Time back to Li Zhan when he landed at Dachang Station again, this time he and Niu Jun were just resting and waiting in the flight briefing room, it was time to solve personal problems, to solve personal problems, to replenish energy and replenish energy, and after the maintenance and ground support of the fighter plane, he took off again to support the eastern line of the no-fly zone.

In the second half of the night, the surface detachment and the air assault detachment had to conduct live firing at night, and the scale of ammunition used was even larger than that during the day, so the vigilance pressure in the no-sail zone was even greater.

There are not many examples of such continuous day and night sorties by the naval aviation units, and this is a great test for the fighters, the support detachment, and the air service detachment. Especially for pilots, flying is inherently high mental work, and flying for ten hours in a row puts high demands on the physical fitness of pilots.

Li Zhan is okay, he can at least land at the big field station every few hours to rest, and because the Flying Shark team has the ability to refuel in the air, their role has been played to the extreme.

When PR-44 crashed into the sea, Li Zhan took off for the third time. In view of the more brutal attitude of the simulated blue army's aerial reconnaissance unit, the command post ordered half of the fighters in charge of guarding the no-sail zone to carry air-to-air missiles in case of contingencies. The Flying Shark squad received an order on the fly, so they took off half an hour later than planned, and each fighter was equipped with two PL-9 short-range air-to-air missiles.

The No. 81198 J-7 piloted by Li Zhan also has two PL-9 short-range air-to-air missiles, in addition to this, the integrated tactical pod is still retained, which can act as a relay guide at any time in the worst-case scenario, providing precise guidance for anti-ship missiles launched by surface detachment ships.

This response is not to say how tense the atmosphere is, but it just shows that the confrontation drills between the two sides have entered a new level and are more combat-oriented.

Li Zhan's spirit is good, and he has always maintained a calm and calm mood and a stable state of mind. Niu Jun's situation is a little different, she is not a professional aircrew after all, and she has only slept for two hours in the afternoon since she started at four o'clock in the morning yesterday. Her face was flushed and she was in high spirits, and it was certain that once her nerves relaxed, she would lose the strength to speak.

But Niu Jun insisted on continuing to follow the sortie, which was her task as the rear cabin operator.

Li Zhan didn't refuse, he knew that the current Niu Jun's physical potential had been stimulated, and it would be okay to carry it until dawn.

More than a dozen fighters gathered from two directions gathered on the eastern line of the no-sail zone, and even a certain division of China Eastern Airlines even sent out the J-8D, even if they could only stay in the airspace of the eastern line of the no-sail zone for more than ten minutes. It can be seen from this that the exercise command is bound to control the eastern front of the no-sail zone, and will not give an inch in this confrontation exercise against the simulated blue army troops.

Li Zhan waited with hope for the formation of fighter planes simulating the blue army, because if they did not have the formation of fighters, they would not have been able to get close to the eastern front of the no-sail zone by relying on reconnaissance planes alone.

As a result, after more than 10 minutes of air patrol, the airborne early warning aircraft discovered the appearance of an unknown target in the direction of due east.

"Two batches of four planes in the direction of 60 degrees, you are the closest, go up and verify." This was the command post to Li Zhan.

Without saying a word, Li Zhan turned around, turned on the afterburner, and pounced in the southeast direction.

He vaguely guessed that since it was coming from due east, it would not be a simulated blue army on Kaidao. Two batches of four, indicating that they are fighters, and it is unlikely that electronic reconnaissance aircraft will form such a formation. Since it is a fighter, it is most likely a Western Pacific pirate!

There is a distance of 2,500 kilometers from Kaidao, and no fighter can fly over to carry out tasks without refueling in the air, and strategic reconnaissance planes like the PR-44 and long-range tactical reconnaissance planes such as the EP-2 and P-8A have a combat radius of more than 2,000 kilometers.

The West Pacific pirates control a relatively large island, which is a semi-militarized place, less than 500 kilometers away from the exercise area, and basically the planes there will be caught by the airborne early warning aircraft shortly after taking off, but it is still relatively difficult to identify the specific aircraft type.

Li Zhan was a little worried that if he encountered the Western Pacific pirates, those brutes would not talk to you about any international principles, and would definitely use the most despicable means against you, and he only had two PL-9s and more than a hundred rounds of aerial artillery shells in his hands. The simulated Blues came over and it was a confrontation drill between each other, and everyone formed a certain tacit understanding, so they would not really greet each other. Pirates are different, especially the Western Pacific pirates with strong armed forces.

