Use strategic reconnaissance aircraft to perform sea search missions?

When developing the "Dark Night Phoenix", the Air Force did issue an invitation to join the Navy and jointly bear the expensive development costs.

Initially, when the navy was developing according to the interceptor, the navy did have such thoughts.

Don't forget that the Navy has always used carrier-based fighters as interceptors, and also attaches special importance to high-altitude and high-speed performance, but it does not attach much importance to the agility that the Air Force values. In fact, as early as the Second Global War, the Imperial Navy's carrier-based fighters were particularly bulky. Even after the war, this tradition has not changed. It is obvious that high-altitude high-speed interceptors have a very high attraction to the Navy.

However, after in-depth understanding, the Navy retreated.

The reason is also very simple. Even according to the interceptor design, the indicators set by the "Dark Night Phoenix" when the project is established far exceed the navy's ability to withstand. For example, the take-off weight will definitely not be less than 60 tons, and it may even reach 80 tons, while the upper limit that the navy can accept is 40 tons.

Of course, poor low-altitude and low-speed performance also limits its deployment scope.

Even if you buy it, you can only deploy it on land.

Such a heavy aircraft not only cannot take off from the aircraft carrier, nor can it land on the aircraft carrier. The Navy obviously will not purchase high-altitude high-speed interceptors separately for the shore-based aviation. After all, for the Navy, there are not many important facilities on the land worthy of protecting high-altitude high-speed interceptors. Besides, according to previous rules, the tactical forces of the Navy's shore-based aviation must obey the command of the Air Force during wartime.

In fact, it is this rule that has been continued since the Second Global War that has made the Navy very careful when developing shore-based aviation. Even now, shore-based aviation has no direct tactical fighter force. All tactical aircraft are organized into carrier-based aviation, but are temporarily deployed on the ground. The naval aviation station-based aviation are patrol aircraft belonging to long-range aviation.

Due to these influences, the Navy simply rejected the invitation from the Air Force.

However, the Navy has been paying attention to the project.

The key is that the anti-ship sea-making combat system created by the Imperial Navy does require a high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft similar to the "Dark Night Phoenix".

Rely on reconnaissance satellites?

Obviously, this is just a saying.

In peacetime, there is not a big problem. After all, outside of the three superhegemonies, no country has its own and sufficiently advanced aerospace technology.

Not to mention anything else, even the Tiaoman Empire is short of its ignition, and at most it is considered the second tier.

Although aerospace technology originated from the Tyman Empire and the first ballistic missile was made by the Tyman Empire, the launch vehicle technology of various countries has more or less related to the V2 ballistic missile of the Tyman Empire, after the war, the Tyman Empire was quickly abandoned.

To this day, the Tyman Empire has only mastered core technologies, and many related industries have to rely on the allies of the Western Land Group.

For example, the high-thrust kerosene liquid oxygen engine comes from Xiluosha, while solid-fuel rocket engines mainly used in small rockets and tactical ballistic missiles are known for their solid-fuel rockets. Space detection technology relies on the Kingdom of Bran. Even its main aerospace launch base, namely the Aerospace City in the north of the South Globe Continent, was a colony of the Kingdom of Rock and became an overseas province of the Kingdom of Rock after the war.

But the problem is that what the Imperial Navy needs to consider is obviously not the sea-control task in peacetime.

If you want to say, there is no such demand in peacetime.

Looking around the world, unless you fight a global war, there is no possibility of relying on reconnaissance satellites to assist the navy in sea-making operations.

During the war, that's different.

Obviously, the empire's main opponents, such as the Republic of Newland, have very advanced aerospace technology and the ability to destroy military satellite systems.

It can be seen that the reconnaissance satellite is simply unreliable.

On this issue, the practices of the Western Land Group can illustrate the problem.

According to the Western Land Group, it is precisely the combat plan of the Tsuman Navy. If the global war breaks out suddenly, especially the Liangxia Empire launches a raid, then the time left for the Tsuman Navy is actually only a few hours, that is, the Tsuman Navy must destroy the Liangxia fleet that poses a fatal threat to it in just a few hours. If it fails or misses the opportunity, the Tsuman Empire will inevitably be defeated.

