My Wife is Actually a top-tier Soldier King?!-Chapter 1198 - 1093: Not Strong Enough! _2

"The target made a sudden turn. Immediately change your heading to 85, range 130, speed Mach 2. Jettison the auxiliary fuel tanks!"

Upon receiving the order, the two fighters immediately dropped their auxiliary fuel tanks and pushed down the joystick for a sharp turn.

When conducting missions, fighters increase their range by carrying auxiliary fuel tanks, and normally consume the fuel inside these tanks first.

In urgent situations that require enhanced maneuverability, they would discard the auxiliary tanks to lighten the load and reduce air resistance, making the fighter more agile.

However...

No matter how agile or how much afterburner is used, they cannot reach high speeds instantly.

The two third-generation light air defense fighters have a high-altitude speed of up to Mach 2.2.

But that’s the speed reached by test pilots without any weapons mounted, during the testing phase of the fighter, and it’s only achieved for a short duration at a very high cost, with crazy fuel consumption and engine life reduction.

To reach that speed, moreover, is not instantaneous; it requires a relatively slow acceleration process.

It’s like the speedometer in a family car that also has a top speed of 200 or 220 km/h, but in reality?

On the highway, exceeding 120 km/h is already illegal and very dangerous.

Forcing the speed up to 160 km/h, most engines are already quite exhausted and weak, not to mention sprinting to 200 km/h or even higher speeds.

The maximum speed on the scale is merely the velocity tested on a dynamometer with an unladen car by the manufacturer.

If you really drive that fast in normal conditions, you’re not far from wrecking the car and perishing.

But in reality...

Subjected to road conditions, regulations, and vehicle performance, even if the driver’s foot is fully on the gas, it is impossible for a family car to reach speeds of 200 km/h or more.

At this very moment.

The two pilots are somewhat nervous inside.

The throttle has been pushed to the limit, and the engines are roaring insanely.

The aviation fuel is visibly depleting rapidly, and the fighter is shuddering violently, feeling like it could fall apart at any moment.

The same holds true for cars.

When the speed reaches a certain limit and you try to push it further, the engine is forced to operate under excessive load.

The engine will shake more violently, and the noise will noticeably increase.

Compared to automobiles, the environment faced by fighters is even harsher, facing substantial air resistance and intense frictional heating from the air.

However...

In order to pursue the target, it can’t be helped.

But the result...

Is still disappointing.

While chasing at an angle, the onboard phased array radar and electro-optical infrared sensors still showed no response and didn’t detect anything.

However, the base reported that Over-the-horizon Ground Wave Radar had detected two high-altitude, high-speed targets closing in on these two fighters and that there might be a chance of encounter, instructing the pilots to keep an eye out visually.

Visually?

As the two fighters further increased their separation, the pilots widened their eyes, yet they saw nothing!

Could it be that the Over-the-horizon Ground Wave Radar has a performance defect, detecting incorrectly?

...

On the other side.

The two Vulture Fighters, with their more advanced and powerful passive detection methods, had already spotted the two fighters.

The reason they made a sudden turn was to circumvent them.

After all, even the most sophisticated stealth technology that can deceive radar scans and fool infrared detection hasn’t found a way to achieve optical stealth.

That is, they can’t make themselves invisible to human eyes at close range.

So, maintaining a certain distance is advantageous for concealing their movements and avoiding detection.

But the problem is...

After they made the sharp turn, why did these two fighters also suddenly make a turn?

And also maintain a certain angle, veering toward them at an ever-increasing speed.

What’s going on?

It should not be a coincidence, considering the timing of the turn and the acceleration direction are all too apparent.

If they are not heading for them, why suddenly change direction? Accelerate fiercely? Continue closing in?

But what puzzled the pilots was...

How could this new type of stealth fighter, which has been undetectable by all radar since its inception, possibly be detected by these two outdated third-generation fighters?

Since when did the Easterners’ calculation of electromagnetic technology become so damn good?

Now that it seems we’ve been exposed, should we still carry out this air strike mission?

If we continue to fly towards the target, we will soon cross the border.

The other side could open fire and launch missiles at any moment.

The two Vulture fighter pilots communicated through a laser communication local area network between their aircraft.

This special mode of communication uses laser beams to transmit information to each other.

It enables point-to-point information exchange without generating any electromagnetic signals.

After all, to maintain secrecy, both Vulture fighters had been out of contact with the base and maintained a radio silence status.

At this critical moment, it’s impossible to casually break the radio silence and ask the base if we have been exposed and whether to continue the mission.

After a brief discussion, the two pilots made a decision.

If it’s a Kill Order, how can there be any reason to terminate it halfway through?

The enemy might have their own development of cutting-edge radar technology capable of detecting them.

But what’s the use of just detecting them?

Can they catch us? Can they shoot us down?

The two Vulture fighters immediately accelerated, reaching three times the speed of sound in seconds and continued to increase their speed.

This phenomenon, of course, was also quickly detected by the Over-the-horizon Ground Wave Radar.

Order the two fighters to chase quickly...

F*ck!

How can we chase them?

The throttle is already pushed to the limit, and the engine is about to stall; there’s no way to go any faster.

We simply don’t have the capability!

As for attacking...

We haven’t even detected the target; who are we going to fire missiles at?

If missiles can’t find the target and accidentally blow up a civilian airliner, that would be a huge loss.

At the moment...

The fighter pilots are questioning whether the performance of the Over-the-horizon Ground Wave Radar is really reliable.

They have detected nothing and seen nothing with their own eyes; could it be that the radar has been generating false reports?

It’s also quite normal for a radar in the testing phase to experience malfunction and false alarms.

In fact, there doesn’t seem to be any fighter in today’s world that can completely ignore radar detection and all kinds of electro-optical infrared sensing, right?

The two light fighters just can’t keep going!

Carrying missiles and flying at twice the speed of sound is already quite good, and at most, they can only maintain it for five minutes.

Trying to chase an unidentified flying object at three times the speed of sound, and still accelerating...

Isn’t that asking the impossible?

Even if we drive the fighters until they fall apart, we still won’t be able to catch up!

Moreover, the fighters are now severely trembling, and the engines can’t take it anymore; the structural integrity of the airframe can’t hold.

They might disintegrate in midair at any moment, forcing the pilot to eject at high altitude? That’s no different from committing suicide.

For two high-altitude, high-speed targets, of which we’re not even sure are real, is it worth the loss of two fighters worth hundreds of millions, plus the invaluable pilots, which cannot be measured in monetary terms?

So...

The Air Force Base issued an order for the two pilots to stop pursuing, to decrease speed and altitude, and to ensure a safe return.

Of course...

Since the Over-the-horizon Ground Wave Radar detected that the two targets had crossed the border, it couldn’t be ignored.

So down with the third-generation, and up with the fourth-generation.

The two stealth fighters, considered national assets and not to be used lightly, received orders.

From an Air Force Base, in a two-aircraft formation, they scrambled...