Empire Conquest-Chapter 722 - 34 Swarm In_2

It was precisely because of its bulkiness that the "Attack-8" was disliked by the Navy and failed to become a ship-borne attack aircraft, and the Navy could only let the "Attack-5" continue in service.

In fact, it was also key to the Air Force’s decision to use the "Attack-8" to develop Electronic Attack Aircraft.

With a larger tonnage, it could carry enough electronic warfare equipment without significantly affecting flying performance, acquiring a sufficiently strong electronic warfare capability.

Of course, this also had a lot to do with the poor miniaturization of electronic equipment.

With its large tonnage, as well as an equally rare large internal bomb bay among attack aircraft, the "Attack-8FZ" could carry about 6 tons of electronic equipment without using external pylons, and by virtue of its relatively high speed, it could perform combat missions alongside attack aircraft.

According to standard tactics, the "Attack-8FZ" would follow 20 to 50 kilometers behind the "War-10AD," pressing enemy Air Defense Radars with suppressive interference.

"War-10AD" plus "Attack-8FZ," not to mention Iraq’s air defense system, even the Empire Air Force’s air defense troops would be overwhelmed!

According to the Empire Air Force’s experience gathered from exercises, the only effective tactic against Electronic Attack Aircraft and air defense suppression fighters was to increase the deployment density of air defense systems, allowing air defense troops to cover each other so that at least half of them could remain hidden.

Only by doing so could the hidden air defense systems launch a counterattack when under attack.

They didn’t seek to down enemy aircraft, as long as they could force the air defense suppression fighters to abandon their attack and turn to evade before launching Anti-Radiation Missiles, it was sufficient.

Unfortunately, it was clear that Iraq did not have enough air defense systems.

Just after 2 a.m., several air defense radars south of Baghdad were almost simultaneously bombed.

After the radars were destroyed, the Air Defense Missiles became useless!

Moreover, high-intensity electronic interference affected the communications of the Iraqi military.

Even without interference, the Iraqi military was already headless.

"Attack-11" had already destroyed strategic targets such as the Republic Guard headquarters, Baghdad’s air defense command center, and the national telecommunications center, and also bombed the President Mansion. Therefore, before the "Snowy Owl" troops launched their attack, the Iraqi communication command system had already collapsed.

Of course, powerful electronic interference made the chaos even worse.

News revealed later stated that about six hours before the Joint Forces launched the "Covering the Sky" operation on the fifth night, Hussein left Baghdad for a temporary residence in Ramadi, accompanied by a few confidants, and a body double stayed at the President Mansion.

This clearly showed that even Hussein had no confidence in the Iraqi air defense troops!

If the Land Air Force’s "Z-10A" only tore a crack in Iraq’s air defense system, the "Snowy Owl" troops turned that crack into a breach.

Then, hundreds of Alliance Army’s combat aircraft were ready to swarm in.

The first to arrive weren’t the Empire Air Force’s fighters, but the attack aircraft of the Gaoju Air Force.

A squadron of 12 "Attack-8MG." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Although the "Attack-8" had retired from the Empire Air Force’s frontline units, it remained an irreplaceable main attack aircraft among many Allies.

The key issue was, the Empire had no aircraft to replace the "Attack-8."

For this reason, the aircraft manufacturing company that produced the "Attack-8" was still improving this attack aircraft model, which had been in service for over 20 years and was not considered advanced in many aspects. The main focus was on overseas users, mainly to extend the service life of the aircraft.

Most of the exported "Attack-8" actually had a service life of 10 to 15 years left, and there were no structural aging issues necessitating retirement.

The most representative of these was the "Attack-8MG" of the Gaoju Air Force.

These "Attack-8MG" were actually developed from the "Attack-8EG," which was the last batch of mass-produced models exported by the Empire. They were basically the same as the "Attack-8E" used by the Empire Air Force itself but were adjusted according to the needs of other customers.

The main improvements were converting the internal bomb bay to a fuel tank, strengthening external hardpoints, and adding a super heavy hardpoint under the fuselage.

Although the maximum bomb load was reduced from 13 tons to 11 tons, with the usual 6-ton payload, the combat radius without refueling increased from 1500 kilometers to 1800 kilometers, and after one aerial refueling, the combat radius reached an astonishing 2700 kilometers.

