Smith's analysis was not wrong, at least initially, everyone including Bai Huawei believed that it was Task Force 52 that attacked Task Force 61 to the west, and Task Force 51 rushed to the front, closer to Task Force 41.

Here, in fact, it is related to an intelligence provided by the command of the Navy.

After the attack on the 61st Task Force, or to be precise, after the first wave of attacks, the Navy Command sent a telegram to the 41st Task Force, mentioning that it had intercepted a group of attack planes of the Nuland fleet during the air defense operation, while another group of attack planes had fished in troubled waters, broken through the air defense network of the 61st Task Force, attacked the "Liu Xiangzhen," and severely damaged the aircraft carrier.

Obviously, the key is the number of attack aircraft fleets.

At least judging by the telegram from the command of the Navy, the Nuland fleet dispatched 2 attack aircraft groups, so it is more likely that it was the 52nd task force.

The ensuing battle proved this speculation in disguise.

In the second round of attacks, it was no longer carrier-based aviation that played the main role, but the bombers of the Nuland Air Force, using long-range heavy anti-ship missiles.

From this it is not difficult to imagine that the Nuland fleet has no more carrier-based aircraft available.

Otherwise, why wait for a few hours for the bombers of the Air Force?

If two successive rounds of attacks were launched, the battle would have ended in the early morning of the 13th, and both aircraft carriers of the 61st Task Force would be in danger.

The delay of several hours gave Task Force 61 ample time to prepare.

Crucially, the Imperial Navy used these hours to launch a counterattack, in which Task Force 61 fighters played a key role.

If you are attacked continuously, it is naturally impossible to talk about counterattacking.

It was precisely because of this that Bai Huawei, Liu Zunling, Jiang Wenlong, and others decided that it was the 52nd Task Force that remained behind, and the 51st Task Force that rushed ahead.

This means that the Nuland Navy has abandoned the combat operation of attacking the Khowaii Islands.

In fact, the counterattack launched by the Imperial Navy also proved this judgment in disguise.

On the morning of the 13th, they received a battle report from the Navy Command, learning that the Nuland Navy had divided the landing fleet into two, and that it was a transport fleet composed of civilian ships that was killed on the night of the 12th.

Otherwise, there is no need to split the landing fleet in two.

Crucially, the landing fleet followed the retreat of the broken task force.

In another way, it is very likely that the task force after the break was burdened by the landing fleet, after all, the speed of the landing ships is not fast.

In order to cover the landing fleet, the broken task force could only reduce its speed.

Then, it is more likely to be Task Force 52.

To put it simply, if the main task is to cover the retreat of the landing fleet, it is enough to leave the 52nd task force, and there is no need to catch the 51st task force.

However, this is only speculation on the situation on the battlefield.

No matter which task force rushed ahead, the 41st task force had to meet it, and Bai Huawei made a decision on the night of the 12th.

Since then, Task Force 41 has been galloping westward at a speed of 30 knots.

According to the original plan, the battle would begin in the early morning of the 13th.

The key is that when Bai Huawei made the decision to face the battle, everyone thought that the distance from the Nulan fleet in front of the attack was about 1,500 kilometers.

As a result, it only takes a few hours of fast travel to reduce the distance to less than 1,000 kilometers.

Although the combat radius of heavy fighters and heavy attack aircraft is more than 1,500 kilometers, in consideration of combat efficiency, especially the dispatch of early warning aircraft to participate in offensive combat operations and the use of escort fighters to cover the entire operation of attack aircraft, it is necessary to control the combat radius within 1,000 kilometers.

In the face of the powerful 51st Task Force, Bai Huawei did not dare to be careless.

The biggest problem in shortening the engagement distance is actually to expose your whereabouts before launching an attack, and then be attacked by the Nuland Air Force.

In response to this problem, Jiang Wenlong proposed a way to get as close as possible to the Khowaii Islands.

Not only to obtain the cover of shore-based aviation, but also to cooperate with shore-based aviation and use shore-based aviation to solve the problem of insufficient troops.

As for the specific tactics, they are actually very simple.

After finding the enemy fleet, let the shore-based air force send the reinforced fighters to ensure that after the 41st Task Force sends out the attack aircraft group, it will still have enough fighters to carry out the fleet's air defense mission, so that it will not be neglected because there are no fighters available.

The key is also to take this opportunity to adjust the composition of the carrier-based air force.

Don't forget, Task Force 41 has been on attack duty, and all three aircraft carriers have only one group of heavy fighters. After sending escort fighters, there will certainly not be too many fighters left to carry out air defense missions, and they may not be able to withstand the attack of the Nuland Air Force.

