The weather was not good, there was some light rain in the gray area at low altitude, the visibility was acceptable, and it would be much better if you climbed above the clouds. A layer of clouds about a kilometer thick creates a barrier between 3,000 and 5,000 meters above sea level, dividing the sky into two layers.

Such situations are very common, and civil aviation pilots are not taken seriously, let alone air force pilots.

Li Zhan flew along the first-line celestial route, left the airspace on the five sides of the tourist airport, climbed to an altitude of 12,000 meters, and flew south at a subsonic cruising speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour.

Emergency remote support is the test flight subject of today, the purpose of which is to evaluate the capabilities of the J-16 in this regard. Generally speaking, there are not many times when the second echelon is needed in air combat, especially in the case of low-intensity armed confrontation, and if it is used, it means that the situation is very urgent.

In an air situation handling many years ago, the second echelon was still on the way to the mission airspace, and the first-line fighters failed in the mission, resulting in serious losses.

In such an emergency remote support mission, the core of the second echelon is to be fast, and to reach the mission airspace in the shortest possible time. Obviously, no one is as fast as Li Zhan.

At 8:15 a.m., the Guangzhi officially issued an order, and Li Zhan immediately opened the afterburner throttle and pushed it to the bottom to speed towards the airspace of Nanhai No. 13, eager to fly a variable-sweep wing fighter, so that the wing could be swept backward in a high-speed flight state. He is a staunch supporter of the theory of speed, and his understanding of speed is even more profound. As long as the speed is fast enough, there is no problem in the earthly world that cannot be solved.

It is not only a test of the J-16's long-range supersonic flight ability, but also a great challenge to the high-intensity combat performance of this fighter.

The airspace of Nanhai No. 13 is 1,800 kilometers away from Zhongnanchang Station, and the technical parameters of the J-16 show that the maximum combat radius of the aircraft is 2,000 kilometers.

The 1616 J-16 flew at an altitude of 12,000 meters, and below her was a dense civil aviation route, especially when passing through the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong Province, it once had to climb to 13,000 meters to avoid many civil aviation flights passing through the area.

After flying off land, you can clearly see that the weather at low altitude has improved dramatically, and when you look down, you can see the turquoise sea, and the white track left by the large ship is very eye-catching. Li Zhan and Chen Fei are familiar with this airspace and sea, and it turns out that when they served in the Second Division, they would often come here on combat readiness duty, and Li Zhan was in this airspace for the third time to carry out a temporary confrontation exercise with the HNA simulated blue army troops. Although there are no markers, the familiar latitude and longitude still makes Li Zhan feel like he is revisiting his old place.

Perhaps it was the subconscious that was playing tricks, but Li Zhan seemed to find that the purer sea and air made him more interested than the colorful land.

"Our patrol fighter in the airspace of Nanhai No. 13 issued an emergency call for help, ordering your plane to go to carry out support operations, and must arrive at the target airspace within an hour!"

The background of the simulated mission was that two of our normal combat readiness patrol fighters encountered an emergency and fell into a heavy siege in the process of expelling the Blue Army task force. Such simulated training tasks are very common and very simple, and the staff officers of the Military Training Department can draw up a similar training plan in a few minutes after picking up a pen.

However, the situation faced by the Li Zhan crew is different, because the air division will adjust the mission background through the broad index at any time, and ask questions at any time according to the specific performance of the No. 1616 J-16 fighter. On behalf of the Air Division, Zhang Chongming's group on the Zhongnan Tower will formulate new mission requirements according to the relevant technical requirements to test the ability of the J-16 fighter to complete the mission.

In other words, Li Zhan's crew will face new problems that will randomly appear.

Such a test flight was so combat-oriented that it was named the "Go to War" program. Soldiers should be trained how to fight a war, and weapons should be developed whatever kind of war they want to fight; this is a new trend in the development of national defense weapons and equipment.

The plan was quite tight, and when Li Zhan pulled supersonic speed and rushed to a position more than 100 kilometers away from the target airspace, he received a call from a patrol fighter. There really is a patrol plane, it is a long-range maritime patrol plane modified from the base Y-8, and the high-tech No. 33 aircraft with more than ten years of aircraft is more than ten years old.

Gaoxin 33 has no defenses, so it needs emergency support.

"Test sixth, I'm high-tech three-three, radiolocation, please as soon as possible, we are surrounded, over!" The call of the radio communicator of Gaoxin No. 33 was quite calm, but the content of the call made Li Zhan very anxious.

Li Zhan turned on the afterburner again and replied: "Gaoxin Sansan, hold on for another five minutes, five minutes, it's over!" ”

Immediately, he said to Chen Fei, "Check the weapon system." ”

"Understood, check the weapon system." Chen Fei repeated the command and quickly checked the weapon system.

This is the standard process, not that they are ready to fight, besides, they only have four empty training shells on board, and the cannon has no shells, so they can't fight if they want to.

Chen Fei reminded, "The opening afterburner time is two hundred and twenty-one seconds earlier, pay attention to the engine status." ”

The J-16 is a professional fighter-bomber, and the rear cabin is the weapons operator and second pilot, who is responsible for the operation of the weapons and also has the responsibility of alerting the pilots of the danger in the front cabin.

This way is supersonic flight, but the J-16 does not have supersonic cruise, so in order to achieve the full supersonic flight, it is necessary to turn on the afterburner, but the afterburner cannot be continuously driven, and the use time must be mastered in strict accordance with the requirements, just like a skill has a cooldown time. If it is not used according to the regulations, it will accelerate the life consumption of the engine.

Li Zhan said, "It's no problem to change Taihang, I have done many tests in Beiku, and it is more durable than the Russian-made AL-31F." ”

"Understood." Chen Fei had already been mentally prepared, flying with Li Zhan was definitely dancing on the tip of a knife, and besides, he was flying a fighter plane that had not yet been finalized.

The most important thing is that no matter what the personal relationship between them is, it can't change Chen Fei's understanding of Li Zhan - this is a character who was once called the mad dog of the South China Sea, and Fei, who wants him to behave properly, is just joking.

It is precisely because of this that Li Zhan is the best candidate for the J-16 actual combat test flight at this time.

The J-16 No. 1616, which has already consumed a small amount of fuel, moves more easily, and the airspeed is increased with the same thrust. At a distance of more than 50 kilometers from the target airspace, Li Zhan pressed the pole and dived at supersonic speed, and the airspeed continued to increase. Li Zhan's calculations were very accurate, and when he dived to a sea height of 3,000 meters, he was able to meet with Gaoxin No. 33, which was hovering at an irregular low altitude.

Chen Fei found that Li Zhan's flying skills had reached a level where it was difficult for him to see the limit - although it was just a simple maneuver to fly all the way, many details could reflect a lot of information in the eyes of senior pilots.

"Arrive at the battlefield in ten seconds, you help me keep an eye on the situation in the back hemisphere!" Li Zhan gave the order.

Chen Fei replied decisively: "Understood! ”

"Gao Xin Sansan, I'll be there in ten seconds!"

The 1616 J-16 fighter-bomber in light gray low-visibility livery swooped down through the clouds and swooped down towards the sea......