"Wow, eight, ninety-eight, timed take-off." The tower gives the order.

Li Zhan replied, "Eighty-eight and ninety-eight received." ”

Niu Jun is still excited, even though he has flown once yesterday. She may be the only non-pilot in the country who has the opportunity to sit in the back cabin of a fighter jet and follow the flight into the sky. She is very grateful that her usual hobby is photography, because she has achieved a small success in this hobby, she is already a member of the National Photography Association, and her skills are reliable.

In the past, when he was in school, Li Zhan always liked to look at Niu Jun's photos, and the fundamental reason was that Niu Jun was a photography enthusiast, and he wanted to pick up girls! Niu Jun not only knows how to shoot, but she was also a well-known graphic model in the school when she was in school.

Li Zhan pushed the throttle stick, and the old leopard's two Spey engines shouted "hehehe" and burst out with powerful thrust to push the fighter to start sliding. There is a very obvious difference between the sound of the British aero engine and the Russian-made aero engine, the former sounds like a bass sneer, more restrained and soft, and the latter is a grumpy brother, roaring and rushing.

For another example, the aero engines of Western countries, including the British system, are characterized by slow start but are resistant to running, while the aero engines made in the Soviet Union and Russia are explosive but not durable. The two complement each other's strengths and weaknesses to develop a more perfect aero engine.

Therefore, the development of aero engines in China is proceeding very slowly and hard.

In the darkness, the No. 81198 J-7 climbed steadily like a passenger plane taking off, turned in the way the passenger plane left the scene, and pointed the nose in the direction of the exercise area. The faint tail flame from the engine nozzle was very eye-catching in the unrelated night sky.

Dai Wenming had already taken off with other fighters one step earlier, and Li Zhan was the last one to leave the scene.

Climbing to an altitude of 7,000 meters, the sun can already be seen at 4 a.m., and in the left wing, the wingtips are almost at the same level as the sun.

"What a beautiful sunrise." Niu Jun couldn't help but raise the camera and shoot, sighing.

Li Zhan said, "Flying across day and night can see the rotation of day and night, the disadvantage is that when switching between day and night, people are easy to have optical illusions, and it is not uncommon to reverse the direction of heaven and earth." ”

"Yes, looking at the sea from this height is no different from the night sky, and if there are no stars in the sky, it would be too dangerous to really think of the sea as the sky." Niu Jun consumed the shutter life and photographed the high-altitude sunrise from multiple angles.

She adjusted the camera to photography mode, and from the lens, the sky and the earth were like a pot and a lid, and the beautiful arcs at the intersection glowed, and it was always refreshing to start dispelling the darkness.

Happy times are short-lived.

The AWACS called Li Zhan: "Angry old leopard, this is the command post, my radar has identified you, keep the course, maintain the altitude of 8,004, plan the contact frequency, over." ”

"Angry old leopard received, keep course, altitude eight thousand four, plan contact frequency, over."

Li Zhan gently pulled the rod to climb to 8,400 meters, maintained the course and continued to fly southward, and at the same time chose wave number one, which was precisely the jurisdiction of the exercise headquarters. The flight range is nearly 1,000 kilometers, and it takes more than 20 minutes to fly.

Having trained before, Niu Jun knows when to do it - that is, he doesn't do anything and say nothing except shooting. When she needs to shoot some angles or additional images, she needs to report to the command post, and the command post can only do it after it is approved.

No. 81198 J-7 is an early model, and it is the first batch of leopards, the one with the green radome. As long as you see the green-headed leopard, then it must be from the navy. The J-7A that the Air Force later bought was a black radome,. The model of the new avionics has been changed.

After entering the 21st century, China's avionics technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and the Fat Leopard has ushered in an improved type A, and the performance indicators have improved a lot.

However, even if he is an old leopard, Li Zhan can still feel the confidence given to him by No. 81198 J-7. The maximum range of more than 3,700 kilometers gave him great confidence, and the maximum bomb load of 5 tons gave the pilot the strength to single-handedly take on a maritime detachment.

Many years ago, the cover of a magazine published a photo of the J-7 fully loaded, carrying four air-to-ship missiles and two air-to-air missiles.

As everyone knows, the Navy paid a lot of private money to keep this fighter, but after the A-type came out, the big brother of the Air Force took a fancy to it, and the order snowflakes generally flew to the manufacturer, and the result was that the Navy had to let the Air Force get the plane first and pick it up after him.