The key is that in the case of premeditated war, the Liangxia Empire has the ability to destroy or paralyze the Western Land Group's satellite system within a few hours.

This is true. In addition to vigorously developing marine surveillance satellites, the Western Land Group also attaches great importance to long-range reconnaissance aircraft and tactics that can effectively utilize these reconnaissance platforms.

The key is reflected in tactical applications.

Usually, no matter when, as long as the Empire's fleet leaves the military port or enters the Beixi Luoyang that can attack the Western Continent, several Western Continental Group spy ships will arrive and follow them all the way. When approaching the Western Continent, long-range reconnaissance aircraft will also come to join in the fun. Usually, it will track and monitor 24 hours a day, until the Empire fleet turns back or stays away from the Western Continent.

This move is to grasp the whereabouts of the Imperial fleet anytime and anywhere, and ensure that the attack can be launched immediately after the war suddenly breaks out.

Although this tactic is very rough, it is very effective.

For decades, especially after the end of the Boei War, the Imperial fleet was difficult, and in fact it was never able to approach the Western Continent without being noticed.

However, the Imperial Navy obviously would not adopt such a "barbaric" approach.

This method may not work against the Newland Navy.

The main reason is that the east ocean is too vast, its area is equivalent to half of the earth!

Besides, the Newland Navy deployed half of its warships on Xiluo Ocean. Beixiluo Ocean is not that spacious, and it is even 108,000 miles away from the empire.

According to the Imperial Navy's estimates, if the Western Continental Group's accompanying tracking tactics are adopted, at least 300 spy ships must be equipped.

The key is that they must also have the ability to sail from the ocean, or at least reach the level of ocean fishing boats.

Obviously, this is absolutely unacceptable for the Imperial Navy. The masters of the two houses of discussion will definitely not provide the Navy with funds to purchase 300 ocean-going fishing boats.

Then, the situation before the Imperial Navy is that a reliable wartime reconnaissance platform is needed, and it must be at a strategic level.

There is no doubt that the "Dark Night Phoenix" fully meets the requirements of the Navy.

Unfortunately, during the entire development process, especially after it was determined to be a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, the Air Force made major adjustments to the specific performance indicators.

Simply put, it is to give up many tactical mission abilities that are very critical to the Navy.

For example, the Air Force has never thought of making "Dark Night Phoenix" capable of processing intelligence in real time, so it has not made any efforts in related aspects.

Of course, there are technical issues here.

Although digital cameras with CCD components as the core have been released and used in reconnaissance satellites, due to electronic technology limitations, digital cameras are not only bulky, but also have high requirements for use conditions, and cannot be used on high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft for the time being.

The most serious problem is actually the impact of vibration on the camera.

On traditional cameras, it can be solved by enhancing exposure and shortening shutter time, while digital cameras are difficult to shorten shutter time.

According to the tests conducted by the Air Force, digital cameras cannot be used normally on the "Dark Night Phoenix".

In addition, it has a lot to do with the nature of the mission of "Dark Night Phoenix".

From beginning to end, the Air Force regarded the "Dark Night Phoenix" as a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, and had never thought of letting it perform tactical reconnaissance missions with particularly outstanding time sensitivity.

After officially entering service, "Dark Night Phoenix" and SR-71A actually achieved the same goal and became a spy plane.

Although the Imperial Air Force did not hand over the "Dark Night Phoenix" to the Military Intelligence Bureau for management, in terms of specific use, most of the reconnaissance tasks are related to military information, and three of them were arranged by the Military Intelligence Bureau. The Air Force was only responsible for sending the "Dark Night Phoenix" out to carry out missions.

Obviously, when a spy plane is used, tactical capabilities are even less needed.

The key is that for reconnaissance aircraft with mission flight altitudes above 30,000 meters, the ability to search and discover sea surface ships will definitely not be very good.

Affected by these factors, the Imperial Navy has always been lukewarm and warm towards the "Dark Night Phoenix".

According to the requirements put forward by the Navy, at least it must have real-time intelligence processing capabilities, and can send messages immediately after discovering enemy ships.

