At about 10:20, the air defense operation of the fleet began.

The first to arrive was the first group of enemy planes to be spotted from the northwest.

The "Finger-6C" did detect the bomber, but it was actually the escort fighter flying in front, but the distance was not very far, less than 100 kilometers. Because the reflected radar signal was not obvious enough, the "Finger-6C" failed to detect those fighters in the first place.

Fortunately, after detecting the bomber, the "Finger-6C" took the initiative to retreat to the southeast, in the direction where the aircraft carrier was located.

Actually, this is a typical defensive tactic.

Although the escort fighters were not detected, the captain of the AWACS aircraft would definitely have thought that somewhere in the northwest there must be enemy escort fighters.

Crucially, the Finger-6C has flown to the farthest end of the patrol area.

It was precisely because of this that the four "Battle-9Bs" sent by the fleet arrived at about 10:15 after 15 minutes of flight.

The Finger-6C, codenamed Tower 01, had already turned to evacuate before 4 o'clock.

It can be seen that it was this seemingly ordinary tactical maneuver that saved the "Tower 01".

At about 4:10 a.m., Tower 001 detected the fighter jets that were beginning to accelerate, and the distance between the two sides had been reduced to 250 kilometers by that time. If Tower 01 had not turned to evade 10 minutes earlier, the distance would have been reduced to 150 km.

Because the "Zhan-9B" will arrive in 5 minutes, the "Tower 01" will definitely be attacked before this time if it does not turn.

Under the circumstances, the four "Zhan-9Bs" that arrived were unable to intercept the enemy planes rushing towards the AWACS aircraft in time.

At 4:15, the "Battle-9B" group arrived.

At this time, "Tower 01" had accurately detected that there were at least 8 incoming enemy planes, and they were divided into two groups according to their height. The first 4 aircraft flew at an altitude of about 8,000 meters, and the lagging four aircraft were at an altitude of 13,000 meters, maintaining an altitude difference of 5,000 meters.

Obviously, this is a very typical forward escort tactic.

The key is that all of them are the "Tornado" AVD fighters of the Hindan Empire.

Although according to the claims of the Empire, the "Tornado" AVD is a fourth-generation fighter and a heavy air superiority fighter with advanced performance, strictly speaking, it can be regarded as a second-and-a-half-generation at most, and what the performance is has always been controversial, or it is debatable.

The key is the aerodynamic layout.

Of all fourth-generation jet fighters, only three have variable swept wings, and all but two are carrier-based fighters, the Imperial Navy's Battle-9 and the Nuland Navy's F-14. The main purpose of the carrier-based fighter using the variable sweep wing is to obtain excellent low-altitude and low-speed performance on the premise of ensuring high-altitude and high-speed performance, especially the maneuverability in the landing stage.

It can be seen that the "Zhan-9" and F-14 had to compromise with reality when choosing an airfoil.

If it is to be said, the choice of the variable sweep wing by the "Tornado" is also a compromise with reality, and the root cause is the same, the thrust of the engine is not large enough.

As long as the thrust-to-weight ratio is up, then using other airfoils, such as trapezoidal wings, can also achieve high-altitude and high-speed performance that is not too bad. For example, the Imperial Navy's "Battle-12" relies on an air combat thrust-to-weight ratio of more than 1.1 and uses trapezoidal wings, which still has the fastest high-altitude flight speed of Mach 2.0, and the acceleration ability is not too bad, and the handling at low altitude and low speed also meets the requirements of the navy.

Of course, it is understandable to make compromises on carrier-based fighters.

Because the descent speed is relatively fast when landing, and it is also exposed to the harsh environment of high humidity and high salt for a long time, the structural strength of the carrier-based aircraft must exceed that of the same type of air force fighters, and the structural mass is bound to be greater, resulting in the thrust-to-weight ratio of carrier-based fighters is often inferior to that of the air force fighters.

As a result, carrier-based fighters need to work on aerodynamic shapes.

But the problem is that the "Tornado" is not a carrier-based fighter of the Navy, but a heavy air superiority fighter invested and developed by the Air Force from the very beginning.

It can be seen from this that the aero engines of the Hindan Empire are not generally bad.

Because the thrust of the engine was insufficient, during the design phase, the engineers of the Western Continent Group had to choose the variable sweep wing, which was widely used in the third-generation fighter and had been abandoned in the fourth-generation fighter, with outstanding advantages and disadvantages.

Third-generation fighters widely use variable swept wings, but in the final analysis, the engine is still not good enough.

