Empire Conquest-Chapter 845 - 92: Air Defense Interception_2

For this reason, the Tiaoman Empire specially formed the Homeland Air Defense Force after the war, but due to the overly complex organization, it was merged into the Air Force more than 20 years ago.

In the Tiaoman Air Force, the interception air force is a separate branch.

However, the "Storm" is not limited to the AVD model.

A major advantage of the variable swept wing is its ability to provide a high lift-to-drag ratio equivalent to a flat wing, and it achieves more prominent low-altitude stability by increasing wing load.

This characteristic is particularly suitable for heavy attack aircraft that focus on low-altitude penetration.

Moreover, bombers like the "Hong-10A" and B-1B, which require high range for supersonic low-altitude penetration, also utilize variable swept wings.

The "Attack-8" of the Empire Air Force is a typical heavy attack aircraft, primarily using low-altitude penetration as its main attack method.

The F-111 of the Newland Air Force, although named a heavy fighter and indeed designed as one, became a genuine combat bomber after entering service due to its excellent low-altitude flight stability brought by the variable swept wing.

That’s why the "Storm" also has its dedicated attack aircraft model, namely IDS.

The "Storm" IDS and AVD use the same airframe, but the electronic equipment is greatly simplified, including removing fire control radar unnecessary for attack aircraft and swapping in a slightly lower thrust engine with higher reliability and lower fuel consumption.

To put it simply, the "Storm" IDS is an exceptionally good heavy attack aircraft.

Due to its later development time and the adoption of more advanced electronic equipment, the "Storm" IDS is more advanced than the "Attack-8" and F-111 in certain aspects, making it arguably the most advanced heavy attack aircraft or multi-purpose fighter today.

However, the Tiaoman Air Force is clearly not satisfied with the performance of the "Storm" AVD.

According to information provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, several years ago, the Tiaoman Air Force tasked the company producing the "Storm" with utilizing the advanced engines still under development to improve the "Storm’s" performance, and considering the use of imported engines if tactical indicators were met.

However, this so-called "Advanced Storm" has yet to appear.

The problem still lies with the engine.

Because the newly developed engine invested in by the Tiaoman Empire has never reached the standard for mass production, the Tiaoman Air Force has been considering importing engines for several years.

The only options for import are the two third-generation high-thrust turbofan engines from the Newland Republic, namely the F-100 and F-110 used in the F-15 and F-16.

Unfortunately, even the Newland Air Force and Navy Air Force do not have enough of these advanced engines, so how could they possibly provide them to the West Continent Group?

As a result, the "Advanced Storm" project has always been a case of only hearing footsteps but not seeing anyone come down the stairs.

However, the Tiaoman Air Force has not given up; or rather, it anticipated that importing advanced engines would be extremely difficult, so it prepared contingency plans in advance.

Four years ago, based on the Mirage 2000 fighter, a twin-engine heavy fighter, the "Mirage 4000," was developed through simple enlargement by Dassault Company of the Locke Kingdom, achieving its maiden flight, and its main performance indicators surpassed the "Storm" AVD.

To put it simply, this delta-wing aircraft is a true fighter.

Although the "Mirage 4000" has some significant shortcomings in certain aspects, such as a combat thrust-to-weight ratio of only 1.0, and relying solely on internal fuel gives it a combat radius of a mere 600 kilometers; even with three large auxiliary fuel tanks, it only reaches 1200 kilometers, it has outstanding advantages compared to the "Storm" AVD, such as being more agile and having faster climb speed.

For the West Continent Group, the short combat radius is not a significant issue.

The reasoning is simple: the West Continent Group does not have situations requiring fighters to escort bombers; the main mission of the heavy fighters is to seize and control air superiority on the battlefield, which is a typical tactical mission. There is not a high demand on the combat radius of fighters.

Most of the time, fighters like the MG-29 with short ranges are sufficient, let alone the "Mirage 4000."

As a result, after more than two years of selection, accurately speaking, after giving up completely on the "Advanced Storm," the Tiaoman Air Force made the final decision early last year to use a joint production model to fill the gap left by the "Storm" AVD with the "Mirage 4000."

