West Coast of the Republic of Nuland, San Diego Naval Base.

Stark woke up from his sleep when the transport plane landed, the main wheel touched the ground, and bounced off under the propulsion of the reaction force.

By the time he had packed his things, the transport plane had come to a steady stop.

There are also several pallets in the cargo hold, and some locked safes are placed, which should contain some more sensitive or valuable equipment.

After Stark got off the transport plane, the ground crew drove the forklift and moved the pallet out.

It was a C-130F on a cargo mission, with Stark being the only passenger.

"Hey, be careful."

Narrowly avoiding the truck approaching from the side, Stark noticed a "Humvee" SUV parked next to the runway, and a major officer standing next to it.

Major Di Maria, an alumnus of his Annapolis Military Academy, Newland Naval Academy.

In addition, both of them went to the country of Boi as diplomats and military attachés, and worked together for 3 years, and then went to the country of Van Luo together.

After returning home, Stark went to the Pentagon, and Di Maria came to San Diego.

It's no surprise that Di Maria is a Southern California resident, while Stark is from Massachusetts on the East Coast.

When old friends meet, it is inevitable to have a pleasantry.

However, the two did not delay much. The airport was busy, full of ground staff, and transport planes were constantly landing and taking off.

"I can't believe you when I hear you're coming."

"What's going on here?"

"You saw it, that's all."

Glancing out the window, Stark didn't ask any more.

Although San Diego became the home port of the Guia Fleet after the "fall" of the Howaii Islands, and it is also the largest and most well-equipped military port of the Nuland Republic on the Guia side, after decades of construction and development, San Diego is still a small city.

The main thing is that it's too remote.

The border with Mexico is about 30 kilometres south of the port, and Los Angeles, the largest city on the West Coast and the second largest city in the Nuland Republic, is 200 kilometres to the north.

In addition, law and order are also a big problem.

Across the border is Tijuana, Mexico, a city of more than 1 million people with a population of two-thirds who are involved in the illegal trade associated with the Nuland Republic, particularly drug trafficking, smuggling and smuggling. On the border side, there are similar illegal industries, such as the smuggling of guns and ammunition that can be legally bought and sold in the Republic of Nuland to Mexican criminal gangs.

If anything, almost all of the people engaged in these illegal industries are Latin American immigrants.

Of course, this is not to say that Latin American immigrants are engaged in illegal and criminal activities.

Di Maria is a Latin American immigrant.

However, these did not have much impact on the naval base.

Not to mention the barracks and military ports, even the military accommodation areas are isolated, have complete living infrastructure, and are guarded by military police.

There is basically no intersection between the garrison and the families of the garrison and the local residents.

If anything, the main interaction is the provision of thousands of jobs for the local population, and almost all military families have to find domestic workers in the local area.

The heart of San Diego Naval Port is Fleet Bay.

The name, in fact, comes from the fleet.

After the East-West scuffle, which almost led to the breakup of the Nuland Republic, presumably for ease of management, the Hwaseong authorities ordered all captured ships to be sent to San Diego. As a result, hundreds of ships, large and small, filled the harbor, and then it took the name.

Of course, those old ships have long been disposed of.

After deciding to rebuild the Guia Fleet, the Nuland Navy spent 20 years building the naval base, and has since continued to expand as needed, such as Deepwater Pier 4 for the fourth supercarrier, which is not expected to be completed until next year.

Theoretically, Fleet Bay can accommodate up to 180 ships.

Of course, the actual number of berths is certainly not so much, and at most it does not exceed 100, because the Guia Fleet has only more than 100 large ships in total, some of which are deployed at other naval bases, such as large submarines are deployed in Bremerton on Puget Sound in the north, amphibious assault ships and landing ships are mostly deployed in Golden Bay, and supply ships and fast combat support ships are deployed in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles.

Deployed in San Diego is actually an aircraft carrier battle group.

Over the past few decades, at any time there has been an aircraft carrier here, either undergoing overhaul or preparing for departure.

Occasionally, there is a rare sight of three aircraft carriers appearing in the harbor at the same time.

Only now, the inside of Warship Bay is empty.

Although it was not empty, there were still a few patrol boats, and there were many service ships docked next to the dock, such as barges in any port, but the large warships stationed here were all gone, to be precise, they had left with the aircraft carrier two days earlier.

Di Maria took Stark to the camp in the port area.

Over there, an SH-60F "Seahawk" is ready to take off and is waiting for the passengers, namely Stark and Di Maria.

