When the air defense alarm sounded, Liu Xiangzhen did not return to the commander's bridge, but walked to the porthole, raised his telescope and looked at the "Nanjiang" not far away.

At the top of the foremast, there is an object that is rotating like a large dustpan.

That's an antenna.

However, it is not a radio antenna, and there is no radio antenna that looks like that.

That's right, that's the radar antenna!

That antenna will only rotate when it is working and is usually fixed.

In order to keep it confidential and to deceive and mislead, the only few warships equipped with radar are not allowed to use radar when entering and leaving the port. The antenna must be fixed at a certain angle and then put on a canvas cover. From a distance, it looks like a device to scare and drive away birds.

In addition, the Imperial Navy has never released any information related to radar.

So far, intelligence agencies in other countries only know that the Imperial Navy is equipped with an electronic device similar to a radio station that can detect aircraft at a distance. Its work far away, and it is likely that the location of the reconnaissance aircraft is determined by monitoring the radio station of the reconnaissance aircraft. Intelligence agencies in some countries even take it for granted that it is a large-size, high-precision high-power telescope.

In fact, Liu Xiangzhen couldn't say exactly what the value of thunder reached.

It's no wonder, because a few months ago, at the end of September, when the Beihe and Nanjiang began to prepare for the upcoming fleet exercises, they went to Puzhou Shipyard and Tuzhou Shipyard separately to install radar during maintenance.

After that, I tried it several times.

According to the arrangement, in this year's fleet exercise, in order to test the tactical value of radar, separate exercise subjects were specially arranged.

Unfortunately, the situation deteriorated rapidly shortly after the exercise began.

Liu Xiangzhen only knew that the radar on the "Nanjiang" had a farthest detection distance of the aircraft group exceeding 100 kilometers, and the detection distance of a single aircraft could reach 40 kilometers, far exceeding the visual range of the naked eye. However, the detection accuracy was still not ideal.

Of course, the accuracy is not a big problem.

As long as enemy aircraft are discovered in time, they can command air defense fighter jets to intercept, thus gaining more time and greatly improving air defense combat efficiency.

According to the evaluation report given by the Jinlin Radio Research Institute, which developed the radar, with the assistance of radar, the combat efficiency of fighter jets can be increased twenty times.

Liu Xiangzhen felt that those highly myopic engineers were bragging.

However, even if it is not twenty times, it is definitely no problem to increase it several times.

During several internal drills conducted by the Second Aviation Special Mixed Fleet, the air defense fighter aircraft promptly and accurately discovered and intercepted enemy aircraft under the guidance of radar.

In the words of the pilot, it is enough to just be able to detect incoming enemy aircraft in time.

In the past air defense operations, the biggest problem was that it was impossible to detect approaching enemy aircraft in time, let alone predict the direction of the enemy aircraft. It could only cover everything, and at least it was necessary to deploy enough fighter aircraft in the main threat direction to waste valuable air defense power.

With radar, you can be targeted.

That's it this time.

The "Nanjiang" issued an air defense alarm. The radar discovered a group of enemy aircraft flying from the northeast and was judged as carrier-based aircraft of the Navy.

There are about ten enemy aircraft in a group.

"At one hundred kilometers away, our fighter planes are rushing over." Major Bisheng, a combat staff officer, rushed over and reported to Liu Xiangzhen. "The enemy planes adopt a dense formation, with a distance of only a few dozen meters and a flight altitude of less than three thousand meters. It is inferred that it is a 97-ship attack."

Liu Xiangzhen only nodded to indicate that he had heard it.

If it is a fighter jet, such a dense formation will generally not be used. Two or three aircraft often form a small team, and the distance between the small teams is relatively wide, and there will be a certain height difference to ensure that after encountering enemy aircraft, the small teams can take care of each other.

In addition, the flight altitude of a fighter is generally not less than five thousand meters. You can see far when flying high. Moreover, when fighting, the side that has the advantage in altitude can often win.

However, more than a team of 97 ships attacked.

Soon, the "Nanjiang" sent a new report, and the radar detected several small enemy aircraft, including three of which were flying at high altitudes.

However, the nature of the enemy aircraft cannot be judged.

Flying at high altitudes may be fighters or dive bombers.

If the flight speed of the enemy plane can be measured, a judgment can be made. The Navy also put forward similar requirements to allow the Jinlin Radio Research Institute to develop a radar that can measure speed. Unfortunately, the development of the new radar has not yet been started, and it is even more unknown when it can be developed.

Without Liu Xiangzhen's instructions, the staff responsible for air defense operations made adjustments.

It is a bit complicated. First, you need to obtain the information provided by the "Nanjiang" and then mark it on the nautical chart. Then you conduct a comprehensive analysis and judgment on the overall battle situation. The staff responsible for air defense operations will make a judgment in this period. Only then will you order the adjustment of the air defense deployment.

The whole process takes about a few minutes.

It is precisely because of this that Bai Zhizhan proposed that the rapid battleships act as air defense command ships to free the aircraft carrier from the cumbersome air defense operations. According to Bai Zhizhan's meaning, if necessary, a special air defense combat command will be set up on the rapid battleship equipped with radar. When conducting air defense operations, all warships in the formation must obey the command, and the rapid battleships act as the core force for air defense.

Of course, this is just a beautiful idea.

However, delaying for a few minutes is definitely much better than just smearing the eyes.

The most significant value is actually to allow the commander to have a more comprehensive understanding of the situation on the battlefield, so that the most appropriate deployment can be made in a timely manner.

Simply put, it is to use steel on the blade.

For example, when intercepting bombers and attack aircraft without fighter escort, there is no need to send too many fighters, which can force bombers to throw bombs and let the torpedoes drop torpedoes. Without bombs and torpedoes, even if they fly over the aircraft carrier, they can only stare at them. If it is determined that the attack is a fighter, it is even necessary to ignore it. After all, no carrier-based fighter can carry out bombing missions. Only when it is confirmed that the enemy's bombers and torpedoes have been covered by fighter jets can the air defense fighter go all out.

Of course, the key is time.

Raising the distance of the enemy plane from less than 20 kilometers to 100 kilometers to 100 kilometers means that the time for air defense interception has increased by at least twenty minutes. Even if it is only increased to sixty kilometers, the additional forty kilometers can give the fleet ten more minutes of interception time.

In air defense operations, even if it is only five minutes, it is extremely valuable.

Take dive bombers as an example, it takes only a few minutes from accelerating the sprint to dropping the bomb.

Before the battle started, to be precise, the value of the radar was revealed before it started in front of Liu Xiangzhen. All the enemy aircraft groups that were discovered were intercepted, and the bombers and torpedoes dropped bombs and torpedoes after being intercepted and gave up assault.

But, radar is not omnipotent!
Chapter completed!