Bai Huawei also had a headache at this time.

After taking out Task Force 53 and confirming that the fleet had no aircraft carriers and only three fast container ships disguised as supercarriers, it was already possible to deduce that Task Force 51 was in the Guia Ocean and north of the Transit Island, in front of the previously discovered carrier.

In fact, there is no secret about the tactics of the Nuland fleet.

Task Force 51, consisting of three Nix-class supercarriers, was at the front and was responsible for supporting the Marines in attacking the transit island. Task Force 52, with two large Newland-class aircraft carriers as the core, followed behind, providing cover for Task Force 51 and suppressing the Aliu Islands to the north. If necessary, Task Force 52 will also move south to participate in combat operations against the Howaii Islands.

The point is that the two task forces are not far apart.

According to Bai Huawei's inference, it will not exceed 1000 kilometers, which is within the combat radius of the F-14 fighter.

Only in this way will they be able to provide each other with cover.

This means that if Bai Huawei returns with Task Force 41, the Nuland Fleet will go south to fight Task Force 41 after destroying the bases on the nearby islands. Task Force 51 will definitely be in the front, and Task Force 52 will follow.

Then you'll have to face two task forces!

To make matters worse, the Nuland army had landed on Transit Island, and it was the elite 1st Marine Division.

Without the support of the fleet, even if the officers and men on the island went all out, they could only hold out for a few days. Even if the Air Force would send bombers to continuously attack the landing site and weaken the ability of the Nuland army to deliver troops and materials to the transit island, the more than 2,000 officers and soldiers defending the island would only be able to hold out for about ten days at most.

The situation is so dangerous that there is no time to delay.

Thankfully, it's not all bad news.

After confirming the activities of the Nuland Navy's Task Force 51 in the Guia, the Navy Command has issued an order for the 61st Task Force, which is guarding the Guia Ocean, to rush north to the aid of the lone Task Force 41 and obey the command of the Fourth Fleet.

That is, listen to Bai Huawei's command.

Crucially, in late September, Task Force 61 left the Noumea military port to patrol the waters of Tonga and Kermadec Islands, in fact, to carry out a vigilance mission, search for Nuland submarines operating in this direction, and lay the foundation for the protection of sea routes.

This is also a "regular" task for Task Force 61.

According to the deployment of the Imperial Navy, the Sixth Fleet, which guards the southwestern and eastward seas, has three main tasks. The first is to support and respond to the Fourth Fleet to deal with the threat from the Nuland Navy. The second is to protect the Fan Yanyang and act as the backing of the Fifth Fleet. The third is to protect the continent and the numerous islands scattered in the southwestern and eastern seas, and ensure that the route to the mainland of the empire is unimpeded. On the other hand, the third is the main task.

It was this that the Sixth Fleet had about a third of the anti-submarine escort warships of the Imperial Navy.

Taking the 61st Task Force as an example, in addition to the two "Xue Yuanzheng"-class supercarriers, as well as the four air defense cruisers, four general-purpose destroyers, and six anti-submarine frigates that form the aircraft carrier battle group, there are also two escort formations composed of destroyers and frigates.

As a result, the number of warships in the 61st Task Force was more than that of the 41st Task Force!

In order to facilitate the combat mission, Task Force 61 also moved its home to Noumea.

Originally, Task Force 61's home port was Sini in Austria, and the headquarters of the Sixth Fleet and the headquarters of the Austrian garrison were also located here.

In addition, Sini is also the seat of the Second Command of the Southern Theater of Operations.

After the end of the Polish-Iraqi War, the Imperial Navy sent Task Force 61 to Noumea, where it has been its home port ever since.

The main reason for this was that Cini's garrison was too expensive.

Sini is the largest city in the southwestern and eastern seas, with millions of inhabitants, tens of thousands of troops and soldiers from more than a dozen Eastern Bloc member states, and consulates of hundreds of countries. As for the port of Sini, it is the largest port in Austria and is very busy.

If Task Force 61 were stationed in Port Sini, the Imperial Navy would have to spend $2 billion a year in service allowances.

To Noumea, the cost can be reduced to less than 1 billion gold dollars.

The reason is also very simple, the Imperial Navy pays the overseas deployment service allowance according to the price of the garrison location, and the price of Sini is more than double that of Noumea.

Deployment in Noumea also has the advantage of not having to compete with merchant ships for docks.

Of course, the daily activities of the fleet became more convenient as a result.

