Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 339 Supersonic Missiles Attack Aircraft Carriers
Countless British sailors regretted coming to this naval battle; they all wanted to go home, but... they were destined never to return!
The bow of HMS Sheffield was ablaze. Losing buoyancy from the bow, the entire warship began to tilt forward and sink into the water.

The flames finally died down, but only the helicopter deck at the stern of the warship remained above the water. The rest of the ship had already sunk into the sea. Most of the sailors didn't even have time to jump off the ship before they were swallowed by the sea!
When they tried to salvage it later, they discovered that most of the people on board the warship had drowned or suffocated; the scene was... horrific.

To travel thousands of miles to defend the sovereignty of a colony—do they really think this is the era of the British Empire? Since it has already declined, it should just live a peaceful life on the British Isles!
Both Kidd-class destroyers were sunk to the bottom of the sea within three minutes of the start of the battle. The sinking of these two warships also meant that the Queen Elizabeth's sides were completely unprotected, and the Queen Elizabeth was exposed to the attack of supersonic anti-ship missiles!
At this point, including the first batch of anti-ship missiles that were intercepted, only eight were lost. There were still twenty-four anti-ship missiles surging across the sea, and a second batch of thirty-two missiles followed!

"Damn it, hurry, where are the escorting warships? Where have they all gone?" At this moment, Augustus Cameron was completely desperate. He had just been feeling the pain of losing a Kidd-class ship, and now, seeing his own warship about to be sunk, he was even more worried about his own life.

His gaze swept anxiously across the sea, and then... he saw a Kidd-class destroyer, at full throttle, with wisps of blue smoke billowing from its smokestacks, actually... fleeing!

Indeed, seeing two Kidd-class ships sink in a single encounter, with hundreds of sailors dying in the sea, the captain of this Kidd-class ship was terrified, with only one thought in his mind: run, run, run!
Even if he goes back, he'll have something to say. Anyway, it was a failure. He ran away, but he managed to keep a warship and saved a large warship for the Royal Navy. He's done nothing wrong!

The last Kidd-class destroyer was on the other side of the Queen Elizabeth, completely hidden by the Queen Elizabeth's hull. The Kidd-class was safe until the Queen Elizabeth was destroyed!
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Augustus Cameron's face was full of anger as he strode over to the communications officer's position and ripped off Kelly's headset.

"Queen calling Brave! Come back to me! Come back to me!"

Why call it HMS Brave? It should just be called HMS Coward! This warship's actions are a disgrace to the Royal Navy!

However, there was no response on the radio, and it was clear that the warship was determined to desert.

“Oh God, our commander!” Arthur Clarke shouted at that moment.

An early warning helicopter was flying at high speed, its radar antenna retracted beneath its fuselage, making it more stable and agile. It flew past everyone's eyes, and then…

Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, it flew towards the incoming missiles, intending to... to use its fuselage to block them!
In this naval battle, some were brave, some were cowardly, but the performance of fleet commander Mike Crap was admirable.

When he detected the incoming missile attack, Mike Cramp resolutely ordered the pilots to return to base so he could get back to the ship as soon as possible to take command. However, before he even landed on the carrier, he saw two Kidd-class destroyers destroyed and one escape.

He was utterly despondent.

It's over, completely over. Last time they could say their equipment was too poor, that the Sea Dart was defective and unable to intercept anti-ship missiles flying at extremely low altitudes over the sea.

What about this time?
They had F-4 fighter jets and Kidd-class destroyers, yet they still suffered a crushing defeat!
The biggest problem lies in... command!

As they approached Asunción, everyone relaxed. They seemed to have forgotten that they were there to fight, not to go on vacation. They were only there to rest temporarily!

As a result, the missile came flying in, and it was a supersonic anti-ship missile!
Where these missiles came from is no longer important; now, these missiles will completely destroy his fleet! Just like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Navy was caught completely off guard, and the Pacific Fleet was attacked, suffering heavy casualties!

However, the US Navy's fundamental position was not shaken, so they were able to retaliate and quickly gained the initiative on the battlefield.

What about Britain?
The main navy has been destroyed. We have borrowed warships to fight a second battle. If we lose this battle as well, the Royal Navy will be completely finished!
That damned old hag, she was already planning to give up the Falklands, but she still couldn't bring herself to back down and insisted on fighting, even though she couldn't win!

At this moment, Mike Cramp was already cursing the Iron Lady's ancestors in his mind, but he also knew that it was useless. Now, he had to bear the main responsibility for the failure of this naval battle.

He could already imagine what the attitude would be back home when he returned after his failure.

The blame is all on him; he will be condemned by thousands and scorned by ten thousand people. Therefore, his only fate is to die here!
He didn't want to die, but he had no choice.

When he saw that the Queen Elizabeth's side was completely empty and without any protection, he finally made up his mind.

"Child, the time has come to test your courage. Fly over there and use our aircraft to block the incoming missiles!"

Upon receiving this order, the helicopter pilot in front instantly turned ashen-faced. Almost everyone thought he looked a lot like Prince Andrew, but he only wanted to have the life of a prince, not the death of one.

