Chapter 1200: Must have our own 4th generation aircraft!

In the cabin of Qinling No. 01, Ji Pingfeng was breathing heavily while carefully controlling the throttle and joystick, trying his best to prevent the aircraft's exact six o'clock direction from falling into the opponent's aiming ring.

In fact, from the perspective of leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses, the air combat training outline requires that the J-11B should avoid getting involved in horizontal combat with highly agile fighters.

But on the one hand, the requirements of this interception and expulsion mission are different from air combat after all, and cannot be simply generalized.

On the other hand, on the information interface of the multi-function display, four other friendly target points were approaching at high speed from inland.

This was the moment of counterattack that Ji Pingfeng had been waiting for for a long time.

Under the command of the commander on the early warning aircraft, the four aircraft of the Huaihe team made a gesture of preparing to return, but did not actually land.

Instead, they took advantage of the J-11B's huge range and carried out a covert operation.

Qinling Team 1 is responsible for engaging with the opponent.

The Huaihe squadron was hiding in low altitude in the mountainous area of ​​northern Fujian, receiving only the location and altitude information of their own aircraft through data links.

After the battlefield is pulled below 2000 meters, they will quickly move forward and climb, trying to gain sufficient height advantage before being discovered by the enemy's early warning aircraft.

Finally, we used the absolute numerical advantage of 7 to 3 to drive away the enemy.

Of course, this is largely due to the fact that the opponent's E767 is farther away from the Chinese coastline and the AN/APY2 mechanical scanning radar is not good at detecting low-altitude targets.

Using more people to defeat fewer and taking advantage of the situation to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out can certainly seem like an unfair victory.

But now is not the time to talk about martial ethics.

Ji Pingfeng raised his head with difficulty despite the overload that made his eyes go dark, and glanced at the rearview mirror above the cockpit.

Just at the most critical moment when reinforcements were about to join the battlefield, the F22 that had already bitten its own rear hemisphere suddenly adjusted the angle of its flaps and began to roll in the opposite direction.

In a flash, he judged that the other party must have discovered the reinforcements on the way and were ready to quit while they were ahead.

"The enemy is trying to escape, everyone give up the fight, prepare to chase them, and bite them!"

In such a rapidly changing time, no fancy technology is as effective as voice.

While giving the instructions, Ji Pingfeng suddenly turned the joystick, risking a certain amount of energy loss, and made a compact 180° turn, preparing to counterattack the enemy in the shortest time possible.

But once again, the F22 demonstrated its unparalleled acceleration performance.

In less than a second, Ji Pingfeng saw the enemy plane perform a super maneuvering turn with almost the same amplitude as his, and then the entire surface of the plane was completely covered by a vortex of mist, like a cloud moving rapidly across the sea and sky.

This certainly does not mean that the opponent has broken through the speed of sound, but it still almost breaks through the generally known low-altitude maneuverability.

The camera gun captured a picture at a distance of about 3-4km, but considering that even the pilot would find it difficult to clearly see the appearance of the other plane through a cloud of water mist, the final photo would almost certainly be blurry.

For this kind of restrained fighting, it would be better to get more convincing evidence.

Especially when our side had just suffered a small loss.

After calming his breathing a little, Ji Pingfeng pushed the throttle to the bottom with his left hand, ready to try to continue chasing for a distance.

But even with the naked eye, one can see that the distance between the two sides is getting farther and farther, and there is probably no possibility of catching up again.

"Qinling Team 1, be careful and don't chase too deep."

A calm reminder came from the radio:

"Our fuel supply has been depleted. We must return."

The pilots participating in this operation had been concentrated in training for about half a month, so Ji Pingfeng could tell that this was the voice of the pilot of Huaihe No. 01.

The latter is obviously worried that if they lose their numerical advantage, the opponent may choose to strike back, which would then be a big trouble.

"Roger that!"

As the plane leveled off, Ji Pingfeng calmed down again.

Faced with this kind of opponent, which the People's Liberation Army encountered for the first time, it was obviously more important to record the opponent's target characteristics than to fight with camera guns.

Especially at this time, the F22 is aiming its tail with the largest RCS and the most obvious infrared characteristics at itself.

If you miss this opportunity, you will regret it.

So he issued a new order on the radio:

"Qinling Team 1, turn on the radar and IRST, don't use the lock mode... try to collect the enemy's signal characteristics and bring them back to your superiors for analysis!"

……

On the other side, Colonel Robinson confirmed again and again that he had completely left the other party behind, and then took off his oxygen mask in a state of frustration.

The last sudden acceleration successfully avoided leaving clear evidence of being "locked" on the scene, but as a price, he had to give up some concealment, and it was inevitable that some radar and infrared features would be taken away by the opponent.

Fortunately, due to limited time and the fact that there are still subtle differences between the first two batches of products and those that are actually used in combat later, not too much will be leaked.

Due to the excitement and lack of oxygen just now, the colonel's mind was still a little confused.

As far as the original goal of getting within 20 miles of the Chinese coastline was concerned, it was undoubtedly a huge failure.

Not to mention 20 miles, we couldn’t even touch the edge of 40 miles.

As for the subsequent struggle...

It was originally a second-best option.

But on the other hand, the four F22s did demonstrate combat capabilities that completely surpassed the third-generation aircraft on a complex battlefield.

In the end, it was ambushed by four other planes that suddenly appeared, which was largely due to the performance of the E767 early warning aircraft.