According to Bai Huawei's arrangement, the shore-based aviation unit sent three additional battalions of "Zhan-9B" to the 41st Task Force.

To this end, the heavy attack aircraft that have completed the first round of attack missions will fly to the islands east of the Khowaii archipelago, where they will wait for new orders. As for the escort fighters, if they had consumed too much fuel during the battle and were unable to return home, they would go with the attack aircraft group to the Howaii Islands and refuel in the air north of Honou Island, and then decide whether to return to Task Force 41 depending on the situation.

It's a bit of a hassle, but it's already the best option.

It was precisely for this reason that before dawn on the 13th, the 41 st Task Force dispatched a second batch of reconnaissance planes and arranged for electronic attack planes to provide assistance.

The specific tactic is to let the forward reconnaissance planes fly at a low altitude and be guided by electronic attack planes in the rear. After the electronic attack aircraft determined the general direction of the enemy ship, the reconnaissance plane was sent to investigate. Doing so will not only improve the efficiency of reconnaissance, but also reduce the loss rate of reconnaissance planes.

In order to find the Nuland fleet, two groups of reconnaissance planes were dispatched in the morning, and all electronic attack planes were also dispatched.

It is a pity that the air defense network of the Nuland fleet is simply airtight.

Tossed around for a morning, but failed to find the Newland.

It's just that the drunkard doesn't mean to drink.

At the time of this deployment, no one expected to be able to find the Nuland fleet, after all, it was impossible to send fighter jets to provide cover for reconnaissance planes when the purpose was not clear enough. Allowing reconnaissance planes to break through the enemy's outer air defense network will not only suffer heavy losses, but also make no sense. The point is that the fleet's air defense network can be extended hundreds of kilometers outward, and obviously cannot be used as a basis for launching an attack.

In fact, during the fleet exercises of previous years, this problem was exposed.

After more than ten years of exploration, the Imperial Navy failed to find a better solution, so it had to abandon the traditional reconnaissance tactics and adopt a completely new tactical theory.

To put it simply, it is to change from direct investigation to indirect investigation.

Here, too, anti-ship means are involved.

In a battle dominated by anti-ship missiles, combat planes are no longer required to approach the enemy fleet, let alone fly over enemy ships to drop ammunition, and they can launch attacks hundreds of kilometers or even hundreds of kilometers away, and all that is needed is the general location of the enemy ships.

In this way, it will be possible to make a rough judgment on the activities of the enemy fleet through the boundaries of the enemy's outer air defense network, or more precisely the changes in the boundaries. As long as there is enough data, it will be possible to deduce the approximate sea area where the enemy fleet is located.

Even if it's still not accurate, it can be a great help for tactical reconnaissance.

To put it simply, as long as the general position of the enemy fleet can be determined and narrowed down to a relatively small area, fighter planes can be arranged to escort reconnaissance planes.

In order to improve the efficiency of reconnaissance, the Imperial Navy also pioneered the use of electronic attack aircraft.

In standard reconnaissance tactics, a squadron of 4 to 8 Battle-9B fighters assaults the front, and a reconnaissance formation consisting of 2 Battle-5CZ follows behind, obtaining information about the position of the enemy fleet by intercepting electromagnetic signals emitted by enemy air defense warships.

In the course of the fleet exercises over the years, the Imperial Navy has also summed up a set of attack tactics related to it.

Keep the attack aircraft group closely behind the reconnaissance aircraft to ensure that the reconnaissance aircraft can launch an attack at the first opportunity after the reconnaissance aircraft detects the enemy fleet.

According to the new reconnaissance tactics, the probability of finding the enemy fleet is almost 100 percent.

The key is also to save escort fighters, that is, to let fighters that follow the activities of reconnaissance planes carry out escort missions, so as to increase the probability of penetrating the attack aircraft group.

Of course, the tactic is not perfect.

The most serious problem is that it is necessary to arrange for AWACS aircraft to command at the front, especially to coordinate the actions of the various groups.

As a result, a limit was created on the combat radius.

If it is a pure fleet decisive battle, and there is no military base of the Imperial Navy nearby, then the combat radius must be limited to 1000 kilometers, otherwise the pilots of AWACS aircraft must be prepared for one-way flights. If there is a base to rely on, it is naturally a different matter.

Even if you can't fly to the base to land, you can make a forced landing as close to the base as possible.

If anything, this is a loss that must be suffered.

