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The destruction of the Fourth Fleet became the last large-scale battle in this local conflict. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Although the scope of the Fourth Fleet's activities has been greatly reduced after the adjustment of escort tactics, and most of the time it is within the cover range of shore-based anti-submarine patrol planes, which has greatly increased the difficulty of sneak attacks by Russian submarines, all this has not changed the fate of the Fourth Fleet.

For the Russian army, the biggest problem is not that it can't kill the Fourth Fleet, but that it can't find the Fourth Fleet.

Finding a fleet on the vast sea is no easy task.

During the Cold War, in order to counter the U.S. Navy, the former Soviet Union launched hundreds of ocean satellites, and also launched more than a dozen navigation satellites specifically for heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles. Even so, it was very difficult to search for the US fleet in the vast ocean.

Relying only on submarines, it will certainly be difficult to run into the enemy fleet.

Under normal circumstances, when an enemy fleet is ambushed with submarines, a large number of reconnaissance forces are invested, including maritime patrol planes and strategic reconnaissance planes. Only after the whereabouts of the enemy fleet have been determined can submarines be rationally deployed and allowed to lie in ambush on the course of the enemy fleet.

It is a pity that the Russian army does not have suitable means of strategic reconnaissance.

At that time, the Russian military only knew about the activities of the Fourth Fleet in the waters east of the Okinawa Islands, but did not know the specific location.

Although according to some information released by the Russian military, during the entire war, especially in the later stage of the operation to break diplomatic relations, the main task of the Russian army's conventional submarines was to search for the military fleet and provide support for the more mobile nuclear submarines. In actual combat, the army also discovered many conventional submarines of the Russian army, and exchanged fire with them many times. However, relying only on more than a dozen conventional submarines, it is still unlikely that the fleet of the Japanese army will be found in the vast sea. In the case of the Kilo class, the maximum detection range of surface ships cannot exceed 150 kilometers without being equipped with towed sonar. If a surface ship advances at cruising speed, emitting noise that is lower than the minimum detection value of the submarine's sonar, the distance to be detected by the submarine will be reduced to within tens of kilometers. It can be seen from this that even if the Russian military puts all its conventional submarines in the sea areas where the fleet is frequented, the chances of encountering the fleet are not very high, and they will certainly not be a reliable means of reconnaissance.

In addition to the detection range, the ability of submarines to identify surface ships is also a major problem.

Although modern passive sonar can identify the noise emitted by ships and screen them, at a slightly longer distance, it is difficult for submarines to obtain the necessary noise information, and it is impossible to distinguish between warships and ships, and naturally it is impossible to determine whether it is a fleet or not.

It can be said that unless the Russian army is particularly lucky, if the Fourth Fleet is found, other forces will definitely intervene.

On this issue, the view is very clear.

The fact that the Russian submarine was able to repeatedly sneak attack the fleet must have been helped.

What happened to the Fourth Fleet may be telling.

The area of engagement was about five hundred and fifty kilometers southeast of the Okinawa Islands, when the Fourth Fleet was rushing to the rendezvous area, preparing to rendezvous with a fleet of fifty-four merchant ships, and then head for Nagasaki. According to the combat records of the Japanese army, the Fourth Fleet did not sail very fast, only 12 knots, the six multipurpose destroyers in the fleet were all on anti-submarine alert, two air defense destroyers also used towed sonars, and the flagship dispatched one-third of its helicopters according to the standard. At that time, there were at least six anti-submarine patrol planes in the vicinity of the fleet, four of which were patrolling the sea area about 250 kilometers from the flagship, and two patrolling in the southwest and southeast directions.

It can be said that the army is ready for battle.

This is also understandable, because just about four hours before that, the fleet spotted an unidentified submarine, which was preliminarily judged to be of the "Kilo" class. Although the submarine was about 100 kilometers away from the fleet and did not pose a threat to the Japanese army, in view of the catastrophe suffered by the Second Fleet, the Japanese army still raised its vigilance.

It has been several days since the Russian submarine left the military port, and there is enough time to rush over.

In order to ensure the insurance period, the army also urgently transferred an E-2C to provide air defense support for the fleet. Although AWACS aircraft do not have much role in anti-submarine warfare, they can detect anti-ship missiles launched by Russian submarines in a timely manner, providing valuable early warning time for fleets in an anti-submarine search state.

It's a pity that this E-2C flew too slowly.

From the air base on the island of Okinawa, it takes about an hour for the E-2C to reach the skies over the Fourth Fleet, while it takes only half an hour for the Russian army to complete the attack.

As with the blow to the Second Fleet, the sneak attack came very suddenly.

When the air defense destroyers discovered the approaching anti-ship missiles, the Fourth Fleet had less than a minute to prepare for combat. Although after the destruction of the Second Fleet, the officers and men of the Fourth Fleet were in a state of high tension, and even during the anti-submarine search, the air defense radar was turned on, and the fire control radar used to illuminate the target was even more on standby at any time, and did not need to be warmed up, and could be put into use after starting, and the vertical launch system did not need preparation time at all, but in only one minute, no matter how hard the warship tried, it could not launch many anti-aircraft missiles.