He didn't want to die; he was still young!
Seeing the pilot hesitate, Mike Cramp unbuckled his seatbelt, quickly drew his sidearm, loaded it, took a few steps forward, and pointed it at the pilot's head: "Now, as the fleet commander, I order you to fly over and block the missile!"

The pilot was trembling all over. The obedience he had developed in the military made his body react against his brain's will. He pushed the control stick, pressed the rudder, and released the collective pitch. The Sea King helicopter flew towards the missile!

"Okay, child, you did a great job. Don't worry, I will always be with you, together..."

The next moment, Mike Crap felt his body fall backward. The helicopter had finished its dive and started climbing at a high angle of attack. Doing this in a helicopter is almost like risking a crash. Wasn't the pilot afraid of dying?
Both sides ordered each other to their deaths, but at this moment, Mike Crap considered things from the perspective of the pilots' fear of death, which only shows that his mind was also in turmoil.

next moment.

Whoosh!
An anti-ship missile swept past the helicopter, compressing the airflow around it and causing the helicopter to sway back and forth.

Mike Crap then realized that the damn pilot had just chickened out!

That's right, it's shrunk!
He had already aligned the helicopter with the incoming navigation path, intending to use the helicopter to block the missile. However, when he saw the missile flying towards him at high speed, he finally became afraid!

In his pupils, the shadow of the missile grew larger and larger, as if it were the call of death. The pilot's inner fear told him that he did not want to die!

Bodyguards understand this best. A top-notch bodyguard is someone who can shield the person they are protecting from bullets with their own body in critical moments. However, human instinct tells them to avoid danger, and they must overcome this fear, otherwise... they are not a qualified bodyguard.

The bodyguards were aware of this, that's because they were trained. But this young pilot probably hadn't received any training in colliding with missiles. In the whole world, probably only the Kamikaze pilots had such training. They were suicide squads. The Russians could do that because they drank two kilograms of vodka. What about him? He had nothing!

So he pulled the control stick sharply, and the total torque was also pulled to the maximum. The helicopter climbed rapidly to avoid the attack!

The missile was flying in, and the wind it generated alone was enough to make their helicopter sway precariously!
Like a leaf in the wind, the helicopter swayed back and forth. In the rear cabin, Mike Crap felt his body tumbling inside, backward, upward, and sideways...

His sidearm had long since fallen to the ground, and his body was rolling around. Wait, what's with this feeling of weightlessness?

Mike Crap stared wide-eyed as he watched his body dangle in mid-air, plummeting downwards, with a helicopter already overhead. His mind raced with a cacophony of thoughts.

The helicopter cabin door was originally closed, but when Mike Cramp ordered the pilot to crash into the missile, his adjutant became frightened and, while he was focused on looking ahead, opened the cabin door and jumped into the sea!

If you jump, you might survive, but if you hit a missile, and collide with a missile flying at Mach 3, you'll be pierced through. Who could survive that?

His adjutant jumped, wearing a life jacket, while he himself, without any safety gear, was thrown from the helicopter. Thump!
Although the height of the free fall was not high, his belly was the first to come into contact with the seawater, and he was hit hard by the seawater. Instantly, his internal organs suffered a huge impact!

*Pfft...* He spat out a mouthful of blood, and everything went black before his eyes; he knew nothing more.

In the sky, the Neptune early warning helicopters flew frantically toward the shore, while the anti-ship missiles were also rapidly approaching the Queen Elizabeth.

The ultimate target of these missiles is the Queen Elizabeth!
All we needed to do was break through a hole in the defenses!

If it is a complete naval formation, it will definitely be surrounded by layers upon layers.

The innermost part is the aircraft carrier, guarded by destroyers or cruisers, while the outermost part consists of frigates. However, since the British Navy has already been crippled once, the escorting warships are sparse, relying only on one 60,000-ton aircraft carrier and four nearly 10,000-ton Kidd-class destroyers to make up the numbers.

When the missiles came, HMS Indomitable was hit first, followed closely by HMS Sheffield, and both were sunk within minutes. As a result, the escorting warships simply couldn't get together.

Without the Phalanx CIWS, the Sea Wolf missiles we have can at most deal with subsonic missiles. There's no way to deal with this kind of supersonic sea-skimming anti-ship missile unless we use the ship's hull to block it, but that can only block one at a time.

So they all dispersed!
The Queen Elizabeth is right in front of us!
During the later stages of World War II, the Essex-class aircraft carriers were still under construction. The U.S. Navy was also studying the experience of naval warfare and believed that aircraft carriers needed to have sufficiently thick protection. However, if armor was only laid on the hull of the Essex-class ships, the weight would be too great, and the number of carrier-based aircraft would be greatly reduced, which was unacceptable. Therefore, it was decided to develop a larger aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of 45,000 tons and a full displacement of 60,000 tons.

The USS Midway was launched on March 20, 1945, becoming the largest aircraft carrier at sea at the time. Its armored flight deck was the most distinctive feature that set it apart from other aircraft carriers with wooden decks.

In 1955, the USS Midway underwent a conversion that included an angled flight deck, the installation of catapults, and the replacement of its open bow with a fully enclosed bow, transforming it into a modern aircraft carrier.

