Empire Conquest-Chapter 723 - 35: Clearing Inventory

"The Snowy Owl" unit and the Gaoju Kingdom’s "Attack-8MG" Plane Group declared the official start of the first round of airstrike operations.

In the following approximately one hour, hundreds of fighter and attack aircraft from the Alliance Army swarmed in, two-thirds heading towards Baghdad.

This was also the key to the first round of attacks.

During the planning stage, some staff members, especially those from the Allies, had suggested that since the main goal was to liberate Kuwait, the focus should be on striking targets within Kuwait and the southern area of Iraq; there was no need to expend too much force in the direction of Baghdad.

Obviously, Ding Zhennan ignored these suggestions completely.

He didn’t even bother to explain to the Allied staff.

What was there to explain?

The Iraqi forces invading Kuwait were fighting with their backs to their own country; how could one possibly eliminate the Iraqi forces in Kuwait without breaking down Iraq’s military system?

Even if it was ignored now, the issue would still have to be faced during the ground warfare phase.

Before then, during the aerial strike phase, consideration should be from the perspective of the overall situation, not just focusing on a single point.

To target the collapse of Iraq’s military system, Baghdad should be the focus of the attacks!

Such a strategic concept that addresses the overall situation is common knowledge within the Imperial Army, understood by all officers graduating from regular military academies.

Looking back, the same was true during the Boi War of years past.

If there were any differences, it was only due to the limitations of technological means; the Imperial Army had not yet been able to accomplish all combat missions through intense and efficient aerial strikes.

This mode of operation, which prioritizes aerial strikes, has a tremendous impact on tactics.

Simply put, the main task of the first round of strikes was actually to paralyze the Iraqi Air Force, namely to achieve complete air supremacy.

As a result, over 400 targets locked in the first round of strikes, 80% of them were air force bases and air defense positions.

After the battle began, Ding Zhennan never left the command center.

Subsequently, reports from various units arrived one after another, accurately speaking, reports following the completion of the strike operations.

There were Early Warning Command Aircraft and several auxiliary planes specifically responsible for communication relay; there was no issue of having to wait for combat aircraft to return to the base to receive messages.

According to the arrangements, all combat units should immediately report after completing their attack missions.

This way, it was possible to arrange for special Reconnaissance Aircraft to carry out identification missions and confirm whether there is a need for additional strikes in the next round or in the future.

Although these were just unilateral reports, and more reliable reconnaissance reports had not yet been received, the striking efficiency still far exceeded previous estimates.

For the first few Plane Groups, the bombing accuracy was over 70%, with the destruction and paralysis rate of targets at about 80%.

This result could be called "ideal."

In previous wars, the striking efficiency of the Tactical Air Force hardly exceeded 40%, and a 50% probability of paralyzing and destroying targets was quite good.

Additionally, the casualty rate was also lower than expected.

Of the 12 "Attack-8MG" that attacked the air force base on the outskirts of Baghdad, 10 had already made contact with the base, one of which was hit by the High-altitude Gun and might be scrapped upon return. Even if the two that had not made contact were both shot down, the casualty rate would still be within an acceptable range.

Before this, Ding Zhennan was prepared for a loss of 5 to 7 attack aircraft for this air force base!

It wasn’t until after 3 a.m. that the first genuine "battle report" was received.

Two "War-11B" planes executing air supremacy missions headed out west of Baghdad to intercept two Iraqi fighters flying in from the north.

Before the "War-11B" fired, the two Iraqi fighters turned and flew away.

According to signals intercepted by the Early Warning Command Aircraft, accurately speaking, the enemy aircraft’s flying speed was measured, it is very likely that they were two MG-25 fighters introduced from the Luosha Democratic Republic.

Of course, what is more accurate to say is interceptors. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The key point was that the speed of these two enemy planes reached 2.5 Mach when they disengaged!

That’s why, before the two "War-11B" could complete acceleration, the two Iraqi fighters had already flown out of the Early Warning Command Aircraft’s detection range.

Among the Iraqi Air Force’s fighters, only the MG-25 could fly so fast.

However, this was just a minor incident.

After more than an hour, the air battle formally erupted.

But this time, the leading role was played by the Navy’s ship-borne fighters.

Above Boss Bay, east of Basra, two "War-9B" from the carrier battle group of the "Xue Yuanzheng" carrier intercepted two Iraqi fighters attempting to attack the attack aircraft with long-range missiles. According to the Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft report, they were likely two MG-23 fighters deployed in the southern region.

As they did not turn in time to evade, or to say they didn’t even know they were locked on, both MG-23s were shot down.

And this was not at all surprising.

According to task allocation, the Joint Force Headquarters had divided Iraq into north, central, and southern Battle Zones, with the air supremacy mission of the Southern War Zone mainly undertaken by the Navy.

In Ding Zhennan’s words, the Navy’s carriers were loaded with over 100 "War-9A/B" heavy ship-borne fighters, and since these fighters were not capable of carrying bombs for bombing missions, they couldn’t all be idle; hence the Navy Air Force had to be assigned the air supremacy mission.

The key point was also that the Air Force couldn’t deploy more air supremacy fighters to the front lines.

Actually, this was also the first batch of achievements for the Gaoju Imperial Navy’s shipborne air force since the Boi War!