Whether it is the "Attack-8" of the Liangxia Empire, or the F-111 of the Newland Republic, the "Lightning" of the German Empire, and the MG-23 and MG-27 of Xiluosha, it is because the engine thrust is not enough, and it has to reach the "double 2" performance index, so the variable sweep wing is invariably adopted.

If anything, the abandonment of the variable swept wing by the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Republic has a lot to do with the structural death of the heavy and maintenance troubles.

For fighters looking for extreme performance, these are two flaws that are difficult to accept.

In fact, after the design of the "Tornado" was completed, the Manman Air Force was not very satisfied, so it was not used as an air superiority fighter.

In the Yamaman Air Force, the Tornado AVD is more like an interceptor.

Of course, the Western Continent Group also does need high-performance interceptors.

The reason is very simple, the Liangxia Empire had thousands of strategic bombers, and was able to manufacture bombers at a rate of tens of thousands per year during the Great War.

For a long time, the primary task of the Manman Air Force has been to intercept strategic bombers.

For this reason, the Terranan Empire specially formed the Territorial Defense Force after the war, but because the establishment was too complicated, it was merged into the Air Force more than 20 years ago.

In the Hindman Air Force, interceptor aviation is a separate branch.

However, the "Tornado" is not only available in the AVD type.

One of the great benefits of a variable sweep wing is that it provides a high lift-to-drag ratio equivalent to that of a straight wing, and provides more outstanding low-altitude stability by increasing the wing load.

This feature is particularly suitable for heavy attack aircraft that mainly penetrate defense at low altitudes.

In addition, bombers such as "H-10A" and B-1B, which need to penetrate at low altitude and have high range requirements, also use variable swept wings.

The Imperial Air Force's "Attack-8" is a typical heavy attack aircraft with low-altitude penetration as the main means of attack.

The F-111 of the Nuland Air Force, although called a heavy fighter, is indeed designed according to a fighter, but after it was officially put into service, it also became a genuine fighter-bomber with the excellent low-altitude flight stability brought by the variable sweep wing.

It is precisely for this that the "Tornado" also has its own specialized attack aircraft model, the IDS.

The Tornado IDS uses the same airframe as the AVD, but the electronics have been greatly simplified, including the elimination of the fire control radar that is not used by attack aircraft, and the replacement of the engine with slightly lower thrust, but higher reliability and lower fuel consumption.

If anything, the Tornado IDS is a very good heavy attack aircraft.

Because of the later development time and the use of a large number of more advanced electronic equipment, compared with the "Attack-8" and F-111, the "Tornado" IDS is more advanced, and its performance is more outstanding in some aspects, which can be regarded as the most advanced heavy attack aircraft today, or a multi-role fighter.

It's just that the Terransian Air Force is obviously not satisfied with the performance of the "Tornado" AVD.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, as early as a few years ago, the Yamaman Air Force instructed the company that produced the Tornado to improve the performance of the Tornado by using advanced engines that were still under development, and that imported engines could be considered if the tactical indicators were met.

It's just that this so-called "advanced wind" has not been seen so far.

The problem is still with the engine.

Because the new engine invested and developed by the Empire has not reached the mass production standard, the Air Force has been considering the introduction of engines a few years ago.

The only ones that can be introduced are the two third-generation high-thrust turbofan engines of the Nuland Republic, namely the F-100 and F-110 used in the F-15 and F-16.

It is a pity that these two advanced engines are not enough for the Nuland Air Force and Naval Aviation, so how can they be supplied to the Western Continent Group.

It is precisely because of this that the "Advanced Hurricane" project has always heard the sound of the stairs and no one coming down.

However, the Manman Air Force did not give up, or it had long anticipated that it would be difficult to introduce advanced engines, so it prepared alternatives in advance.

Four years ago, Dassault of the Rock Country, on the basis of the "Mirage 2000" fighter, developed a twin-engine heavy fighter, that is, the "Mirage 4000", through a simple amplification process, achieved its first flight, and the main performance indicators surpassed the "Tornado" AVD.

If you want to say, this delta-wing aircraft is a fighter.

Although in some aspects, the "Mirage 4000" has obvious defects, such as the air combat thrust-to-weight ratio is only 1.0, and the combat radius is only a pitiful 600 kilometers in the case of relying entirely on internal fuel, even if it is hung with 3 large auxiliary fuel tanks, it is only 1200 kilometers, but compared with the "Tornado" AVD, it has very outstanding advantages, such as more agility and faster climbing speed.

The problem of a short combat radius is not a big problem for the Western Continent Group.

The reason is also very simple: there is no need to arrange fighter planes to escort bombers in the Western Continent Group, and the main mission of heavy fighters is only to seize and control air supremacy on the battlefield, which is a typical tactical task, and there are no too high requirements for the combat radius of fighters.

