On the third day after the large-scale offensive began, Polaris Squadron finally obtained its first "combat mission".
In the briefing room, they learned about the development of the operation.
After two days of bombing, the Imperial Army began to advance. With the cooperation of the Army Aviation Force, it easily destroyed the remaining enemy troops on the front line. The enemy's troops that had finally gathered together were unable to fight back after being covered by a round of firepower.
After the arrival of the Imperial Army, there was almost no organized resistance, and the front line was full of burning wreckage.
In just one day, the empire advanced a long distance, and basically there were no enemy troops in the plain area.
The next step is to pass through the northern mountains and head towards the city-state area in the north of the mountains.
However, as the operation progresses, the enemy's hidden defenses are also exposed.
Due to the existence of mountains, infrastructure is not developed. According to the judgment of the Imperial Intelligence Department, there is only one road that can allow the main troops of the empire (mechanized troops, mainly tanks and infantry fighting vehicles) to pass, and this road is built along the valley.
, and passes through the northern mountains through a tunnel called "Loki", which was an important channel connecting the north and the south when the Tavos Alliance was still there.
In the canyon that the main road passes through, at the entrance of the "Loki" Tunnel, there is a fortress left over from the pre-Tavos Alliance period, guarding the main road through the mountainous area, a bit like the ancient passes guarding the narrow place.
This fortress directly blocked the empire's march to the north.
To put it simply, if it is not removed, the advance of the imperial mechanized troops will have to take a detour of hundreds of kilometers, pass through another road far away, and then detour back. This is obviously detrimental to the situation of a quick victory.<
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In fact, this is also some negligence of the empire after the war. It did not immediately control the road and the right of way of the "Rocky" Tunnel. Now that it is controlled by the enemy, there will be such a situation where it is forced to stop the attack.
In fact, facing this kind of defense, the imperial army can naturally crush it after paying a certain price. However, the enemy's use of the fortress to wait for work will bring immeasurable damage to the empire. It is even possible to destroy the tunnel in an emergency and completely block this tunnel.
Road, which aborted the empire's plan to attack the remaining city-states through this road, which was obviously not what the superiors wanted to see.
Therefore, after consideration, the military believed that since it now has complete control of the air, there is no need for the army to risk its own life to storm the fortress. It dispatched a small group of elite armored units and launched the attack with the cooperation of parachute troops and the air force.
A joint operation to destroy the fortress' defenses, breach the fortress, and regain control of the fortress and its tunnels.
Compared to a strong attack, this plan seems to be more exciting.
Intelligence shows that the enemy has short-range air defense positions and armed helicopter units around the fortress, and due to the limitations of the terrain and fortress structure, if it is necessary to cause damage to the enemy troops in the fortress, then this strike from the air must be extremely precise.
You even need to get close to observe the situation before launching a point-to-point attack.
In other words, the air force units in this mission must get close to the enemy's air defense fire range for close support.
Obviously, if ordinary pilots relax their vigilance, in addition to those short-range air defenses, they may even be knocked down by things like MANPADS (portable individual air defense missiles) when they are concentrating on ground attacks, so it is necessary at this time
Some elite air force units came to perform the mission to ensure that this mission was flawless.
So the Oasis Command made a summary and concluded that Polaris had been in trouble for such a long time, and it was time to carry out the mission.
Therefore, the main mission of this air support operation was handed over to the Polaris Squadron, which has advanced fighters and outstanding pilots.
At four o'clock in the morning before daybreak, the members of the Polaris Squadron got into their fighter planes and contacted the tower to request to start and taxi.
The ground crew team adjusted the Polaris trio's fighter planes to the most perfect condition to ensure that everything goes smoothly. However, after hearing that today's takeoff was a combat mission, the faces of the ground crew members didn't seem to look very good...
The three fighter planes taxied out of the aircraft one after another and set off along the taxiway towards the runway entrance.
On the way, the general headquarters established at the Oasis Base conducted a pre-takeoff briefing with them, and provided the three members of the Polaris Squadron with some details that were not obtained in the briefing room.
