"Head, bottom left."

"See."

In response, Lian Mingyang's attention returned to the dashboard in front of him, but he only glanced at it, and then looked ahead.

It's 8:45.

On the road in front left, an armored unit was advancing north.

That's right, it's the 04101st Armored Battalion.

The top of the turret, the back of the hull, and the sides of the turret and hull of all tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are fluorescent painted with the inverted "V" symbol for identification between friend and foe.

In the air, through the low-light night vision device, you can see very clearly.

As for why this symbol was used, it is rumored to be an unintentional move by a soldier during a counterinsurgency operation in Sri Lanka.

In this way, through the low-light night vision device, it is possible to see at a glance which tanks and combat vehicles are friendly forces, minimizing the possibility of accidental damage.

Actually, in the low-light night vision, everything is green.

As for the fluorescent symbols, they just look a little brighter.

For a long time, night fighting was always a shortcoming of the Imperial Army. During the Polish-Iraqi War, the Imperial ** team had enough of the hardships of night battles.

After that, the Imperial Army made great efforts to solve the problem of night warfare.

As a result, a variety of night vision devices, including low-light night vision devices, have become standard equipment in the army.

Night vision glasses have long become the standard equipment of aviation and special forces, and the helicopter pilots of the Army Aviation are even more per person.

In fact, on the battlefield of Poshawan, the Imperial Army has already demonstrated extremely strong night combat capabilities, and the efficiency of night combat even exceeds that of daytime. Bombing operations aimed at key targets are almost always carried out at night, and the "Attack-11" is even more concentrated at night.

At this time, Lian Mingyang was wearing a binocular low-light night vision device.

This kind of night vision device, which weighs less than 1,000 grams and is mounted directly on the flight helmet, has long been standard, providing the pilot with a visual range of about 1,000 meters at night. Although it is not enough for combat, it is certainly more than enough to control the helicopter.

After the armored forces that overtook the ground, Lian Mingyang turned on the formation communication channel and issued the first order.

Decelerate.

Reduced flight speed from 220 km/h to 150 km/h.

Of course, check the status of the helicopter and its weapons, and be ready for battle.

In standard air-ground coordination tactics, helicopter gunships are typically about 50 kilometers ahead of the armored cluster to eliminate threatening targets along the way.

And, of course, helicopter gunships that intercept the enemy.

Because it is necessary to cover the operation of armored troops, there is no need to rush too forward.

The "battle line" is not a line, there are defensive depths ranging from several thousand meters to tens of kilometers, and if the helicopter gunships on cover duty fly too fast and distance themselves from the armored forces in the rear, there is a possibility that there will be a flaw, and the enemy may take advantage of the opportunity to enter.

In addition, maintaining an appropriate distance, it is possible to receive support from ground forces.

Among them, the most critical is the self-propelled air defense system of the field forces.

If anything, the Imperial Army is probably the least air-definite-minded force in the world.

It's just that the Army can't be blamed either.

To put it at the root, it is actually related to the Air Force.

According to the rules set at the time of the "separation," air defense systems above the campaign level, that is, long-range air defense systems with a range of more than 60 kilometers and mainly theater air defense, belong to the air force.

According to the Air Force's operational theory, ground-based air defense weapons are only a part of the air defense system, which is dominated by fighters.

As a matter of fact, in the planning of the Air Force, the air defense system is only a supplement to the existing air supremacy system, and the most effective means of air defense is to seize and master air supremacy.

With absolute air supremacy, air defense is also needed?

It is precisely in this way that the army can develop only field air defense systems.

Because the Imperial Air Force was strong enough and had always pursued an offensive strategy, the Imperial Army had not encountered a serious air threat over the past few decades.

To put it bluntly, if even the air defense cover provided by the Imperial Air Force is not strong enough, then even if it has an advanced field air defense system, it is basically a decoration. In the face of modern air power, the combat effectiveness of field air defense systems is almost zero.

This is not alarmist.

In the joint exercises within the Imperial Army, the army's field air defense system did not succeed in blocking a long-range attack launched by the air force.

If anything, the greatest value of the field air defense system is to force the Air Force to develop weapons with a longer range.

It was on this basis that the Imperial Air Force took the lead in proposing the concept of "stand-off weapons" and developed a variety of strike munitions with a range of more than 80 kilometers in accordance with this concept, such as gliding bombs with gliding wings and rocket booster engines to drop gliding bombs with a range of more than 100 kilometers at high altitudes.

Of course, these are all off-topic.