Most of the time, a short-legged fighter like the MG-29 is enough, not to mention the "Mirage 4000".

As a result, after more than two years of selection, to be precise, and completely dead heart on the "Advanced Tornado," the Terman Air Force made a final decision at the beginning of last year to supplement the gap in the "Tornado" AVD with the "Mirage 4000" in the form of joint production.

To be precise, it is actually equipped with 40 fighter squadrons.

Because the performance of the "Tornado" ADV did not meet the tactical indicators proposed by the Manman Air Force, the purchase volume did not go up, so there were still 40 squadrons that did not change their equipment. The purchase of the "Mirage 4000" is to reequip these 40 squadrons and let the main squadrons use new fighters.

Of course, after the beginning of the Riman Empire, other Western Continent member states will follow.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, both the Raleigh Kingdom and the Spann Kingdom said that they would purchase the "Mirage 4000" to improve the combat capability of the Air Force. Because the Bran Kingdom prefers to use the "Tornado" that has been licensed for production, or directly purchase advanced fighters from the Newland Republic, while Silosha prefers its own production of MG series fighters, so it can be accepted by the other two major member states, and the "Mirage 4000" is likely to become the main fighter of the Western Continent Group, and will be used until the fifth generation fighter enters service.

Interestingly, the Locke Air Force did not purchase the "Mirage 4000".

Although the reason given by the Locke Air Force is that it has purchased hundreds of "Mirage 2000s", and the performance of the "Mirage 2000" is not bad, and there is no need to purchase heavy fighters to expand the size of the fleet for the time being, but in essence, the Locke Air Force does not want to pay for this kind of fighter.

To put it bluntly, the "Mirage 4000" has become a fighter of the Empire.

Not only does the Empire own all the intellectual property rights of the "Mirage 4000", but it will also set up a production line and even export it to other countries.

In order to decouple from the Rock Country, after being officially equipped, it will be named the "Whirlwind" fighter.

In addition, the price of the "Mirage 4000" is almost 60% more expensive than the "Mirage 2000", and the increase in combat effectiveness is less than 20%.

Because of some flaws, and even more so because of the delta wing, the "Mirage 4000" is still not an excellent fighter.

The problem is still that the engine is not good enough.

Almost all of the fighters designed by RockDassault are delta wings, and the key is that the delta wing has the best lift-to-drag ratio in the supersonic stage, so as to achieve faster speeds with less thrust. The Mirage series fighters have always been known for their agility, but their vertical maneuverability is very poor.

Obviously, a simple amplification process and the installation of an additional engine will definitely not solve the problem of insufficient power.

Otherwise, the Locke Air Force would not have insisted on using light fighters, and had not considered purchasing and equipping heavy fighters for decades.

The key is that the first batch of "Mirage 4000" ordered by the Manman Air Force is still in production and has not been delivered, let alone put into service and formed combat effectiveness.

This time, it was still the "Tempest" ADV.

To say it, this is also the first time that two variable-swept wing heavy fighters have met.

However, it is also a battle with no fairness at all.

The first to engage were fighters from both sides at medium and high altitudes, that is, at an altitude of 8,000 meters, two "Battle-9B" and four "Tornado" AVDs.

Strictly speaking, it was a raid, not an engagement.

When they were 150 kilometers away, the two "Zhan-9B" locked onto the target with fire control radar, and then launched missiles.

At this time, the four "Tornado" AVDs on the opposite side had not yet detected the "Zhan-9B," and the effective detection range of its fire control radar for fighters was only more than 100 kilometers, and the range of the "Sky Flash" missiles carried by them was less than 30 kilometers.

Of all the medium-range air-to-air missiles, Sky Flash has the shortest range.

Strictly speaking, this missile does not have over-the-horizon attack capabilities.

As a result, 4 "Tornado" AVDs were not evaded at all and were shot down directly by the KK-9D.

It was only at this time that the four "Tornado" AVDs at high altitude discovered the danger, but still did not detect the two "Zhan-9B" flying in front of them.

When the four "Tornado" AVDs accelerated and dived and tried to attack the two "Zhan-9Bs" at medium and high altitudes, they were met with head-on attacks by the two "Zhan-9Bs" at high altitudes.

Although two of the "Tornado" AVDs escaped the KK-9D, which had reached its maximum power range, through a dive turn, the two fighters did not come back to meet the fight, and fled directly, not providing cover at all for the bombers that were following behind and still flying to the east.

From start to finish, none of the eight Tornado AVDs detected an engaged opponent, let alone fired back.