Great Power Long Sky

With the passing of New Year's Day, 1995 came to an end, and the milestone year of 1996 began.

The day after the holiday ended, a cold wave swept across the south from north to south.

The outer field of Donghai Station was covered with a thin layer of frost, and the officers and soldiers of the airfield service company began to clean the runway, taxiway and other areas early in the morning.

Li Lu got up and did morning exercises as usual, and then went back to the dormitory to wash up and tidy up his belongings.

The other cooks got up at four in the morning to prepare breakfast, while the others who were on night duty were resting.

The airfield's mess hall is unique; they operate on a 24-hour shift system. Pilots on night duty require simple meals and need adequate food supplies.

Therefore, the size of the cooking squad at the airfield is larger than that of other units, and the cooking skills are required to be quite high.

Pilots eat in the same mess hall as submarine crew, which is the highest standard of food.

Other troops are fed enough, but here they are fed well.

After finishing his chores, Li Lu used Peng Fei's "private plane" to call the weather station to inquire about the weather, a good habit he maintained during his time as a zookeeper.

Peng Fei's dormitory has a telephone, which was specially installed for him by the regiment, so that even the air force pilots can call directly.

This is to facilitate direct contact with Peng Fei, the technical expert, to consult on difficult problems.

Upon learning that the weather was terrible, Li Lu went outside to look at the sky and became worried.

He returned to his dormitory and called the operations duty room to inquire about the latest enemy situation. The duty officer told him that the USS Kitty Hawk carrier strike group had been lingering on the edge of the open sea.

In the previous week, the 7th Air Regiment had not reduced its sortie frequency, which even affected its normal daily training.

Li Lu doesn't even need to look; he can judge the intensity of the sortie and thus the enemy situation the troops are currently facing simply by listening to the sounds of fighter jets taking off and landing.

The tactical trials were already progressing slowly, and then they encountered a high-threat enemy situation, putting the entire 7th Regiment and the airfield on high alert.

Li Lu's body was feeding pigs, but his mind was on his aircrew duty post.

After breakfast, Li Lu carried the swill bucket to the pigsty as usual, feeling the biting cold along the way.

After entering January, the winter in the southeastern mountainous areas enters its coldest period.

Humans are suffering, and so are pigs.

After feeding the pigs, Li Lu gathered the other team's feeders and found wooden boards and other materials to reinforce the pigpen against the wind. Once the wind was blocked, the pigs would be more comfortable.

The pigs they raised themselves were one of the important sources of meat for the troops, and this work could not be taken lightly.

It can be said that raising pigs well is directly related to the nutritional status of officers and soldiers.

After the pigsty was reinforced, the other team's pig feeders asked Li Lu to check on their pigs. Li Lu meticulously inspected each pigsty and found that they were all in good condition, with a low probability of them getting sick from the cold. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Lu and the other feeders sat on the edge of the water pool, took out some soft cigarettes and handed them out, explaining professional knowledge such as "Postpartum Care of Sows" to them as usual. Even the seventh-year volunteer soldier nodded repeatedly, indicating that he had learned a lot.

When Chen Qi arrived, he was stunned by what he saw and heard Li Lu's lecture.

Is this guy, Sixth Brother, really good at raising pigs?

Sixth Brother is quite the all-rounder!

Chen Qi snapped out of his daze, jogged over to report, "Reporting, Captain, the Chief of Staff orders you to report to the flight duty room immediately!"

Li Lu stood up abruptly, "Finally, it's here!"

He took out cigarettes and handed them to the seven-year volunteer soldier, saying, "You share these with your comrades. I'll find time to treat you to a meal at the mess hall later!"

"Thank you, Sixth Brother!"

Li Lu left in a hurry, reeking of pig manure.

Li Lu's career as a zookeeper ended in less than a month.

In the flight duty room, almost all the key flight personnel of the 7th Air Regiment were present, and Fang Zhenwei, who rarely came here, was also sitting there.

"We've been waiting for you, have a seat." Xu Hailiang, who was sitting next to Fang Zhenwei on the stage, waved his hand to indicate that Li Lu could skip the reporting process and pointed to the back of the line.

Li Lu walked to the back of the line and found a seat. Tang Enjie, the squadron leader of the first squadron who was sitting in the first row, turned his head and waved to him, indicating that he should sit in the first row.

Li Lu waved his hand and shook his head in refusal.

"Alright, everyone's here, let's start the meeting." Xu Hailiang stood up.

Two nautical charts were hanging on the blackboard, one small-scale and one large-scale.

Li Lu immediately recognized that the smaller scale chart was a navigation chart of the entire southeastern airspace, while the larger scale chart was a navigation chart of the northeastern area of ​​airspace No. 3.

The latter is the main air defense area of ​​the 7th Air Regiment, and also the area furthest from the airfield.

Both the J-6 and J-7 need to carry two external fuel tanks to bring the northeastern area of ​​Airspace No. 3 into their combat radius, and the loiter time there cannot exceed fifteen minutes.

Xu Hailiang said, "We are going to carry out a reconnaissance mission with the target being the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier. This order was issued directly by the Air Force Command, and the East Command is responsible for the specific command."

"We will determine the timing of the operation, and the action plan will be reported directly to the Air Force Command. Please note that this is an operation directly planned by the Air Force Command."

Everyone immediately realized the importance of this task.

In fact, even disregarding the factor of "direct planning by the Air Force Command," this mission was still of great significance.

Xu Hailiang said seriously, "For the past few decades, we have been in a defensive posture, with enemy ships roaming the edge of the open sea with impunity, and even frequently coming close to our territorial waters."

"Limited by equipment performance and technology, we do not have a good way to deal with this effectively."

"Are we just going to stand by and watch them swagger around in our own backyard?"

The pilots yelled, "No!"

Xu Hailiang stated firmly, "Enemy aircraft are frequently approaching our airspace. It would be impolite not to retaliate. The Air Force Command has decided to conduct a reconnaissance operation against the enemy's mothership!"

"Our planes need to locate the enemy mothership, to show them that we have the capability to find them and fly there!"

Soon, everyone understood.

The mission of this reconnaissance operation was singular—to locate the Kitty Hawk.

It looks simple, but it's actually not simple at all.

The USS Kitty Hawk was a massive aircraft carrier with a full-load displacement of over 80,000 tons, a length of 323 meters, and a beam of 40 meters. It was a maritime behemoth, while the largest warship of the People's Liberation Army Navy at the time had a displacement of no more than 4,000 tons.

The problem is that compared to the vast ocean, the Kitty Hawk looks like a tiny dot, like an ant, when viewed from hundreds of kilometers above.

In the absence of long-range maritime surveillance capabilities, locating the USS Kitty Hawk in the vast ocean would be extremely difficult.

Xu Hailiang said, "To support the reconnaissance operation, the Navy has deployed three main destroyers, which set sail two days ago."

"We need to operate in coordination with naval fleets, and they will cooperate with us."

"Let's begin discussing the action plan..."