Empire Conquest-Chapter 828 - 85: Long-Distance Raid

East Continent Heart Sea, the flagship of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet, "Bai Zhizhan" Super Carrier.

Before dawn, Li Shenzhi had already arrived at the Command Bridge.

In fact, he hadn’t slept at all last night.

As usual from previous days, the staff brought over breakfast, and he quickly perused the telegrams received overnight while eating.

The counterattack on the continental battlefield was proceeding very smoothly, achieving almost all the objectives. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The frontline headquarters was destroyed, and the West Continent group’s combat forces showed almost zero initiative after losing unified command. At least since last night, the enemy’s frontline troops hadn’t taken any decent actions and posed no threat to the Imperial Army.

If there was a surprise, it was the location of the frontline headquarters.

That command train was actually parked inside Volgograd station and had not left the station after the counterattack began.

Although it increased the difficulty of the bombing, the final result was unchanged.

After confirming the location of the command train, it took only about 5 minutes for the nearest "Hong-12A" to strike, launching 12 KD-15G "Dart" short-range air-to-ground missiles with TV/infrared composite guidance and autonomous attack capability within just half a minute.

Since the station was too large, with dozens of trains parked, and the explosion caused interference, it was impossible to discern the bombing results, so about 30 minutes later, the "Hong-12A" from the south conducted a supplementary bombing with 12 "Dart" missiles.

Even if the frontline headquarters hadn’t been completely destroyed, it certainly paralyzed the enemy’s command system.

After locating the command train at the frontline headquarters, two "Hong-12A" from the south carried out bombing missions, while two from the north shifted to secondary missions.

Meanwhile, a feigned attack operation executed by the Air Force had already commenced as planned.

Over the Dnieper River, escort fighters engaged with enemy aircraft around dawn, successfully diverting the enemy’s attention.

The combat was intense.

It wasn’t that the "War-11B" wasn’t powerful, it was that the "War-11B" was too powerful.

Because the "War-11B" was equipped with DPL-22D pulse Doppler radar, it could detect fighter-sized targets at nearly 200 kilometers even in search mode, and the KK-12A’s head-on interception range was about 80 kilometers. Thus, the supporting "Zhi-8C" didn’t advance, remaining south of the Crimean Peninsula, roughly 300 kilometers behind the escort fighter group.

This distance rendered the "Zhi-8C" almost a mere decoration.

Although in subsequent battles, the "Zhi-8C" repeatedly detected enemy aircraft maneuvering to the sides, attempting to outflank the escort fighters from behind, and promptly warned them; however, from the front, the "War-11B" had to rely on itself to search for enemy aircraft approaching from the north using fire control radar.

Clearly, this placed the "War-11B" in a disadvantageous position from the start.

Relying on ground air defense radar, with an entire command system supported from the rear, the enemy’s air defense fighters consistently received effective support.

Moreover, the numerical gap between both sides was enormous.

Two squadrons of 16 "War-11B" faced nearly 100 air defense fighters, with over 40 of them being MG-31 and MG-29.

Fortunately, MG-31 is an interceptor, and MG-29 is a short-range frontline fighter.

More importantly, the West Continent group’s command system indeed had significant problems.

So many air defense fighters arrived in batches, not attacking simultaneously, failing to capitalize on their numerical superiority.

As the saying goes, two fists cannot defeat four palms.

As formidable as the "War-11B" is, it cannot contend with simultaneously arriving enemies several times its number.

The first to arrive were not the MG-29 frontline fighters but the MG-31 interceptors deployed far in the rear.

Probably focused on the eastern battle, they hadn’t anticipated the Imperial Air Force deploying such significant effort simultaneously in the direction of the Mo Sea. As a result, these so-called "world’s most advanced" heavy interceptors only scrambled urgently when the "War-11B" reached the Dnieper River.

The result was that none of the 24 MG-31 divided into three batches completed their climb before the engagement.

For interceptors, failing to complete the climb in time is fatal.

MG-31 is a typical high-altitude, high-speed interceptor, with advantages above 20,000 meters, launching attacks at nearly Mach 3.

At the altitudes where air superiority fighters typically operate, MG-31 doesn’t have an advantage.

For instance, at 15,000 meters, MG-31’s maximum speed is only Mach 2.5, while "War-11B" can exceed Mach 2.5 by relying on a higher thrust-to-weight ratio.

Additionally, the MG-31 is a heavy interceptor with almost no capability for dogfighting.

Even if it can mount combat missiles like R-60 and R-73, it’s only for intercepting bombers at close range, not for air combat with fighters.

In fact, interceptors are not designed for air combat.

All interceptors employ fast-in, fast-out tactics, striking from high altitudes at great distances, then turning to return base. Since the probability of close-range engagements is very low, some interceptors have even removed their machine guns.

These over 20 MG-31 reduced the distance to 200 kilometers from the "War-11B" group before completing their climb.

Presumably worried about encountering the "War-11B," MG-31 launched R-37 long-range air-to-air missiles at 100 kilometers out.

It must be said, this missile is MG-31’s most boast-worthy feature.

The R-37 has a range of over 100 kilometers, while the KK-12A only has 80 kilometers.