"Polaris Squadron, this is the headquarters, pre-takeoff briefing." The radio rang, and the liaison officer from the general headquarters simultaneously informed Wang Yu and others of some more detailed and immediately updated information: "Just two hours ago, our
The troops tried to launch a small-scale attack on the enemy's fortress during the night, but were blocked. As of now, the existence of the fortress has blocked our troops for nearly six hours, and intelligence shows that the enemy has begun to attack the tunnel.
The exit at the other end was guarded. If they were allowed to form a position, the consequences would be disastrous. Therefore, there was no room for error in this operation. Take off immediately, fly along the waypoint after takeoff, and contact the early warning aircraft at the third waypoint according to the plan.
Will you take over C&C (command and control) later? Any questions?"
In this mission, navigation point No. 1 is the turning point on the runway extension line, navigation point No. 2 is the turning point to leave the control area of the oasis base, and navigation point No. 3 is the turning point to reach the cruising altitude and prepare to rush to the mission area.
"Received, thank you for the content of the briefing." Wang Yu simply replied: "I have a question, so far, is the enemy's strength consistent with the content of our briefing?"
"Polaris, drone observation shows that the enemy is adding troops to the fortress area along the tunnel, so the number of enemies you expect to face is much more important than the briefing, and they carry individual anti-aircraft weapons, so stay vigilant." p>
"Received, we don't have any problems, ready to take off."
After saying this, Wang Yu had already taken the lead in sliding onto the runway. As the lead aircraft, he stopped at the rightmost position, while Luo Yu and Murong Lan's fighter planes followed suit and entered the runway one after another, each landing on the wide runway.
In the middle, one parked on the left side, and the three fighter planes were slightly staggered. Using this runway that was enough for heavy transport aircraft to land, they prepared to execute a three-plane formation takeoff.
"No. 2, No. 3, standard takeoff procedure." Wang Yu said to his team members on the radio: "Maximum weight takeoff configuration, accelerate to 150 knots, pull the stick back, maintain a ten-degree angle from the ground and climb.
Reach 500 meters at navigation point 1, turn to point 2, climb to 2,000 meters and leave, then the formation disperses, climb to 7,000 meters at point 3, received?"
"Received on the 2nd."
"Received on the 3rd."
Wang Yu nodded, then raised his hand to give a thumbs up to Liu Lingxin in the back seat, then stepped on the brakes and pushed the accelerator to watch the engine speed rise. The roar of the fighter gradually increased, but for the time being it was still braked by the landing gear.
Fixed, sliding does not start.
Liu Lingxin, on the other hand, turned her head simultaneously, and made a gesture of spinning her fingers in a circle to Luo Yu, who was on the side of her fighter plane, through the cockpit, indicating that she could push the accelerator to the brake position to keep the fighter plane in a fixed limit position.
While Luo Yu pushed the accelerator, she simultaneously transmitted the movements to Murong Lan who was beside her.
Soon, the engines of the three aircraft on the runway began to roar loudly.
After confirming that everything was normal, Wang Yu raised one hand, waved it forward, and made a very exaggerated nod - this was a signal to other wingmen, telling them that they could set off with full throttle, and then he released the brakes.
Push the throttle to the afterburner position.
The fighter jet responded quickly, the engine nozzle expanded, and the dazzling tail flame was extremely conspicuous under the still-dark sky.
Luo Yu also pushed the throttle fully at the same moment when Wang Yu sent out the take-off signal, and simultaneously passed the signal to Murong Lan.
The three fighter planes began to taxi on the runway in sequence.
Their fighter planes have different models and engine power, so there will be a disconnect when the formation takes off.
Therefore, they discussed for a long time and finally came up with a plan, that is, when the formation takes off, the three pilot girls will observe the relative speed between the fighters, and tell the pilot to adjust the throttle in the afterburner zone according to the relative speed, so that they can
Try to ensure that the three fighters have the same speed and acceleration as much as possible, and finally take off at the same time.
Although the take-off speeds of the three fighter planes are different, they can be controlled manually.
When Wang Yu's X-02S forward-swept wing is deployed, it can be pulled up at a speed of just over 100 knots, but he can also press the lever slightly and cooperate with Luo Yu and their fighters to pull up again at about 150 knots.
Off the ground.
The three different fighters kept the same acceleration and became faster and faster. The scenery of the base quickly retreated. At about a speed of about 150 knots, Wang Yu stopped pressing the stick, and the fighters took off almost immediately. Luo Yu and the others also lifted their wheels simultaneously, maintaining the same climbing angle and speed as they left the ground.
