Chapter Twenty-Three: Cannon Fighting
Drip, drip, drip!
The rapid sound of the siren made the pilots of the F-22A Raptor fighter Rodierry and St. Strauss feel the pressure of death for the first time.
As the AAM-4B medium-range air-to-air missile got closer and closer, the alarm in the cockpit became more and more urgent.
"Damn, electronic jamming doesn't work!"
"Fake, the tin foil strips have no effect at all!"
Rodierry and Saint-Strauss used all their skills and had to fly the fighter into a difficult extreme maneuver, trying to use large-angle sharp turns and unscrupulous climbing, diving, and other maneuvers, so that the radar guidance head of the AAM-4B could not continuously and stably capture.
The missile's real-time maneuverability is weak, and the series of high-maneuvering of the locked fighter does have some effect, at least they delay it for a considerable amount of time.
And delay, means a chance to survive.
Under the powerful electronic interference of the E-767 early warning aircraft and two F-22A Raptor fighters, an AAM-4B missile fired at Rodileri was tragically blown up by an AGM-88D anti-radiation missile launched by an F-16C.
The AGM-88D anti-radiation missile is specially designed to deal with targets with electromagnetic radiation such as radar or missiles, and is the latest improvement in the "Hamm" anti-radiation missile series.
In order to protect the Raptor that has not yet achieved actual combat results, among the 16 F-16C/D, all of which are equipped with anti-radiation missiles, all of them threw the AGM-88D like a brick, and all of them smashed into the two AAM-4B attacking the Raptor that attacked the Raptor.
A large enough number of them ensured that the hit rate was not too low, and the multiple AGM-88Ds totaling tens of millions of dollars were finally destroyed.
Another AAM-4B that could attack St. Strauss was still unharmed.
At night, the AAM-4B missile with a long tail flame was very fast, more than three times the speed of sound, like a meteor falling into the earth's atmosphere by the earth's gravity, swishing through the night sky.
And Saint-Trauss, whose eardrums were about to be shattered by the sound of the alarm, was so nervous that he even forgot to breathe, a sharp turn at a large angle, two F119-PW-100 engines roared desperately, and the binary vector nozzle pulled out a thick red blue flame, which boosted the Raptor fighter to complete a sharp turn and still move forward quickly.
However, no matter how advanced the F-22A Raptor is, when all interference measures are ineffective, its fate is doomed in the AAM-4B inescapability zone with a maximum range of 120 kilometers.
Burst!
There was an explosion, and the AAM-4B, which had drawn a beautiful arc, exploded with a bang.
In the huge flames, countless fragments, boosted by the blast wave and the flight habit, instantly started from the binary vector tail vent of the engine, and quickly enveloped the entire fighter.
Buzz!
St. Strauss heard a large amount of electrical noise, the fuselage trembled violently, and the titanium bathtub cockpit firmly protected him, but when he saw the dazzling orange-red flames outside the cockpit, he already knew that he had been hit.
"Blackbird No. 1, Eagle's Nest, I've been hit, I've been hit!"
Sweating profusely, St. Strauss pulled up the tab near the crotch of his pants with a strong breath, and suddenly, the cockpit glass automatically exploded, and a strong air flow burst out from under the ejection seat, and with the help of the rocket, St. Trauss successfully escaped from the cockpit of the F-22A.
The F-22A, which was blown up to the point that only half of the nose remained, when a large amount of debris was sprinkled over the city, because of the influence of the huge habitual effect of supersonic flight, including the already empty cockpit, most of the fuselage kept spinning in the air.
Spinning at high speed, a parabola fell to the ground, and it was extremely unfortunate that among the many high-rise buildings that towered over the city of Yokohama, an office building was tragically hit.
The huge impact instantly knocked the building into a gap, and with a slight slowdown, most of the F-22A's fuselage fell to the ground with a clatter, and suddenly flattened a sedan on the side of the deep concave road.
The flying debris and rubble immediately baptized the cars and buildings parked around, and the streets immediately sounded all kinds of automatic sirens.
A white parachute bloomed in the air, and the embarrassed Saint-Strauss could only look sadly at his seat like a meteorite falling to the ground, easily smashing through the top floor of a building, and feeling inexplicably cold under the night breeze.
The wingman was shot down, and Major Rodirrey angrily slammed the dashboard, damn the F-2, he swore to shoot him down with his own hands.
"Listen, everyone, I'm Blackbird One, F-2 is mine, and you're not allowed to launch missiles!!"
The irascible Rodierry insisted on revenge, directly warning the group of F-16C/D in the communication band, plus the previous commander of the US forces, Major General Jerry Lei, had ordered them to cooperate.
As a result, the pilot, who was originally going to launch the AIM-120 missile to kill the F-2, also removed his finger from the launch button.
Of course, the spirit core didn't know what was communicating between these Yankees, and the time was too tight for it to decipher the automatic encryption content in its communication band.
The last two AAM-4B missiles were fired, and the F-2 fighter was left with just over 400 rounds of ammunition left for the 20mm JM61A1 cannon under the left wing.