If this was an actual air battle, there would be no visual range combat at all.

I believe the Chinese side is also aware of this.

In addition, for Robinson himself, today was also a rare "actual combat" experience, which gave him a new understanding of the performance, convenience and application mode of stealth aircraft.

The colonel was confident that if there was another similar opportunity in the future, he could come up with a more sophisticated plan to prevent the opponent from guessing his true attack position...

For a moment, he found it difficult to figure out whether today's massive deterrence operation had achieved its goal...

However, for China, the conclusion is very certain——

Although through a month of advance preparation, data links between new fighters, excellent early warning aircraft, correct tactical command... and even some luck and other factors, the enemy's provocative intentions were finally successfully stifled.

But neither Jiang Zengjian, who was commanding the overall situation on the early warning aircraft, nor Ji Pingfeng, who was on the front line fighting with the opponent F22, felt the joy of winning a great victory.

In this battle, China, as the defending party with the advantage of home ground, coordinated its navy and air force, and used all its technical means to achieve a draw on the field.

Apart from the four F22s, the other side only deployed less than one-fifth of the forces deployed within the first island chain.

The foundation and potential of a superpower are truly terrifying.

On the way back, Ji Pingfeng wanted to say something several times, but in the end he did not speak because of radio discipline.

The entire communication channel was filled with a somewhat depressing silence.

It was not until I returned to the base and landed that I felt a little better when I saw the other comrades who were responsible for fighting the Air Self-Defense Force were so excited that they couldn't express their feelings.

After all, just a few years ago, these eastern aviation units had not even considered how to fight against the US military...

Because it had been operating in the airspace near the base, the KJ-2000 returned to the base earlier than most fighter jets.

At this time, it stopped not far from Qinling Team 1.

"Captain Qinling."

Ji Pingfeng had just completed the handover with the ground crew when he heard a voice coming from not far behind him that he had only heard on the radio and in meetings.

It’s Jiang Zengjian.

He quickly turned around and saluted the other party:

"Comrade Commander!"

Jiang Zengjian raised his hand and pressed it down, indicating that there was no need to be so formal:

"As I recall, your name is Ji Pingfeng, right?"

There were only a dozen or so four-plane formations participating in this operation. As the commander, even if he couldn't remember the name of every pilot, it was not difficult for him to remember the captain's name.

"Yes!"

Unlike friendly forces transferred from all over the country to provide support, he himself belonged to the Jinling Military Region Air Force.

Now that his direct supervisor was standing in front of him, Ji Pingfeng couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

Jiang Zengjian took two steps forward and motioned for him to follow him.

Then get straight to the point:

"You are one of the pilots who directly faced the enemy's F22 on the front line. What do you think of the overall situation today?"

"Uh……"

The question was so straightforward that Ji Pingfeng didn't know how to answer it.

After all, no matter how you look at it, today's interception was a success.

If it sounds too serious, it might sound alarmist.

Jiang Zengjian obviously knew Ji Pingfeng's thoughts:

"This is not a formal occasion. This is a private conversation between you and me. Just say whatever you want to say."

Of course, what the leader calls private conversations cannot really be private.

But the meaning of this sentence is obvious.

Therefore, Ji Pingfeng answered without any worries:

"Although we are no strangers to fighting under generation gap conditions, I think that some of the countermeasures we have previously evaluated against fourth-generation fighters are still somewhat taken for granted."

"Those small target drones can only simulate the RCS of stealth aircraft, but cannot restore the speed, maneuverability, active and passive perception capabilities and information level of the F22... Stealth capability alone is certainly not invincible, but if combined with higher overall comprehensive performance, then even in the face of our systematic air defense interception, it will still be an extremely difficult opponent."

"What's more, we have an air defense system, and the enemy also has a corresponding air force system. Today's opponent's coordination is quite awkward, which has already caused us a lot of trouble. If the fourth-generation fighter jets are fully integrated with other combat units, the threat to us will probably be even more serious..."

"..."

"To be honest, if you hadn't commanded the Huaihe Squadron to rush out today, we would have suffered a great loss with only six planes in two directions."

The last sentence can be considered as an excuse.

Of course, that is true.

Excellent on-the-spot command is indeed a brilliant move that determines victory or defeat.

Therefore, Jiang Zengjian couldn't help but smile knowingly.

But he immediately became serious again:

"well said!"

He first responded with a word of encouragement:

"Although overall, this is still an era of peace and development, as soldiers, we still need to be aware of danger in times of peace..."

Then he changed the subject and continued to ask:

"Comrade Pingfeng, in your opinion, how can we resolve the threat posed to us by the enemy's new aircraft?"

In fact, Ji Pingfeng was thinking about this issue all the way back.

Therefore, he answered almost without thinking:

"In the short term, the threat posed by the new shore-to-ship radar and KJ-2000 early warning aircraft to stealth targets is real. I just reviewed the situation from the opponent's perspective and I can clearly feel that their entire plan is to avoid these two threats as much as possible, especially the regional air defense ships that can operate for a long time outside the coastline. If there is more than one this time, we should be able to deal with it more easily..."

"But generally speaking, most of the equipment we have is also in the hands of the enemy, and regardless of performance, at least the number is often greater... So from the perspective of anticipating the enemy, apart from the means of preemptive strike and destroying the target on the ground, if we want to really avoid being at a disadvantage in the competition with the fourth-generation fighters, I'm afraid we still have to develop our own fourth-generation fighters!"