Task Force 52 did not hold out until sunset, and ran out of good luck at about 3 p.m.

Just as the anti-aircraft fighters had been sent before, it was almost 3 o'clock when the 52nd Task Force suddenly sent a telegram that it had been attacked.

Probably not believing it, or fearing that something would go wrong, the staff officer in charge of communications and liaison did not report it at the first time.

After a delay of almost 15 minutes, at a quarter past 3 o'clock, after receiving a second telegram from Task Force 52, the communications staff officer reported to the commander.

Actually, it's not a delay.

The two fleets are hundreds of kilometers apart, even if fighters are dispatched 15 minutes in advance, they will not be able to arrive at least 45 minutes later, and in the case of being attacked by the Liang Xia Navy, even if the 52nd Task Force is in the best condition, it will not be able to hold out for 30 minutes, let alone not in the best condition. Strictly speaking, when the 52nd Task Force was attacked, it could be said that it was in a very bad state of battle.

The battles that followed are the best proof of this.

The point is that at the time of the attack of enemy aircraft, there were only 12 F-14Bs patrolling in the air, and only 4 were in the direction of enemy aircraft.

Sadly, even on the flight decks of the 2 "Newland" class, only a few heavy fighters are in combat readiness.

These anti-aircraft fighters faced a full 16 Battle-9Bs.

In addition, at least one Finger-6C and four Attack-5CZ aircraft were involved in offensive operations, to be precise, to support the advancing escort fighters.

These enemy planes all came from the east.

In less than 5 minutes, 4 F-14Bs in this direction were shot down.

To make matters worse, the E-2Cs operating here lost contact with the rear before fighters from other directions rushed over.

Only by this time did the commander of the 52nd task force realize the seriousness of the problem.

Strictly speaking, the main reason was that the attack came too suddenly, only a few minutes before and after, and the command system of Task Force 52 did not react at all.

When the air defense warship activated the radar, it was discovered that the E-2C that had lost contact in the east had been shot down.

In addition, the number of incoming enemy aircraft, to be precise, was 24, not 16, but 24, of which 8 were divided into 2 formations and flew at low altitudes.

Before these eight "Zhan-9Bs" entered the search range of the E-2C, those fighters flying at high altitude successfully diverted the attention of the early warning aircraft.

To say, this is also a major flaw of carrier-based AWACS.

Due to the limitations of the carrying platform, the main reason is that the carrier aircraft is too small to be equipped with advanced data processing equipment, that is, the often said on-board computer, and it is difficult for small early warning aircraft such as the E-2C to take care of all aspects, so they often have to cooperate with other platforms in combat use.

Relatively speaking, the independent combat capabilities of carrier-based AWACS aircraft are very limited.

To put it bluntly, when the E-2C needs to rely on radar to monitor enemy aircraft that are rapidly approaching at high altitudes, it is difficult to focus on other directions.

As a result, the 8 "Battle-9Bs" approached the E-2C without being detected.

With the situation at the time, there is reason to believe that it was these fighters who approached from a low altitude who shot down 4 F-14Bs.

Although the F-14B had already fired at the enemy planes at high altitude before it was shot down, after being shot down, the "Immortal Bird" long-range air-to-air missile launched by the F-14B did not enter the terminal autonomous attack stage at all because it lost its mid-course guidance, and thus failed to pose a threat to the incoming enemy aircraft.

Of course, after the AWACS aircraft were finished, the outer air defense network of the 52nd task force had been penetrated.

The eight F-14Bs that arrived after that were all shot down by enemy planes without much suspense.

There is nothing strange about this, there are early warning planes and electronic attack planes behind the enemy planes, which can not only detect the approaching Nuland fighters in time, but also suppress and interfere with the Nuland fighters, weaken the detection performance of the fire control radar, and ensure that the own fighters can launch an attack first.

By the time the fighters on standby on the aircraft carrier took off urgently, the enemy planes were already approaching the 52nd Task Force.

Before that, enemy aircraft had already found their way.

Do not forget that after the AWACS aircraft on the periphery were shot down, the 52nd task force went into combat condition and asked the air defense warships to activate the radar.

