If a "La 5" can carry 6 air-to-air missiles, does it still need to carry three machine guns?
First of all, the "Pull 5" combat method should be to fire before the enemy outside the enemy's range in order to achieve preemptive strike. This of course uses air-to-air missiles instead of machine guns.
Secondly, the enemy BF109 will definitely take advantage of its fast speed to carry out a tail-biting attack on the "La 5" during the war. At this time, the "La 5" will be useless even with its machine gun.
Thirdly, the three air-to-air missiles have reached the upper limit of the load capacity of the "La 5" on one wing. Adding a machine gun to the wing is likely to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, not to mention the machine gun when shooting.
There is also a strong recoil that will cause violent vibrations on the wings, which will cause great damage to the wings.
Taking these considerations into account, there was no reason to hesitate and the wing machine guns were decisively cancelled.
In addition, Wang Xuexin also stipulated that pilots should give priority to using missiles on the wingtip pylons during combat.
The reason is simple. The wingtip pylon is the farthest from the fuselage. Although it weighs 100 kilograms, it produces the greatest leverage effect. Launching it first will reduce a lot of pressure on the wing.
The research and development problem in this area is not too big, because the Eighth Route Army's anti-aircraft missiles are produced by themselves from beginning to end, and the production process is relatively mature. Now they just make it smaller and shorter. The other design has not changed, that is, the size.
Problem.
While the research and development of air-to-air missiles is in full swing, pilot training is also proceeding simultaneously.
Wang Xuexin left this matter to Yu Ping.
When Wang Xuexin told Yu Ping about this, he still didn't believe it.
"Three kilometers?" Yu Ping said in surprise: "This is only a small point away from the enemy's aircraft. If you can't even see it in the clouds, can you hit it accurately?"
As soon as Wang Xuexin heard Yu Ping's words, he knew that his combat thinking had not changed yet.
"Captain Yu!" Wang Xuexin said: "If we use air-to-air missiles to fight, we are not staring at the enemy's fighter planes!"
Yu Ping was confused by Wang Xuexin's words: "Commander, what we are fighting is the enemy's fighter plane. How can we not stare at the enemy's fighter plane? If we don't stare at the enemy's fighter plane, how can we fight?"
Wang Xuexin asked back: "What do you mean, the radar soldiers also stared at the enemy fighter planes? The air defense system also saw the enemy fighters before they could shoot them down? And the artillery detection radar, did the artillery soldiers see the enemy?
How many artillery shells can we use to calculate the location of the enemy’s artillery positions?”
After hearing what Wang Xuexin said, Yu Ping understood a little bit.
"Captain, what do you mean..." Yu Ping said doubtfully: "When the time comes, we will have to keep an eye on the radar?"
Wang Xuexin nodded: "Of course you have to keep an eye on the radar. You can see from the radar which direction the enemy is coming from, how far away it is, and what area it is in, and then use air-to-air missiles to hit them! Wait until you see the enemy fighter plane clearly.
, it will be too late by then!”
What Wang Xuexin said is true. The advantage of "Pull 5" against BF109 is to attack outside its range. Once it enters the range of the machine gun, "Pull 5" has no advantage.
Looking at Yu Ping who was deep in thought, Wang Xuexin felt that this was not okay... Even Yu Ping, a veteran aviation captain, had this reaction when he heard this, so wouldn't the other team members be worse?
Later, Wang Xuexin discovered that his worries were justified. He gathered the pilots together for a meeting. As soon as he mentioned this air-to-air mode, the conference room was in an uproar. The pilots expressed doubts about it:
"Is this possible? I think machine guns are reliable!"
"But we only have one machine gun!"
"Will you be completely passive and beaten by then?"
…
No wonder pilots have such doubts.
On the one hand, there is no such air combat mode in the world. Pilots have never heard of this style of fighting, and it is normal for them to be suspicious of it.
On the other hand, the pilots were accustomed to the previous air combat mode...either using machine guns or cannons, and now they suddenly changed to air-to-air missiles that they didn't know how to operate. Of course, they were upset.
More importantly, it is now clear that the "La 5" performs very well in air combat. Although it uses the shortcomings of range, except for this shortcoming, it has always been a "zero battle" against the Japanese. Against the Japanese "flying"
"Yan" fighter planes are also slightly better...
In this case, why change?
After the change, will it turn victory into defeat?
Therefore, the vast majority of pilots are unwilling to change, or it can be said that they are afraid of change.
Some people also raised objections to Wang Xuexin:
"Captain, you should let us use machine guns to fight! If we lose, we will apologize to you!"
"Yes, Captain! We were fighting well, why did we suddenly switch to missiles?"
"Let the missiles be used by the infantry. Let's work together in the air and on the ground to do our own thing!"
…
But Wang Xuexin did not give them any room for negotiation, because he knew that this was the future trend, and the Eighth Route Army had to change at this time.
After Wang Xuexin waited for the pilots to calm down, he said: "Comrades, the reason why we made the change is because we received accurate information that the Japanese are already producing the BF109. Do you know this fighter plane?"
The pilots started talking about it after being "coaxed". As pilots, of course they knew about this world-famous fighter plane.
Wang Xuexin asked: "Are you confident that you can win this fighter?"
Several pilots replied: "Yes!"
But the answer seemed feeble.
Because everyone knows that if there is a gap in equipment in air combat, it cannot be made up by quantity, spirit or confidence, and you will only be passive in the air.
What's more, just by comparing the air combat between Mao Xiong and Hans, we can draw a better conclusion:
Hans can defeat Mao Xiong's "La 5" with the BF109. Mao Xiong's pilot quality is better than that of the Eighth Route Army, so how can the Eighth Route Army pilots defeat the BF109 with the "La 5"?
Wang Xuexin continued: "We do have to have confidence. I also believe that we can defeat the Japanese BF109, but we will use this air-to-air missile instead of a machine gun! But if we don't make changes... I believe you can come up with a
An objective conclusion!”
After listening to Wang Xuexin's words, the pilots stopped talking.
Because it is obvious that not changing almost means death, but there is still a glimmer of hope if there is change, because air-to-air missiles do have a range advantage.
So, why not give it a try?
To be precise, this is the only way to try it!
Therefore, Wang Xuexin psychologically persuaded the pilot to change his tactics.
This is not an exception. Every new equipment used on the battlefield is often not welcomed by frontline soldiers, because they prefer to trust their previous "partners" and are unwilling to hand over their lives to the unknown.