The most important thing is that in the western end of the Gentle Strait, in order to rescue the Great Wall boats, the HNA and the Air Force carried out a devastating blow to the West Pacific pirates entrenched there. According to incomplete statistics, in the past few months, many merchant ships passing through the waters of the Western Pacific have been hijacked, and the ransom paid is as high as 200 million yuan.

The exercise headquarters is deployed at the Xiahai base to uniformly direct the live-fire exercises of all combat units through the naval communications system, while the early warning aircraft in the air are mainly responsible for the command of the air detachments. The characteristics of the air force and naval aviation units that are not separated from each other are reflected here -- the naval aviation units are not equipped with large early warning aircraft, so the air force early warning aircraft units have been strengthened, and the command detachment on the early warning aircraft is naval aviation personnel but they wear air force uniforms.

Wang Jiaqi, commander-in-chief of the frontline, sat in the command chair and smoked a cigarette, looking at the search situation transmitted by the early warning plane with a blank expression, and two groups of four air targets were rapidly approaching in the airspace directly east of the exercise area. In fact, he had a briefing sent through the naval intelligence department -- Bawang Island, an unowned island east of the exercise area, had gathered a number of illegal armed ships and a large number of warplanes with strong attack power, and the intelligence department analyzed that the main force of the West Pacific pirates had shifted from north to south, and suggested that the troops maintain a high degree of vigilance in the east during the exercise.

The other piece of information is more detailed, listing all the details of the pirates in the Western Pacific, including several hijackings in recent months.

Wang Jiaqi had a complete idea in his heart, extinguished the cigarette butt and decisively issued an order: "The combat department will immediately come up with a battle plan to combat the West Pacific pirates!" ”

"Yes!" Chief of Staff Peng Hongbing frowned a few times, and immediately turned around to organize the staff officers to draw up a battle plan.

It is not up to them to decide whether to fight or not, but when the higher authorities decide to fight, they must have multiple sets of operational plans and a complete operational plan.

Wang Jiaqi did not rush to report, he still had to wait for the results of the air alert detachment's verification.

He asked Peng Hongbing, "How long will it take for the troops to move from exercise to combat?" ”

"It's going to be at least three hours. Surface and underwater detachments can be directly transferred to combat, and the ammunition base they carry is sufficient, mainly because the air detachments must return to replenish fuel and ammunition. Peng Hongbing knows all about these situations.

Wang Jiaqi groaned, and the situation of the troops of the coastal bases appeared in his mind, especially the situation of the aviation units, and he said in a deep voice, "Order the front-line troops to pull in the combat readiness force, and they will take over the air detachments participating in the exercise, and the air detachments participating in the exercise will immediately return to replenish fuel and ammunition and wait for orders!" ”

"Yes!" Peng Hongbing didn't talk nonsense and said, "The Flying Shark team has been flying for more than ten hours in a row, do you want to replace them?" ”

"No, it's just a matter of dealing with a group of pirates, and besides, Deputy Leader Zhang has instructions to take this opportunity to beat the combat capability of the Flying Shark troops. Let them all be diverted to the large depots to receive supply support. Wang Jiaqi waved his hand lightly and said.

"Good!" Peng Hongbing immediately gave the order.

Wang Jiaqi's face was like frost, and he smashed his fist on the command table, and said, "This pirate is too rampant, I'll clean it up!" ”

Peng Hongbing said with a smile, "We just move a finger and they can't stand it." It's just that they are entrenched in international waters, and some of our actions are not very easy to operate. ”

With the current strength of the navy, it only takes one fleet to dispatch a task force to sweep away the pirates in the western Pacific, but cracking down on piracy in international waters usually has to be carried out within the framework of the United Nations, and the liaison work in this regard is rather cumbersome.

Of course, as military commanders, they do not think about these issues, but only how to conduct operations after the order is given.

More than 100 kilometers east of the no-sail zone, there are only a few stars in the dark night sky. The clouds are very high, covering about 8 to 7 kilometers of airspace, stretching for hundreds of kilometers, and it is likely to form an ocean storm in the future.

Li Zhan turned on the airborne radar to search the front hemisphere range. He didn't want to hide his whereabouts, on the contrary, he had to let the other party know his whereabouts, because it was a means of warning.

However, the combat performance of the airborne radar of the old flying leopard is really limited, and he has not been able to detect any air targets. However, the AWACS aircraft has already maneuvered to the east, and the huge phased array radar of the Air Police-2000 has been tracking the target, and the change in the direction of the target has constantly notified Li Zhan.

In this short period of time, only Li Zhan's fighter came up. Li Zhan also heard the order of the exercise headquarters to have all air detachments diverted to the main field station for supply support. As long as an order is issued by the higher authorities, the participating troops will be transferred from the exercise to the operation.

