The fighter jets that followed the "Ocamp-11" fleet and entered Iraq were the 12 air defense suppression fighters of the "Snow Owl" troops.

That is, the "War-10AD" fighter jet has been installed with anti-radiation missiles and made appropriate improvements to electronic equipment.

Among the thousands of tactical aircraft of the Imperial Air Force, the "War-10AD" of the "Snow Owl" unit can be said to be the most special and important one.

Of course, it is also because the difficulty and risk of air defense suppression are very huge.

In the words of the pilot, this is a battle between the Falcon and the Cobra. Even if the Falcon is the natural enemy of the Cobra, it may be buried under the Shekou.

In the eyes of outsiders, the pilots of this unit are a group of desperate people!

In addition, it is much more than the courage and skills of the pilot.

In the early stages of the Boei War, the Imperial Air Force suffered enough of the lack of air defense and suppression capabilities and realized the importance of air defense and suppression.

In the late stage of this war, the Imperial Air Force improved several attack aircraft to enable them to use anti-radiation missiles to perform suppression tasks to strike air defense systems, and named it "Snowy Owl", which means that it can launch an attack by hearing "sound" like the Snowy Owl.

In the last years of the Boei War, the value of the Snowy Owl troops was fully demonstrated.

According to statistics made by the Imperial Air Force, under high-intensity air defense suppression, the combat efficiency of the enemy's air defense system has been reduced by several orders of magnitude, and the hit rate of the air defense missile has also been reduced by a hundred times. Correspondingly, the combat loss rate of the Imperial Air Force has also been greatly reduced.

How big is it?

Four years after the war, the battle loss rate of the Imperial Air Force tactical aviation troops decreased from 15/1,000 in the previous four years to less than 1,000.

It is precisely because the "Snowy Owl" unit became the leading actress of the Imperial Air Force.

The "Snow Owl" unit, the 777th Tactical Aviation Fleet, has a total of 244 combat aircraft, of which more than 160 are the "War-10AD" that have only been in service in recent years, and the other 40 are also the "Occurrence-7ED" that have been improved.

The key is that the pilots of the "Snowy Owl" unit are all Air Force elites.

To join the Snowy Owl unit, you need at least 2,500 hours of flight time and more than 3 tactical aircraft to fly.

The Imperial Air Force Tactical Air Force has about 40,000 pilots, and only about 5% can meet this standard.

In addition, even if the standards are met, you may not be able to choose.

Every two years, the Snow Owl troops conduct an open selection for other Air Force corps. There are 3 assessments in total, with the admission ratio between 1% and 2%.

Of course, the strength of the "Snowy Owl" troops is not only excellent pilots, but also advanced combat aircraft with advanced performance, but also advanced weapons.

That's right, it's an anti-radiation missile.

To be said, the only difference between "War-10AD" and "War-10A" is that it has the ability to mount and use anti-radiation missiles.

Now, the Imperial Air Force's anti-radiation missile has developed to the third generation.

Compared with the previous two generations, such as the second-generation anti-radiation missile that is still in service, the "KD-18" anti-radiation missile nicknamed "Meteor" is actually transformed with "KK-6". To be precise, it uses the "KK-6" missile body, and only replaces the seeker and warhead. In addition to being able to fly at a speed of Mach 2.5 and has a range of up to 80 kilometers, it is also equipped with a wide-band seeker and has memory function.

Simply put, using a seeker can cover the working frequency band of most radars.

In addition, after locking the radar, even if the radar suddenly shuts down or shifts the direction of irradiation, the tactics used to fight anti-radiation missiles were often used to counteract anti-radiation missiles. "KD-18" can calculate the location of the radar based on the signals that have been obtained and complete the attack under the control of the inertial guidance system.

The key is that "KD-18C" enhances anti-interference performance, and even if the enemy uses active interference equipment, it may not be able to play a role.

In theory, a "War-10AD" can carry 4 "KD-18C" with a composite hanger.

