Empire Conquest-Chapter 843 - 91: Enemy Aircraft Incoming (Part 3)

However, this is only the beginning.

At exactly 10 o’clock, the Zhi-6C deployed in the Southwest direction, southeast of Trick Island, also issued an enemy attack alert.

Enemy aircraft appeared in this direction as well, and they were bombers.

Immediately, two carriers shifted into combat mode.

Before this, the two carriers had already entered combat mode, and upon receiving the news, each catapulted two fighter jets positioned at the take-off points.

These four fighter jets were all dispatched to the southeastern sea area of Crete Island.

At this time, both carriers were bustling with activity.

According to the orders given by Li Shenzhi, both carriers temporarily halted recovery operations to launch the standby fighter jets at maximum speed.

The enemy launched an assault from two directions simultaneously, clearly going all out, and would not let the 51st Special Mixed Fleet escape.

If the West Continent Group was prepared, then bombers would not be the only ones arriving.

There would certainly be fighter escorts, necessitating the deployment of more anti-air fighters.

Of course, there might also be assaults launched from more directions.

Do not forget, North Xuan is also under the control of the West Continent Group, making it entirely possible for their bombers to detour through North Xuan.

Precisely for this reason, Li Shenzhi specifically instructed the staff responsible for air operations to strengthen defenses on that side.

In fact, these tasks do not require Li Shenzhi’s personal attention.

He is the Commander of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet but more so the Acting Commander of the Land Heart Sea Sub-fleet, and fleet operations are mainly managed by the Fleet Chief of Staff.

Moreover, all operational actions are actually pre-planned.

Upon receiving a second enemy attack alert, which indicated the discovery of a second wave of enemy aircraft, the Special Mixed Fleet headquarter initiated the operational plans, dispatching a squad from the urgently launched fighter jets to the Southwest area to monitor North Xuan and prepare to intercept enemy aircraft.

Importantly, the Bai Zhizhan also urgently launched a Zhi-6C.

As it does not need to load ammunition, it can take off just by filling up on fuel, making the preparation for the launch of the Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft relatively much simpler.

While the fighters were taking off, the Zhi-6C was moved onto the flight deck and to the standby area behind the island of the carrier.

According to the deployment, this early warning aircraft will also fly towards the Southwest to command the air defense operations there.

With the addition of one early warning aircraft, adjustments were made to the air defense deployment, pulling back the early warning aircraft previously 150 kilometers northwest by 50 kilometers and transferring it to the north side of the fleet, not to monitor there but to assist the Anti-Air Cruiser in directing air defense operations.

Upon entering the inner-layer air defense combat phase, the Anti-Air Cruiser commands the battle with the Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft assisting primarily by relaying combat orders.

This is the biggest advantage of a dual-carrier battle group.

In extreme situations, two carriers can deploy four Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft, whereas one carrier can deploy a maximum of two Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft.

The number of available Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft is limited, not insufficient.

One Super Carrier only carries four Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft, with two definitely stored in the hangar, and one possibly under maintenance.

In the next ten minutes, each of the two carriers dispatched 12 fighter jets.

By the time the last batch of fighter jets took to the air, it was already 10:15.

The early warning aircraft that had gone ahead confirmed that among the incoming enemy aircraft, there indeed were many fighter jets, flying at the forefront.