Immediately after the outbreak of the Great War, Task Force 61 went into radio silence and has been traveling between the islands ever since. Not to cover the transport fleet, but to evade the submarines of the Nuland Republic. Even if it is not yet engaged in the battle, the fleet must remain hidden.

Now, Task Force 61 is near the Gilbert Islands.

If you sail at full speed, you will be able to arrive in 5 days. Even if you sail at cruising speed, you will be able to reach the southwest of the transit island in 9 days.

Considering that the 61st Task Force has been at sea for half a month, and there is only 1 fast combat support ship and 2 very slow fleet oil tankers, it is more reliable to calculate it according to 9 days, after all, except for 2 supercarriers, the endurance of other warships is not very good.

If anything, this can be regarded as a stubborn problem of the Imperial Navy.

Back in the days of battleships, the capital ships of the Imperial Navy were known for their short ranges.

For example, in the First Global War, the Nuland battleships had a range of more than 10,000 nautical miles, ensuring that they could cross the Guia Ocean in wartime, and the Imperial Navy's battleships were usually only 6,000, with a maximum endurance of 7,500 nautical miles, and they had to carry oil tankers during expeditionary operations.

By the end of the Second World War, the situation had not improved. The most typical thing is that in several naval battles, because of the lack of endurance of the battleships, the fleet commanders were constrained everywhere when making tactical arrangements, and in many cases even had to take risks.

Of course, this is also understandable.

To put it bluntly, the basic performance of warships is linked to the strategic mission of the navy.

Objectively speaking, before the end of World War II, the Imperial Navy was actually a regional navy, with a much smaller mission scope than the main opponents, namely the Royal Bran Navy and the Newland Navy, mainly concentrated in the Western and Eastern Seas, the Southeast Region and the Northern Fanyan Ocean, and the main task was to protect several strategic shipping routes.

At its root, the Empire did not have colonies to be guarded by a navy, and there was no need to send fleets far from its homeland.

Crucially, there were numerous bases and ports serving the fleet in the main area of activity of the Imperial Navy.

Because there was no possibility of going global for the time being, the Imperial Navy did not attach much importance to the endurance of warships at that time.

By the end of World War II, that situation had changed.

When it was necessary to fight across the Guia Ocean, or even to the western seas of the North Sunset Ocean, the Imperial Navy realized that the endurance of the warships was indeed too short.

Without entering the port, an aircraft carrier battle group would need to make six refueling trips from Naqiu Harbor to the west coast of Newland, which would extend the voyage time by at least 48 hours. By reducing the number of refills by 3 times, you will be able to arrive 1 day earlier. There is no refueling, so you can arrive 2 days in advance.

In battle, not to mention 2 days, sometimes 2 hours can decide the outcome of a naval battle.

The point is also, having defeated all opponents, the Imperial Navy has become the hegemon of the global seas, a veritable global navy.

In order to achieve global deployment, warships definitely need to have sufficient range.

Unfortunately, new conundrums have emerged.

With the advent of the missile age, the Imperial Navy had to admit that it was not easy to make all warships have a range of more than 10,000 nautical miles.

It's not that the technology is not good, but it is too cost-effective.

Take the "Qingzhou" class air defense cruiser as an example, with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, but the electronic equipment, naval guns and missiles, two anti-submarine helicopters, and other combat systems carried on board exceed 3,500 tons in total, and after removing the necessary equipment such as the hull and power system, the margin of fuel left is less than 1,000 tons, so even if it is overloaded, the maximum range is only a pitiful 7,500 nautical miles.

Fundamentally, it is actually the contradiction between "range and tonnage", or the contradiction between "endurance and cost".

Clearly, the Imperial Navy is not willing to pay for endurance to reach around the globe if it can meet the needs of daily training, deployment, and operations.

Relying on military bases all over the world can also be reached globally!

However, in the context of a global war, warships still need to have sufficient range.

In this case, the Imperial Navy could only retreat to the next best thing.

To put it simply, it is necessary to ensure that the aircraft carrier has a large enough range and that the aircraft carrier is equipped with equipment to provide fuel supply for the escort warships.

In other words, it is possible to allow the aircraft carrier to provide fuel supply to the escort warship during the voyage, thereby increasing the range of the escort warship and the battle group.

The large aircraft carriers and supercarriers of the Imperial Navy have a maximum range of more than 12,000 nautical miles, and the "Xue Yuanzheng" class has reached an astonishing 16,000 nautical miles. If fuel economy is not taken into account, there is no combat mission, and even aviation fuel is used to increase the range.