The first to strike was the more than forty heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles launched by two "Oscar" classes.

Although the anti-missile interception capability of the two air defense destroyers is very powerful, and they can shoot down more than 40 incoming anti-ship missiles with only two exchanges of fire, the reaction time is too short, and the two air defense destroyers can only exchange fire at most once, and they have to divide some of the heavy anti-missile tasks among those general-purpose destroyers equipped with air defense missiles.

Eight destroyers, there will not be much problem against more than forty missiles.

The problem is that behind this batch of missiles there are about sixty supersonic anti-ship missiles!

The assault tactics of the Russian submarines are the same as those used against the Second Fleet, first using heavy anti-ship missiles launched by the "Oscar" class to break through the air defense network of the Japanese fleet, and then using anti-ship missiles launched by other attacking nuclear submarines and even conventional submarines to carry out saturation attacks.

Although there are many problems in the coordination of Russian submarines, for example, the arrival time of the first batch of more than 40 anti-ship missiles is about 30 seconds, leaving time for the two air defense destroyers to react, while the second batch of anti-ship missiles is fired from four directions, and the interval between the first batch and the last batch is more than three minutes, so that the military warships have enough time to organize the third or even the fourth anti-missile interception, but relying on a huge number and two to three times the speed of sound to penetrate the defense, The threat of Russian anti-ship missiles is absolutely not to be underestimated.

In fact, these two rounds of missile attacks were enough to render the Fourth Fleet incapacitated.

According to the combat records of the Japanese army, in these two rounds of missile attacks, five warships, including two air defense destroyers, were hit by missiles, two of which quickly capsized, and the remaining three also lost their combat effectiveness.

Unlike the strike on the Second Fleet, the Russian army organized a third missile attack.

Behind the second batch of anti-ship missiles, with an interval of about five minutes, the third batch of anti-ship missiles entered the attack zone. This time, the Russian army used the well-known "Club" anti-ship missile.

Unlike the supersonic anti-ship missiles commonly used by Russian submarines, the "Club" anti-ship missiles fly at a speed of only Mach 0.95 during the cruising phase, which does not exceed the speed of sound. After approaching the target, that is, about 40 kilometers away from the target, the active radar or infrared phasing guidance head on the missile begins to work, the warhead is separated from the missile body, and the warhead is accelerated by a small rocket engine to Mach 2.5 for the final sprint.

This design enables this missile to achieve penetration capability comparable to that of supersonic anti-ship missiles with a small bullet weight.

In fact, because the flight altitude of the cruising stage is less than twenty meters, it is very difficult for the air defense system of any kind of warship to shoot down the "Club" anti-ship missiles at a distance of forty kilometers, and even difficult to detect.

The third round of missile attacks completely destroyed the Fourth Fleet.

Of the remaining four destroyers, the flagship received at least eight anti-ship missiles, and the three general-purpose destroyers also suffered three to five missiles each.

The battle was not over by this time.

After taking out the Fourth Fleet, the Russian submarines turned their guns on the flotilla about forty kilometers to the south.

Over the next fifteen minutes, at least eight Russian submarines fired more than a hundred heavy torpedoes at fifty-four merchant ships in the fleet.

Because the speed of merchant ships is not high, and there is no reliable means of anti-torpedo countermeasures, all the torpedoes launched by Russian submarines adopt the wake self-guidance method, and most of the torpedoes have the ability of intelligent identification, that is, after discovering that the tracked target is attacked, they will actively look for the next target, rather than repeatedly attacking one target.

When dozens of merchant ships exploded and sank on the sea, the early warning planes of the Japanese army arrived belatedly.

By this time, anti-submarine patrol aircraft operating on the periphery of the fleet were already in battle. According to the combat records of the Japanese army, anti-submarine patrol planes spotted at least three Russian submarines and immediately launched an attack. At that time, anti-submarine patrol aircraft detected not submarines, but anti-ship missiles launched from submarines.

Although anti-submarine patrol aircraft cannot intercept anti-ship missiles, they are able to find Russian submarines hiding under the surface of the sea.

Before the destruction of the Fourth Fleet, the anti-submarine patrol planes of the Chinese army launched a counterattack.

Although Russia has never admitted that it lost attack nuclear submarines in this conflict, according to the army, at least three Russian attack nuclear submarines were sunk in the entire conflict, and one of the results came from this battle.

The problem is that even if the army sank all the Russian submarines, it would not be able to save the defeat.

With the fall of the Fourth Fleet, he basically lost the capital to continue fighting. In contrast, even if two attack nuclear submarines are lost, the remaining submarines of the Russian army will still be able to blockade the capital, and even launch a devastating strike against the only remaining Third Fleet at the right time.

It's just that this battle is far from being as simple as it seems.

Before all the surviving officers and men of the Fourth Fleet had been salvaged, the authorities issued a strongly-worded statement, targeting another great power!

(To be continued)