In the past, when strafing the chimney of the thermal power station, more shells were used, and at other times the spirit core was rarely used, and the cannon with a total ammunition capacity of 512 rounds allowed it to save more than 400 rounds, which is not unusual.
Something even more strange soon came.
Rodirry, who strictly ordered others not to intervene, turned the nose of the plane to face the rapidly attacking F-2 fighter like a medieval gentleman about to duel, and he unhurriedly opened the magazine and loaded the fire control data into the AIM-9 Sidewinder close-range combat missile.
The distance between the two sides was close enough that he did not consider using the AIM-120C again.
The two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles quickly took off the internal magazine and dragged the tail flame towards the F-2, which was not far away.
Miracle, it happened!
The AIM-9 Sidewinder missile in flight, infrared guidance mode, after finding the target, the only thing it has to do is to fly with all its might, and try to compress the distance to the killing radius to explode itself.
Therefore, the trajectory of these two missiles at night is very straight, which is more conducive to the spirit core to control the F-2 fighter, turn on the JM61A1 cannon, and only two 20 mm caliber cannons, the first AIM-9 will explode in the air.
Then, after a rolling and cutting action, the JM61A1 cannon erupted again, and three hurried shells came out of the chamber, and the second AIM-9 was also blown up very accurately.
Major Rodierry was completely dumbfounded, what was the situation? Airborne artillery actually blew up a combat missile in the air? Is that a phalanx installed on a warship? Can you form a local dense barrage?
In modern air warfare, there is no room for a second of hesitation, because a second of delay will shorten the distance between the two opposing sides by almost a kilometer.
From the launch of AIM-9 to the sight of the missile being blown up in the air, Rodirray hesitated for more than a second.
So, by the time he reacted from the shock, the distance between the F-2 and the F-22A was already far less than 20 kilometers.
Is it time for combat air combat?
Rodierry didn't have time to power up the AIM-120C and load the AN/APG-77 radar fire control data, because when he lifted off, he only had 6 AIM-120Cs and 2 AIM-9s on board, and the two AIM-9s had just been blown up, and now it was too late for him to launch the AIM-120C.
Not only is the F-2 fighter in a supersonic flight state, but the F-22A piloted by Rodierry is even close to twice the speed of sound, so the distance of less than 20 kilometers is more than 20 seconds for the two fighters.
God, Rodirray swears, never dreamed that one day he would control the world's most advanced fourth-generation stealth fighter, but he would use a 20MM61A2 Vulcan machine gun on board to engage in air combat with a third-generation fighter.
Is this an insult to the F-22A Raptor or a compliment to the F-2?
Rodierry didn't have time to think about it, and the speed was obviously not dominant, but the fierce F-2 approached, and before he could see it, the JM61A1 cannon on the F-2 fighter began to explode several shells.
Of course, the spirit core did not pin its hopes on these shells, the distance is too far, the speed is too fast, the probability of the shell hitting the F-22A in theory is quite slim, it fires the cannon first, that is, it wants to suppress the other party from the momentum, don't think that it is a fourth-generation fighter and can bully the third-generation fighter casually.
The shell did not hit the F-22A, but it did startle Rodier Rickard, who had only been trained in combat air combat with cannons on fighter simulators.
In the United States, whether it is the Navy or Air Force or the National Guard, I am afraid that all jet pilots have no experience in using cannons in combat, and that was a thing that only happened during the war years on the Korean Peninsula, and the Vietnam War had already begun to use various types of missiles.
The distance is closer, and Rodierry can't stand the supersonic flight state in the first place, and the helmet sight is extremely difficult to capture the target, and the target flashes by, and he hasn't had time to confirm whether he can fire if he can aim.
Actively reducing speed and ending supersonic flight, Rodierry made a sharp turn, the F-22A turned very nimblely, and the F-2 fighter also slowed down at this time.
The two sides are like knights running on the grassland, slashing and slashing at a rapid speed, then swapping in a dislocation, and then reinvigorating for the next round of fighting.
The Spirit Core has never had this experience, using the airborne J/APG-2 active phased array fire control radar, which monitors every action detail of the F-22A in real time, and directly learns and uses it now.
In the next round, the speed of both sides was reduced a lot, and the F-22A used the extremely excellent thrust-to-weight ratio and Rodirrey's rich experience to strangely dodge a string of shells that the spirit core thought would kill with one hit.
In fact, Rodierry's control action is very simple, the F-22A made a cross-cutting and rolling action in the air, and then cut the figure outside, and dodged the shelling, and Rodierry also controlled the M61A2 Vulcan machine gun for the first time to shoot two shots at the spirit core.
Although the target of a manned fighter is larger, because of the intelligence and judgment of the person, and the more experienced flight, it is indeed more difficult to hit than the missile that is smaller but only knows how to go straight.
The spirit core had to start saving shells, and constantly learning the flight maneuvers of the F-22A, and in the confrontation again and again, the two sides gradually evolved from high-speed rushing to entanglement, and the F-22A faintly gained the upper hand.
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