Of course, the tactical use of the "Attack-8MG" had also undergone tremendous changes.

Simply put, within the Empire Air Force, the "Attack-8" had been the main attack aircraft until its retirement, but it actually played the role of a light bomber. Throughout the Boi War, the Empire Air Force deployed about 800 "Attack-8" aircraft, all of which carried out long-range bombing missions. Most of the time, a large squadron of dozens of aircraft would take off, each carrying 10 tons of bombs, to perform intensive bombing on the targets.

Of course, the loss rate of the "Attack-8" during the Boi War was terrifyingly high.

With about 20,000 sorties, 372 aircraft were shot down, and an additional 188 were lost due to accidents, bringing the total loss rate to an astonishing 2.4 percent.

In this war, the average loss rate for the Empire Air Force’s tactical aircraft was only 0.9 percent.

This was also the key reason why the Empire Air Force gradually phased out the "Attack-8" from frontline units after the war.

However, in the Gaoju Air Force, the "Attack-8MG" found its second wind.

With the flight stability provided by its high wing load, especially when flying at ultra-low altitudes, combined with the ultra-low altitude flying ability given by its sophisticated radar and automatic piloting systems, along with its powerful bomb-carrying capacity, the "Attack-8MG" became the absolute main force for ultra-low altitude penetration missions.

When dealing with highly protected high-value targets, ultra-low altitude penetration ability was particularly important.

Now, 12 "Attack-8MG" aircraft, each painted with the Tai Chi Bagua emblems, were set against the Iraqi Air Force base southwest of Baghdad.

The 12 attack aircraft all carried on their central heavy-duty pylon a 3-ton heavy ordnance dispenser.

Inside this dispenser, 2400 anti-runway sub-bombs each weighing 750 grams were loaded.

All were random timing bombs.

After being scattered, a few of these small bombs would detonate immediately, destroying airport facilities and damaging the runway to prevent enemy aircraft from taking off.

However, most of the bombs would remain in a "ready" state, rendering the enemy incapable of immediate runway repair.

To narrow the spread area, that is, to improve the striking efficiency, the dropping altitude needed to be controlled between 200 and 500 meters.

This required the carrier aircraft to enter at an ultra-low altitude, and to fly over the airport, preferably directly over the runway.

This was precisely why the "Attack-8MG" was assigned the task.

Among all the tactical aircraft of the Alliance Army, only the "Attack-8MG" could reach high subsonic speeds at ultra-low altitudes while carrying a heavy 3-ton dispenser, and still maintain sufficient stability.

Actually, penetration speed was critical.

Theoretically, the "Attack-8MG" was capable of penetrating at 1.1 Mach, but it generally only reached 0.95 Mach. It was not until after the external ordinance was dropped, reducing drag, that it could reach 1.1 Mach during the withdrawal. This also meant that it could fly out of the enemy’s air defense range at greater speeds.

This penetration speed, even compared to today’s attack aircraft, was not considered out-of-date.

Additionally, the "Attack-8MG" had armored cockpits.

Given that it would inevitably come under attack from small-caliber High-altitude Guns, unarmored combat aircraft undertaking such missions were essentially on suicide missions.

Even for the "Attack-8MG," the casualty rate for such missions was extremely high.

Though it was not necessarily a one-in-ten survival rate, it was certainly more likely to be disastrous than not.

Actually, it was precisely because the casualty rate for ultra-low altitude penetration was too high that, after the Boi War, the Empire Air Force increased investment in precision-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles with high accuracy and long range, and gradually abandoned the ultra-low altitude penetration tactic.

Regardless, an attack aircraft is not a tank, and the "Attack-8" had never been designed to break through an enemy’s air defense.

That is why, when assigning the mission, Ding Zhennan sent a squadron of 12 "Attack-8MG" aircraft to deal with an air force base.

Theoretically, as long as 2 "Attack-8MG" aircraft reached the airspace above the air force base and completed their bombing, they could incapacitate the base for several days.

Clearly, even with a low penetration rate, deploying 12 aircraft would guarantee at least 2 would succeed, right?