"Angry old leopard, the target formation has opened the battle line, a batch of two heading 270, a group of two heading 210, a distance of 80 km!" The air command post on the large AWACS aircraft reminded Li Zhan.

The formation displayed by the other party is a two-wing assault with a very aggressive meaning, will they attack first? Li Zhan didn't dare to take it lightly, and he slowed down the airspeed slightly, giving the airborne radar enough time to repeatedly scan the situation in the front hemisphere.

At the same time, he decisively chose the group of targets heading 270 degrees and quickly turned to meet them. With the support of early warning aircraft in the rear, Li Zhan was much more relieved.

Niu Jun also sensed that the situation was wrong, and whispered, "Going to war?" ”

"It may be the fighters of the Western Pacific pirates, they have done a lot of evil, this time they actually dare to provoke our exercise troops, and it is estimated that they will be cleaned up." Li Zhan said, "Don't be afraid, the pilot who can shoot me down hasn't been born yet." ”

Niu Jun was not scared at all, only excited.

At this time, the command post suddenly announced: "All attention, all the electronic reconnaissance planes simulating the blue army have withdrawn, and the superiors have instructed them to let them go!" ”

"Withdrawn?" Li Zhan was stunned, the simulated blue army, which has always liked to join in the fun, actually withdrew, which is not logical! Even if they can't fight pirates together, they won't miss the opportunity to scout and fight!

Li Zhan and his side didn't know about the crash of PR-44, and at this time, even the simulated blue army troops had not yet figured out what happened to PR-44 and caused it to fall into the sea. In the event of such a heavy loss, the simulated Blue Army troops, of course, stopped all air activities, and how could they still care about confronting the Red Army troops, besides, there was a chance for the Japanese side to come.

Without time to think about this, Li Zhan caught up with the group of unknown targets on the left flank, and he rushed over with rapid movements, rushing over from the flank of the target to directly close the distance to the visual distance. The target's navigation lights, marking lights, and engine tail flames are very eye-catching.

Before the target seemed to react, Li Zhan seized the opportunity to speed up and approach, and finally saw the target's appearance clearly. It was two F-15J heavy fighters armed to the teeth, with drop fuel tanks under the wings being the most obvious configuration. The biggest disadvantage of this heavy fighter is its short legs, which will inevitably carry an auxiliary fuel tank as long as it is sorted, which is the opposite of the long-legged Su-27. However, countries that are generally equipped with this fighter have a strong ability to refuel in the air, and the shortcomings of this fighter have been well compensated.

How did the West Pacific Viking get the F-15J heavy fighter?

Li Zhan, who had very good eyesight, even saw that there were four air-to-air missiles hanging on the half-buried pylons on both sides of the air intake of the F-15J heavy fighter. Both fighters are standard air combat configurations!

Last time, their F-5 fighters were knocked out in the waters of the Light Strait, and this time it is estimated that they did not know how to get the advanced third-generation aircraft of the Hawk, and they came to take revenge.

The skull pirate flag emblem on the tail is the best proof of this.

Li Zhan immediately reported: "Command post command post!" Angry old leopard report! Find out that the target is a pirate fighter, full air combat configuration! Repeat, it's the West Pacific Pirates! ”

After reporting it, he immediately took a favorable position to attack, and he was in good spirits. The problem is that he is now flying an old Flying Leopard with limited air combat capabilities, and his opponent is one of the two most advanced third-generation aircraft in the world today, the notorious F-15 "Eagle" heavy air superiority fighter.

The pilot who just bragged that he could shoot him down hadn't been born yet, but he met a huge slap around the corner.

He attached great importance to it and quickly carried out fire control locking, but the opponent was not given in vain, and immediately disbanded the formation after discovering that Li Zhan occupied a favorable attack position in the second hemisphere, and quickly separated and accelerated to turn in an attempt to bite Li Zhan back.

Li Zhan tried his best to deal with it.

The command from the command post immediately came down: "The angry old leopard will be withdrawn immediately!" Our reinforcements are still on the way! ”

Li Zhan strongly felt that the other party would really open fire, and his keen sense of crisis made him dare not have the idea of turning around and returning home, so he immediately reported to the command post: "Command post, I can't withdraw anymore, the target has turned on the fire control radar!" ”

Already entangled, withdrawing at this point would expose the back hemisphere to the opponent.

At this time, in the exercise headquarters, the commander-in-chief Wang Jiaqi received an order from his superiors, and the troops changed from the exercise to fighting pirates, and he immediately issued an order: "Let the fighters in front come back!" Bring them here! ”

After Li Zhan received the order, his head was full of question marks.