That is, even if the "Attack-5CZ" did not intercept the telegram sent by the "Nuland", it must have intercepted the electromagnetic signal sent by the air defense warship.

As long as you fly towards the air defense battleship, it will definitely be right.

In fact, the three Tikan-class cruisers in the 52nd Task Force were all in the vicinity of the aircraft carriers, and one of them was to the east of the two aircraft carriers.

At that time, it was this cruiser that first activated the radar.

That is, before entering the effective range of the air defense warship, to be precise, the "Standard 2" anti-aircraft missile, those fighters that broke forward turned and flew away.

Obviously, with the support of electronic attack aircraft, fighters can easily avoid air defense warships.

However, this also means that attacks will follow.

To Stark's surprise, it was not the bombers of the Liangxia Air Force that launched the attack first, nor the patrol planes belonging to the shore-based air force.

Judging from the battle reports sent by the 52nd Task Force, it was the carrier-based aviation that launched the attack.

The reason is also simple, before the attack, the air defense cruiser did not detect the attack aircraft group, and did not detect anti-ship missiles launched from high altitudes.

The point, it was light anti-ship missiles that attacked the air defense cruisers!

At about 3:25 a.m., less than 15 minutes after the start of the air battle, the cruiser Bunker, which was located in the easternmost part and served as an air defense post, was attacked.

Because it was suppressed by electronic attack aircraft, and the anti-ship missile was flying at an altitude close to the sea, it was detected by radar when it was less than 40 kilometers away from the cruiser.

This distance is too close!

Even if all of them are subsonic light anti-ship missiles, they can fly in about 150 seconds at a distance of 40 kilometers and with the Serpentine maneuver.

It's only 2 and a half minutes!

In such a short period of time, the "Bunker" can be intercepted with long-range anti-aircraft missiles at most once, and then it will enter the stage of short-range air defense operations.

What's worse is that "Bunker" is an air defense cruiser and is not equipped with short-range anti-aircraft missiles!

Although last year, with the help of the first overhaul, the ship replaced the front and rear Mk-26 dual-arm missile launchers with the Mk-41 vertical launch system, which greatly increased the number of missiles carried and the ability to engage multiple targets, but its short-range anti-aircraft firepower is still very weak.

The main thing is that the Mk41 is not yet able to carry the Sea Sparrow process anti-aircraft missiles.

It's not that it can't fit, but in the eyes of the Nuland Navy, it's too wasteful.

In fact, the Nuland Navy has long recognized this problem and is also trying to solve it. That is, on the basis of the "Sea Sparrow", the development of a medium-range anti-aircraft missile with more advanced performance, which can be loaded not only with the Mk-41, but also with four missiles in one launch tube. The solution is simple, mainly using folding wings to reduce the reload space and using a dual-thrust rocket engine to increase the range.

If you want to say, this is also learning from the Liang Xia Navy.

Before the outbreak of the war, the Liangxia Navy had already received a batch of new medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, and they were used to equip the main warships, including cruisers. This new type of air defense missile is a one-pit four-bomb design, but its performance indicators exceed the upper limit of ordinary medium-range missiles, such as the maximum range of 60 kilometers, which is similar to the previous generation of long-range air defense missiles, and has a certain regional air defense capability.

It is a pity that the new medium-range anti-aircraft missile invested and developed by the Nuland Navy is still in the stage of conceptual demonstration.

It is precisely so that there are no medium-range anti-aircraft missiles on the anti-aircraft cruisers of the "Tikan" class.

In response to this problem, the Nuland Navy resorted to formation tactics to compensate.

To put it simply, it is to provide close air defense cover for air defense cruisers with other warships, such as universal destroyers, so that air defense cruisers can concentrate on long-range air defense operations.

To do this, in the immediate vicinity of the air defense cruisers, as a rule, there were 1 destroyers.

Only, this time it was the exception.

The "Bunker" is carrying out the pre-surprise warning mission, mainly to cooperate with the early warning aircraft, and the aircraft carrier battle group is about 50 kilometers behind it.

That is, there were no destroyers in the vicinity of the "Bunker".

The two closest destroyers, in the vicinity of the USS Nuland and the USS Kitty Hawk, were in operation with the other two air defense cruisers.

