Chapter 7: Practical Exercises

  Qinghai Lake, a converted flat-bottomed barge floats quietly on the lake surface.

  This was a barge used to transport potassium salt, which was bought by the air force half a year ago and then installed with several sets of close-range self-defense weapon systems and electronic equipment on it, and was converted into an unmanned ship. In the following half year, a mysterious unit stationed at the Dahua Air Force Base began to perform training tasks over Qinghai Lake.

  It was actually an experimental unit jointly established by the Air Force and Naval Aviation.

  The fleet is equipped with only five aircraft, two of which are the Su-30MKK from Hainan Airlines, two are J-10s from the Air Force, and one is an unmanned reconnaissance drone.

  These five aircraft are not simple, especially that peculiarly shaped unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with a wingspan of nearly 40 meters.

  Two Su-30MKKs flying in formation over the southern plateau of Qinghai Lake at an altitude of about 150 meters above ground, heading north at a speed of 1,100 kilometers per hour.

  In the cockpit of the lead aircraft, Liang Guoxiang concentrated on controlling the fighter jet, while Di Boqing provided him with navigation information.

  "Altitude increased by five meters, switched to manual control."

  "Switch to manual control." Liang Guoxiang gripped the control stick tightly. "Damn, can it detect a height of five meters?"

  "Brother Liang, don't get angry, I've sent you the image, it's on your attitude display screen, take a look yourself."

  He glanced at the flight data on the left screen and sighed, then looked up at the sky in front of him.

  The flight information of the formation is provided by the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flying at an altitude of 18,000 meters, rather than being measured by the wireless altimeter on the fighter jet.

  For half a year, Liang Guoxiang and his comrades have been practicing attack tactics guided by unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

  In this brand new tactic, the key role is played by that unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

  Relying on the "Long Xiang battery" and superconducting motor, the 17-ton "Yuan" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft can fly continuously at an altitude of 18,000 meters for 54 hours, or fly to a combat zone 5,400 kilometers away at a speed of 540 kilometers per hour, and then perform a 12-hour search and reconnaissance mission. If Xi'an Aircraft Company's newly developed solar panel battery board can be integrated into the wing of "Yuan", its endurance will be increased by at least two times.

  "The osprey's" true prowess does not lie in its flight performance.

  Compared to the US military's "Global Hawk", especially the 40 model of "Global Hawk", the flight performance of the "Yunying" is not outstanding, and several main performance indicators are slightly inferior to those of the "Global Hawk".

  What makes "Y-20" the protagonist is its strong information collection, joint command and battlefield reconnaissance capabilities.

  Three broadband satellite communication channels, five tactical data links enable the "Vulture" to receive information from three military satellites at the same time, and maintain communication with the command center while providing tactical information for four fighter jets.

  The high-resolution optical digital camera and millimeter-wave synthetic aperture radar gave the "Vulture" two eyes that are a hundred times sharper than an eagle's, allowing it to clearly see the numbers on a car license plate from 18,000 meters in the air or identify the specific model of tanks identified by radar. The Air Force also plans to equip the "Vulture" with infrared and ultraviolet cameras, enabling it to detect ballistic missiles hundreds of kilometers away.

  How to play the powerful ability of "Osprey", became an important tactical subject of air force and naval aviation.

  After half a year of arduous training, Liang Guoxiang and Di Boqing, as well as Zhu Ronghui and Yang Jinjie from Hainan Airlines, who were also on the same fighter jet, explored more than ten new tactics and initially mastered these tactics.

  Today, they will play two roles at the same time.

  First, in the anti-ship attack mode, under the guidance of "Yuanwang", and using the target information provided by "Yuanwang", use anti-ship missiles to attack the flat-bottomed cargo ship playing the role of a hypothetical enemy. Then switch to air-to-air combat mode, playing the role of a hypothetical enemy of the air force, intercepting two J-10 fighter jets that launched a surprise attack with the support of "Yuanwang".

  To achieve a realistic effect, two Su-30MKKs have flown 1,200 kilometers near the Kunlun Mountains.

  Now, it's less than three hundred kilometers away from the target.

  "Brother Liang, received target data."

  "Enter the data into the missile guidance system." Liang Guohui turned his head to look at the wingman on his left rear, "Launch the missile in fifteen seconds."

  "Roger that, inputting firing control data."

  Under Di Poqing's operation, the fire control computer input the target information just received into the guidance system of the anti-ship missiles under both wings. At this time, Yang Jinjie, a lieutenant on the wingman plane, also completed the same operation.

  To achieve the effect of a sudden attack, two Su-30MKKs flew at ultra-low altitude throughout the course, relying entirely on data provided by the "Vulture" to attack the target, without having to use fire control radar to illuminate the target before launching missiles. As a result, before the attack, the two Su-30MKKs would not emit any radio signals, and did not even need to climb to search for targets.

  "Guidance data loaded, request missile launch."

  Liáng Guó Xiáng hesitated for a moment before saying: "The missile can be launched."

  As Di Bo Qing pressed down the launch button, the explosive bolts on the pylon detonated and two heavy anti-ship missiles weighing 1.8 tons each were thrown out. Liang Guoxiang's reaction was extremely swift, and before the plane had risen to a height of ten meters, he pushed down on the nose, regaining control over the flight altitude.

