Empire Conquest-Chapter 753 - 49 Rushing to the Front

"Swallow 01 received, heading 285, sector 331, intercept enemy Armored Forces!"

After finishing his transmission, Lian Mingyang tapped on the glass panel in front of him to remind Jiang Shanggui, who was sitting before him.

Unlike tandem-seat fighter jets, on armed helicopters, the pilot sits at the rear while the front is for the weapon systems operator.

This arrangement exists because armed helicopters primarily fly at low altitudes, hence the view from the rear seat is more expansive.

As for the call signs, those were assigned by headquarters and didn’t have much to do with Lian Mingyang and his crew; they were merely for ease of command and coordination.

While Jiang Shanggui was getting ready for combat, which actually involved pulling up the flight map, locating sector 331, and understanding the general situation of the area, Lian Mingyang activated the data-link system, transmitting "Zhi-10A"’s combat orders and battlefield information to the other helicopters in the formation.

In fact, these were mainly combat instructions that needed to be personally confirmed by the squadron leader, namely Lian Mingyang himself.

As for battlefield information, other armed helicopters had data-link capabilities and could obtain it on their own.

Lian Mingyang was all too familiar with sector 331.

The area was located to the north of Volzhsky, with Volgograd across the river, and was situated right at the upstream bend of the Volga River.

Due to the relatively gentle flow of the river at this section and its detour around the crowded city, a crossing here would allow encirclement of Volzhsky and seizing of an essential bridgehead, enabling the main force to cross the river more smoothly. For this reason, the sector had always been an area of significant defense.

However, it was also the hardest to defend.

The reason was simple: the eastern bank was flat as a pancake with hundreds of meters of plain, leaving no room to build solid defensive structures.

Withdrawing the defense line by several hundred meters would severely weaken the defense effectiveness.

Tactically speaking, it was basically indefensible.

After several rounds of preparatory firepower, engineering troops could erect pontoon bridges under the cover of artillery fire, and by the time the defending troops on the east bank reacted, the armored units from the west would have already crossed over.

Moreover, the Luosha Army had many amphibious tanks and amphibious armored vehicles.

Over the past decades, the Luosha Army had focused significantly on their amphibious armor capability to mitigate the assault hindrances caused by the Volga River.

According to the Luosha Army’s offensive doctrines, the first wave of attacks didn’t even consider the Volga River as an obstacle; it had to be secured prior to launching the assault.

It’s safe to say no one valued amphibious tanks more than the Luosha Army.

Evidently, if the Luosha Army first committed their amphibious armor forces, especially the tanks adept at assaults and more than capable of handling bunkers, they could capture the riverbank positions before the engineering troops began bridge construction, thus vastly reducing the difficulty of crossing operations.

Theoretically, an hour or so was sufficient.

This also fell in line with tactical scenarios.

Secure the riverbank positions within two hours, and by the time the main armored units crossed, dawn would arrive—ideal for striking at the deep defense lines of the Eastern Group.

The current time was 5:30 AM, with only just over half an hour until daylight.

If the combat orders were correct, it’s possible that the main Luosha armored forces had already crossed the river.

This time, they could likely be facing the T-80U.

Based on pre-war intelligence, deployed in Volgograd was the 1st Guard Army, which included the elite 9th Armored Division of the Luosha Army.

This division not only was the first to be equipped with T-80B but also the earliest recipients of the T-80U.

These tanks were not only fitted with Explosive Reactive Armor but also armed with Gun-fired Missiles with a range of up to 5 kilometers, capable of striking armed helicopters.

Such gun-fired missiles posed a significant threat.

To some extent, the Empire Army demanded that the range of Heavy Anti-Tank Missiles be no less than 8 kilometers to suppress these 5-kilometer range gun-fired missiles.

Simply put, it was to keep armed helicopters as far away as possible from the tanks capable of launching such missiles.

However, according to intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, this wasn’t the main threat.

Even the latest T-80U tanks significantly lacked night combat capabilities, and the accompanying optical aiming equipment was far from ideal when it came to long-range engagements.

Information supplied by the Military Intelligence Bureau suggested that even under ideal conditions, the T-80U using the 9M119M gun-fired missiles only had a 60% hit rate against armored targets 5 kilometers away, and in actual combat, especially against high-speed flying helicopters, the hit rate was probably less than 10%.

Often times, it was more of a psychological comfort, to keep tank crews from feeling defenseless in the face of armed helicopters.

Additionally, not many gun-fired missiles were issued to the troops.

Even within the elite 9th Armored Division, only a few command tanks were equipped with gun-fired missiles, and a T-80U could carry at most 4 of these.

This was because there were only four storage tubes inside the tank for missiles.

In practice, the 9M119 was mainly used against armored targets, particularly infantry fighting vehicles equipped with Heavy Anti-Tank Missiles, capable of firing from several kilometers away.

Talking about threats, the real concern was the accompanying self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and the Tunguska combined gun-missile air defense system.

As for the former, namely the ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, there is not much to be said.

During the Boi War, the Empire Air Force suffered terribly at the hands of anti-aircraft guns, with thousands of helicopters downed by this technologically unadvanced anti-aircraft artillery.

Later, during the Iran-Iraq War, both sides’ "Shilkas" achieved impressive combat results.