Before leaving for Hwaseong, Stark offered Di Maria to be his deputy, and Omar did not refuse.

It's not that he had worked with Di Maria for a few years and had a good personal relationship, but Stark needed someone he could trust and knew the Guia Fleet well.

Although the President gave him the post of Task Force Operations Staff, according to the Chief of Staff of the Navy, he was given the authority of Chief of Staff of the Fleet.

Waiting for him aboard the Guia Fleet's flagship "Nitz" was not only an appointment letter of operational staff officer, but also a new rank of brigadier general.

Stark really needs a "know-how" deputy.

In the Nuland Republic, the Guia Fleet can be counted as an outlier, maverick to say the least.

After flying for less than an hour, the helicopter came to the sky over the "Niz".

The ship is the first supercarrier of the "Niz" class, and it is also the second supercarrier in the world with a full load displacement of more than 90,000 tons after the "Xue Yuanzheng" class.

This, of course, is the standard set by the Nuland Navy.

According to the standards of the Liangxia Navy, a full load displacement of more than 100,000 tons can be considered a supercarrier.

As for why you should use a full load displacement instead of a standard displacement, there are several different ways to calculate the standard displacement, and there is a big difference. Besides, aircraft carriers need to carry dozens, or even hundreds of combat aircraft, as well as thousands of tons of ammunition and aviation fuel, and must maintain a high state of combat readiness at any time, for example, the reserve of fuel shall not be less than 60% of the maximum load, so for aircraft carriers, the full load displacement is more valuable for reference, and the credibility of the standard displacement is not very high.

Regardless of the standard, the "Niz" class is the strongest aircraft carrier in the world after the "Xue Yuanzheng" class.

Under standard conditions, the "Nix" class can carry more than 90 carrier-based aircraft, usually: 24 or 36 F-14A/B/C/D in 2 to 3 squadrons, 24 or 36 F/A-18A/B/C/D in 2 to 3 squadrons, 24 or 36 A-6E/G in 2 to 3 squadrons, 8 EA-6Bs in 1 squadron, 4 E-2Cs in 1 squadron, 6 S-3Bs in 1 squadron, 4 C-2B in 1 squadron, and 1 squadron of 4 to 8 SH-60Fs. Among them, the number of fighters, multi-role fighters and attack aircraft is determined by the actual situation, that is, the combat mission, and the total number does not exceed 72, which is usually a multi-role fighter of 3 squadrons.

If anything, only the "Niz" class can fight against the "Xue Yuanzheng" class of the Liang Xia Empire.

As for the three "Kitty Hawk" classes built before, they are similar to the "Chen Bingxun" class of the Liangxia Empire, which are large aircraft carriers, not as good as supercarriers.

It is precisely for this reason that the Nuland Navy put all three "Nitz" class ships that have been put into service in the Guia Fleet.

In fact, it can be seen from the naming of the aircraft carrier.

Liang Xia Navy has 6 "Xue Yuanzheng" class ships in service, except for the first ship "Xue Yuanzheng" and the No. 4 ship "Lian Xusheng", the other 4 ships are named after the famous generals of the Navy during the last war, the No. 2 ship "Bai Zhizhan", the No. 3 ship "Li Mingbo", the No. 5 ship "Liu Xiangzhen", and the No. 6 ship "Weijun".

In addition, the No. 7 ship under construction has been named "Liu Xiangdong", the No. 8 ship has been named "Li Jie", and the approved No. 9 ship is likely to be named "Jinhong", and the No. 10 ship is "Guan Zhenping", that is, the next four ships are named after admirals.

Of course, it has long been an unwritten rule to name aircraft carriers after celebrities, especially commanders and generals in history.

In this regard, the Nuland Navy is-for-tat.

The three "Nix" class ships were built, CV-68 "Nix", CV-69 "Spu", CV-70 "Hall", and the next three were CV-71 "Fry", CV-72 "Washington" and CV-73 "Lincoln", that is, the first four ships were named after admirals.

Interestingly, presumably dissatisfied with this, the Pentagon specifically developed a rule that explicitly required aircraft carriers to be named only after previous presidents.

It was for this reason that the 5th ship was named "Washington".

In fact, it can be seen from the naming that the Guia Fleet is a very special existence.

The reason for this is not unrelated to the history of the East-West melee.

Don't forget, Nyze and Sp are both admirals of the former Newland Federation, and even Hal and Frye, who were killed in battle, are also Nyx's subordinates.

