Great Power Long Sky

The speed of the JH-7 fighter-bomber No. 81291 is getting faster and faster.

Li Lu did not stop pushing the throttle stick, and the fighter jet naturally accelerated steadily.

Reaching the designated airspace as quickly as possible allows for the rapid confirmation of the exact location of the USS Kitty Hawk carrier strike group, thus reducing the time exposed to the enemy.

Xue Shuang's gaze darted back and forth between the speedometer and the sea surface, her mind highly focused.

When the speedometer needle showed 900 kilometers per hour, even Xue Shuang, with her strong mental fortitude, couldn't help but gasp.

This is a speed that has never been achieved in training.

Flying at a speed of 900 kilometers per hour at a sea-skimming altitude of ten meters is like dancing in front of the King of Hell—come on, come and get me!

Li Lu focused all his attention on flight control, not daring to be distracted for even a moment. The visual search mission was to be handled by Xue Shuang, a division of labor that had been agreed upon long ago.

He was very confident that at this altitude and with such a high speed, the enemy would not be able to detect the JH-7 fighter-bomber number 81291 unless they specifically used infrared detectors to detect it.

It can be said that at this altitude, the JH-7 is completely hidden from the ocean background, and even the most advanced airborne radar cannot detect it.

The cost was also enormous—Li Lu and Xue Shuang's visual search range was limited to a minimum.

Because this height is even lower than the mast height of many ships!

Xue Shuang estimated that the visual search distance was no more than five kilometers. Beyond five kilometers, it was a vast expanse where nothing could be seen clearly.

Without being able to activate the airborne radar, this visual search distance is extremely dangerous.

Nine hundred kilometers per hour is equivalent to two hundred and fifty meters per second. At this speed, the JH-7 can fly five kilometers in just twenty seconds.

What does twenty seconds mean?

The time taken to count from one to twenty.

He picks up the cigarette pack, takes out a cigarette and puts it in his mouth, picks up the lighter, lights it, takes a puff and exhales, and puts down the lighter, takes another puff and exhales.

The time required to disassemble and reassemble a Type 95 automatic rifle.

The time it takes to read five hundred words.

The time it takes to unzip your pants to urinate and then zip them back up.

It's very short.

In other words, when Xue Shuang spotted the escort ships surrounding the USS Kitty Hawk and reported it to Li Lu, JH-7 fighter-bomber No. 81291 had already plunged into the enemy's core air defense zone.

For Li Lu and his team, this was an extremely dangerous visual search distance; for the USS Kitty Hawk carrier battle group, it was also a highly threatening flight altitude and speed.

The surface-to-air missiles of all the escort ships in the Kitty Hawk carrier strike group were unable to attack incoming targets at such a low sea-skimming altitude.

The reason why the Soviet Union devoted so much effort to developing long-range anti-ship missiles capable of high-speed, supersonic penetration at sea-skimming speeds of at least five meters in the terminal phase of an attack was precisely this.

Excluding submarines, the weakest point in the air defense of an aircraft carrier battle group is the ultra-low altitude.

Defending against ultra-low-altitude targets is a challenge for air defense in all countries, whether on land or at sea.

Li Lu was operating the JH-7 as if it were a large, ultra-low-altitude sea-skimming, anti-ship penetration missile.

Neither he nor Xue Shuang could see what was happening in the sky, because the cloud layer had already dropped to below 1,000 meters. Based on experience, they judged that cumulonimbus clouds would soon form, followed by heavy rainfall.

The lower the cloud cover, the heavier the rain!

Li Lu maintained the flight altitude, heading, and speed for a full fifteen minutes!

Two hundred and twenty-five kilometers!

According to calculations, flying forward for another three minutes will allow us to reach the designated airspace and begin the search.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang had no idea that they had already broken into the second air defense zone of the USS Kitty Hawk carrier battle group, which was the air defense zone composed of escort ships. Twenty kilometers ahead was the core air defense zone.

The reason for such a huge error is not Li Lu, but the USS Kitty Hawk carrier strike group!

Three hours before Li Lu took off, the USS Kitty Hawk carrier battle group had already begun its westward advance at a top speed of thirty knots!

Four and a half hours have passed, and the USS Kitty Hawk carrier strike group has moved a full 250 kilometers away from the area where it was originally lingering!

This is an extremely dangerous sign.

The western edge of the eastern sea area of ​​the island is only 300 kilometers away from my coastline.

With the combat radius of the F-14 and F-18, they can cover all the coastal cities in the eastern and southeastern parts of my country, which is the economic heartland of the country!

This is not only a dangerous piece of tactical intelligence, but also a major shift in the highest decision-making of the enemy's joint operations command center!

This means that the enemy's joint operations command center is shifting its highest decision-making from limited intervention to deep intervention.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang were unaware of this major change.

Their visual search efforts were limited by the absurdly low flight altitude, their field of vision was extremely limited, and the weather was changing rapidly.

The weather was clear over the strait, but the weather in the waters east of the island, hundreds of kilometers away, was unpredictable, which was perfectly normal.

Sometimes in the same city, two adjacent districts experience contrasting weather: one district is hit by torrential rain, while the other enjoys bright sunshine. It doesn't make sense, but there's a basis for it.

The sky wants to rain, and you can't stop it.

As expected, raindrops began to fall from the sky.

Judging whether it's raining by whether there's rain on the outside of the canopy is something people without life experience would do.

At a speed of 900 kilometers per hour, the rain was blown away and scattered before it even touched the canopy glass.

Even when a car is traveling at 120 kilometers per hour, it's difficult for rainwater to stick to the windshield, let alone a fighter jet traveling at 900 kilometers per hour.

To determine if it's raining, check the visibility.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang both noticed that visibility was decreasing, and the light gray haze ahead was turning into a dark gray haze.

Looking overhead, the clouds were a combination of dark gray and black, typical of cumulonimbus clouds.

Li Lu eased off the accelerator and gestured, "Preparing to enter..."

Before he could finish his sign language, he caught a glimpse of a huge black shadow flashing past to his left. Yes, it was a huge black shadow, a ship with a very tall deck!

"Left wing! It looks like a Ticonderoga-class!" Li Lu broke the radio silence without hesitation and warned in a deep voice.

Xue Shuang quickly looked over and immediately spotted the side profile of a large warship. "Confirmed! It's a Ticonderoga-class cruiser! Five kilometers away!"

Li Lu cursed, "Damn it, we've broken into the Kitty Hawk's core defense perimeter!"

The Ticonderoga-class cruisers serve as escorts for aircraft carriers, typically deployed in the inner circle, while the smaller Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are positioned forward, outside the core defense perimeter.

The sighting of the Ticonderoga-class cruiser indicates that the USS Kitty Hawk is nearby. Judging from the Ticonderoga-class cruiser's course, the USS Kitty Hawk should be about ten kilometers behind it.