Although Bai Huawei thought of all kinds of possibilities and was prepared for the worst, what happened next was still beyond his imagination.

It was almost noon, Liu Zunling was going to have lunch, so that he could go back to rest early so that he could change shifts with Bai Huawei in the evening, and the communications staff officer sent the latest news. It's still from the Navy Command, it's still forwarded, but it's not a battle report from other units, it's a piece of intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Agency.

In the Guina Sea, near the northern mainland, about 2,000 kilometers southwest of the Reviahihedo Islands, radio signals similar to those produced by the Nuland warship appeared. There was not just one, but more than 10 of them, and these warships were concentrated in a relatively small sea area.

The Nuland Navy's aircraft carrier battle group?

However, there are big doubts about the reliability of this information.

The point is that it was not the submarine that intercepted the radio signal, otherwise it would not have been provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, but an electronic reconnaissance satellite launched a few days ago.

Such reconnaissance satellites work in a passive manner, judging the enemy's situation by intercepted radio signals.

In most cases, electronic reconnaissance satellites are deployed in higher orbits and are more suitable for strategic reconnaissance missions, such as monitoring vast oceans. Usually, only qualitative analysis of the enemy's situation can be carried out, and accurate quantitative analysis cannot be achieved, let alone used as a basis for tactical decision-making.

It is precisely for this reason that electronic reconnaissance satellites are managed and controlled by the Military Intelligence Agency.

In terms of specific use, such as coordination with the navy, the main value of electronic reconnaissance satellites is to conduct preliminary reconnaissance to determine the general position of the enemy fleet.

Although the Imperial Navy has the largest fleet in the world, invincible for decades, and even more rampant after the Second Global War, the Imperial Navy has never relaxed its vigilance, especially in the last 10 years, in the context of the Nuland Navy's re-sailing, how to win the next naval battle, and the tactics needed to win the naval battle, has always been the most concerned thing for the Imperial Navy.

Fighting in the vast Guia Ocean is the most serious challenge, that is, reconnaissance in the early stage.

To put it bluntly, it is how to detect the enemy fleet in time.

If you can't even discover the enemy fleet, how can you destroy the enemy fleet?

On the other hand, after the discovery of the enemy fleet, the blow became simple.

Compared with other reconnaissance platforms, electronic reconnaissance satellites have many shortcomings, such as the positioning accuracy is not high enough, and it is not possible to quantitatively analyze the signal source, and there is a regression cycle of a few hours or tens of hours, but there is an advantage that no other reconnaissance platform has.

Global coverage!

Theoretically, only a few electronic reconnaissance satellites need to be deployed to achieve global coverage, at least most of the sea except the ice ocean.

It is for this reason that the Imperial Navy has been allocating funds for electronic reconnaissance satellites led by the Military Intelligence Agency.

According to the relevant agreement, in wartime, electronic reconnaissance satellites mainly serve the navy, and the military intelligence bureau only manages and controls these satellites for the navy.

Of course, for the Navy, it is certainly impossible to ignore the shortcomings of electronic reconnaissance satellites.

To this end, the Imperial Navy made extra preparations.

In the form of a "constellation," radar reconnaissance satellites, optical reconnaissance satellites, and electronic reconnaissance satellites are used to work together to carry out quantitative tactical reconnaissance tasks.

To put it simply, it consists of several different reconnaissance satellites to form a sub-constellation, and all sub-constellations constitute a complete space-based reconnaissance satellite system.

The main reason for this complexity is that the technology is not up to par, especially electronic technology.

If technology is not an issue, the Navy would prefer to concentrate these reconnaissance tools on a single satellite, even if there are greater risks.

In fact, the so-called "don't put all your eggs in one basket" is just an excuse. If all functions can be achieved with one satellite, survivability can be improved by deploying more satellites or by other technical means, such as installing orbit-changing engines.

Strictly speaking, this complex deployment method is inherently insecure.

The key point is that both radar and optical reconnaissance satellites need to be deployed in low orbits and can be easily destroyed by anti-satellite weapons.

Soon after the start of the war, almost all the reconnaissance satellites deployed in low orbits were shot down by the Western Continent group.

Of course, the Imperial Air Force also retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, and did it more thoroughly, shooting down many satellites deployed in medium and high orbits.

The problem is that this doesn't solve the most critical problem.

Although before the entry of the Newland Republic into the war, the Imperial Air Force carried out the launch of the network in accordance with the strategic plan, replacing those reconnaissance satellites destroyed by the enemy with small satellites stored or urgently procured, it was impossible to fill all the loopholes in such a short period of time.

In addition, the performance of small satellites that were urgently procured is certainly not very good.