同步改装的还有防空武器，最早的时候，防空武器就是各种口径的火炮：18门单管127毫米高平两用炮，21门四联装40毫米防空炮，28门单管20毫米防空炮和8门12.7毫米高射机枪。

After all, the most important air defense task at the time was to deal with Japanese suicide planes. However, in modern warfare, these artillery pieces were no longer effective. As a result, almost all of the artillery pieces were removed and replaced with two 8-cell Sea Sparrow ship-to-air missile launchers and two Phalanx close-in weapon systems as the main air defense weapons.

The soft-kill methods mainly include four SRBOC decoy launchers and one SLQ-25 "Lady Water Sprite" towed decoy launcher.

The Russian aircraft carriers are equipped with all kinds of weapons, from anti-ship missiles to anti-aircraft missiles. After all, in the eyes of the Russians, the title of aircraft carrier is not appropriate. They call them heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers.

Western aircraft carriers, after decades of exploration, have come to believe that the so-called aircraft carrier is only used to operate carrier-based aircraft. Air defense and anti-submarine missions can be left to the escorting warships. At most, the carrier itself can carry a short-range defense weapon to intercept any stragglers.

If it were a US carrier strike group, it could really do it. But the current, makeshift British carrier strike group is simply not up to par!
Everyone panicked as the anti-ship missiles hurtled toward them.

The Sea Sparrow missile system launched one missile after another, frantically firing in the direction of the incoming anti-ship missiles. The decoy launchers also made a continuous banging sound, creating an electromagnetic barrier on the side of the aircraft carrier. The Phalanx CIWS stood ready, waiting for the final interception.

So far, it turns out that the aircraft carrier itself is the most effective fighter. The entire fleet is protecting the aircraft carrier, but now it depends on the performance of the aircraft carrier itself!

boom!
boom!
Two brilliant sparks erupted on the sea surface; two anti-ship missiles had been shot down!
Buzz...boom!

The Phalanx CIWS also opened fire, sending a barrage of projectiles flying and destroying two more anti-ship missiles.

This is already the result of their best efforts!
However... at the cost of losing these four anti-ship missiles, the other anti-ship missiles have already reached the aircraft carrier!
Boom!
A tremendous impact resounded, and the entire aircraft carrier seemed to be struck as if a giant bell had been struck. The buzzing sound was incessant, and everyone on board looked ashen-faced.

Inside the engine compartment.

The engineers were still monitoring the boiler's operation when they heard a terrifying crash, leaving them momentarily stunned.

The engine room was very noisy, so over time, the engine room crew's hearing was impaired. Moreover, because they were inside the ship's cabin, they had no idea what was happening upstairs.

The sound of the impact surprised them.

what happened?

The next moment, they opened their eyes wide and looked at the bulkhead to their side.

The bulkhead quickly turned red, then white, and began to bulge from the center of the white area. Then... the bulge ruptured, and countless molten iron splashed out, hitting several people, who let out desperate screams.

The others continued to stare at the horrible bulge, from which a cone-shaped object emerged, much like the warhead of a cannonball from the battleship era.

Anti-ship missiles generally use semi-armor-piercing warheads. The warhead is covered by a cone-shaped hard alloy, which can be tungsten, depleted uranium, or high-strength steel. It is responsible for tearing through steel plates, just like armor-piercing projectiles on tanks.

During a collision, the enormous energy is converted into heat, softening or even melting the impacted area, allowing it to penetrate!
If it's a destroyer or frigate, the thin steel plates can be easily broken with a single blow.

But... aircraft carriers won't work. Aircraft carriers are actually quite similar to battleships.

When the USS Midway was designed, many aspects of its design were copied from the Iowa-class battleships.

To lower the center of gravity, the aircraft carrier deck cannot be too thick, only 9 centimeters. Of course, this is already the thickest. The later Nimitz-class carriers only had a thickness of 5 centimeters. However, there is a 2-inch layer of armor on the hangar deck, and the compartment floor below has armor plates of the same thickness.

This design is specifically designed to counter the vertical drop of bombs, and it features a three-layer armor layout.

In addition, to guard against the threat of surface artillery, there is a 7.6-inch armor belt on the sides.

That's right, it's an armor belt, the same protection as a battleship! That translates to about 19.3 centimeters, compared to the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, whose hull thickness is only 3 centimeters!

These cover most of the midsection of the hull, and there are two 6.5-inch thick transverse bulkheads at the fore and aft of the hull, thus forming a complete armored box.

Of course, this was the situation at the time of design. During construction, the right side was heavier because of the bridge and funnel. At that time, there was no angled deck to balance the weight, so the thickness of the right side armor belt was reduced to 7 inches.

Even so, it is still quite formidable!

Ordinary subsonic anti-ship missiles might not even be able to penetrate this layer of armor protection. Therefore, the Russians knew from the beginning that to take down an American aircraft carrier, they had to use supersonic anti-ship missiles. Of course, they also prepared mushroom bombs for the US Navy.

Now, a Mach 3 supersonic anti-ship missile is flying in, successfully tearing through the side armor belt, and the spot it entered is right in the engine room!
(End of this chapter)