Chapter 66: Air Raid

  Khomeini was furious.

  The Battle of the Sosang-ni Marsh, although the air force did not take off under his intervention, but he did not expect that an armored division would be defeated so thoroughly!

  This is an armored division, the entire regular army of Iran has no more than ten armored divisions, and this armored division is fully equipped and has the strongest combat effectiveness.

  So he signed the order for the arrest of Abel Hasan without hesitation. How can Abel command an army? He has not even won a single decent victory, how is this possible?

  What he could not have imagined was that the escaped Rajavi would dare to attack the Revolutionary Guards! The bodies all over the ground, the Revolutionary Guards, symbolizing his dignity, absolutely intolerable of infringement!

  He ordered a large number of Revolutionary Guard members to start searching for Abolhassan and Rajavi, who had been branded as traitors to the Iranian Revolution.

  At the same time, he also ordered the Air Force to retaliate against Iraq!

  An armored division was defeated, if we don't achieve some decent results ourselves, how can we comfort the entire Iranian people?

  Iran's eagles are on the move again, this time taking off with an F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron, two F-4 Phantom fighter squadrons, and two F-5 Tiger fighter squadrons, totaling 20 aircraft. This is already their limit for mobilization, apart from the necessary air defense, they can only deploy these planes. At the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, that powerful air force had already become strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

  Apart from four F-14s carrying air-to-air missiles, the rest of the fighter jets were loaded with bombs, ready to carry out a ground bombing mission. The target of this bombing was Baghdad!

  Although there are not many fighter jets, with four pandas, this flight team is fearless.

  Panda, in the sky of the Middle East, is a god-like existence!

  Before crossing the Iran-Iraq border, the formation encountered two MiG-25 interceptors.

  After the panda turned on its powerful radar, the opponent's MiG aircraft immediately flew away in a flash.

  Under this sky, any plane that encounters a panda will have only one outcome: being shot down!

  The F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-seat strike fighter aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman for the United States Navy. Its primary role was as an air superiority fighter and multi-role aircraft, with capabilities that included air-to-air combat, air-to-ground strikes, and reconnaissance.

  Variable sweep wing technology is an important research direction in this era. The smaller the angle of attack of the wing, the better the maneuverability at medium and low altitudes, but the greater the resistance during high-speed flight. Conversely, a larger angle of attack results in good high-speed performance but poor maneuverability at low speeds. Therefore, if the angle of attack of the wing can be changed, it will have excellent low-speed and high-speed performance. Apart from the Xianglang (Panda), the Soviet MiG-23 also has variable sweep wings. However, due to limitations in technology, especially electronics, the Panda's variable sweep wing is automatically controlled by computer and can adjust to any angle within a certain range, while the MiG-23 only has fixed angles that are manually adjusted.

  The all-metal semi-monocoque fuselage and advanced structural types of the panda are widely used with titanium alloys, and some use boron composite materials. In structural materials, aluminum alloy accounts for 39%, titanium alloy accounts for 24%, steel accounts for 39%, and the rest are composite materials. The machine is equipped with complex electronic equipment. The most complicated one is probably the powerful Hughes Company's AN/AWG-9 pulse Doppler radar. It can intercept airborne targets within 120 to 315 kilometers, and can track 24 targets at different distances from ultra-low altitude to 30,000 meters high altitude simultaneously, and attack 6 of them. It is also equipped with the AN/AWG-15 fire control system, the AN/ASW-27B data transmission system, the CP1050/A central air data computer, and other advanced modern electronic equipment. These electronic devices are simply a freak compared to the simple MiG machine.

  Along with the AIM-54A "Phoenix" long-range air-to-air missile, the Iranian Air Force can take down MiG aircraft at a distance, while the MiG has not even detected the opponent yet. This is real power. Although now, due to the lack of Phoenix missiles, most Tomcats only carry Sparrow medium-range air-to-air missiles and Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles, but in close combat, the Tomcat still has a complete upper hand.

  The Mig squadron discovered that the opponent's squadron had emitted a special radar signal, and immediately chose to return. It wasn't that they didn't want to fight, but rather they simply didn't have the means to do so.

  The squadron successfully penetrated Iraqi airspace, immediately turning north and flying directly to Baghdad.

  For this route, pilots of squadrons that have carried out countless bombing missions are extremely familiar.

  At this time, air raid sirens have gone off in Baghdad.

  Since the outbreak of war, the air forces of both countries have frequently bombed each other's capitals. To such air raids, ordinary civilians have already had a very normal reaction. They fled to underground shelters and then waited for the arrival of the explosion sounds.

  The only fortunate thing is that the air forces of both countries were not equipped with precision-guided bombs, but only used ordinary gravity bombs with poor accuracy. Moreover, a large number of anti-aircraft firepower was deployed in Baghdad.

  Around Baghdad, there were two high-calibre artillery regiments and two SAM-6 missile battalions. "These firepower could give any aircraft that dared to bomb Baghdad a severe blow." This was the words of Air Force Commander Abid, who turned a blind eye to the bombs falling from above. (At this time, Iraq's air force and air defense forces had not yet been separated).

  To prevent misfire, the air force's fighter jets generally intercept enemies at a distance. Once the opponent breaks through the defensive line of the interceptors, it is handed over to the ground-based anti-aircraft firepower for disposal. This is a typical Soviet-style tactic that can effectively prevent misfires, as long as they are in the sky, bring them down and that's it.

  But in this way, the efficiency is very low. How many planes can air defense firepower intercept? I'm afraid only God knows.

  Air defense is a choice that can't be helped, when did the Americans use air defense firepower? Their focus is on offense! Before you even come up, they've already knocked you down, full-force offense, no need to defend at all.

  In the underground air defense command center, Saddam's face was iron-green as he issued combat orders.

  "Mr. President, why don't we let our air force take action and intercept the incoming planes?" Zhang Feng asked cautiously.

  Air Force? Saddam looked at Abid with disdain, "The Air Force encounters a panda and knows to run away."

  Abid's face suddenly turned red.

  "Mr. President, although our air force is not strong enough, we can still use the right tactics to disrupt their formation. Their pandas are guarding other planes for bombing, if we take out the pandas, the other planes will be free to attack." Zhang Feng said.

  Is this the right tactical move? Disrupting the enemy's formation? Abid is crying with a sad face, now among the air force pilots, who dares to drive the plane to fight against the panda? That's simply suicide. Except for those few unruly and well-backed pilots, but they are very disobedient and do not listen to orders. If it weren't for their strong backing, they would have been purged long ago.

  At this moment, a stunning piece of news arrived at the underground air defense command center.

  In Shuaiba Air Base, a MiG-23 fighter jet of the 77th Fighter Squadron took off in defiance of orders to intercept an incoming Iranian air force, piloted by Lieutenant Alsalam.