Empire Conquest-Chapter 694 - 21 Missile Threat_3

By then, King Khalid Military City was bound to be the first to be struck.

If the intensity of the missile siege warfare during the Iran-Iraq War was anything to go by, that alone would be enough to give the deployed Imperial Army at King Khalid Military City a rough time.

So, what was there to hesitate about?

Zhou Yongtao sighed inwardly once more before turning to address Lin Shiping, who was still puffing away, "Should deploying 3 ’Divine Archer’ battalions be enough first?"

"The key isn’t the ’Divine Archer’."

"If we want to attack as a form of defense, we need to deploy the ’War-16A’ Plane Group beforehand, and use them solely for the mission of searching and destroying ballistic missile launchers. This will definitely impact other troops. Besides, the plan was to initiate an air strike after ’Copper Wall Iron Curtain’."

"Then, let’s shorten the duration of the first phase of combat."

"This..."

"Seven days is indeed too much. If we can get it done in three days, we could move on to the second phase earlier and first deploy the ’War-16A’ dedicated to strike missions."

"Three days are enough?"

"To say it’s enough, that would certainly not be the case, but in the first few days, we can increase the sortie rate of the bombers to ease the burden on the frontline combat troops."

Zhou Yongtao furrowed his brows.

"This also means that the war expenses are definitely going to exceed our expectations."

Lin Shiping, true to his nature, explicitly voiced the concern that was on Zhou Yongtao’s mind.

They would first conduct a seven-day ’Copper Wall Iron Curtain’ operation, which meant stabilizing the situation through defense, not to prevent Iraqi troops from heading south to attack Saudi Arabia, but to buy time for deployment. The Imperial Army needed those seven days to transport equipment and supplies to Saudi Arabia.

Primarily, this involved the logistics support equipment of the Air Force.

Transporting the entire support equipment for a Tactical Air Force Wing with 60 combat aircraft from the Empire to King Khalid Military City would require the ’Yun-10’, a Strategic Transporter, to operate 32 flights. Afterwards, four flights a week would be needed to transport consumables.

As for why it was seven days, that was the outcome after repeated simulations and calculations.

Compressing it to three days would certainly affect things, such as the Tactical Air Force not being able to deploy in position, and after deployment, being unable to achieve full combat readiness.

Indeed, this was why Lin Shiping suggested increasing the sortie rate of the Strategic Bombers.

This meant more cruise missiles would be consumed!

An air-launched cruise missile had a military procurement unit cost of about 1 million Gold Yuan, whereas a 500-kilogram bomb of equivalent yield cost, at most, 5,000 Gold Yuan. Even a laser-guided bomb wouldn’t exceed a purchase price of 50,000 Gold Yuan, several magnitudes cheaper than a cruise missile.

Using cruise missiles extensively would be painful for anyone.

But, were there any other choices?

After pondering for a while, Zhou Yongtao made up his mind.

Of course, there was no need for him to give orders to Lin Shiping, nor was it Lin’s place to mobilize and deploy troops.

He made a call to Qin Fenglie, asking him to discuss with several Chiefs of Staff at the General Staff Department about adjusting the combat plan to deploy "Divine Archer" and "War-16A" Plane Group in advance. After that, Zhou Yongtao also assigned Lin Shiping a task: when there was a chance, to visit a few staunch allies.

The mission had only one objective, to let those allies who were unwilling to send troops, unable to send troops, or whose troop contributions were insufficient, bear more of the war expenses.

Of course, the converse was also true.

As long as they were willing to bear more war expenses and contribute more money, they could send fewer troops, or even none at all.

Modern warfare was all about money.