In addition, an attack formation is usually formed by four "War-10ADs" to ensure that there is enough firepower to destroy the enemy's air defense system.

Tactically, two "War-10ADs" will often be allowed to fly high in front, luring the enemy's anti-aircraft radar to start.

In this way, the "War-10AD" flying at a low altitude in the rear can open fire without being threatened.

However, in the face of high-intensity air defense systems, electronic fighter jets are needed.

That's it this time.

The 12 "War-10ADs" are divided into three formations, and about 20 kilometers behind each formation, each with two "Attack-8FZs" specializing in electronic interference missions.

This is also the last batch of "October-8" that is still serving on the front line troops.

This kind of attack aircraft, which had been equipped with the Imperial Air Force more than 20 years ago and almost equipped with the Imperial Navy, acted as the main force during the Poei War. It gradually withdrew from the front-line troops a few years ago. The last "October-8E" squadron, which served in the attack aircraft unit, officially withdrew from the combat sequence the year before yesterday.

However, the "Ocamp-8FZ" developed from "Ocamp-8E" still has about 40 aircraft serving in the Air Force.

The reason is also very simple. The Air Force has not yet found an electronic attack aircraft that can replace the "Observation-8FZ".

The key is that in the Air Force's tactical aircraft, none of them can match the "Occurrence-8" in terms of tonnage and size!

To be honest, the "Occurrence-8" is the only 50-ton attack aircraft so far after the war!

Not to mention the Imperial Air Force, even if you look at the world, there is no attack function that compares to the tonnage of the "Occurrence-8".

The closest existence to the "Occurrence-8" is actually the F-111 of the Newland Air Force, whose maximum take-off weight is only over 45 tons, and it is still nearly 6 tons lighter than the "Occurrence-8".

It is because it is too bulky that the "Ocamp-8" was disliked by the Navy and was unable to become a carrier-based attack aircraft, and the Navy could only allow the "Ocamp-5" to continue to serve.

In fact, this is also the key to the Air Force's choice to use the "Occurrence-8" to develop electronic attack aircraft.

Only when a large tonnage does not have too much impact on flight performance, can we carry enough electronic warfare equipment to obtain sufficiently powerful electronic warfare capabilities.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the inadequate miniaturization of electronic devices.

With its super large tonnage and a large built-in bomb bay that is also rare in attack aircraft, the "October-8FZ" can carry about 6 tons of electronic equipment without using an external pylon, and with its faster speed, it can perform combat missions with the attack aircraft.

According to the usual tactics, the "Occasion-8FZ" follows 20 to 50 kilometers behind the "War-10AD" and interferes with the enemy's air defense radar.

"War-10AD" plus "Occasion-8FZ", let alone Iraq's air defense system, even the Imperial Air Force's air defense forces cannot withstand it!

According to the experience summarized by the Imperial Air Force during the exercise, the only effective tactic in the face of electronic attack aircraft and air defense suppression fighter jets is actually to increase the deployment density of the air defense system and allow the air defense forces to provide cover for each other so that at least half of the air defense forces are in a hidden state.

Only in this way can the air defense system in a concealed state be able to launch a counterattack when attacked.

It is not necessary to shoot down enemy aircraft, as long as it can force air-defense suppression fighter jets to give up attacks, it is enough to turn to avoid before launching anti-radiation missiles.

Unfortunately, Iraq obviously does not have enough air defense systems.

Just after 2 a.m., several air defense radars located south of Baghdad were bombed almost at the same time.

After the radar is destroyed, air defense missiles become decorations!

In addition, high-intensity electronic interference also had an impact on the communications of the Iraqi army.

Even if there is no impact, the Iraqi army is already without a leader.

The "October 11" has blown up strategic goals such as the Republican Guard Command, Baghdad Air Defense Command Center, and the State Telecommunications Center, as well as bombarded the Presidential Palace. Therefore, before the "Snowy Owl" troops launched an attack, the Iraqi army's communications command system was paralyzed.

Of course, powerful electronic interference makes the chaos even worse.

