Capítulo 1648: Chapter 1565: Another Assault
Fried climbed up the ladder onto his fighter jet, squeezed into the cockpit, and somewhat nervously rechecked his personal equipment.
His plane was a standard F-86 Peidao, with the only upgrades being a better ejection seat and a radar warning device.
The entire system was actually a copy of the improvement package sold by the Great Tang Empire; technically, it was quite mature, but the only flaw was that it didn’t have missile warning capabilities.
So to avoid Tang Army missiles, pilots had to use their judgement to determine if they needed to eject… Unfortunately, most pilots lacked such experience.
Fried was a pilot from Dorne with fairly impressive skills, at least not one of those rookies who only learned to take off and land.
He was familiar with his fighter jet and had over a hundred hours of flight experience, which was already considered a medium level outside the Tang Country.
“The aircraft is in good condition, and we’ve checked the ammunition,” the ground personnel said to him. “The instruments are all normal, and the communication devices have been tested too…”
“Thank you!” He glanced briefly at the instruments on the control panel while taking the checklists from the hands of the ground staff and signing his name on it.
He had no reason to distrust these ground personnel; they’d flown together all the way from Dorne to the Ice Cold Empire, working together for a long time with quite a tacit understanding.
This time, his mission was to patrol all the way northwest along the coastline, engage with Tang Army aircraft upon encounter, and cover the Ice Cold Empire’s ground attack aircraft troops in executing bombing missions.
After receiving reinforcement from Dorne, the Ice Cold Empire began preparing for a large-scale aerial counterattack, since continuing to allow the Tang Army to use air superiority to suppress the ground, the army was already starting to struggle.
This operation comprises four parts. The first part involves the Ice Cold Empire’s main forces intercepting Tang Country’s carrier aircraft, the second involves aircraft taking off to attempt attacks on Tang Army carrier battle groups, the third involves Dorne fighter jets heading north to contest air supremacy, and the fourth involves the Ice Cold Empire’s bomber units bombing Tang Army ground forces.
The entire operation plans to deploy 430 aircraft, marking a truly significant move at this time.
According to the plan, the air force commanders of the Ice Cold Empire and Dorne hope to achieve certain results with this operation, at least to resolve part of the issue: if they could severely damage the Tang Army fleet or bomb some of the Tang Army’s ground targets, then the operation would be considered a success.
To resolve the issue of Dorne’s and Ice Cold Empire’s air forces being unable to coordinate, this time all ground and sea attack missions were to be carried out by the Ice Cold Empire’s air force; the four flight formations operated relatively independently without mutual interference.
Hence, when Fried pushed the throttle, allowing his plane to rush off the runway into the sky, a large number of Ice Cold Empire’s Jian Liu Gai fighter jets had already taken off from another airport.
This time, it’s truly a mass mobilization: the Dwarves assembled 110 Jian Liu Gai, 70 Jian Liu, over 200 Saab bombers, and Yir attack aircraft.
Dorne Empire’s supported air force units also dispatched nearly 50 Peidaos to the battle; their task was to head north to engage the Tang Nation Air Force.
In fact, at this time, they were only facing the Great Tang Empire Navy’s aviation forces because as the Tang Country’s ground troops advanced south, the field airports weren’t repaired yet, and the Tang Army gradually left the Tang Nation Air Force’s protection zone based on the Northern Island.
On the other hand, the Tang Nation Navy’s carrier aircraft units were already exhausted: after ten consecutive days of operations, many of their planes were in maintenance, the Yinglong fighter jet unit had severely reduced in scale, and the pilots were also quite fatigued.
Thus, this time, Tang Army could deploy roughly only about 150 fighter jets, though these fighter jets’ performance… was indeed much stronger than those of the Ice Cold Empire.
Because there were Early Warning Aircraft patrolling, the Ice Cold Empire’s air force formation was detected by the Great Tang Empire shortly after deployment. Subsequently, the Tang Army began launching interceptions.
Fried wasn’t aware that his aircraft had long turned into a bright spot on the radar screen of the Tang Army’s Early Warning Aircraft; at this moment, he was flying his plane, following his flight formation, ready to bring a little shock to the Tang Army.
The roar of the engines caught the attention of the Tang Army troops on the ground; Liu Guozhu looked up at the sky, as it had been a long time since he’d seen this many enemy aircraft in the sky.
As if invigorated, the Ice Cold Empire, bolstered by Dorne’s support, dispatched a large number of planes to participate, and the long-silent sky quickly became unusually bustling.
“Hey! Pay attention and take cover! A unit was attacked by a Yir-2 attack aircraft! Damn, I’ve heard two people died!” Suddenly, a reminder from the commander echoed in his earphones; Liu Guozhu also saw a propeller plane diving in the distance, frantically strafing something.
He ducked back into his tank turret and shut the hatch: “Find a safe spot to park! Seems like there are quite a few enemy planes.”
Soon, a self-propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun accompanying the Tang Army Tank Unit began firing. The tracer bullets it fired were clearly visible even during the day.
As the autocannon roared, shell casings fell sideways from this self-propelled AA gun, clattering onto the dirt on both sides. Subsequently, a Yir-2 attack aircraft shattered in the sky, turning into a burning flame.
It crashed against a piece of iron; the Tang Army’s ground anti-aircraft fire was still quite dense, with many self-propelled Anti-Aircraft Guns and anti-aircraft missiles ready to enter the battlefield at any time.
Soon, the infantry there also made preparations for anti-aircraft defense; a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile soared skyward, directly hitting a MiG-3 fighter jet that had dodged the ground anti-aircraft fire.
Saab bombers, due to outdated technology and slow speed, were shot down by several Tang Army patrol fighters before even entering the battlefield. Tang Country’s fighters utilized their speed advantage to charge into the combat zone from all directions of the battlefield as if to surround the incoming enemy planes.
Fried wasn’t aware that the ground attack aircraft group they were escorting was already sustaining heavy losses, for he was frantically pulling up, attempting to evade incoming Tang Army missiles with his wing leader.
Their radar warning alarms were constantly screaming, which was driving him somewhat crazy. He kept maneuvering his plane to evade, not even knowing where the wing leader he was supposed to be following was.