slower and needed 10 minutes, but the 456 Harpoons were already eager for fire!
……

The E3B initially spotted 40 targets taking off. After a minute of anxious waiting, another 32 took off, and half a minute later, another 8 took off, which relieved the radar officer on board.

Fortunately, at this speed, the fleet can handle it...

"Oh, God!"

A scream interrupted the radar officer, and when he looked at the screen, he couldn't believe his eyes:

Where did nearly two hundred more targets come from?
The sheer number of computers caused them to lag again!

The radar signature of this group of targets is different from that of mosquito gnats and stealth swifts, but two hundred of them appeared simultaneously again within one minute!

The newly emerging targets were not moving at high speeds, only five or six hundred kilometers per hour, but their numbers were so exaggerated that the massive number of targets on the 2D radar screen formed large shadows, directly obscuring the Third Fleet.

By the time this alarming discovery was sent back to Aldgrov Air Base, the first batch of 36 F-15s had already reached the range of the AIM-120, and their radars were naturally startled by the countless targets in the air!
6分钟，此时空中已经有了204架蚊蚋、40架雨燕，以及足足768枚V1总共1012个目标！
这是什么概念？除去刚刚弹射还没来得及爬升的232架飞机，剩余780架飞机此时正拥挤在纵向30公里长、宽20公里、5千米到2千米里高度的立体空间内。

The densely packed fighter jets were arranged in three layers at a height of 300 to 500 meters, with an average distance of 500 to 1000 meters between each fighter jet. They were slightly misaligned and not perfectly aligned, forming a tightly packed box formation that stretched for more than 20 kilometers.

The outermost and foremost layer consists of V1 missiles, while the Gnat and Stealth Swift missiles rely on their amazing mobility to constantly shift positions in a space that can be described as "machine-to-machine," narrow enough to be equivalent to people standing shoulder to shoulder.

F15装备的APG70多普雷雷达仅仅能显示24个目标，计算机面对如此恐怖的数量倒是没宕机——而是直接忽略掉了97%的目标，仅显示最前方认为“最重要”的24个优先目标。

If the target needs to be changed, the pilot needs to select it manually.

They were familiar with this, but they didn't know what the more than 700 new targets were, or whether they were decoys to draw fire.

Even if it's bait, where is there time to distinguish it little by little?

Let alone people, even missile radars can't be expected to malfunction when faced with extremely large numbers of missiles.

The F-15 was dumbfounded when faced with this situation for the first time, but no one dared to charge at a thousand "fighter jets". They had no choice but to release 288 AIM-120 missiles according to the pre-squadron regulations and turn around immediately!
They had no choice but to turn back; eight stealth Swifts had already activated their rocket boosters and were chasing them!
(End of this chapter)