Great Power Long Sky

The entire strait was designated a military no-navigation zone five days ago, and any unrelated civilian or commercial vessels and aircraft are strictly prohibited from entering without authorization. Any violation of the regulations will result in the individual bearing all possible serious consequences.

Li Lu piloted his fighter jet at extremely low altitude, gradually approaching the sea boundary known as the "median line." He could clearly see a vast naval combat fleet deploying on the sea below.

With Type 051 destroyers and Type 053 frigates as the core of the fleet, supplemented by multiple missile boats and torpedo boats, dozens of ships of various types were divided into several tactical sub-fleets, densely and orderly scattered in the vast sea area, creating a spectacular scene.

This is just one of the fleets of warships deployed by the Navy this time.

In this large-scale military exercise, the navy mobilized its entire force, and all coastal defense units entered the highest level of combat readiness, fully shouldering the important responsibility of protecting the country's maritime borders.

Looking down at the massive fleet below from the air, Li Lu felt a surge of complex and indescribable emotions.

He couldn't help but recall the words that Feng Liang, the commander of the Air Force East China Sea Front Command, had said to them, the key flight personnel, after the pre-battle mobilization meeting:

"In this confrontation, the navy may be completely wiped out, and our air force may also be completely wiped out. The higher command is prepared to fight with all our naval and air forces. Even if only the army is left in the end, we must resolutely complete the established combat missions and strategic objectives."

Does this sound pessimistic?

No, this is not pessimism, but a sober understanding based on reality.

Even if the navy were to deploy all its existing ships to the battlefield, it would be difficult to confront the enemy's powerful carrier battle group head-on.

There is a huge gap between the two sides in terms of equipment and technology, and this gap cannot be bridged simply by increasing numbers. Moreover, we do not have an advantage in the number of ships.

The situation faced by the Air Force is equally dire.

Even under such a disparity in strength, the People's Army's firm determination to defend the country's territorial integrity remains unshaken!

Every pilot in both the 7th and 8th Air Regiments knew full well that many of them might never return from this mission. Even so, this did not shake their unwavering belief that they were prepared to sacrifice their lives for their country!

After flying over the naval task force, Li Lu adjusted his course to 30 degrees according to the pre-arranged combat plan and began the first key reconnaissance operation of this mission—finding the exact location of the Kitty Hawk carrier battle group.

The JH-7 fighter-bomber he was piloting maintained a flight altitude of about fifty meters above the sea surface, speeding forward at a cruising speed of over eight hundred kilometers per hour.

The shimmering sea beneath the wings constantly reflected dazzling light, casting intermittent shadows on the cockpit canopy, causing continuous light interference for Li Lu and Xue Shuang in the seat behind him.

Li Lu was fully focused on maneuvering the aircraft, striving to maintain its stable flight attitude; at the same time, Xue Shuang kept a close eye on the altimeter, reminding Li Lu to make subtle adjustments from time to time to ensure the safety of continuous ultra-low-altitude flight.

The Earth's surface is curved, a feature that is particularly evident above the vast ocean.

During such high-speed flight, Li Lu had to make subtle adjustments to the aircraft's pitch angle at regular intervals to ensure that the fighter jet remained stable at the predetermined altitude of fifty meters.

In contrast, third-generation fighter jets from Western countries have autopilots equipped with terrain-matching capabilities, enabling them to automatically maintain flight altitude and avoid obstacles on the ground or sea.

While fly-by-wire flight control systems have become one of the technical standards for third-generation fighter jets, our latest domestically produced fighter-bomber, the JH-7, still uses mechanical transmission technology that has some fly-by-wire flight control system functions.

Why has low-altitude penetration training not been widely adopted by the People's Liberation Army Air Force for so long? Is it because the People's Liberation Army Air Force did not realize the advantages of this tactic?

You can question the equipment and technology of the People's Air Force in this era, but never assume that your intelligence is higher than that of the People's Air Force.

It's not that we can't think of it, it's that we can't do it.

During the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University in Yan'an, some students had already drawn their visions of a domestically built aircraft carrier. In that era, our forefathers had an unimaginable insight into the future, knowing that the future lay in the ocean and in the sky, even though at that time they couldn't even provide each person with a broken sleeve.

Did Li Lu know the vast disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves? Obviously not. With over three million soldiers in the entire army, every officer and soldier was very clear about the extent of the gap between us and the enemy.

If we were able to defeat the enemy the first time, given that our equipment and technology were far inferior to theirs, we are confident and capable of defeating them a second time.

At this moment, Li Lu is confident and capable of finding the Kitty Hawk carrier battle group a second time, given that he was able to do so once!

This is why he and Xue Shuang were assigned the crucial reconnaissance mission before the battle.

No one is more experienced than Li Lu.

The route was determined after repeated deliberation.