The three fighters retracted their landing gear and flaps at the same time, maintained the afterburner acceleration state, reached the predetermined speed, then retracted the throttle to the military thrust position, and continued to advance towards the No. 1 turning point.
After approaching the No. 1 turning point, they began to simultaneously turn left forty-five degrees, maintaining a five-degree climb angle, and turned to the No. 2 turning point.
After about a minute, they arrived at waypoint No. 2. Wang Yu contacted the Oasis Tower and announced their departure.
"Oasis, three fighters of Polaris Squadron left your control area from the northern exit and turned to navigation point three."
The three fighters, which were maintaining a tight formation, dispersed to the left and right at this time, keeping a distance of about one nautical mile, maintaining a straight formation and continuing to climb.
In fact, this is a serious combat formation. In movies like that, a formation with a distance of less than ten meters between aircraft is called a drill formation, and it will not appear in actual combat at all.
"Eileen, help pay attention to the surrounding air conditions and fighter aircraft conditions." Wang Yu said to Irene, and then asked Liu Lingxin through the in-flight communication: "How is the weapons system programming?"
One advantage of the back seat in this regard is that it can program the fighter's weapons, countermeasures, ECM, etc. through its system. To give a simple example, for example, if Wang Yu wants to drop a heat decoy bomb, then the back seat will program the aircraft's weapons, countermeasures, ECM, etc.
After that, Wang Yu can choose the delivery plan he wants by pressing the countermeasure release button in different directions, such as five rounds at a time or ten consecutive rounds with one second between each round. The same goes for weapons.
, the weapons control officer can set the weapon system of the fighter aircraft to the simplest and callable method, and the pilot can switch modes or weapons with one click during fierce air battles.
"As agreed before takeoff, the first position is for our combat bombs, the second position is for single-shot electromagnetic weapons, and the third position is for continuous electromagnetic weapons. The specific parameters have been set. You decide on the radar.
What should I choose?" Liu Lingxin immediately replied, "The countermeasures have also been set up. They are currently in automatic mode. If you want to release them manually, just adjust them to override. The current program is to press the release button once to release both heat bombs and chaff at the same time.
times."
"The action is so fast, you are indeed my girl." Wang Yu said with a smile, "But the number of countermeasures deployed is too much. Let's reduce it to one time. It is enough."
"Okay." Liu Lingxin immediately lowered her head and operated on the screen in front of her, and quickly completed the adjustment.
At this time, the fighter jet reached an altitude of 7,000 meters and began to maintain cruising. Since it reached a sufficient altitude, a white trail began to appear behind the fighter jet, but it was not very obvious under the newly lit sky.
"We are about to reach waypoint three." Wang Yu said in the squadron channel, "No. 2 and No. 3, set a channel to monitor respectively. I want to contact the early warning aircraft. Abort - 'Guardian' (this time the early warning aircraft is
Codename), this is Polaris Squadron, three fighter planes arrived at navigation point three as scheduled."
"Received, we have seen you, Polaris Squadron. The situation has not changed much. We will continue the mission as planned. The one cooperating with you in this mission is Fengxing Squadron. They have already gone to waypoint four and are waiting. When approaching waypoint four, press
Contact them to make a reservation and I will keep you updated." The early warning aircraft 'Guardian' responded immediately.
"Received, turn to navigation point four."
"How is the current gathering situation of ground units?" Luo Yu asked in the internal channel, "After all, we still have to rely on ground troops to win the fortress."
"Let me ask for you." Wang Yu returned to the communication with the early warning aircraft: "Guardian, may I ask about the situation of our ground troops?"
"They have been assembled in batches, and the parachute troops in the rear have also been deployed and are being assembled. Everything is going well so far." The early warning aircraft is naturally willing to answer these questions for Wang Yu.
"Understood, thanks for the answer."
The three fighters turned to navigation point 4, which is the rendezvous point of this mission, where all attacking squadrons will converge and enter the theater together.
They will be the first to launch an attack, destroying the main enemy firepower points, and then stay in the air to ensure air superiority and cooperate with ground troops until the fortress is declared under imperial control.