According to later information, on the night of the 5th, about 6 hours before the joint forces launched the "overwhelming" operation, Hussein left Baghdad and accompanied a few confidants to the temporary residence in Ramadi. The person who stayed in the presidential palace was a substitute.

It can be seen that even Hussein has no confidence in Iraq's air defense forces!

If the "Zhi-10A" of China Airlines only tear a gap in Iraq's air defense system, the "Snowy Owl" troops expanded the gap into a gap.

Then hundreds of combat aircraft from the coalition forces would flock in.

The first one to kill was not the Imperial Air Force fighter jet, but the attack aircraft of the Gaoji Air Force.

A squadron's 12 "Observation-8MG".

Although the "Occurrence-8" has withdrawn from the front-line troops of the Imperial Air Force, in many allies, the "Occurrence-8" is still an irreplaceable main attack aircraft.

The key is that the Empire has no model that can be replaced by "Observation-8".

It is precisely this way that aircraft manufacturers that produce "Observation-8" are still improving this attack aircraft that has been in service for more than 20 years and are not considered advanced in many aspects. They mainly target overseas users, but mainly extend the service life of the aircraft.

Most of the exported "Obsite-8" actually have a usable life span of 10 to 15 years, and there is no problem that it must be retired due to structural aging.

The most representative of this is the "Occurrence-8MG" of the Gaoji Air Force.

These "Observe-8MGs" are actually improved by "Observe-8EG", and "Observe-8EG" is the last mass-produced type exported by the Empire. It is basically the same as the "Observe-8E" used by the Imperial Air Force itself, but only necessary adjustments have been made to the requirements put forward by other customers.

The main improvement is to change the built-in bullet bay into a fuel tank, strengthen the external hanging point, and set up an overweight hanging point on the belly of the machine.

Although the maximum ammunition load capacity has been reduced from 13 tons to 11 tons, the combat radius without refueling has been increased from 1500 kilometers to 1800 kilometers after aerial refueling, and after an astonishing radius has reached an astonishing 2700 kilometers.

Of course, the tactical purpose of "Observe-8MG" has also changed dramatically.

Simply put, in the Imperial Air Force, the "Ocamp-8" has always been the main attack aircraft when it was retired, but it actually played a light bomber. During the entire Boei War, the Imperial Air Force invested about 800 "Ocamp-8" aircraft, performing long-range bombing missions. Most of the time, dozens of aircraft from a brigade were dispatched at a time, each carrying 10 tons of bombs, and intensive bombing of targets.

Of course, the loss rate of "October-8" during the Poei War was also terrifyingly high.

About 20,000 aircraft were dispatched, 372 were shot down, and 188 were also lost due to the accident, with a total loss rate of astonishing 24/1,000.

In this war, the average loss rate of Imperial Air Force tactical aircraft was only 9/1000.

This is also the key reason why the Imperial Air Force gradually withdraws from the front-line troops after the war.

However, in Gaoju Air Force, "Occurrence-8MG" ushered in its second spring.

With the flight stability given by high wing loads, especially the stability during ultra-low-altitude fast flight, coupled with the ultra-low-altitude flying ability given by altitude radar and autonomous driving systems, and its powerful bomb loading capabilities, the "Attack-8MG" has become the absolute main force in performing ultra-low-altitude penetration tasks.

Ultra-low-altitude penetration capability is particularly important when dealing with high-value targets that are tightly protected.

Now, what 12 "Obuse-8MGs" with Tai Chi Bagua logo are to be dealt with is the Iraqi Air Force Base located in southwest of Baghdad.

The 12 attack aircraft, all at the overload hang point in the center of the belly, had a 3-ton ammunition distributor.

In this ammunition spreader, 2,400 anti-runway sub-bombs weighing 750 grams per mass were loaded.

All are irregular time bombs.

After these small bombs are thrown out, a few will explode immediately, destroying airport facilities and destroying them, making it impossible for enemy planes to take off.
To be continued...