Great Power Long Sky

"What? You want to cancel the altitude difference?"

In the operations conference room, Feng Liang, the deputy division commander in charge of operations and training, glared and almost slammed his fist on the table.

Feng Liang brought a command group to the 7th Air Regiment, which was part of the planned arrangement. The division could not allow a flight regiment to be outside its command and control.

Previously, the division chief of staff was stationed there permanently, rotating every six months, but the time hasn't come yet.

Li Lu used a reconnaissance operation to push the 7th Air Regiment onto the list of the most valued units by the three levels of leadership: headquarters, air force command, and military region air force, and it was ranked number one.

Previously, Donghai Station, which everyone avoided because it was too remote, has become a hot commodity, with people vying to set up permanent stations there.

Feng Liang was originally in charge of the Su-27 modification work of the Ninth Regiment, but somehow he was swapped with the division chief of staff. The latter went to work on the Su-27 modification, and the former came to the Seventh Regiment.

Upon arriving at his post, he immediately convened a training meeting to hear a report from the tactical experiment group on their training work.

Li Lu had only given half of his report on the training preparations when Feng Liang interrupted him.

The reason is that Li Lu wants to eliminate altitude differences during air combat training.

This shocking idea made Feng Liang regret his decision to be stationed and commanded the 7th Air Regiment for an extended period.

He glared at Li Lu and asked, "Captain Li, do you know what the consequences would be if we eliminated the altitude difference? Without the altitude difference, planes could collide at any time in the air."

"The mission of the tactical testing group is to explore new tactics and methods, not to risk the nation's and people's property, nor to joke with the lives of our comrades!"

"I will not sign your training plan, and the division will never approve it."

He looked at Xu Hailiang and reprimanded him, "Commander Xu, is this your first act as a new officer? Are you trying to destroy the division's seven-year-long honor of being an advanced unit in safety training?"

Regardless of Xu Hailiang's reaction, Feng Liang then looked at Fang Zhenwei, "Fang Zhenwei, you're the political commissar. This concerns the safety of troop training. How have you been overseeing this?"

He reprimanded all the officers and supervisors of the Seventh Regiment in one go, which shows how angry he was.

When the military conducts air combat training, it must adopt a confrontational approach. In order to ensure flight safety, the opposing sides are required to maintain a certain altitude difference and conduct horizontal maneuvering dogfights during air combat training.

The opposing sides fly and perform maneuvers at fixed altitudes, thus avoiding the risk of mid-air collisions.

Previous aerial combat training, in order to maintain the altitude difference, had a fixed routine, just like boxing, with fixed times for turning, climbing, and accelerating.

A fight is just like a programmed rehearsal.

The advantages are obvious, and so are the disadvantages.

When Li Lu was entangled with the Lone Ranger crew, he clearly felt that his previous combat training was basically useless. Every flight maneuver was aimed at breaking the framework, because the enemy would not follow your routine.

To break through the tight air defense perimeter formed by dozens of advanced fighter jets and surface ship air defense missile systems of an aircraft carrier battle group, the first step is to deal with the enemy's advanced carrier-based fighter jets.

Even if you can't shoot them down, you should at least have the ability to entangle them.

Xue Shuang, acting as wingman, successfully covered Li Lu's breakthrough; he wouldn't have been able to do that if he had followed the usual training pattern.

Therefore, Li Lu first focused on improving air combat capabilities, making breaking through the "altitude difference training" barrier his first hurdle.

However, he knew very well that getting through this hurdle would be extremely difficult.

No matter how difficult it is, we have to try. If we don't try, there's no hope at all.

Li Lu took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice, "Report, I request to speak."

Feng Liang took a couple of breaths, glanced at Li Lu sideways, and said, "You go ahead."

Li Lu tried to speak in a calm tone, "The advantages and disadvantages of maintaining an altitude difference are well understood by all the leaders and comrades."

"I'd like to use reconnaissance operations as an example to discuss my thoughts in detail."

He described the situation in detail, especially the flight maneuvers and aerial maneuvers.

Finally, he concluded, "When engaging enemy aircraft, most of the techniques we usually train with are not applicable. It can be summarized in two words: freedom. We make autonomous decisions and engage in free offense and defense in three-dimensional space. Real combat shows that we must make changes to our air combat training model."

After a pause, Li Lu said, "If we had strictly followed our usual training methods back then, Comrade Xue Shuang and I would probably be living in the Martyrs' Cemetery by now."

Feng Liang's face looked very grim.

He calmed himself down and controlled his emotions, then gestured for Li Lu to sit down.

"You made a great contribution to the reconnaissance operation, that's a fact, and the division headquarters doesn't deny your performance. Let's stick to the facts. What we're discussing now is your decision to eliminate altitude differences for air combat training. Let's keep things separate."

"Even if we were to improve the training model, directly eliminating the height difference would be extremely risky. If an accident were to occur during training, who would dare to take responsibility, and who could afford to take that responsibility?"

"The Americans engage in free air combat because their aircraft are advanced, and their pilots can quickly obtain flight parameters using avionics. Our aircraft cannot do this. To put it bluntly, without radar guidance, our pilots would not even know where they are."

To be fair, Feng Liang's last few sentences were correct: the level of equipment technology restricted the improvement of training capabilities.

Xu Hailiang had to respond. He said, "Deputy Division Commander, our regimental Party Committee has discussed this carefully in a meeting. Canceling altitude difference training is a process. Our idea is to start with the easy parts and move on to the difficult ones, step by step, mastering one part before moving on to the next."

"For example, restrict the course but eliminate the altitude difference. Once you are proficient, you can unleash the course but maintain a certain altitude difference. You can fully unleash the course after you have a solid foundation."

Feng Liang looked at Fang Zhenwei and asked, "Has your regiment's Party Committee discussed this in a meeting?"

Fang Zhenwei's face was ashen, and he remained silent, gritting his teeth.

Several seconds later, Feng Liang noticed something amiss and shouted, "Fang Zhenwei, I'm asking you a question. Tell me honestly, have you discussed this beforehand?"

Fang Zhenwei steeled his resolve and said, "Yes, the Party Committee of the Youth League has already discussed it."

Feng Liang paused for a moment, then fell silent.

That was no longer Li Lu's personal opinion, or even the opinion of the 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion, but a collective decision of the 7th Air Regiment.

Once the matter has been discussed and decided by the Party Committee at the first level, even as the deputy division commander, he cannot easily deny it. Now his choice is either to have the 7th Regiment report to the next higher level, or to sign and approve it as the leader of the command group.

If it's the former, it needs to be discussed at a meeting of the division's Party Committee. Regardless of the outcome, it's a collective decision of the 3rd Air Division. If it's the latter, it's just a matter for the command group and the 7th Air Regiment.

Clearly, Feng Liang is the primary person responsible for the latter.