Empire Conquest-Chapter 718 - 32: False Start_2

As a result, the "Spear" missile’s body length reached 5.2 meters, while the main bomber of the Air Force’s bomb bay had always been only 4.8 meters.

After repeated negotiations without result, specifically when the length of the missile body was reduced to 4.75 meters, the performance of the missile could not meet the requirements of the Navy and the Army, and the Ministry of Defense had no choice but compromise, allowing the Air Force to withdraw from the project and reallocate its funding originally planned for the "Spear" project.

Thus, the "Spear" had only Navy and Army versions, and the Navy version had three sub-models: submarine-launched, ship-borne, and ship-borne vertical launch.

Moreover, there was a successfully developed submarine-carried vertical launch version.

However, since the missile submarine had not officially been commissioned, this type of "Spear" had not moved into the procurement phase, let alone been formally equipped.

These models of the "Spear" were entirely consistent in basic performance, differing only in the rocket booster and whether or not they used a sealed loading box.

With a maximum range of 1500 kilometers and a 500-kilogram warhead, the "Spear" could strike almost all coastal targets and destroy all fixed targets except permanent fortifications and deep-buried shelters; it could also attack different targets using different warheads.

It must be admitted that the "Spear" was the most successful cruise missile of today.

However, it was not without flaws.

The primary issue was actually the terrain matching guidance method used, which was too troublesome in actual combat.

This guidance mode had extremely strong anti-jamming capabilities and was equipped with terminal radar imaging or infrared imaging guidance heads, which could achieve very high attack accuracy. The problem also stood out: after launching, there was no way to terminate the missile’s attack action or to re-plan the flight route to avoid sudden threats, let alone to strike at unanticipated targets after launch.

However, compared to other cruise missiles, these few issues were not much.

It was just that the time required for the initial setting of the terrain matching system was excessively long.

Even without errors, it took 4 hours to plan the flight route!

In other words, the "Spear" was only used to attack fixed targets and could not deal with time-sensitive targets.

Moreover, for the Navy Weapons Officer, it was an absolute disaster!

The Weapons Officer on board the "Han River" took over 4 hours just to complete the work, even though the mission was only to launch 8 "Spear" missiles.

To put it bluntly, this was a test of the actual combat value of the submarine-launched "Spear".

After being equipped in the Navy, the "Spear" had undergone several live-fire tests and training warhead test firings during joint exercises.

As for striking capabilities, or rather the combat efficiency under the high-pressure environment of actual combat, that remained unclear.

Of course, the ship-borne version and ship-borne vertical launch version also needed to be tested.

According to the arrangements of the Joint Force Headquarters, the Navy launched a total of 152 "Spear" cruise missiles: 24 from 3 attack submarines, 48 from 2 large cruisers that had arrived only yesterday, and the remaining 80 from a missile cruiser within the carrier battle group.

According to the plan, unless the Joint Force Headquarters made adjustments to the operational action, which meant issuing another command, the attack was to launch at midnight on the 6th.

Just after midnight, the "Han River" surfaced to the periscope depth for launching missiles.

minutes earlier, the Joint Force Headquarters had issued an order to delay the attack by 1 hour, but it was not communicated in time to the submarine!

At 0:02, the "Han River" launched the first missile.

It was literally "launched," using high-pressure air to push the sealed launch box containing the missile out of the torpedo tube.

Afterwards, the launch box would rise to the surface due to buoyancy, allowing the missile’s booster to ignite.

The process was a bit cumbersome, but very reliable.

Within the next 5 minutes, the "Han River" launched the remaining 7 missiles.

After launching the last missile, "Han River" finally received a radio order from the "Zhu Shijian," informing them that the attack had been delayed by an hour! 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

At this moment, at the Joint Force Headquarters.

When "Zhu Shijian" received the message that "Han River" had launched the missiles on schedule at midnight, Ding Zhennan was at a loss for words.

Who could be blamed?

According to the message from the "Zhu Shijian," while making arrangements, they hadn’t considered that the "Han River" had already maneuvered to the south of the battle group. Because they didn’t dispatch the communication helicopter, they failed to delay the attack orders to the "Han River" in time.

Furthermore, in such tactical operations, there was no need to use very low-frequency radio stations.

Were missiles already fired able to be recalled?

As a result, about five minutes after receiving the news at 12:15 a.m., Ding Zhennan had the Communications Advisor issue the command to commence the attack.

In fact, the previous order was just to pause the attack operation, and it was estimated that it would be delayed by an hour.

According to the orders, all combat forces were on standby to ensure they could launch an attack immediately if the Joint Forces Headquarter changed the orders.

This included the four "Attack-11s" that had already taken off and were on standby in the airspace north of King Khalid Military City.

Taking off fully loaded, these four attack aircraft soon met up with a refueler and performed an aerial refueling as planned.

In fact, this is a common tactic.

There isn’t a combat aircraft that can take off fully fueled when fully loaded; therefore, in order to carry more ammunition or larger and heavier ammunition, the attack aircraft must take off fully loaded and then refuel in the air to achieve the fuel needed to complete the combat mission.

This is precisely why the refueler is of critical importance.

According to the plan, if the attack were to begin at 1 a.m., the "Attack-11s" would need to be airborne and on standby for an hour and then refuel in the air again on their way back.

Of course, if the attack were launched before 1 a.m., they could fly straight back to King Khalid Military City after completing their mission.

Upon receiving the order, these four "Attack-11s" immediately turned north.

At this moment, other ships in Boss Bay and Mua Sea engaged in the attack had also begun launching the cruise missiles they had prepared.

Critically, the six deployed carrier battle groups all began to launch their ship-borne aircraft.

After the "Door-Kicking Action," they initiated the first round of aerial strikes. Besides the "Zhu Shijian" carrier battle group, the other five carriers were several hundred kilometers from Iraq, and the fully loaded ship-borne aircraft needed at least an hour to fly, so launching the aircraft now was not too early.

The situation was the same in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

Although the strike distance was much shorter, once they received the orders issued by the Joint Force Headquarter, the air forces involved in the first round of assault action all sprang into action.

This was the arrow already off the bow!

At this time, in the deserts of southern Iraq, four "Z-10As" were flying northward at a height of less than 20 meters and a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.

Lian Mingyang had not received the orders from the Joint Forces Headquarter, or rather, the early-warning command aircraft responsible for relaying communications had not forwarded the order.

Not forwarding the message might have been to lighten the burden on the pilots.

After all, knowing that the battleships behind him had already launched hundreds of cruise missiles and that hundreds of combat aircraft were already deployed or about to be deployed, all entering Iraq through the gap they were responsible for opening, would certainly have added immense pressure on him.

At this time, the worst thing to do was to distract the pilots of the four "Z-10As."

Though equipped with terrain-following radar and an anti-collision feature in the helicopter’s flight control system, the primary reliance was still on the pilots.

The desert was not a plain; it was full of undulating sand dunes.

Speakin of which, armed helicopters rely on the terrain to evade enemy radar.

To achieve nap-of-the-earth flying, they had to disable the anti-collision function of the flight control system and couldn’t rely on the terrain-following radar, as the flying height was too low.

Most of the time, Lian Mingyang’s Land Air Force assault force trained in low-altitude penetration tactics.

The difference was that in past training, the hypothetical target was an armored torrent racing across the plains of the eastern West Continent, but this time they were targeting an air defense radar system.

Of course, this actually reduced the difficulty significantly.

At this time, what Ding Zhennan could do was fully trust the Army’s airborne assault force and believe that the armed helicopters could take out the radar.