Strictly speaking, it was only after the birth of helicopter gunships that the Imperial Army recognized the importance of field air defense systems.

To put it simply, the air supremacy at the disposal of the Air Force, whether it is a fighter with advanced performance or a long-range regional anti-aircraft missile, is incapable of dealing with helicopter gunships flying at treetop heights, or it is simply out of reach.

At this time, the burden of dealing with helicopter gunships fell on the army's field air defense system.

In fact, during the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Army aviation lost several thousand helicopters, and it has long been proven that small-caliber anti-aircraft guns are a sufficient threat to low-altitude targets.

It was precisely for this reason that the Imperial Army invested heavily in the development of a field air defense system dominated by small-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

This is the "FP-95A" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

This self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which entered service almost at the same time as the ZT-99A, is a masterpiece created by the Imperial Army after nearly 20 years of hard work.

In fact, the FP-95A can be seen as a modernized version of the "Shilka".

At the end of the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Army captured several "Shilka" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns that were largely intact and tested them.

By the standards of that time, "Shilka" could be considered a very advanced field air defense system.

Of course, there are also a lot of problems.

The most conspicuous thing is that it lacks a fire control system, and its independent combat capability is relatively poor, and it is unable to deal with high-speed targets.

In addition, the power of 23-mm shells was noticeably weaker.

In response to these problems, the Imperial Army established performance standards for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

Compared with the "Shilka", the FP-95A uses two 30-mm anti-aircraft guns, and the same type of machine gun on the "Z-10A", and the ammunition can be completely universal. It is precisely for this reason that the "FP-95A" has the ability to destroy lightly armored targets and is able to provide fire support to ground forces.

The most prominent, still, is the fire control system.

The FP-95A has a fairly complete, and one might even say extravagant, set of fire control equipment.

The core is a C-band air search and tracking radar with a maximum detection range of more than 30 kilometers, and an X-band radar dedicated to fire control irradiation.

In addition, there is a set of photoelectric observation and sighting equipment that is used in a strong electromagnetic environment, that is, after interference.

Even after all electronics fail, the gun commander can use a turret-mounted mechanical sight.

However, it was this fire control system that almost disarmed the "FP-95A".

Not only because of the huge difficulty of development, the development progress is repeatedly delayed, but also related to the high cost.

The ex-factory unit price of the FP-95A is 3.5 million gold dollars, which is almost double that of the ZT-99A.

It was in this way that the FP-95A became the most expensive ground main battle platform for the Imperial Army.

So far, the production of FP-95A is less than 300 units, except for a few units equipped to defend the imperial capital, the rest are all in the northwest theater.

In the 3 separate anti-aircraft battalions of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division, there were a total of 72 guns.

A battalion with 24 doors.

The FP-95A is certainly the most advanced self-propelled anti-aircraft gun available today, but it's not perfect, and it's still a long way from perfect.

The most conspicuous problem is the positioning of its "anti-aircraft guns".

At the beginning of the development of the project, the performance of the light anti-aircraft missile was very unreliable, so the integration of the anti-aircraft missile appeared to be a redundant move.

As a result, the FP-95A only had anti-aircraft guns and did not become a popular field air defense system with integrated projectiles and artillery today.

According to the standards of the Polish-Iraqi war, that is, to cover the operations of ground forces, the anti-aircraft range of 3000 to 4000 meters that a 30-mm machine gun can achieve is actually sufficient, and it can even be said to be more than enough, after all, the maximum effective range that anti-tank missiles of that era can achieve is within 4000 meters.

By current standards, this range is clearly far from sufficient.

Do not forget that the Imperial Army's "Repeater" heavy anti-tank missiles have a range of 8 kilometers, and the effective range is more than 5 kilometers.

It was this that the Imperial Army always wanted to improve the FP-95A, at least by adding anti-aircraft missiles to it.

If you want to say, the difficulty of retrofitting is not very great.

Because the electronic equipment is already advanced enough, especially the C-band radar has a search range of 30 km, and the working range of the irradiation radar is also more than 10 km, there is no need to improve the electronic equipment, so according to the simplest method, it is only necessary to integrate a missile launch system.

It is a pity that the modification of the FP-95A existed only at the envisioning stage.

The point is, the Imperial Army could not afford the funds it needed.

In addition, the FP-95A has been equipping the troops for less than 10 years, and the air defense pressure of the Imperial Army is not very great, so it is difficult to obtain the corresponding appropriation.

If anything, the Imperial Army did not apply for funding for the improvement of the FP-95A at all.

