Over the Mediterranean Sea, 300 kilometers away from Chen Xin's A350 passenger plane, an E-2C "Hawkeye" carrier-based early warning plane was flying westward along the baselines of the territorial waters of the African continent, and the airborne radar was monitoring Chen Xin's movements at all times.

This fixed-wing carrier-based early warning aircraft purchased from the United States is currently in service with the French naval aviation and is mainly equipped on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

The Charles de Gaulle, known as the "flagship of Europe", was France's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the only non-American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on Shijie. It is said that its combat capability is second only to that of large US nuclear aircraft carriers, and its comprehensive combat capability is six times greater than that of France's previous "Clemenceau"-class conventionally powered aircraft carriers.

The construction of the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" began in 1986, was completed and launched in 1994, and the armament was carried out in 1997, the sea was carried out in January 1999, and the voyage was carried out in November 2000, which lasted 15 years and cost 80 billion francs. The original Jihua was put into active service in 1996 at a cost of 12 billion francs, but since its launch on May 7, 1994, it has endured many problems, such as rudder tremors, engine failures, incomplete sound insulation, and cracks in the pressurized shells of nuclear reactors.

Later, according to the French media, all these problems stemmed from unreasonable design and poor quality.

For example, after the "Charles de Gaulle" was launched, it was discovered that the flight deck was too short for Jihua to equip the E-2C "Hawkeye" early warning plane to take off and land, and it had to return to the Brest shipyard for a comprehensive inspection, and finally the problem was solved by lengthening the beveled deck runway by 4.5 meters.

Astonishingly, in November 2000, during the first ocean-going Shiyan in the North Atlantic, the Charles de Gaulle was on its way from Guadeloupe in the French West Indies to the Norfolk naval base in the United States at a speed of 25 knots, when the blade of a propeller suddenly broke and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.

The Charles de Gaulle had to return at 14 knots, and Jihua, who was scheduled to be commissioned on December 23, 2000, after completing a six-week voyage to Shiyan, came to naught. In addition, there are even more bizarre questions.

During the sea trials, the cooling system of the Charles de Gaulle did not come into any contact with the nuclear reactor and did not play a cooling role in the slightest. Even the washing machines used by the sailors were faulty, and if all the drums were running at full speed, the entire hull would shake unbearably!

However, the "Charles de Gaulle", which dragged the "sick body", always liked to charge: participating in the war in Afghanistan, attacking Libya, and even going to Somalia to fight pirates - although it was recalled in less than a day due to a Jishu failure.

Although the "Charles de Gaulle" aircraft carrier itself has various problems, the carrier-based aircraft carried on it are worthy of the first-class level of Shijie.

The Rafale M3 carrier-based fighter of the French company Dassault and the E-2C airborne early warning aircraft purchased from the United States have enabled the "Charles de Gaulle" to have a powerful air-to-sea combat capability.

In particular, the E-2C "Hawkeye", equipped with an AN/APS-125/145 long-range search radar, has a detection range of 741 km for high-altitude bombers, 463 km for low-altitude bombers, 360 km for ships, 408 km for low-altitude fighters, and 269 km for low-altitude cruise missiles.

At the same time, it can also track 250 targets at the same time, guide 45 fighters in air combat, and a single AWACS aircraft can increase the combat power of the same number of fighters by two to three times.

Therefore, taking such an early warning aircraft to monitor an ordinary civil aviation aircraft is more or less overkill.

In the cabin of the E2C AWACS aircraft, Major Brandon, the commander of air control and control (CICO), looked relaxed, and from time to time used his headset to call the two Rafale M carrier-based fighters that were tracking and flying behind the A350.

"'Hawkeye' calls 'Sidewinder', 'Hawkeye' calls 'Gas Tank', please correct heading 156, the target has been turned and is now 24 km from you at 11 o'clock. ”

"The 'gas tank' understands!

"'Oil Barrel' Understands!"

Two Rafale M carrier-based fighters waved their wings and began to correct their course.

At this moment, Lieutenant Douglas, the radar officer (RO) on the "Hawkeye", suddenly shouted: "Target lost, target lost!"

Major Brandon turned his head to see that the light spot that was clearly visible on the radar screen had disappeared, but he did not panic, maybe it was caused by a radar failure, although this situation was uncommon, but it was not surprising.

Major Brandon held on to the headset and called: "'Hawkeye' calls 'gas canister', 'Hawkeye' calls 'gas canister', 'Hawkeye' is malfunctioning, the target is lost, please turn on the airborne radar tracking by yourself." ”

"Rattlesnake understands!"

Major Brandon then reported to the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle: "The 'Hawkeye' has lost its target, the radar may malfunction, and it is requested to return." ”

But before the commander of the "Charles de Gaulle" aircraft carrier could reply, the call of the "gas canister" made Major Brandon dumbfounded.

"'Gas tank' calls 'Hawkeye', 'gas tank' calls 'Hawkeye', I can't find a target on my radar, I can't find a target on my radar, and the same goes for the radar of 'oil barrels'. ”

You must know that the RBE-2-AA active electronically scanning array radar mounted on the Rafale M fighter has a detection distance of more than 200 kilometers for targets with a reflective cross-section of 3 to 5 square meters, and within a range of 20 kilometers, even the F22 does not want to get rid of its tracking, let alone the huge Airbus.

It is understandable to say that there is a problem with the radar of one aircraft, but it is almost impossible to have a problem with the radar on three aircraft at the same time.

Major Brandon immediately reported the abnormal situation to the "Charles de Gaulle", which quickly attracted the attention of the French high-level.

A civilian airliner disappears on the radar screen, either lands or crashes, there is no third possibility.

However, the Airbus A350 was flying over the Atlantic Ocean before, and landing was certainly impossible, so the worst would only happen.

Major Brandon immediately located the latitude and longitude of the Airbus A350 before it disappeared, and immediately ordered two Rafale M fighters to rush to the scene of the incident to search.

At the same time, the "Charles de Gaulle" aircraft carrier battle group also began to turn around and move at full speed toward the sea area where the incident occurred.

………………

Airbus A350 cabin.

Qiao Ting came over with a big bag of food, at first the hostages heard the footsteps, and they were a little panicked, and when Qiao Ting came in, they found that the other party was just a young woman in her twenties and thirties, and everyone was immediately relieved.

Qiao Ting said in French: "Don't be afraid, I am a hostage like you." Now Mr. Iron Man asked me to distribute food to everyone, please be quiet and orderly, two loaves of bread and a bottle of mineral water per person. ”

Then she repeated it in English.

Yang Jing leaned into Ling Wei's ear and said, "Sister Weiwei, I didn't expect that there were hostages in the front cabin, I thought it was just us, and I don't know if she is Chinese." ”

Ling Wei nodded subconsciously, looked at Qiao Ting in a daze, and said in a low voice, "It should be!"

When Qiao Ting appeared, she immediately recognized the girl who was chatting happily with Chen Xin at the air show. But how could she be here? Could it be that she was also caught by terrorists? What about Chen Xin?

Ling Wei's heart suddenly lifted.

Qiao Ting distributed the food one by one along the aisle, and when she came to Yang Jing and Ling Wei, she saw the faces of two yellow people, Qiao Ting was stunned, and Yang Jing raised her head and asked in Chinese: "Miss, are you Chinese?"

Qiao Ting nodded and smiled: "Yes, you are ......"

At this moment, the plane shook slightly, and a blue light flashed from the porthole.

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