"Old Bean, now we have two routes to choose from, the first is from Tucson, all the way east, across the Caribbean Sea, across the Atlantic, and finally to the east coast of Africa. The route is 8,000 nautical miles in a straight line, or about 14,000 kilometers when converted into kilometers, and only a strategic bomber like the B-52 can barely fly it all at once. For us, it's the closest line. The only problem is that the route will pass through the continental United States and northern Africa, and will certainly be intercepted by the air power of the United States and its allies along the way. ”

Chen Xin frowned: "What about the second line?"

"The next day was much simpler, we took off from the Monson base and flew southeast, across the South Pacific, Australia and the Indian Ocean, the United States has limited power in the southern hemisphere, so Australia can pose some threat to us. Neither the Japanese base nor Diego Garcia could do anything else for us. The greatest difficulty of this route is the distance, which is 24,000 kilometers away without any supplies along the way. In any case, we need to have a sufficient number of air tankers. ”

Chen Xin nodded, distance is the biggest problem, the fighter transfer range is only three or four thousand kilometers, like this kind of intercontinental flight, if there is not enough base transfer, then it can only be refueled in the air.

Chen Xin thought for a moment and said: "It is simply unrealistic to give up the second line and let the fighter fly 20,000 kilometers at a time, even if it is a long-distance flight of 14,000 kilometers, it is enough for us to have a headache." ”

Such a long-distance raid is something that only Britain has ever done in history.

During the Falklands War in the spring of 1982. The British Ministry of Defense has come up with a package of battle plans, the most crazy of which is to use the Royal Air Force's "Vulcan B2" to take off from Asunción Air Base, cover a straight line distance of 6,300 kilometers to bomb the military airfield in Port Stanley, and then fly 6,300 kilometers back.

To say that it is crazy does not only refer to this unprecedented expedition of 12,600 kilometers, but also refers to some insurmountable difficulties in engineering technology.

The Vulcan medium bomber of the British Air Force, which was incorporated into NATO's combat system at that time, whose primary task was to carry out nuclear attack missions in Europe, was generally considered redundant under this guiding ideology.

Once the battle plan was proposed, it meant that the Royal Air Force's Vulcan would be required to fly 6,300 kilometers with refueling in the air, and of course the same distance and return the same distance.

This is completely a duck rush for the Vulcan bomber, which has a combat radius of only 2700 km.

In order to meet the ultra-long bombing distance, "Operation Black Deer". The RAF had to resort to an extremely complex process of refueling in the air.

The "Victor" air tankers they were equipped with had to refuel not only the "Vulcan". It was also necessary to refuel the other "victors", and this air relay had to ensure that one "victor" met the "Vulcan" at the designated navigation point and refueled the "Vulcan" one last time before the "Vulcan" attacked.

After the Vulcan attack, it was supported by four "Victor" tankers (another version is three "Victors" and one "Hunter") to ensure that it had fuel to return home.

Although the results of this air relay expedition were very limited. But one has to admire the courage of the RAF pilots and the competence of the engineers.

Compared to the British Air Force. Chen Xin's plan for this operation also took into account aviation fuel reserves and interceptions encountered along the way.

Chen Xin thought for a while and said, "How many fighters meet our requirements?"

"According to the information sent back by our Jiqì people lurking in Tucson City. At present, there are more than 300 third-generation fighters in Davis Monson Air Base, including 184 F-14 fighters and 65 early F-15 fighters. 83 F-16 fighters. In addition, they have 10 KC-13 air tankers and 7 KC-135 air tankers. ”

F4, F5 such second-generation aircraft Chen Xin naturally did not look down on it, but the number of third-generation aircraft surprised him.

You must know that even if a second-rate military power like Israel and Japan has a total of about 300 third-generation fighters, if this air force can be pulled to Africa, then Somalia will become one of the air powers in North Africa and the Middle East.

What's more, among these third-generation aircraft, there is also Chen Xin's favorite F-14.

Although the F-14 has been replaced by the US Navy's new generation carrier-based fighter F-18E/F Super Hornet due to the aging of the fuselage structure, high maintenance costs, and poor combat effectiveness-to-cost ratio, no one can deny the classic design of this fighter and its powerful combat capabilities.

In particular, its high-speed interception capability, combined with the 'Immortal Bird' missile, and the long-range interception capability against enemy bombers are all not possessed by the Hornet.

Although the engine thrust was insufficient in the early days, it was still the most capable air superiority fighter among variable-wing fighters (whether it was facing the Su-22 and MiG-23 of the former Soviet Union or the Tornado fighter of Europe), and even the F15 was not inferior to its sibling brother.

Chen Xin frowned and said: "The number of fighters is enough, but the air tankers are still a bit small." With so many planes dispatched at one time, we also have to consider the interception of the United States and its allies, and it remains to be said how many of them will be able to reach Mogadishu in the end. ”

flashed his electronic eyes and said: "Old Bean, this is easy to do, there are still a lot of scrapped C-5 Galaxy and C-130 transport planes in the aircraft cemetery, I can convert them into air tankers." In addition, there are a considerable number of Boeing airliners in the aircraft cemetery, although they have been scrapped, but the problem of converting them into tankers is not big. It's a big deal to give up these bulky tankers when it comes to interception. ”

Chen Xin nodded and said, "That's a good idea. Oh, by the way, there is nothing wrong with these planes. ”

Steelhammer laughed twice and said, "It depends on Wali's ability." ”

"WALL-E?"

As soon as Wali heard the mention of himself, he immediately raised his head, and the two huge electronic eyes looked at Chen Xindao: "Master, don't worry, in the past few months, I have been writing a replicable artificial intelligence software with the steel hammer boss, although that software is not as good as me in terms of IQ and EQ, but it has been out of the category of mentally retarded and has a good self-learning ability." In the past week, I have stuffed it with the theories of aviation science and technology and the tactics of the Air Force that have been developed in the human world for more than 100 years, and now that it has almost been absorbed, it will only be necessary to copy and transplant it to the central computer of the aircraft. Not to mention hundreds of planes, even hundreds of thousands of planes can be controlled. (To be continued......)