It was this that at noon on the 13th, it was already possible to determine the approximate range of activities of the Nuland fleet, and in the afternoon it was possible to launch an offensive.

As for the attack tactics, there is nothing special about it.

Each of the three aircraft carriers dispatched a group of attack planes, and the 24 escort fighters that took the lead took action in unison to cover the electronic attack planes carrying out reconnaissance missions to break through the enemy fleet's air defense network. The three attack aircraft groups that were dispatched after that would attack the three aircraft carriers of the Nuland fleet under the cover of escort fighters that came out later. Except for the air defense battleships that must be killed, no other warships must be attacked until the aircraft carrier is sunk.

Of course, the specific tactical distribution is determined by the actual situation.

At around 1:30 p.m., the attack began as the AWACS aircraft lifted into the air.

The 41st Task Force dispatched not one, but six AWACS planes, three of which broke through and the other three served as backups.

Of course, there is actually only one one in the front, and the other two are in the rear to be responsible for coordination.

Comparatively speaking, command and coordination is more complicated than guiding fighter operations, after all, there are too many combat aircraft involved in attack operations.

Interestingly, Bai Huawei did not think of using the help of the Air Force.

It is not that Bai Huawei is confident that he can wipe out the 51st Task Force in one fell swoop, but he does not want to delay time, that is, the Nuland fleet is also making adjustments to its operational deployment.

Under the circumstances, there was every reason to believe that Stark would have Task Force 52 send fighter jets to provide cover.

The point is that Task Force 61 has lost its combat capability.

After receiving two rounds of strikes, the two supercarriers of the 61st Task Force were severely damaged, the "Liu Xiangzhen" was in very bad condition, and it was very likely that it sank on the way back, and the other one, that is, the "Tang Shengxian", was not much better, and even if it could return to the rear base, it would take several months to carry out major repairs, and there would certainly be no way to restore its combat capability in the short term.

Of course, the threat of Task Force 61 no longer exists.

Before the battle ended, the Navy Command issued an order for Task Force 61 to arrange for carrier-based aircraft that had already been lifted to fly to the neighboring islands in an effort to land on them. If this is not possible, try to make a forced landing near the island where the Imperial Navy is stationed.

To put it simply, it's about doing your best to protect the pilots.

After the threat was eliminated, there was clearly no reason for Task Force 52 to keep too many fighters, or to send fighters to cover Task Force 51.

Besides, the landing fleet that originally needed the cover of Task Force 52 is finished.

Combining these factors, it is easy to think that only a timely attack can hope to annihilate the 51st Task Force, and a delay of a few hours will make it too late.

At that time, there was another very crucial factor.

The 40 bombers arranged by the Air Force have already run out of missiles in the previous two rounds of fighting, and even if there are enough missiles, the Air Force needs to rearrange the bombers.

Theoretically, it would not be until the night of the 13th that those bombers would be able to go out again.

As a result, the attack on the Nuland fleet would probably have to be postponed until the early morning of the 14th.

Obviously, waiting until the early morning of the 14th is too risky.

It was precisely because of this that Bai Huawei did not wait.

After obtaining Jiang Wenlong's tactical analysis report, Bai Huawei gave the order to attack, and at the same time arranged a task for the communications staff officer.

Wait until the attack operation begins, report to the command of the Navy.

However, the key is for the Air Force to send bombers into the battle as soon as possible to attack the 52nd Task Force that is broken off in the west.

Under the circumstances at that time, Bai Huawei had enough reason to believe that even if he could inflict heavy damage on the 51st Task Force, he would suffer extremely heavy losses.

In any case, Task Force 51 has 3 supercarriers.

In addition, the 51st Task Force did not participate in the battle in the west, and the carrier-based aviation was relatively complete, so the air defense strength was naturally not to be underestimated.

After engaging Task Force 51, they may not be able to participate in the battle against Task Force 52.

Then, against the 52nd Task Force, you can only rely on the Air Force.

In fact, judging from this arrangement, Bai Huawei has strong confidence.

Having the Air Force dispatch bombers in an emergency manner was actually preventing Task Force 52 from slipping away.

To put it simply, Bai Huawei felt that before the 51st Task Force was attacked, the 52nd Task Force was sailing eastward, that is, following the 51st Task Force. When Task Force 51 is finished, Task Force 52 will definitely turn around and avoid following in the footsteps of Task Force 51.

With a delay of a few hours, it is possible to let Task Force 52 go.

Bai Huawei thought it through very thoroughly, but the actual situation was not quite the same as he imagined.