The reason is simple: to do so, it is tantamount to admitting in disguise that the FP-95A is not an advanced weapon, and that the decision to insist on developing the system in the first place was wrong.

If the FP-95A is a "wrong" weapon, then there is even less reason to spend money on improving it.

To a large extent, the FP-95A is a psychological weapon, that is, to make the officers and men of the armored forces feel safer.

Situ Lin has a very clear understanding of this.

When he saw the dozens of armed helicopters flying from the south, Situ Lin gave the battle order.

There are still up to 100 kilometers from the front line, and although it will take 4 to 5 hours according to the speed of advance of the armored troops, it does not mean that you will not be attacked until you reach the battlefield.

Actually, this distance is not far at all.

After a maximum of two hours, the armored unit commanded by Situ Lin will enter the range of enemy fire.

Don't forget, the West Luosha army has a long-range rocket artillery with a range of up to 80 kilometers, even if it is deployed in the rear, such as 20 kilometers behind the assault force, the coverage range is 60 kilometers, and it can fire at targets within 60 kilometers behind the defense line of the East Luosha army.

At the moment, the premise is to know where to fire.

If anything, what really needs to be worried is actually the enemy's helicopter gunships.

This is also the key to Situ Lin's proposal to provide support and assistance from the Army Aviation Assault Force stationed in Atyrau.

If it is inevitable to encounter enemy gunships, it is better to have your own gunship in the air than nothing.

However, this is not enough to reassure Situ Lin.

The first order he gave was to let the air defense company in the rear follow, go to the front of the line, and be responsible for intercepting enemy aircraft that might appear at any time.

A company has 9 FP-95As, which is not a lot, but it is enough to pose a threat to incoming enemy mechanisms.

Obviously, this is a very bold decision.

At around 9 o'clock, before and after the air defense company was on board, Situ Lin issued a second order, allowing the three tank companies to deploy on the spot according to the predetermined plan.

At this time, Situ Lin and his men were still about 80 kilometers away from the defense line of the East Luosha army.

According to Situ Lin's arrangement, the three tanks spent 30 minutes to refuel the tank and adjust the ammunition they carried for the last time.

The main thing, of course, is against tanks.

As a rule, "ZT-99B" carries 8-12 armor-piercing shells, the rest are multipurpose high-explosive shells.

Only this time, you have to carry more armor-piercing shells.

According to Situ Lin's arrangement, all main battle tanks increased the proportion of armor-piercing shells to more than 60 percent, that is, to 30 rounds.

The reason is also very simple, this battle is mainly against enemy tanks, and not other targets.

With more than a dozen rounds of high-explosive shells, they were only used against infantry fighting vehicles.

If anything, it's only because high-explosive shells are cheaper.

And, of course, let the infantry fighting vehicles carry enough anti-tank missiles.

In peacetime, even in combat readiness, infantry fighting vehicles will carry only half of the base, 4 "Ballista" heavy anti-tank missiles.

Two of them are stored in the launch system, and the other two are in special containers.

The reason is that the missiles in the deployed state are easily damaged, and they are kept by the logistics units in peacetime.

In addition, heavy anti-tank missiles are very expensive, damaged, and no one can afford to pay for them.

The key is that the first temporary support base must be set up here, and the remaining logistics support company must open up a site with a large enough area.

If needed, the helicopter gunships heading north will come here to refuel after completing the assault.

In addition, transport helicopters will be sent to the rear to bring ammunition such as anti-tank missiles.

To put it simply, the first and most critical tactical support point needs to be set here.

Of course, it was only delayed for half an hour.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the cooking company of the logistics support battalion brought up the hot meals cooked on the road and delivered them to every officer and soldier.

No one asks more, because there is no need to ask.

This will be the last hot meal for many soldiers.

Even if you are lucky, you will survive to the moment when the battle is over, which means that you will not want to eat a hot meal for a long time to come.

After 9:30, Situ Lin gave the order to leave.

Although you are the Imperial Field Marshal and the grandson of the former commander of the Praetorian Guard, Situ Jingde, as the commander of the 04101st Armored Battalion, Situ Lin has no special qualifications.

The battalion guard platoon under his direct command is actually a standard tank platoon with 4 "ZT-99Bs".

Situ Lin's car is a "ZT-99B".

If anything, his style of insisting on commanding battles on the front line came from the Imperial Praetorian Guard, and more than half of the ace troops, including the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division, were adapted from the combat units of the Praetorian Guard, and many traditions and habits that the Praetorian Guard only had were retained.

Now, Situ Lin will follow his grandfather's example and lead a modern cavalry unit to charge!