If you can't even do this, the Navy will definitely not consider it.

Unfortunately, the Air Force has obviously lacked enthusiasm for these requirements.

What you want to say is also closely related to the gradual loss of military value of high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.

The reason is also very simple. After the SR-71A and the "Dark Night Phoenix" were released, countries were working on developing air defense systems with better performance.

For example, the Air Force is improving the "Arrower" air defense system. The second-generation "Arrower" air defense missile that is about to be mass-produced has increased its firing height to 30 kilometers, its range has also reached 200 kilometers, and its fastest flight speed is Mach 6. However, the Air Force is still not very satisfied and proposed to double the three main performances of firing height, range and flight speed, and adopt a kinetic energy warhead with better damage to the target. To be precise, it should be an impact-destruction mode, so the missile must have extremely high end-stage guidance accuracy.

Relatively speaking, the Navy's requirements are even more excessive.

Although the range of the DK-9 has reached 200 kilometers, according to the Navy's plan, the latest and improved model must have a range of at least 400 kilometers when dealing with targets such as fighters, and it also has the ability to intercept ballistic missiles, so as to strive to achieve a firing height of 400 kilometers.

What is this concept?

The Navy is going to develop an anti-satellite missile carried by a warship!

It is said to be an intercepting ballistic missile, but in fact it does not want to stimulate the air force.

Don't forget that the active anti-satellite missiles, whether they are deployed on the ground or mounted by fighter jets, are all organized under the name of the Air Force.

If the Navy also has anti-satellite capabilities, the first thing to be threatened is the Air Force.

Relatively speaking, anti-satellite missiles carried by warships have inherent advantages in global deployment and are unparalleled in tactical flexibility.

By then, the Imperial Navy's warships, at least air defense warships, will become mobile anti-satellite launch bases.

The Air Force's anti-satellite weapons, especially missiles that can only deal with low-Earth orbit satellites, will be eliminated first.

Missiles that can even be shot down by satellites are naturally no problem to deal with high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.

Although the reconnaissance aircraft can turn to avoid and rely on tactical maneuvers to get rid of missiles, no one can deny that high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft such as the "Dark Night Phoenix" are no longer invincible, and there is a possibility of being shot down, and the impact of being shot down must be very large.

After the "Arrower" system was officially put into service, the Newland Air Force began to limit the scope of the SR-71A's activities.

Two years ago, the Newland Air Force decided to retire the SR-71A one after another because the risk of being shot down in the face of modern air defense systems is very high. Because it is mainly used to perform extremely sensitive strategic reconnaissance tasks, often in sensitive areas, that is, dangerous airspace, so if it is really shot down, it is not much to lose a reconnaissance aircraft, and the political and diplomatic impact caused is a disaster.

Not to mention anything else, the action of testing the empire almost caused the empire to send troops to attack the country of Fanluo.

Obviously, the Imperial Air Force also has to face such a problem.

It is precisely because "Dark Night Phoenix" has been in simplified after officially serving, and most of the time it is serving scientific research projects.

The investigation mission became a side job.

Reconnaissance missions with conclusive evidence are almost all concentrated in the southern subcontinent. After setting off from the southwest of the empire, flying across the southern subcontinent, landing at the Digo base in the middle of the Fanyan Ocean or the air base in the western Austrian region, and then flying over the southern subcontinent again when returning.

This arrangement is mainly because the Fanluo Kingdom lacks advanced air defense systems.

In addition, there are a large number of imperially controlled military bases around the Kingdom of Vanluo, which can provide support and assistance to the "Dark Night Phoenix" reconnaissance operations.

After the outbreak of the global war, the "Dark Night Phoenix" entered a normal state and began to do its job. Many top-secret information related to the Vanluo Kingdom came from the "Dark Night Phoenix". Among them, including the deployment of the Vanluo Army. Ding Zhennan made a judgment that the Vanluo Kingdom would not fight in the near future based on this judgment, and based on this judgment, he formulated a combat plan against the Vanluo Kingdom.

In fact, it is these manifestations that have made the Navy develop a strong interest in the "Dark Night Phoenix".
To be continued...