  At an altitude of about 50 meters, the rocket-ramjet engines on the four missiles ignited. Within five seconds, the missile's flight speed exceeded Mach 2, and the engine worked in ramjet mode. Upon reaching the sky above Qinghai Lake, the missile's flight altitude dropped to below 20 meters. Fifteen seconds before hitting the target, the missile entered the self-guided phase. According to the predetermined attack pattern, the missile would choose either a pop-up dive attack or a sea-skimming horizontal attack. In the end, the barge was destroyed by the missile, which was shot down by the rapid-fire cannon on the barge.

  "Jettison auxiliary fuel tank, switch to air-to-air combat mode, altitude 6,500 meters, flying in an '8' pattern route, searching nearby airspace."

  "Number Two, altitude six thousand five hundred, air-to-air combat mode."

  Two Su-30MKK fighter jets took off one after the other, and their onboard fire control radar systems were immediately activated to search the surrounding airspace.

  Air-to-air combat is completely different from air-to-sea combat, especially when there is no AWACS support.

  The H001M Doppler fire control radar installed on the Su-30MKK has a detection range of 180 km for targets with a radar cross-section of five square meters, and a tracking range of 120 km; it can track eight airborne targets simultaneously and attack two of the most threatening ones.

  At this time, Liang Guoxiang and his team were facing two J-10s.

  Neither Liang Guoxiang nor Zhu Ronghui were very confident of defeating their opponents.

  The two J-10s sent by the Air Force are not ordinary models, but the latest models. In addition to adopting new engines and greatly improving maneuverability, they are also equipped with more advanced passive detection equipment, and a layer of composite material that can absorb radar waves is applied to the aircraft body, with a radar cross-sectional area of less than one square meter.

  In previous exercises, Su-30MKK did not gain much advantage.

  With the support of airborne early warning aircraft, Su-30MKK still has a bit of an advantage. But now they not only did not get the support of airborne early warning aircraft, but also the opponent can rely on the "Vulture" to provide battlefield information to quietly approach and launch a surprise attack when Su-30MKK is completely unaware.

  This battle was without suspense.

  As time ticked away second by second, Liang Guoxiang became increasingly restless.

  "Brother Liang, what do you think those two air force bastards will do to us? They won't come at our backs like last time and wipe us out with machine guns, will they?"

  "It's not that far-fetched." Liang Guoxiang let out a breath, "This time it's a combat effectiveness test exercise, they will definitely launch missiles outside of visual range and then use data links to provide guidance information for the missiles. They won't give us any chance to fight back at all."

  "Good grief, if we keep fighting like this, won't we become fish on the chopping block?"

  "What can we do?" Liang Guoxiang smiled wryly, "Who let the Indian Air Force be equipped with Su-30MKI, and we became the most ideal 'imaginary enemy'?"

  "But the Indian Air Force has AWACS, and if they want the exercise to be more realistic, they should provide us with AWACS."

  "Shut up and watch the radar warning receiver." Liang Guoxiang scanned around, "Those two rabbits won't hide forever. The data link can only provide mid-course guidance information, in the last ten seconds before the missile arrives, they must illuminate us with their fire control radar, otherwise the missile cannot obtain the final attack data."

  "Understood, we have only ten seconds left for prayer."

  As soon as Di Boqing's words fell, the radar warning machine started screaming.

  Liang Guoxiang immediately pushed down the control stick and pressed the button to launch the radar jamming missile. The radar on the J-10 fighter jet only needed five seconds to obtain the necessary data, if it couldn't leave the opponent's fire control radar illumination range within five seconds, it would definitely be "shot down".

  "Where are they?"

  "There's nothing on our left rear, nothing on our right rear either. The radar hasn't picked up any enemy planes. Dammit, where the hell are they?"

  "My goodness! I'm going all out!" Liang Guoxiang felt a surge of excitement, the result of adrenaline being rapidly secreted.

  Two Su-30MKKs shot down towards the lake surface like meteors.

  The radar alarm machine has not stopped, and the frequency of the alarm sound is getting higher and higher.

  The red warning light came on, and the alarm sound finally stopped. Liang Guoxiang immediately pulled back the control stick and increased the throttle. The Su-30MKK pulled out of its dive, leaving a white contrail in the air above the lake.

  "Hawk, this is command center. Exercise terminated, return to base at ultra-low altitude. Repeat, exercise terminated, return to base at ultra-low altitude."

  "Command center, this is Falcon, received orders, returning at ultra-low altitude."

  After switching the flight status to automatic control mode, Liang Guoxiang pushed up the goggles of his helmet and wiped away the sweat on his face.

  Without any suspense, without even seeing the shadow of an "enemy aircraft", it was shot down by a medium-range air-to-air missile launched by the "enemy aircraft".

  Liang Guoxiang was a bit unwilling, really compared to hand-to-hand combat, he wouldn't lose to an air force fighter pilot.

  At this thought, Liang Guoxiang raised his head and looked at the sky above him.

  A drone that is equipped with no weapons, cannot attack any targets and does not even require a pilot has thoroughly changed the combat model of air force and naval aviation, overthrowing all tactics.

  Fortunately, this revolution took place within the army of the Republic.

  When the two Su-30MKKs disappeared into the mountains, the flat-bottomed barge that was blown to pieces by four anti-ship missiles also vanished without a trace.