Empire Conquest-Chapter 814 - 78: Escort Operation

After arriving at the Bashaw base, it took Li Tianling less than half an hour to understand this mission.

This is a long-range raid operation.

To put it simply, Li Tianling and his team are performing a forward escort mission, diverting enemy air defense fighters ahead, covering the bombers in the rear as they reach the airspace to launch missiles and successfully deploying the carried cruise missiles, finally covering the bombers as they fly out of the danger zone.

This type of mission is actually not considered special.

Although bombers no longer conduct aerial bombings in the era of widespread cruise missile use, launching from hundreds of kilometers, or even over a thousand kilometers away, cruise missiles are not omnipotent, and bombers are not always able to launch missiles from relatively safe places.

In some situations, bombers still need to take risks.

Actually, the range of cruise missiles is not far enough!

The first generation of cruise missiles equipped for the Empire’s Air Force had a launch weight of 3 tons but a range of only 500 kilometers.

By the standards of the time, this was already quite good.

To ensure sufficient power and that the warhead isn’t too small, the range had to be appropriately reduced by decreasing the fuel carried.

Besides, a longer range is not necessarily better for cruise missiles.

In most situations, a long range isn’t needed, and providing greater range only drives up the price of cruise missiles.

It is evident that the key is still cost.

According to rumors, the Empire’s Air Force had long imposed a hard limit on the "price" of cruise missiles. Under the mobilization system, the price of cruise missiles must not exceed 50 times that of a non-guided bomb of the same yield, and ideally be controlled within 20 times, to ensure mass production during wartime.

The ex-factory price of a 500 kg air bomb with wind correction capability is only 5,000 Gold Yuan.

This means that if produced in large quantities following wartime standards, the price per cruise missile should be below 250,000 Gold Yuan, and ideally controlled below 100,000 Gold Yuan.

This requirement effectively limits the maximum range of cruise missiles.

Of course, the Empire’s Air Force’s approach is understandable.

If striving for range causes cruise missiles to become too expensive, it would be better to produce more bombers or use ballistic missiles.

That is why the early "Snake Spear" had just over a 1,000 km range.

The later improved versions, using turbofan engines, reached a range of 1,200 km. The latest models, even after shrinking the warheads, only achieved 1,500 km.

This range is more than sufficient most of the time.

Clearly, saying so implies there are certain extremely special situations where it is not enough.

These special situations include strategic bombing of the West Luosha capital, Mosa City.

Of course, cruise missile penetration efficiency also needs consideration here.

Although cruise missiles have a very high penetration rate, during the battles bombing Iraq over a month ago, the cruise missiles performed exceptionally well, but as the first military force globally to develop and use cruise missiles, the Empire’s Air Force had long known that the high penetration rate of cruise missiles was not because they were difficult to shoot down, but because they were difficult to detect, hence there was no issue of being shot down.

As long as cruise missiles can be detected, shooting them down is not difficult.

Tests conducted by the Empire’s Air Force had already proven that the key to intercepting cruise missiles is actually the timely detection of cruise missiles.

Countries like Iraq clearly do not possess the capability to detect cruise missiles in time.

However, West Luosha is different.

The air defense strength of West Luosha ranks first within the West Continent Group, even above the Tiaoman Empire, with nearly 100,000 high-altitude guns alone.

In addition, there are hundreds of air defense missile systems.

Influenced by the Liangxia Empire’s development and equipping of cruise missiles, the West Luosha Air Force invested heavily, using large transport aircraft as platforms to be the first in the West Continent Group to develop and equip large early warning aircraft.

To enhance long-range interception capabilities, West Luosha also developed and equipped the MG-31 interceptor.

This air defense interceptor can carry six long-range missiles and simultaneously fire at several low-flying targets over hundreds of kilometers away.

Additionally, the MG-31 can sprint fly at 2.5 Mach for half an hour.

The West Luosha Air Force particularly emphasizes the supersonic flying capability of the MG-31, hoping to intercept bombers that have not yet launched cruise missiles in time.

Theoretically, the MG-31 can fly 1,400 km at supersonic speed and then use the R-37 long-range air-to-air missile to fire at bombers over 100 km away.

This means its interception range exceeds 1,500 km.

Evidently, this distance is not a coincidence, nor a decision made on a whim.

Do not forget that the extreme range of the "Snake Spear" is only 1,500 km, and the early models that were widely equipped actually only had just over 1,000 km.

It can be seen that the MG-31 was developed specifically as an interceptor against cruise missile carriers.

Under the command of large early warning aircraft, ground air defense systems can also intercept cruise missiles.

According to tests conducted by the Empire’s Air Force, under effective command, a tiered deployment of air defense systems can reduce the penetration rate of cruise missiles to within 20%.

Theoretically, FP-95 and similar self-propelled high-altitude guns can intercept low-flying cruise missiles.

Thus, to achieve a sufficiently high penetration rate for cruise missiles, careful planning of the flight path is necessary to avoid enemy air defense positions as much as possible.

In fact, when bombing Iraq, the Empire’s Air Force and Navy adopted this method.