Chapter 279: Thought he was the protagonist, but actually he was a supporting role

According to the return itinerary of the visiting formation, the exercise is expected to start at noon the next day.

Considering that ship 113 belongs to the North Sea Fleet and ship 542 belongs to the East China Sea Fleet, the two ships will part ways soon after entering the waters of Zhejiang Province. Therefore, in order not to delay the scheduled schedule, the exercise area was chosen outside the Shengsi Islands.

Before that, the four aircraft and more than a dozen pilots participating in the performance naturally had to prepare intensively, but for Chang Haonan and other technicians, there was nothing to do for a while.

So Chang Haonan took this opportunity to walk around on the seaside tarmac that is very unique to this group.

Since the Shuihong 5 equipped by this group does not have the ability to take off and land on land, it looks a bit like an airport exclusively for helicopters at first glance. Except for a huge gentle slope leading directly to the sea, there are no runways or taxiways. and other facilities.

The leader of the regiment, Shen Tao, was preparing for the noon exercise. Accompanying him during the visit was the chief of staff of this unit, named Luo Huichuan.

"Chief of Staff Luo, these H-5s look like they haven't flown in a while."

After wandering around several planes for a while, Chang Haonan patted the dust on his hands and said to Luo Huichuan next to him.

"There is no way, the funds are limited, we can only prioritize the attendance of a few Y-8Xs, and more importantly, like other aircraft, even the old H-5, we know what to do after takeoff, but this H-5 , besides taking off and landing, I really don’t know what other subjects I can practice.”

The latter's tone was quite helpless:

"When it was originally equipped, it was said that the main function of this model was anti-submarine patrol, and it could also carry missiles for anti-ship operations. As a result, after so many years, the anti-submarine equipment has not been in place, and it has no submarine search capability at all. As for anti-ship, The originally expected YJ-1 missile was blown up halfway..."

"As for maritime search and rescue and fire extinguishing... I can do it, but this requires the cooperation of surface ships and local units to practice. Most of the time, this condition is not available..."

"Is that so?"

Chang Haonan reached out and patted the huge pontoons under the wings, but he didn't expect there to be this layer.

The existence of Shuihong 5 was really low. In his previous life, he had only heard of it. After his rebirth, he had never even thought of a seaplane as a category...

"My hometown is in the Daxinganling forest area. During the fire in 87, I happened to be on vacation at home. At that time, I was also responsible for organizing nearby militia and reserve forces to participate in firefighting. So when I was assigned here at the beginning, I thought I wanted to fly a seaplane instead, but our group leader at the time persuaded me not to do so. In fact, it wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the seaplane, it was mainly that the water bomber 5 was not very good..."

"Chief of Staff Luo, do you think seaplanes will still be useful in the future?"

This seemingly random question made Luo Huichuan hesitate for a moment, and then nodded after thinking for a moment:

"Seaplanes are definitely still useful, but there is no need to develop them for combat purposes. Except for the lack of runway requirements, they are not as good as transporting 8 in all aspects. It is better to put down the burden in this area and be responsible for maritime search and rescue, fire extinguishing, and other related matters. Do transportation where there is no runway.”

"From this perspective, it is actually not us who should be equipped with seaplanes, but the comrades in the South China Sea Fleet. Their supply needs for islands and reefs are very high, and there are not enough supply ships..."

In the 90s, China did not have the ability of nature to create an island later. Many islands and reefs were only guarded by stilt houses, and the larger ones had at most a similar dock. As for the airport and so on...

Only in dreams.

From the conversation, Chang Haonan discovered that Luo Huichuan seemed to know the situation on the South China Sea very well.

It’s not the kind of understanding you get through briefings and news, it’s more like you’ve actually been there.

"Chief of Staff Luo has been to the south before?"

"Well, that time in 90, I went with the troops to support the South China Sea Fleet. At that time, I flew H-6D and went over the islands and reefs several times. The conditions for the comrades in the garrison were really difficult. At that time..."

Then Luo Huichuan talked a lot about what he saw and heard at that time.

It wasn't until the troop's horn sounded, which meant that the planes participating in the exercise were preparing to take off, that the two finally ended their conversation and returned to the tower as quickly as possible.

……

As the "offensive party" set in the exercise, the Y-8J and the two H-6Ds driven and commanded by Shen Tao naturally had to take off first. Since both aircraft have a range of more than 3000 kilometers, according to the setting, they can freely Choose the height, angle and timing of your attack.

This is also Blue’s biggest reliance this time——

Since the two ships on the red side do not have mid- to long-range air defense capabilities, as long as the aircraft cannot quickly locate the Y-8J and simulate a "shootdown", it means that it cannot prevent the launch of the attack.

About 40 minutes later, the JH-7 that stayed behind took off alone.

It also means the official start of the exercise.

At the same time, on the sea about 300 nautical miles away from the coastline of Zhejiang Province, a formation composed of Daocheng and Ngee Ann was sailing north one after another.

In the Combat Command Center (CIC) of the Daocheng, a group of mid-level and senior naval officers were gathered around a three-person stage, staring closely at the circular display screen in the middle.

The Type 052 destroyer is China's first ship designed with CIC and is also equipped with a domestic ZKJ-4B-II combat command system.

Although it can only achieve centralized command and decentralized control, it is already a qualitative leap compared to the past command model where old warships needed to convey the captain's commands one after another.

The people sitting here are all quite experienced ship commanders who know the performance of their ships very well.

负责制导海红旗7的海狸2C雷达和负责控制4门双37mm舰炮的341AG雷达只有在末段拦截的最后时刻能够发挥作用，他们眼下能依靠的只有舰艇后部机库上面的那部571H两坐标远程监视雷达提供些许预警信息。

In fact, formation commander Yang Shuyu was a little confused when he received the instruction to conduct a sea-air confrontation exercise on the way back.

Because according to the exercise plan they received, except for the final section where they had to shoot empty targets, the two ships seemed to only need soy sauce throughout the whole process.

Their superiors strictly ordered them not to communicate with the naval aviation units who were also on the Red side.

In fact, due to the lack of data links, in this era there is no way to communicate even between ships and fighters in the same naval sequence...

"Is it possible that our formation is not the protagonist of this exercise?"

After thinking for a period of time, Yang Shuyu finally figured out some ways.

In an instant, my thoughts suddenly became clear.

"Looking at it this way, our two ships are actually positioned as targets..."