Empire Conquest-Chapter 842 - 91: Enemy Aircraft Incoming (Part 2)
But the problem is, the Western Group doesn’t lack bombers.
Even though the Western Group does not have strategic bombers in the true sense, they have more than 1,000 medium-range bombers.
Organizing dozens of bombers for an attack is not a difficult task.
If considering the coordination issues with sending Newland bombers on a long-range raid, it would be better to directly use their own medium bombers.
Submarines?
Also a false proposition.
The Newland Navy has dozens of large attack submarines, but they are mainly deployed in the East Ocean, and the submarines deployed in the Sunset Ocean are primarily on anti-submarine missions in the North Sunset Ocean.
In the past decades, the Newland Navy rarely sent submarines to the Land Heart Sea, let alone operate in the East Continent Heart Sea.
Moreover, the Western Group also doesn’t lack submarines.
Even if the submarines of the Bulan Royal Navy and the Tiaoman Navy are on anti-submarine missions in the North Sunset Ocean, they can rely on the submarines from the Raleigh Kingdom, Locke, and Sban kingdoms to deal with the 51st Special Mixed Fleet operating in the East Continent Heart Sea, without needing to seek distant help, let alone submarines requiring prior deployment.
Therefore, when the Newland Navy dispatches its fleet at this time, it might not be related to military action.
Political significance?
Upon thinking of this, Li Shenzhi was startled.
Expressing the stance and determination to join the war through action?
If so, this might be the last necessary condition for the Western Group to launch an attack.
The logic is simple.
Because the Tiaoman Empire’s comprehensive strength is far inferior to the Liangxia Empire, the gap is even bigger when calculated as a group, so before gaining strong support, that is, before the North Beigu Group led by the Newland Republic confirms joining the war, the Western Group will certainly leave a way out for themselves.
Fundamentally, it means controlling the scale of the war, trying to avoid war at sea.
Not only because the navy has always been a weakness of the Western Group, but also because the navy is an aggressive strategic branch, and there are geopolitical relationships to consider.
No matter how the fight on land goes, there are always options at the end.
To put it simply, at the end, all it takes is sacrificing West Luosha to end the war with the Eastern Group, with no possibility of not being able to cease fire.
At its core, the ground war hits East Luosha, temporarily not directly targeting the Liangxia Empire.
Once the war spreads to the sea, it’s different.
After defeating several carrier battle groups of the Liangxia Navy, can there still be peace talks with the Liangxia Empire?
Even if talks are possible, it won’t be now.
Only after the Newland Republic expresses its stance, begins preparations for joining the war, or even agrees to join, will the Western Group conduct operations at sea.
This is also the reason why, days after the war started, the Western Group has not deployed any air force to Greece.
Even on the Bulan Kingdom side, specifically the Scapa Bay side, the Bulan Royal Navy only sent troops to retake the destroyed base. Even when the battleships were attacked and 3 destroyers were sunk, there was no attack on the Liangxia submarines operating nearby at the time.
Now, with the Newland Navy dispatching its fleet, even if they can’t join the fight immediately, it amounts to a vital guarantee to the Western Group.
With this, the Western Group has nothing to worry about anymore.
However, should they enhance the fleet’s air defense immediately?
At the time the message was received, it was nearly 10 AM. The air defense fighters launched before dawn had already returned to the airspace above the fleet, preparing to land on the carrier, while the replacement fighters had already taken off half an hour earlier, patrolling approximately 450 kilometers northwest of the fleet.
However, there is no spare space on the carrier.
The shipborne early warning aircraft that also took off before dawn had returned and would land in about 15 minutes, after which ship-borne fighters could be launched.
Of course, the replacement early warning aircraft had already taken off and was currently patrolling 400 kilometers away.
Later, another early warning aircraft will have to be dispatched to replace the "Zhi-6C" deployed about 150 kilometers west of the fleet, which took off around 7 AM.
According to the arrangement, this time it’s the "Li Mingbo" that will dispatch the early warning aircraft, having nothing to do with the "Bai Zhizhan".
In short, the "Bai Zhizhan" can resume launch capabilities around 10:15, whereas the "Li Mingbo" will have to wait until about 10:30.
Before that, both carriers can only use the 2 catapults in the take-off area, which can only launch 2 fighters at most at a time and can only dispatch the 8 fighters stationed in front of the island, not those parked behind the island and in the left standby area of the flight deck.
In case of emergencies, the recovery operations of ship-borne aircraft can be immediately stopped to deploy the stand-by fighters on the flight deck as quickly as possible. It must be known that each ship-borne aircraft has at least 15 minutes of surplus fuel, used to handle emergencies.
If things really don’t work out, abandoning ship-borne aircraft can also be considered.
No matter what, the carrier is more valuable.
In the last great war, the Imperial Navy abandoned over 1,000 ship-borne aircraft to protect the carriers, and nearly a third of them crash-landed during the return phase.
Actually, Li Shenzhi only hesitated for a few minutes.
It’s not that he made a decision quickly, but the situation changed.
Around 9:58, the "Zhi-6C" deployed northwest of the fleet, facing the Aegean Sea, issued an alert, detecting a large number of enemy aircraft approaching the fleet.
According to the combat deployment, 4 air defense fighters ahead of the fleet immediately turned to engage.
