Chapter Seventy Shot Down

  Air combat is the most brutal, life and death are decided in just a few seconds.

  Two P-23T missiles were flying rapidly, constantly receiving instructions from the carrier aircraft behind them and adjusting their flight attitude. They had already approached within five kilometers and could have activated the infrared seeker head, but because the panda made a fierce roll, what was originally aimed at the opponent's tail became a side view, causing the infrared seeker head to fail to lock on.

  However, after the panda rolled horizontally and flew flat again, it once again exposed its scorching tail gas to the P-23T's line of sight.

  Infrared guidance head is to detect the infrared radiation of the target engine nozzle, tail flame and skin aerodynamic heating through detection, to obtain guidance information. Its effective range is related not only to the intensity of the target's infrared radiation and the characteristics of its radiation spectrum but also to the sensitivity of the guidance head and the meteorological conditions of the external environment. The engine is a high-temperature radiation source, so the engine nozzle is the favorite of the infrared guidance head. At this time, the missile does not have all-aspect attack capability and can only attack the rear half.

  Liquid nitrogen-cooled indium antimonide seeker head finally found the pre-set target, onboard computer made analysis and took control of the carrier aircraft, guided by infrared seeker.

  Retreat! Arslan didn't have time to see how the battle turned out. What was most important for him now was to escape.

  In theory, when the distance from the panda is close to thirty kilometers, as long as it is discovered by the panda, it is almost impossible to escape. Now, he is only ten kilometers away from the panda, and two pandas have already pounced on him.

  As the shrill cry in the headphones disappeared, Lanawad did not let his guard down. He kept turning around in the huge bubble cockpit, looking in all directions.

  Suddenly, his pupils dilated: "Four o'clock direction, two missiles!"

  "Fire the heat wave missile!" Ah-Hami shouted, and then began preparing for a drastic maneuver.

  "Boom, boom, boom." From the side of the panda, countless fireballs flew out, and from a distance, it looked like fireworks were being set off. This was a type of incendiary bomb that could release a large amount of heat in a short period of time, used to confuse infrared missiles' vision and cause them to make incorrect choices.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, a missile detected that there was a heat source in front of it with a higher temperature than its previously locked target. After a slight hesitation, it changed its target and flew towards this new heat source.

  Seeing a missile flying in from the side rear, Lanawad changed direction, the taut string still not relaxed, and another missile was coming.

  "Cast off!" Ahmadi shouted.

  In terms of mobility, fighter jets can never surpass missiles. However, there is one thing that fighter jets far exceed missiles in - the pilots inside a fighter jet have thoughts!

  Ah-ha-mi knew that shaking off the missile was impossible, so he had to pull up and climb at the moment the missile arrived. The closer the infrared-guided missile got, the smaller its field of view became. As long as he flew over the guidance head's line of sight, the infrared missile would lose its target and miss the fighter jet.

  But choosing this moment is the most difficult thing.

  Ranawade in the rear cabin counted down nervously: "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four..."

  Ahmed quickly manually trimmed the wing to maximum aft camber, opened the throttle and pulled up the Panda.

  In an instant, the panda was like a majestic eagle, soaring straight into the sky.

  Two TF30-P-412 engines, each with a thrust of 93 kN, allow the Panda to climb vertically without effort.

  Suddenly, a bright red light on the dashboard made Ahmadi's heart skip a beat: Left engine failure, hydraulic oil line is depressurizing.

  The two engines of the Panda were far apart, which caused a terrible yaw, the left engine lost power, and the right single worked with maximum thrust, causing the nose to start turning left.

  It's a tragedy, all of this stems from a shortage of parts. Before takeoff, an important valve in the engine hydraulic system malfunctioned. After simple maintenance by ground crew, they carried out their combat mission. As a result, during the intense maneuvering just now, the malfunction recurred, putting Ahmadi and Ranawad in a desperate situation.

  If viewed from a distance, the panda drew a beautiful arc in the sky, but it still did not leave the missile's attack range!

  "Boom!" The missile chasing from behind accurately hit the panda's right engine.

  The left engine had just lost power, the right engine was also hit, and both hearts of the panda stopped beating. Then, the big fire behind ignited the remaining fuel in the aircraft.

  Before it could even launch, the panda turned into a fireball in the sky.

  Good job! Task, who was in charge of guiding him on the ground, said to himself that he had also violated military orders this time and provided guidance to Arslan. He didn't know what punishment he would receive, but now that he saw Arslan shoot down a Panda, even if he was punished, it was worth it.

  In the sky of Arslan, at this moment, there is no chance to see the panda ignite a fireball in the sky. Under the pincer attack of two pandas seeking revenge, he can escape and return, which is the most important thing.

  Abbas Hekmat and Akbari, flying the two Panthers, had completed their turn and were now in position to attack the MiGs from behind.

  Low-altitude escape? Arslan did not choose this method, escaping from low altitude, it was based on what the Soviet military instructors said, because radar lacked the ability to look down and shoot down, due to ground clutter, it would make the radar screen a snowy mess, so the other side couldn't even detect themselves, let alone lock on and launch missiles. However, after studying the countless experiences bought with the blood of his comrades, Arslan knew that what the instructors said was completely wrong.

  Lacking the ability to look down/shoot down, that was a Soviet aircraft, due to the backwardness of radar technology, it was impossible to work effectively. However, for the United States with advanced electronic technology, this shortcoming had long been overcome. The AWG-9 radar can be used as a long-range and medium-range pulse Doppler sensor, which can distinguish and track low-flying targets from ground or sea clutter background; or as a long-range and ultra-short-range ordinary pulse radar.

  The Doppler principle is the change in wavelength due to relative motion, and pulse refers to the radar transmitting signal being intermittently transmitted. Pulse Doppler radar refers to the target and interference objects having different radial velocities relative to the radar, with the target moving and the interference object (mainly referring to ground objects) being stationary, resulting in different Doppler frequencies of the echo signals. The frequency domain filtering method can be used to select the Doppler frequency spectrum line of the target, filter out the interference clutter spectrum line, and separate and detect the target signal from strong clutter.

  Low-flying aircraft can't escape the panda's fiery eyes, and when flying at low altitudes, due to air resistance, the speed has to be greatly reduced. At low altitude, the MiG-23 can fly at most over Mach 1, while at high altitude, the MiG-23 can fly at over Mach 2.

  Wanting to escape with one's life, then the faster the better.

  Arsalan pulled the stick without hesitation and flew into the air from the middle of the empty space.