Empire Conquest-Chapter 912 - 126: Enemy Reprisal

Although immediately after receiving the news, Lei Zhenting contacted the officers and soldiers of the third squad staying at the South Bridge Head and sent three special soldiers back, they still couldn’t make it in time. Before the three special soldiers returned to the South Bridge Head, the battle on the south bank had already begun.

The special soldiers were the first to open fire, and it wasn’t with a general-purpose machine gun, but with an anti-tank missile.

Even from the north bank of the Euphrates River, one could clearly see the fire from the explosion when the missile hit the target.

This time, a fierce battle was inevitable.

Meanwhile, at the Alliance Headquarters in King Khalid Military City.

When Ding Zhennan arrived, the staff officer was processing the intelligence that had just been received, with battlefield information displayed on the central projection screen.

The first to discover the enemy situation was the "Zhi-10A" patrolling more than 200 kilometers southeast of the battlefield.

Around 5:40, an Iraqi armored convoy appeared on the south bank of Sinafiye and quickly headed for the Euphrates River Bridge.

There were a total of five two-axle wheeled armored vehicles, presumably an armored reconnaissance unit.

Upon receiving the news, Ding Zhennan realized that this armored reconnaissance unit must have set off from Sinafiye at midnight, taking advantage of the joint command aircraft’s shift change, before the replacement "Zhi-10A" arrived, to execute a reconnaissance mission on the south bank of the Euphrates River.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the five armored vehicles to leave Sinafiye without anyone noticing.

In fact, this revealed a very serious issue.

There were too few joint command aircraft!

In the direction of Boss Bay, there were only three "Zhi-10A" in total.

Although theoretically, three joint command aircraft can maintain uninterrupted patrols in one operational direction for 24 hours, it can only last at most seven days. That is, after short-term deployment, comprehensive maintenance, which takes longer, is inevitably needed, making it impossible to ensure continuous deployment.

For this reason, often four joint command aircraft are deployed in one operational direction.

Moreover, Boss Bay actually has two operational directions: the southern area centered on Basra and the central area surrounding Baghdad.

The spatial span of the two operational directions exceeds 350 kilometers.

To put it simply, this already exceeds the coverage range of the "Zhi-10A," and there should be four joint command aircraft deployed in each tactical direction.

Unfortunately, the Air Force simply does not have that many joint command aircraft. The newly produced "Zhi-10A" must first be provided to the Northwest War Zone, and then the Southern Subcontinent must also be considered. Not to mention obtaining five more in the near future, it’s unlikely even to get one more.

In fact, before the ground war erupted, the Air Force had already dispatched one more "Zhi-10A" to the Boss Bay area.

The staff responsible for aerial operations came up with a method, deploying the "Zhi-10A" between Baghdad and Basra, that is, south of Samawa.

This way, both directions could be catered to simultaneously.

However, the problem brought about by this was also evident.

Most seriously, it increased the workload, thereby raising the radar failure rate and shortening the patrol deployment time of each sortie.

Although the "Zhi-10A" employs an X-band AESA radar with synthetic aperture imaging capabilities, featuring outstanding detection range and precision, able to directly generate images for the commander to accurately grasp the battlefield situation, to control costs, and due to inadequate miniaturization technology of electronic equipment, a single antenna array is used. This employs a set of mechanical equipment to control deflection angles to change elevation angles and achieve azimuth control. The result of this is that it can only scan and detect one side of the aircraft at a time.

To be blunt, even if the "Zhi-10A" is deployed between Baghdad and Basra, it cannot monitor both directions simultaneously and must prioritize one.

Of course, most of the time, the priority is the Baghdad direction.

Because the radar’s direction needs to be frequently adjusted, and the flight path has to be continuously changed, the "Zhi-10A" deployment time in one mission cycle cannot reach eight hours, usually around seven hours, resulting in about half an hour’s gap during handover.

In response to this problem, the Alliance Headquarters made arrangements.

Mainly, by extending or shortening the mission duration, to arrange handover work at different times, making the deployment of the joint command aircraft unpredictable.

Without a pattern, vulnerabilities cannot be exploited by the enemy.

However, this is only a temporary expedient.

Although Iraq’s air defense system has long been destroyed, with all long-range air warning and search radars eliminated, incapable of tracking the joint command aircraft movements, the Iraqi army can still obtain battlefield information through other means, making it possible to infer the joint command aircraft’s activity patterns.

For example, the Newland Republic’s reconnaissance satellites have been monitoring King Khalid Military City continuously. If they grasp the "Zhi-10A" sortie and return times, they can infer when the handover occurs. Likewise, the Newland early warning aircraft patrolling near the border after entering Boi Country can detect the "Zhi-10A" wandering near Nasiriyah with radar, allowing activity patterns to be identified.

With secret support from the Newland Republic, the Iraqi army is sure to seize the time window.

Of course, those five armored reconnaissance vehicles could also be from forces on the south bank of the Euphrates, only withdrawing from the front when the 173rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade’s assault force approached, preparing to retreat to the north bank of the Euphrates, to jointly guard the Euphrates River Bridge with the infantry units there.