Of course, this never happened.

It's just that during the Great War, the contradiction between "range and tonnage" did not exist.

The Imperial Navy has adjusted the performance indicators of the new air defense cruisers after the "Qingzhou" class, directly increasing the full load displacement to 20,000 tons, and allowing another 10% increase, that is, reaching 22,000 tons, so as to obtain stronger air defense combat capabilities, and at least 16,000 nautical miles, which is equivalent to the endurance of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class, so as to accompany the supercarrier to carry out combat missions throughout the process.

In addition, the new universal destroyer has also been raised to more than 10,000 tons, and the ocean-going frigate has been relaxed to 7,000 tons.

As for cost, it is clearly not the primary factor in wartime.

But the problem is that these warships will not be able to be completed and put into service until two years at the earliest.

What can be relied on now is the 61st Task Force.

In fact, as long as Task Force 61 could arrive in nine days' time, it would definitely be able to help a lot, and maybe there would be a chance to annihilate the Nuland fleet.

The key is actually how to fight this naval battle.

Obviously, this is also the most headache for Bai Huawei.

It's not that he is not good at attacking, but how to annihilate the Nuland fleet at the least cost.

What is certain is that the purpose of the Nuland Navy is not only to capture the transit island, but also to annihilate the 41st Task Force, and even the 61st Task Force.

If this is the case, rushing over to the decisive battle may be right in the hands of the enemy.

Don't forget that the Khowaii Islands have been heavily bombarded, and numerous military bases, including Wallace Air Force Base, have been paralyzed.

Although the aviation units deployed on the Khowaii Islands still have a certain combat effectiveness by relying on temporary auxiliary bases such as field airfields, this situation cannot last forever, and it will only take 10 days at most, that is, the materials stored in the auxiliary bases will be exhausted within 10 days.

In addition, most combat aircraft also require full maintenance after 10 consecutive days of sortie.

Obviously, there is certainly no way to carry out full maintenance of combat aircraft at field airfields.

This point in time is around October 15th.

If Task Force 61 arrives in nine days, it will be 16 October.

That is, precisely at the time when the combat effectiveness of shore-based aviation fell to the bottom!

At that time, the only thing that the two task forces can rely on is the long-range bombers deployed on Wai Island and even Guan Island.

In other words, if shore-based air cover is required, the two task forces can only operate in the southwest of the transit island, that is, in the direction of Wei Island and Guan Dao. If they were not in this area, then the two task forces would not have wanted to get the cover of shore-based aviation.

To be precise, "support" is more appropriate.

It can be seen that no matter where it is deployed, there are shortcomings, which will inevitably have an impact on tactical choices.

The key is that without the cover of shore-based aviation and the decisive battle with the Nuland fleet, it is easy to guess the whereabouts of the two task forces.

In this way, the chances of winning this decisive battle of the fleet according to the conventional way are not great.

Of course, the key to this, Bai Huawei saw very clearly.

It was not only Bai Huawei who needed to attack, or was ready to attack, and it was not only Bai Huawei who won through the attack, but also the commander of the Nuland fleet.

This is not an offensive and defensive battle in past exercises, but an offensive battle!

On the battlefield of the sea, it is basically a confrontational battle. The so-called offense and defense actually only exist at the strategic level, while the tactics are mainly offensive.

There is one more thing that gives Bai Huawei a headache.

Until now, I haven't got any information about the commander of the Nuland fleet!

Before Bai Huawei led the 41st Task Force out of port, the intelligence officer in charge of assisting him only told him that the Nuland Navy had sent a very young senior officer to Diego Military Port to serve as the operational staff officer of the 5th Fleet, and that he might have been promoted to the chief of staff of the 51st Task Force and was responsible for the command of the 51st Task Force. As for the rest, even the Military Intelligence Agency has not received reliable information.

Who the hell is this high-ranking officer?

Or, what kind of young senior officer is qualified to "parachute" to the 5th Fleet, and moreover, to become the commander of the 51st Task Force.

In the Nuland Navy, the chief of staff was the supreme commander, and the commander of the fleet was often held in name.

There is no doubt that this young senior officer is certainly not simple. Without outstanding capabilities, President Nuland would not have handed over the most powerful fleet to him.

As far as Bai Huawei knows, in the Nuland Navy, there are only a few young officers who have this ability.

It's hard to say who it is.