To be precise, it actually means equipping 40 fighter squadrons.

Because the "Storm" ADV’s performance did not meet the tactical indicators set by the Tiaoman Air Force, the procurement numbers didn’t increase, leaving forty squadrons without upgrades. The procurement of the "Mirage 4000" aims to re-equip these forty squadrons, ensuring that the main squadrons use new fighters.

Of course, after starting with the Tiaoman Empire, other member countries of the West Continent group will follow suit.

According to the intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, both the Raleigh Kingdom and the Sban Kingdom have expressed intentions to procure the "Mirage 4000" to enhance their air force’s combat capability. Because the Bulan Kingdom prefers either licensed production of the "Storm" or direct purchases from the Newland Republic for advanced fighters, and West Luosha prefers locally produced MG series fighters, securing acceptance from the other two major member countries, the "Mirage 4000" is likely to become the primary fighter of the West Continent group and remain in use until fifth-generation fighters become operational.

Interestingly, the Locke Air Force did not procure the "Mirage 4000".

Although the Locke Air Force reasoned that it had already procured hundreds of "Mirage 2000" fighters, and their performance was not lacking, thus there was temporarily no need to procure heavy fighters to expand the fleet size, essentially, the Locke Air Force did not want to foot the bill for this type of fighter.

To put it directly, the "Mirage 4000" has already become the fighter of the Tiaoman Empire.

The Tiaoman Empire not only owns all intellectual property rights of the "Mirage 4000" but will also establish a production line and even export it to other countries.

To decouple from the Locke nation, it will be officially named the "Tornado" fighter after being equipped.

Furthermore, the "Mirage 4000" costs approximately 60% more than the "Mirage 2000", while the enhancement in combat capability is less than 20%.

Due to certain flaws, and because of the adoption of a delta wing, the "Mirage 4000" still cannot be considered an outstanding fighter.

The problem remains with the engine not being good enough.

Fighters designed by the Locke Dassault Company are almost all delta-winged, mainly because delta wings have the best lift-to-drag ratio in supersonic phases, thereby achieving faster speeds with smaller thrust. The "Mirage" series of fighters have always been known for their agility but have very poor vertical maneuverability.

Obviously, simply enlarging it and adding an extra engine certainly does not solve the issue of insufficient power.

Otherwise, the Locke Air Force would not insist on using lightweight fighters, never considering the procurement and equipping of heavy fighters for decades.

Furthermore, the first batch of "Mirage 4000" ordered by the Tiaoman Air Force is still in production and has not been delivered, let alone been made operational and formed combat power.

The ones attacking this time are still the "Storm" ADV.

If one were to speak, this is also the first encounter between two types of variable-sweep wing heavy fighters.

However, it is also a battle completely devoid of fairness.

The initial engagement was between the two parties at mid-to-high altitudes, at eight thousand meters, with two "War-9B" aircraft and four "Storm" AVD.

Strictly speaking, it was actually an ambush, not an engagement.

At a separation of 150 kilometers, two "War-9B" locked onto targets using fire control radar and subsequently launched missiles.

At this time, the four "Storm" AVD on the opposite side had yet to detect the "War-9B"; their fire control radar’s effective detection range for fighters was just over 100 kilometers, and the "Sky Flash" missiles they carried had an interception range of less than 30 kilometers.

Among all medium-range air-to-air missiles, the "Sky Flash" has the shortest range.

Strictly speaking, these missiles do not possess beyond-visual-range attack capabilities.

The result was that the four "Storm" AVD did not evade at all and were directly shot down by KK-9D.

Only then did the four "Storm" AVD at high altitude detect the danger but still did not spot the incoming two "War-9B".

When these four "Storm" AVD accelerated into a dive, attempting to attack the two "War-9B" at mid-to-high altitudes, they suffered a frontal strike from the two "War-9B" at high altitude.

Although through diving turns, two "Storm" AVD managed to evade the KK-9D that had reached its maximum ballistic range, these two fighters did not return to fight, fleeing directly, failing to provide cover for the bombers following them, which were still heading east.

Throughout the ordeal, all eight "Storm" AVD never spotted the engaged opponents and certainly did not fire back.