In fact, on the afternoon of the 4th, the Imperial Air Force carried out a round of emergency network replenishment launches, and within a few hours, seven carrier rockets were used to launch 18 small satellites into low-earth orbit, several of which were radar reconnaissance satellites mainly facing the Guia Ocean and serving the navy.

Crucially, one of them is a stock satellite, which can carry out orbit change maneuvers and has strong tactical flexibility.

In a sense, orbit change maneuver is the most effective and the only means of defense for military satellites.

The main difference between conventional military satellites and wartime small satellites is whether they have the ability to change orbit and maneuver, or whether they have an orbit change engine.

Don't underestimate this engine.

It's not just the engine that's important, it's also the essential fuel.

Take, for example, the most advanced optical reconnaissance satellites of the Empire, the Empire's "Hawkeye" series.

The seventh-generation "Hawkeye" satellite, which was launched and deployed only two years ago, has a total mass of about 20 tons, of which more than 10 tons of fuel are used for orbit change maneuvers alone. The problem is that in normal use, the 7th generation "Hawkeye" also has only 8 years of service in orbit. In wartime, especially in order to obtain high-resolution photographs, frequent maneuvers to extremely low orbits below 200 kilometers would result in a significant reduction in on-orbit working time. The first "Hawkeye" 7th generation, because of the need to carry out various performance tests, such as the highest resolution that can be obtained in extremely low orbit, its orbit operation time has not been 2 years, and it has fallen into the atmosphere before the outbreak of the Great War.

If there is no need to carry out orbit change maneuvers and they are deployed in relatively high orbits, the total quality control of reconnaissance satellites can be reduced to less than 7 tons.

That is, the launch of 1 heavy launch vehicle of the Hawkeye-7 generation is capable of launching 3 slightly smaller satellites.

If nothing else, the high launch cost was too much for the Imperial Air Force to bear.

After paying such a huge price, the survivability of reconnaissance satellites given by the orbit change maneuver has not been reflected in actual combat.

Before the outbreak of the war, there were a total of 12 "Hawkeye" satellites in orbit, of which 6 were "Hawkeye" 7th generation.

As a result, at the time of the war, only 2 "Hawkeye" 7th generation completed the orbit change maneuver in time, moved to a relatively high orbit, and were not destroyed by the Western Continent group. The other 10 "Hawkeye" satellites were all destroyed on the day of the war, and four of the seventh-generation satellites were within the attack range of the enemy's anti-satellite weapons, and were destroyed in low-earth orbit because they failed to complete the orbit change maneuver before being attacked.

Because the production cycle of the 7th generation of "Hawkeye" exceeded 1 year, the remaining 2 became the baby bumps of the Air Force.

Actually, it's still for technical reasons.

Because the thrust of the orbit change engine is too small, the orbit change maneuver is a very slow process, often requiring several laps around the track to complete.

In peacetime, the problem is not so much.

In times of war, this is quite fatal.

Not to mention the Western Continent Group, even if it is the Imperial Air Force, it will not give the enemy's reconnaissance satellites much time, and it will definitely do it immediately after the start of the war.

As for the inventory satellite, it was actually used for testing, and I didn't think about deploying it before.

Moreover, it was just a radar reconnaissance satellite.

On the morning of 5 July, that is, after the electronic reconnaissance plane that took off from the Ebony Air Base was shot down, the Air Force let the reconnaissance satellite carry out an orbit change maneuver, and it is expected that it will be able to return after two cycles and reach the sea area where the suspicious radio signal is located.

The exact time is around 4 p.m.

As for more reliable information, such as the photographs taken by optical reconnaissance satellites, they will not be available until the morning of the 6th, provided that the satellites launched by the supplementary network are still working normally.

In addition, optical photographs may not be completely reliable.

As mentioned earlier, because most of the satellites launched by the supplementary network are deployed in medium and high orbits, and the performance is relatively poor, the resolution of the photos is not high.

In any case, if you can get the information from the radar reconnaissance satellite, it can also be used as a basis for tactical decision-making.

It's better than nothing!

Of course, the key is not this intelligence, but a piece of information, also provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, to be precise, a purely technical assessment report.

The key is related to the navy.

Not necessarily only large aircraft carriers equipped with high-powered steam catapults can carry and operate heavy carrier-based aircraft such as the F-14 and E-2C.

This report has dozens of pages, and Bai Huawei only glanced at it and did not look at it carefully.

There is no need to look closely, because he was one of the drafters of this technical report and participated in a comparative test conducted by the Navy more than 10 years ago.

In fact, almost 20 years ago, Bai Huawei was still a young officer in his 20s.

Here, the overall strategy of the Navy is involved.