At that time, the Navy did not hesitate to spend private money to carry out the Flying Leopard project, and in order to ensure the smooth operation of the foreign trade project name of FBC-1, it spent a lot of resources to let the Flying Leopard join the naval aviation unit to serve. The fundamental reason is that the super range of the flying leopard is very, very important to the navy, and it is simply a "boiling eagle" weapon!

The combat radius of the Flying Leopard is larger than that of the earlier model of the F-15, and it is three or four hundred kilometers larger. You don't have to fight when you face off in the air and sea, you can boil the other party back with endurance alone.

Among several fighters of Hainan Airlines, the only one with a maximum range of more than 3,000 kilometers is the Water Bomb-5, which once shouldered the heavy responsibility of Hainan Airlines' offshore cruise, and reached as far as Zengmu Dark Sands, but it was a bomber converted from a seaplane, and even the bombing combat capability was limited, so it could not truly reflect the military presence.

Before the J-11 was equipped, only the Flying Leopard was able to do this, and for so many years it was the only fighter that could demonstrate military power in the far sea and airspace to defend the country's territorial sovereignty.

From this point of view, the flying leopard is significant.

The aviation units participating in the "Denial-2012" live-fire exercise consist of the Su-30MK2, J-7A and J-8D of the Bald Eagle Division, as well as four J-15s and one J-11B of the Flying Shark Unit. The main point is that the J-11B piloted by the South Korean Red Army was borrowed from the Air Force. Before the Air Force is equipped with a certain number of J-11 and J-10 fighters, HNA will have to wait.

It can probably be seen from the composition of the aviation units participating in the exercise that the higher-ups asked the Flying Shark units to participate in the exercise, and I am afraid that there is also a consideration for pulling the J-15 to improve the average technical level of the air detachment.

The J-15 has the strength to defeat any carrier-based fighter in the world. Unless it encounters a fourth-generation aircraft, even if it encounters any third-generation aircraft or a third-generation and a half-generation aircraft, it has a very good chance of winning.

Just imagine, if the People's Navy has 13 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, equipped with 13 aircraft carrier battle groups, each aircraft carrier is equipped with a fighter brigade and an attack aircraft brigade plus a combat support group. 700 J-15s are cruising on various oceans around the world, and if they are all fully loaded, they can carry 5,600 tons of ammunition.

Not counting the development cost, the project cost of a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is about 15 billion yuan, plus the cost of carrier-based aircraft and frigates, according to the standard single aircraft carrier battle group, the conservative estimate is about 60 billion yuan, and the ten aircraft carrier battle groups need about 600 billion yuan!

Are those who are shouting about equipping ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers crazy?

In 2012, China's military budget was only 670 billion yuan, hey, it doesn't seem expensive to exchange a year's military budget for ten nuclear-powered aircraft carrier battle groups, I support equipping ten nuclear-powered aircraft carrier battle groups!

"Angry old leopard? Here is the command post, hear the answer. AWACS called.

Li Zhan wiped his saliva, found that it was an oxygen mask, and came back to his senses, "Received it, I was distracted just now, please instruct, it's over." ”

The commander-in-chief of the exercise on the AWACS aircraft couldn't help but stare at you, you are still distracted while flying the plane, and the super ace is not worthy of the name.

The commander-in-chief gave the order, "The air strike detachment will time the attack, and you will immediately form with them as planned, and it will be over." ”

Li Zhan hurriedly replied: "The angry old leopard understands! Complete. ”

He sped up and rushed to the established airspace, and each combat unit was proceeding according to the time node, and Li Zhan was also flying according to the plan before, so he quickly saw Dai Wenming's detachment. An Air Force J-11B painted in starry sky gray is particularly eye-catching in the J-15 fleet painted in yellow of the original factory of the Flying Shark Force.

At first glance, apart from the different livery and the addition of a pair of canard wings, there is no other difference. A closer look reveals that the J-15 is larger, and the area of the main wing is larger.

"Security One, the angry old leopard asks to join the formation, over." Li Zhan called Dai Wenming.

Dai Wenming replied, "You can join the formation, over." ”

"I'm joining from the right, done."

"Yes."

Li Zhan moved the control stick to the right side of the formation, resumed level flight at a relatively distant distance, and then increased the altitude to ensure an altitude difference of about 50 meters with the formation.

His task was to follow the shoot, naturally to find the best position.

Dai Wenming and the others kept the attitude of the fighter unchanged, constantly turning their heads to see the position change of the No. 81198 J-7, and after confirming that it was correct, Dai Wenming gave a thumbs up, and then changed to a hand knife and slashed forward, and Li Zhan gave a thumbs up after getting the signal.

