Empire Conquest-Chapter 807 - 75: Piercing the Sky

King Khalid Military City.

Before sitting in the cockpit, Li Tianling washed his face with cold water and drank a cup of strong coffee, yet he still couldn’t overcome the intense drowsiness.

Last night, he did not rest at all.

It wasn’t about paying attention to the battle on the Northwest War Zone side, and there was no way to get frontline information.

He was busy all night, preparing for this morning’s operation. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

At this moment, hanging on the belly of "War-11B", on the heavy belly mounting point, is not an auxiliary fuel tank, and "War-11" has sufficient range, generally not hanging auxiliary fuel tank. Nor is it a ground attack weapon, after all, the "War-11B" is an air superiority fighter. If it were to carry out attack missions, the "War-10" or "War-16" would be arranged. It is a very unique one, a large missile never used in combat before.

The missile is over 5 meters in length and is extremely stout, with a body diameter of over 500 millimeters.

Visibly, it resembles a cruise missile.

However, there are no cruise missile wings, nor does it have an inlet for a turbine engine, and the warhead is conical, not the ovular shape of a cruise missile.

Crucially, this missile actually only has four relatively small tail fins.

In appearance, it looks more like a ballistic missile.

However, it is not a ballistic missile.

As for what kind of missile it is, Li Tianling is well aware because he is one of the test flight pilots for this missile; he completed the only successful attempt.

It is a fighter-mounted and launched anti-satellite missile!

After the outbreak of war with the West Continent Group, Li Tianling received a special order: no longer participate in operations at Boss Bay and lead the squadron’s officers and soldiers to prepare for the upcoming special operation, including making other pilots of the squadron master the skills of launching missiles at maximum altitude.

However, Li Tianling and his squadron did not receive orders to return home.

The reason is simple, anti-satellite missiles can deal with low-orbit satellites, mainly those with orbit-changing maneuver capability military reconnaissance satellites, so some of the West Continent Group’s reconnaissance satellites will definitely use orbit-changing maneuvers to avoid several major air force bases of the Liangxia Empire.

Thus, fighter jets executing anti-satellite missions must be deployed far enough away from the homeland.

If truth be told, this is also the key to the Empire’s Air Force developing carrier-based anti-satellite missiles, which can be deployed to any air force base worldwide.

Theoretically, as long as there is a 2000-meter hard runway that can accommodate the takeoff and landing of large transport aircraft performing support missions, deployments can be carried out, and within half a day, modified heavy fighters assigned to anti-satellite missions can be combat-ready.

If preparations are made in advance, the preparation time can be shortened to 4 hours.

Compared with other anti-satellite weapons, the advantage of fighter-based anti-satellite missiles in strategic mobility is the most obvious.

Thus, the Air Force headquarter tasked Li Tianling and his squadron at King Khalid Military City to prepare for combat.

What happened next, with the West Continent Group striking first to attack the Liangxia Empire’s military satellites, with the Empire subsequently initiating a reprisal, was entirely within Li Tianling’s expectations and did not surprise him. Instead, he felt the Imperial High Command was somewhat lenient.

In an all-out war, the first thing to eliminate is the enemy’s military satellites!

In strategic-level war games, anti-satellite operations are always included, and they are prioritized as the first task when war begins.

The value of military satellites in modern warfare is enormous.

In fact, the Imperial Army was a pioneer in military aerospace and the chief beneficiary.

The third round of post-war military reforms initiated by the Imperial Army prominently increased the status of numerous high-tech weaponry, including military satellites, in modern warfare, aiming to win future wars by capturing the technological high ground.

To this end, the Liangxia Empire was the first to develop anti-satellite weapons.

The missile is just one of them.

Although the operational efficiency of anti-satellite missiles is not the highest and they have many flaws, such as long pre-preparation time, lack of tactical flexibility, and being able to only attack low-orbit satellites, they also have advantages other anti-satellite weapons lack, such as being deployed according to actual needs, nearly unrestricted by geography, and effectively dealing with orbit-changing maneuver military satellites once prepared.

Crucially, anti-satellite missiles are not counted in the establishment!

Theoretically, any "War-11B" can carry and use this anti-satellite missile code-named "XKT-1", requiring only necessary reinforcements on the heavy belly mounting point, the removal of the tandem pylons at the front and the back, and making pilots skilled in missile launching techniques.

As for the techniques, they are not complicated.

Simply put, it means flying as high and as fast as possible, launching the missile at a nearly vertical angle before reaching the maximum altitude.

Pilots need to be careful to avoid stalling after missile launch.

Actually, the real challenge is how to locate the target satellite.

The Imperial Air Force invested in building three anti-satellite radars in the Empire’s homeland and upgraded the radar systems on all large early-warning command aircraft, enabling them to detect satellites in low orbit and obtain real-time satellite orbit maps through an integrated data processing system.

Most critically, these three anti-satellite radars have already been completed.