Great Power Long Sky

The rain, carrying the chill of early spring, soaked every inch of the runway at Donghai Station.

The fighter jet's landing gear crushed the runway, splashing up rainwater that broke into mist, forming a swirling cloud of fog behind it, which quickly vaporized under the high temperature of the exhaust jet.

The J-6 fighter jets suspended training. The two groups of four aircraft that had just taken off managed to engage in air combat for about ten minutes before having to return to base and land.

Just when we were intensifying our pre-combat training, the weather turned against us.

Li Lu stood on the rooftop of the dormitory area, gazing at the control tower signal lights blurred by the rain and mist in the distance. The cigarette between his fingers caught fire on the filter, burning him and bringing him back to his senses.

Hurried footsteps came from behind. Xue Shuang strode over, his military boots splashing water as he stepped through the puddles.

"Old Li, we just received orders that all participating troops are now under the unified command of the joint military exercise command. The exercise has already begun," Xue Shuang said in a deep voice.

Li Lu nodded slightly, still gazing at the sky, remaining silent.

A large-scale live-fire military exercise is usually divided into four stages: planning and design, preparation and rehearsal, execution of confrontation, and evaluation and debriefing. Execution of confrontation is only one of them.

The so-called "confrontation" refers to deploying troops and executing the "script," which is the script for the military exercise.

The implementation time for each phase is determined by the scale of the exercise.

This exercise involves over 100,000 personnel, making it an extremely rare large-scale military exercise. Moreover, it involves live ammunition, making it even more challenging.

This kind of live-fire military exercise has the capability to be converted into formal combat at any time!

The participating troops have officially transitioned to wartime organization and are now under the unified command of the joint military exercise command, signifying the end of the planning and design phase.

The senior advisors at headquarters have finalized the "script," and the next step is to prepare for a rehearsal—running through all the procedures from beginning to end, except for not deploying troops.

Since the Gulf War, the People's Army has been improving and adjusting its command system, abandoning the previous hierarchical command structure. When organizing operations, the participating troops are treated as a single combat unit and commanded by a joint command, which greatly improves the efficiency of command and operation.

Limited by military communication technology, the People's Liberation Army cannot currently react as quickly as the US military, but its approach is correct.

The headquarters has prepared two command methods. If the joint military exercise command’s wireless communication system is interfered with or damaged by enemy forces and loses its command capability, the traditional wired communication system will be activated immediately to ensure the smooth implementation of the military exercise.

For the 7th Air Regiment, the primary task is to address the issue of its pre-combat training being hampered by weather conditions.

Li Lu turned his gaze away from the distant sky, strode down the rooftop, and Xue Shuang quickly followed.

Upon arriving at the duty room in the inner office building, Li Lu requested the latest weather report, including real-time weather reports and forecasts for airspace No. 3.

There are meteorological stations near the airfields, and meteorological stations are also deployed in some coastal areas. Timely reporting of the latest weather conditions and forecasts to the air force airfields is an important prerequisite for the flight regiment to carry out operations and training.

Li Lu asked, "Who's on duty at the weather station today?"

Operations staff officer Li Dongying was on duty today. He pulled out the duty roster and said, "It's Deputy Director Le Ning."

Li Lu picked up the phone and dialed the weather station. "Is this the weather duty room? This is Li Lu from the 7th Air Regiment. Please ask Deputy Director Le Ning to come to the duty room in the inner field office building and bring him the latest cloud map."

"yes!"

Half an hour later, Le Ning arrived with Yun Tu.

The meteorological station is organized as a company-level unit, and the deputy director is a deputy company-level cadre.

Before Le Ning could report, Li Lu said, "Old Zhang, don't be so polite, bring the cloud map over and let's study it together."

"Yes!" Le Ning didn't dare to delay and unfolded the cloud map on the table.

"Captain Li, this is the latest cloud map. Look, the cold air is moving south from Anhui, and the Pacific monsoon is blowing from southeast to northwest. The cold and warm air collide over the border of Fujian and Zhejiang, forming this large cumulonimbus cloud."

"Both air masses have strong momentum and are replenishing, so we believe the chances of the weather improving in the short term are relatively low."

Li Lu understood. He nodded slightly and said, "We all know that the weather is unpredictable during the transition from spring to summer. Could you be more specific about the short term you mentioned?"

Le Ning pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head and said, "It will take three to five days, or at most one or two weeks. Without more meteorological information, it is difficult to make a more accurate judgment."

Li Lu couldn't blame Le Ning and the others for their lack of skill; current meteorological detection methods are limited, and weather forecasts cannot be very accurate, which is normal.

Sometimes the weather forecast predicts a sunny day, but suddenly a dark cloud drifts in, and a torrential downpour begins. Wind and rain go hand in hand; where there is wind, there is rain, and where there is rain, there is wind.

Strong crosswinds significantly impact flight safety.

Li Lu thought for a moment and asked, "Can you predict the time window? Even just one or two hours, or even ten or twenty minutes?"

Le Ning was taken aback and said, "Captain Li, ten or twenty minutes or an hour or two doesn't make much sense."

Li Lu waved his hand and said, "You don't need to worry about that. Just tell me if you can do it."

Le Ning pondered for a moment and said, "If we launch weather balloons, we can predict the weather window for this event in advance, but I can't guarantee it."

"Okay, go back and do this immediately, and report back promptly," Li Lu said decisively after having some ideas.

Without hesitation, Le Ning stood at attention and replied, "Yes! I'll go back and implement it immediately!"

Time waits for no one, and large-scale live-fire military exercises will not be delayed because a single air regiment's pre-combat training is lagging behind.

If the 7th Air Regiment cannot complete its pre-combat training before engaging in combat, its strike effectiveness will be unsatisfactory once the fighting begins, which will affect the overall effectiveness of the campaign, cause greater casualties on its own side, and put more pressure on the army units, resulting in more casualties.

Li Lu took a car to the field, while Xu Hailiang was anchored in the control tower, extremely anxious.

Le Ning returned to the meteorological station, first reported to the station chief, and then summoned the meteorologists on duty to discuss the implementation plan.

Le Ning, a professionally trained meteorological technician, was well aware of how difficult it would be to meet the demands made by Li Lu.

With current meteorological detection technology, it is already difficult to make more accurate predictions about weather changes. These predictions are based on "days," let alone being accurate to a few minutes or hours.

However, if the scope is limited to the local airspace, Le Ning thinks it's worth a try using probe balloons, even though he doesn't know what Li Lu intends to do.

Ten or twenty minutes, or even one or two hours, cannot cover flight training time. From the moment a batch of aircraft goes up for training to its landing, it takes at least two hours. Even if there is a two-hour window, it does not meet the standard for take-off training because there is no time buffer.

For Le Ning, he needs to produce his predictions at least 30 minutes in advance to allow the flight group enough time to prepare for flight; otherwise, his predictions would be meaningless.

This time, the enemy is the weather.