Based on intelligence gathered by the intelligence department, the patterns of enemy air force activity detected by radar units over a period of time, and a comprehensive analysis of the mission objectives, multiple flight routes were formulated. Finally, one of the routes was selected based on the latest information before takeoff.

There is no doubt that this reconnaissance mission was meticulously planned.

After taking off, Li Lu first adopted an eastward-facing posture at an altitude of 3,000 meters, moving at a very high speed, heading straight for the center line.

The straight-line distance between the two sides is no more than 300 kilometers. Any aircraft taking off from the island cannot escape the detection of the Yuanling radar station. Conversely, aircraft taking off from the coast of the Donghai airfield cannot escape the detection of the "Pave Paws" early warning radar on the island.

In fact, the Pave Paws early warning radar is said to have a warning range of 3000 kilometers.

What does this mean?

One "Pave Paws" early warning radar on the island can cover the entire hinterland of western Sichuan!

However, the detection capabilities of such long-range early warning radar for low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude targets are very limited.

As is well known, radar relies on beams for detection, and is divided into shortwave and longwave. Under these two categories, it is further subdivided into microwave, ultra-shortwave, shortwave, medium wave, medium-long wave, long wave, ultra-long wave, and so on.

In terms of technical principles, shortwave radar is accurate, meaning it has high resolution. However, its signal radiation range is short, much like a light bulb, where objects at close range are clearly visible and their location is readily apparent. Longwave radar, on the other hand, has a strong signal, meaning it has a long detection range. However, it can only detect targets within a fan-shaped area, much like a spotlight, which has a long illumination distance but a small area and low resolution.

Therefore, fire control radar and airborne radar are microwave/shortwave radars, while early warning radars are mostly medium and longwave radars.

Even if radar technology develops for a hundred years, its underlying principles will not change.

When a radar transmits a beam signal, the signal strength weakens as it travels through the air. Long-wave radar transmits strong signals, thus having a long range. To determine the transmission direction, the apex of the transmission sector represents the furthest distance.

Just like longwave radio, which can be received from Beijing to Hainan Island, most radio stations are longwave stations.

In military applications, the navy uses longwave radios the most, especially for communication with submarines.

For a long time, the only means for the People's Navy to enter the open ocean was by submarines.

How do submarines communicate with each other when they enter the open ocean?

Longwave radio station.

After agreeing on a communication time period, the submarine surfaces to a height where it can raise the communication antenna, which is essentially the state of surfacing.

Is it possible to combine the advantages of both long-wave and short-wave radar?

There is a way.

The most typical example is the MiG-25, which is known as the "double three" because it has a maximum speed of Mach 3 and a maximum altitude of 3 meters.

The Russians used a simple and crude method to equip this fighter jet with its airborne radar—increasing the radar's transmission power.

The MiG-25's airborne radar has a power of 500 watts, with a peak power of 600 watts and a maximum detection range of 100 kilometers.

F-14A/B型的机载雷达AN/AWG-9，其对战斗机目标的最大探测距离是160公里，F-14D搭载的A/AWG-71，其对战斗机目标的最大探测距离超过200公里。

Logically speaking, the airborne radar carried by the F-14 series must have a higher power than the model used in the MiG-25.

However, the truth is quite the opposite.

Both the AN/AWG-9 and AN/AWG-71 have a power rating of 10 watts!

It is only one-sixtieth the size of the "Cyclone-A" airborne radar used in the MiG-25!

Moreover, the F-14 has a longer detection range, and the number of targets it can simultaneously track and lock onto far exceeds that of the MiG-25!

Some say that if the MiG-25's airborne radar were turned on on the ground, rabbits within a 100-meter radius would be roasted.

Despite the exaggeration, this also proves the simplicity and brutality of the MiG-25's airborne radar, which was later praised by some as "violent aesthetics".

The fundamental reason is that the Russians were determined to stick to the vacuum tube technology route, and the weight of their airborne radar even forced aircraft engineers to add weight to other parts of the fuselage to achieve the balance of the fuselage's gravity.

During this period, the Americans had already adopted digital technology and did not simply increase power output to improve radar performance.

The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) learned from the Soviet Union, copying its equipment and combat methods for decades. After the Soviet Union's demise, and especially after the Gulf War, the PLAAF continued to learn by trial and error, realizing that blindly following the Soviet Union's technological path was not advisable. After all, it was a fact that the Middle East's strongest army, armed with Soviet-style equipment, collapsed under the US triad attack.

Specifically, the first manifestation of the change in airborne radar is the airborne radar carried by the JH-7.

The single-pulse multi-function fire control radar has a maximum detection range of 70 kilometers against fighter jet targets and a maximum detection range of 170 kilometers against large surface water targets.

The technology of this radar is derived from the AN/APQ-120 radar used in the F-4E.

The AN/APQ-120 radar was made from thousands of pieces of aircraft wreckage from the Vietnam War.

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