The air strike detachment immediately began to dive in formation, and Li Zhan followed closely in formation. Camera fighters need to follow the target's movements closely, not only to be familiar with the entire strike process, but also to grasp the amount of advance and lag in order to shoot photos or videos with different contents.

For example, now, Li Zhan can obviously follow the formation to do synchronous actions, but in order to let Niu Jun in the rear cabin have a variety of different shooting angles, he needs to constantly change positions and angles, and in the process, he needs to pay attention to not colliding accidents at all times.

Otherwise, the fighter planes in charge of filming need highly skilled pilots to fly them.

In 1992, the Navy took a group of pictures of the J-8 cruising in Xisha to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Naval Aviation. At that time, he was in charge of shooting a Jianjiao-6, and it could only stay for three to five minutes when it flew to Xisha with two auxiliary fuel tanks, and the famous set of "Xisha Cruise" photography works was completed in just three to five minutes.

The photographer is awesome, and the pilot is even more awesome. At that time, a regiment commander piloted the Jianjiao-6 to undertake this mission.

Niu Jun has already started to shoot like crazy, and there is an indelible truth to take good photos - take as many photos as possible. A good photo is selected from thousands of photos, and in the era of post-processing software, photographers need to be more skilled.

Of course, Li Zhan's flying skills are directly related to the most important angle choice.

For example, a panoramic photo is taken from the right side of the air strike detachment from a bird's eye view, and the target is about 45 degrees upward, and you can see the eagle-like lines of the J-15 fighter. Another side photo of an ultra-low-altitude sea-skimming formation flight, if it weren't for the original factory paint of yellow, wouldn't the J-15 be a tiger shark that jumped out of the sea to launch a ferocious attack on the target?

Therefore, it is known as a flying shark.

Niu Jun made a request while shooting, and Li Zhan posed according to Niu Jun's needs. Sometimes following the formation at an ultra-low altitude and flying over the sea, sometimes accelerating overtake, making a zero-altitude difference turn in front of the formation, allowing Niu Jun to seize the opportunity to shoot the frontal angle of the formation, or rush head-on to the formation at a slightly higher altitude, and then accelerate into the formation from the rear of the formation, and use the down-looking camera of the pod to shoot video.

Niu Jun had trained Li Zhan before, and the shooting plan had been discussed repeatedly, otherwise Li Zhan wouldn't have figured out how to shoot a blockbuster. When practicing together the day before, Li Zhan felt that it was not easy to fly the plane to assist in shooting, and he also realized how the domineering side leakage photos that everyone saw were taken with great difficulty.

Sure enough, there is no industry that is easy, only the bitterness that cannot be seen.

Niu Jun was shocked by a series of thrilling scenes, and kept shooting various compositions in his hands. At 6 o'clock in the morning, the fighter plane was flying at the altitude of skimming the sea, and the sun had just climbed out of the sea and sky. Beneath your feet is the sea level, the gently rippling water surface is sparkling, and the light to dark colors are the palette of nature.

The old flying leopard flew back and forth around the air strike detachment that had entered the state of ultra-low-altitude sea-skimming and penetrating defense, like a nimble fat man. Each pilot was equipped with a camera on his helmet, and when they looked at the old flying leopard, they recorded the image of the "nimble fat man".

Han Hongjun said, "Angry old leopard, you fly like this and consume fuel, right?" ”

Of course, Li Zhan is most concerned about the fuel balance, he has encountered several times of running out of fuel, and once he was bitten by a snake for ten years and was afraid of the well rope, so he paid the most attention to the state of fuel quantity.

He said, "Everything is under control, I will divert to the Dachang station to replenish the fuel, you can fly boldly with confidence." ”

"Security One reports to the command post, ready to enter the attack route, over." Dai Wenming confirmed that the group had entered the attack range and immediately reported to the command post.

The AWACS aircraft, of course, was able to see their position, and the commander in charge of commanding the air detachment gave the order, "The security detachment carried out an attack on the target as planned, and it was completed." ”

"Security Number understands and is ready to attack." Dai Wenming suddenly pulled the lever and climbed rapidly, and other fighters followed closely behind him to climb one after another, and at the same time energized the air-to-ship missiles and turned on the airborne radar to search for targets.

The big drama has begun, and Li Zhan has already occupied an excellent shooting angle, waiting for the air strike detachment to launch the air-to-ship missile......