Chapter 765 Mediation

In fact, the strike against armed ships in Benin was a bit of a waste for their two frigates.

The Type 23 frigate itself is positioned as a multi-purpose ship for ocean operations in the British Navy, and it has complete and powerful armaments.

In terms of weapons, the main air defense self-defense weapon of the Type 23 frigate is the GWS.26-1 Sea Wolf air defense missile vertical launch system at the B gun position, with a total of 32 tubes, providing a very powerful point air defense self-defense capability.

In addition to the Sea Wolf missile, another air defense weapon of the Type 23 frigate is two Oerlikon DS-30B 30mm 75-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns with automatic operation capabilities and stable bases, with a range of 10km for surface targets and 3.5km for air defense - this is also installed by the British Navy based on the experience of the Falklands War.

In this war, the Royal Navy found that as long as the machine gun fired tracer bullets at the Argentine fighter planes, even if they could not hit them, they could greatly interfere with their bombing, thereby reducing the hit rate.

In terms of anti-ship weapons, the Type 23 frigate is equipped with a MK-8 4.5-inch automatic naval gun produced by BAE SYSTEM RO Defence at the bow, with a sea range of 22km and an air range of 6km; in addition, two sets of quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers are installed between the vertical launcher and the bridge.

In terms of anti-submarine weapons, the Type 23 frigate itself is equipped with two triple 324mm torpedo launchers, using British-made Stingray light anti-submarine torpedoes.

There is a helicopter hangar at the stern, which can provide landing refueling and loading operations.

It is worth mentioning that the landing and take-off deck and hangar size of the Type 23 frigate were originally designed to match the newly developed HM Mk.1 Merlin heavy anti-submarine helicopter (its size and weight are larger than the largest Sea King anti-submarine helicopter in service at the time in the Royal Navy), but because the development speed of Merlin could not keep up with the service of the Type 23, a Lynx Mk.8 anti-submarine helicopter in service was operated at the beginning of service, while Merlin entered service in the Royal Navy in December 1998 and was equipped on the Type 23 frigate.

Currently, the two frigates of Colo are equipped with Merlin heavy anti-submarine helicopters.

The average speed of the Type 23 frigate is nominally 28 knots, but in fact, during the voyage from England to Colo, the two frigates of Colo can easily reach a speed of 32 knots.

This speed is not much behind the 35-knot speed of the two superyachts of Barron.

You know, Barron's two superyachts are already relatively fast among the current superyachts. For example, Abu's "Eclipse" has a maximum speed of only 21 knots.

The so-called armed ships departing from Benin are actually just small boats modified from ordinary speedboats. At most, they are welded with a machine gun, or the armed personnel are equipped with RPGs.

When facing the harassment of these ships, the patrol boats of the Kolo Corps are enough to deal with it.

Moreover, the value of the anti-ship missiles carried by these two frigates is much higher than the value of those so-called armed ships.

The reason why Kolo bought these two frigates is not because of the harassment of these small armed ships from Benin, but to maintain the safety of the waterways near them.

According to their plan, after this, Kolo will cooperate with many countries and international organizations to form a joint escort fleet to enforce the law in the Gulf of Guinea to prevent some transport ships from being harassed by pirates.

Of course, in addition to this, owning these two "advanced" frigates is also a deterrent to neighboring countries - possessing a treasure is a crime, and there will always be people coveting offshore oil fields with rich reserves.

Excluding those armed ships, Benin's maritime forces, like Kolo before, only have some small patrol boats for near-shore defense.

Therefore, if their Type 23 frigates are deployed, I am afraid that these Benin patrol boats will not pose any threat at all.

In any case, this operation can be regarded as an actual combat exercise, so in the final operation, their two frigates participated in this operation.

The operation of the Kolo Corps was still very smooth. With detailed intelligence, the location of the enemy's several armed ships, and the advanced electronic equipment and weapons and equipment of the two frigates, Kolo easily destroyed that stronghold with one X operation.

When the patrol boats of Benin arrived, they only dared to follow from a distance and escort the two "behemoths" out of the waters of Benin.

However, what followed was a strong protest from Benin.

…

"The president met with representatives from the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union today, and they expressed great concern about the conflict between Kolo and Benin..."

At this time, Barron and his party had left Loti and arrived at Britta, the capital of Kolo, via the Loda Expressway.

After the Kolo Corps' maritime operations, the conflict between Kolo and Benin became more and more intense. Although Benin's maritime forces were insufficient, in order to express its protest, a considerable part of its military forces began to gather at the border between the two countries.

The total strength of Benin exceeds 10,000, but a considerable part of them belong to the "public security army" and militia. The regular army is about 5,000 people, most of whom are the army (about 4,500 people).

Its equipment is mainly French and Chinese weapons. In the 1980s, Benin had a five-year civil war, and China provided Benin with a lot of help, so their relationship with China is also very good.

"Before this, the president also met with representatives from France and China, and they all hope to mediate this conflict..."

Barron can understand the Chinese side. After all, Benin has a good relationship with China, and China and Kolo have a lot of cooperation, so they don't want the two sides to really intensify the conflict and even break out into war.

As for the French side, they took the initiative to provoke this conflict. It can really be said that the cat cries the mouse and is falsely merciful.

Because Kolo and Benin belong to the Economic Community of West African States (after Kolo abandoned the West African franc, it withdrew from the West African Monetary Union and remained in ECOWAS), so both ECOWAS and the AU hope to reconcile their conflicts.

"The AU is preparing to hold a relevant meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. We hope that we and Benin can send people to participate in mediating the recent conflict."

Soon, Barron got the news from Jammeh Bongo.

Abuja is the capital of Nigeria, and it is very close to Kolo and Benin. It is Benin's neighbor to the east.

It is also very normal for the AU to choose Nigeria, a third country, to mediate Kolo and Benin.

In addition, Nigeria itself is the largest economy in Africa and the largest oil exporter in Africa. They presided over the mediation work, and Kolo and Benin had to give face.