As mentioned earlier, after the end of the Polish-Iranian War, the empire entered a stage of strategic contraction, and the "theory of the uselessness of aircraft carriers" appeared within the imperial navy. Although, in the end, the value of aircraft carriers was recognized, there were very serious divisions within the Navy over the need to stick to the original path, that is, to continue building supercarriers. Led by a handful of high-ranking generals, some officers believed that the development of supercarriers should not continue.

The reason is simple: you can't put all your eggs in one basket.

It is against this background that the Navy has conducted a comprehensive comparative evaluation of the specific cost-effectiveness ratios of "supercarriers", "medium-sized aircraft carriers" and "small aircraft carriers".

Under Zhou Yongtao's arrangement, Bai Huawei participated in the relevant evaluation work.

One of the most critical requirements is whether heavy carrier-based aircraft can be effectively operated on aircraft carriers that are small in tonnage and size and are not equipped with catapults.

Replacing the catapult is the "Leaping Deck" invented by He Jingteng.

According to the secret test conducted by the Imperial Navy, on the 7-degree jump deck, the "Zhan-9B" only needs to glide 110 meters to reach a take-off speed of 280 kilometers per hour with a normal take-off weight, and even with the maximum weight, the take-off taxiing distance can be controlled within 190 meters. If the elevation angle is increased to 12 degrees, the "Zhan-9B" only needs to glide 165 meters before taking off with maximum weight.

In addition, carrier-based early warning aircraft such as the "Finger-6C" can also be lifted into the air through the jumping deck.

In the end, the Imperial Navy still chose catapults, not that the jumping deck could not allow heavy carrier-based aircraft to rise into the air, but that there were many restrictions on deck operation.

If nothing else, carrier-based aircraft cannot be parked in the first take-off area of an aircraft carrier with a leaping deck. This means that after the attack was completed by the carrier-based aircraft in an all-deck state, that is, in the recovery phase, there were about 10 fewer carrier-based aircraft that could be accepted to return to the home at one time than the carrier with the same deck area and catapults. In turn, it is necessary to limit the number of carrier-based aircraft that can be dispatched in the full-deck state.

In fact, there are many other inconveniences.

For example, when performing low-intensity combat missions and requiring continuous sorties of carrier-based aircraft, the aircraft carrier using catapults can deploy some of the fighters on standby on the right side of the take-off area, or behind the port lift, or in the area in front of the left side of the island, and even when recovering the returning carrier-based aircraft, the catapult located on the left side of the take-off area can be used to ensure that the standby fighters can be lifted into the air at any time.

Crucially, these fighters can take off with a full load and fly at maximum speed to intercept incoming enemy aircraft from hundreds of kilometers away.

In comparison, aircraft carriers with leaping decks do not have this capability.

Even if you can use the take-off point on the right side of the jump deck, you can only allow the fighters on standby to take off in a light load, and the combat radius is very limited.

In addition, because it is not possible to park carrier-based aircraft on the right side of the take-off area, and the beveled deck for landing has to be vacated, there are not many fighters on standby.

As for the state of all-deck attack, which the Navy is most concerned about, the gap between the two is even more obvious.

The "Xue Yuanzheng" class can theoretically dispatch up to two-thirds of the carrier-based aircraft in the full-deck attack state, and even if the recovering carrier-based aircraft is considered, almost half of them can be dispatched. Because it is possible to let the remaining carrier-based aircraft, especially attack aircraft, carry out the refueling mission of partners, it is still possible to dispatch two-thirds of the carrier-based aircraft in a wave without considering the second attack.

This is equivalent to saying that nearly 60 carrier-based aircraft can be dispatched in about half an hour!

Without a doubt, this is an unrivaled ability.

Replaced with a leaping deck aircraft carrier, even the tonnage and flight deck area are exactly the same, because in order for the attack aircraft to hang heavy anti-ship missiles to carry out attack missions, it must take off from the left side, that is, the No. 3 point with the farthest taxiing distance, so the carrier-based aircraft that can be dispatched will definitely not exceed 40. In practice, there are other factors to consider, and it would be nice to be able to reach 30.

A few years ago, the Imperial Navy also conducted an interesting test of landing an Air Force tactical transport aircraft on the aircraft carrier "Xue Yuanzheng" and then taking off from the aircraft carrier. However, the purpose of this test is not to deploy transport aircraft on the aircraft carrier, but to verify that in an emergency, the Air Force's tactical transport aircraft can be used to transport valuable materials or important personnel to the aircraft carrier, or to the fleet.

Of course, none of this can be denied.

A large enough freighter with an improved jump deck to carry and operate carrier-based aircraft such as the F-14 and E-2C.

One such freighter operating in the Guia Ocean!?

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