During the East-West War, the authorities of the Republic of Nuland, that is, Hwaseong, not only did not recognize these admirals, but also treated them as traitors. Even after the East-West melee ended, Niz and other generals were treated as outsiders. Otherwise, the first large aircraft carrier of the Republic of Nuland would not have been named "Kitty Hawk", "Constellation" and "Nuland". It was only after reconciliation was reached that the Hwaseong authorities recognized the admirals such as Nitz and Spu.

From another point of view, the Hwaseong authorities made such a compromise, which also had to do with the navy, and needed to rebuild the navy by allegiance to the former Newland Federation.

The point is that when the Nuland Republic was founded, it didn't even have a decent fleet.

Otherwise, the Khowaii Islands would not have been recovered to this day.

It's just that no one can deny that if there was no foundation laid by the Nuland Federation, there would be no current Nuland Navy.

After the end of the East-West melee, the Nuland Republic can be said to be in ruins, and what needs to be revitalized the most is actually the navy that has been depleted in the melee.

It was against this backdrop that a group of officers and men of the Union Navy who were captured or surrendered in the melee made a great contribution to the reconstruction of the Nuland Navy.

Among them, the group of naval engineers who were repatriated after the end of the war was of unparalleled value.

According to the account, which has never been officially recognized, an engineer in the Nuland Navy who voluntarily accepted repatriation took with him a complete set of design drawings for a large aircraft carrier when he left the Liangxia Empire. What's even more amazing is that the engineer has all the blueprints in his head. After returning to the Republic of Nuland, with the help of other engineers, he completed the design of the first large aircraft carrier in 3 years.

It is a pity that when the design of this large aircraft carrier of the "Chen Bingxun" class was completed, the Republic of Nuland did not have the industrial strength to build it, or it seriously lacked engineering experience in this area, and even could not smelt the high-strength special steel required for the construction of the hull.

That's not a bad thing, though.

After a few years of delay, after several modifications, some obvious minor problems were solved, and appropriate amplification was made, and there was the "Kitty Hawk" class behind.

Strictly speaking, the Kitty Hawk class can be considered the best large aircraft carrier of its time.

For example, in the case of a reduction of about 10% in tonnage compared to the "Chen Bingxun" class, it has exactly the same aviation combat capability.

Because the layout of the flight deck is more reasonable, for example, two of the three gods on the starboard side are in front of the ship island, which greatly improves the efficiency of aviation operations, so under some special circumstances, the sortie ability of the "Kitty Hawk" class is slightly higher than that of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

For the first time the Newland Republic, which built a large aircraft carrier, this is simply a remarkable achievement.

However, the "Kitty Hawk" class was born at an opportune time.

When the Nuland Navy was preparing to build the "Kitty Hawk" class in a big way, the Liang Xia Navy entered the era of supercarriers and directly abandoned large aircraft carriers.

At that time, the Nuland Navy had already received an allocation for 6 Kitty Hawk classes!

As a result, only 3 ships of the Kitty Hawk class were built.

The other three, to be precise, appropriations approved by Congress, were all used to build the "Nitz" class. Otherwise, the first three ships would not have been completed and put into service in just three years.

In any case, in the Nuland Navy, and even in the Nuland Republic, the Guia Fleet is a very unique existence, and can even be regarded as an independent kingdom.

This is also the reason why the Hwaseong authorities sent Stark here to serve as the fleet's operational staff officer.

From top to bottom, almost all of the Fifth Fleet was composed of men and horses of the Guia Fleet, and most of the officers were inextricably linked to the puppet regime of the Newland Federation, which was still free, so the Hwaseong authorities did not trust this fleet at all, so they sent a trustworthy person to be the overseer.

Stark is a true East Coast native, and has nothing to do with the puppet regime of the Nuland Federation.

Obviously, in the eyes of the Hwaseong authorities, he is a trustworthy person.

It's just that Stark also knows very well that even if he holds the "Shang Fang Sword" given by the president in his hand, he may not be able to eat in the Fifth Fleet.

Otherwise, Stark would not have directly called Di Maria and asked this old acquaintance to be his deputy.

Of course, it's all here, and Stark doesn't think about it anymore.

The most urgent task at the moment is to fight the first battle well, not only to win a decisive victory, and it is best to win the supremacy of the sea in one fell swoop.

If the Khowaii Islands can be recaptured in one fell swoop, then whether they will take it when they see it or have to fight a protracted war, they will have a good chance of winning.

What needs to be done now is to master the Fifth Fleet as soon as possible.