In fact, the destroyers of the 51st Task Force were not enough.

Don't forget, the 4 Kidd-class ships covering the retreat of the convoy are from the Sunset Ocean Fleet, and they were previously part of Task Force 51!

As a result, only four destroyers of the "Spu" class remained in the 51st Task Force.

Remove the 2 ships that stayed behind to cover the aircraft carrier, and the other 2 are in front of the left and right front of the course, responsible for driving away the enemy submarines lying in ambush near the route.

In fact, this is the essential work of the destroyer.

All in all, after launching more than 30 "Standard 2s", the "Bunker" could only rely on two "Phalanx" close-in defense guns installed on both sides of the front chimney to deal with the incoming anti-ship missiles.

And, of course, two 5-inch naval guns in the front and rear.

As for the results, there is no need to say much.

Although it was clearly mentioned in the battle that the "Bunker" fought until the last moment, even when it was overwhelmed by raindrops of anti-ship missiles, the main gun and close defense guns were still firing at the incoming missiles, but all efforts were in vain, and in the end it still failed to avoid the result of sinking.

At about 3:30 a.m., the "Bunker" sank in a big explosion.

According to the battle report sent by the 52nd Task Force, the attack on the "Bunker" was carried out by one ship-based attack group and at least 24 heavy carrier-based attack aircraft.

According to the calculation of 4 anti-ship missiles hanging on each one, that is a full 96 pieces!

Obviously, even with the addition of a destroyer, it will not be able to withstand so many anti-ship missiles.

Of course, the battle is not over.

Task Force 41 has three aircraft carriers, and if one aircraft carrier dispatches a heavy carrier-based attack aircraft group, there will be two more aircraft groups.

This obviously does not require guesswork.

At around 3:35 a.m., the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group, located north of the formation, was the first to be attacked.

The encounter with the "Bunker" was almost identical, and under the cover of escort fighters, a group of heavy carrier-based attack aircraft attacked the aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk".

The point is that these attack aircraft are still missiles delivered at ultra-low altitudes, and they do not give the air defense cruisers a chance to fire.

The difference is that the attack aircraft group did not waste ammunition on the escort ships.

Nearly a hundred anti-ship missiles were all fired at the aircraft carrier!

The reason for this is simple.

The Kitty Hawk was also in combat condition before it was attacked, including using the on-board anti-aircraft warning radar to search for incoming enemy aircraft.

If anything, this is also a big problem for the "Newland" class.

Because the required funds were not obtained, the three "Newland" class ships were not able to upgrade the communication and command system until the outbreak of the war.

As a result, there have always been problems with the cooperative combat capability of the "Newland" class and escort warships.

For example, after entering the stage of air defense operations, the "Nuland" class could not use the assistance of escort warships, and could only use its own radar to search for enemy aircraft.

Then, there is a good chance that your whereabouts will be exposed in battle!

Do not forget that the attack aircraft of the Liangxia fleet are supported by electronic attack aircraft, and it is also known whether there are aircraft carriers behind the air defense battleships.

This round of attacks can be said to be quite crisp and neat.

Although the cruisers and destroyers covering the "Kitty Hawk" shot down almost 40 anti-ship missiles, and the frigates that provided close close cover still blocked nearly 10 anti-ship missiles for the aircraft carrier at the last moment, in the end, more than 10 anti-ship missiles still hit the "Kitty Hawk."

Actually, this is a relatively conservative estimate.

The main thing is that many anti-ship missiles arrived at the same time, and even if you watch from a nearby warship, it is impossible to see exactly how many anti-ship missiles hit the aircraft carrier.

The only thing that is certain is that the "Kitty Hawk" has suffered heavy damage and has lost its combat effectiveness.

As for whether it will be able to sail, a more detailed report is needed.

Almost at the same time that the "Kitty Hawk" was attacked, it was at most two minutes late, and the "Nuland" was also attacked by the Liang Xia attack group.

The attacking tactics remain the same.

A group of 24 "Attack-5s" launched an attack on the "Nuland" outside the interception range of the air defense cruiser.

Of course, the key role is still played by electronic attack aircraft that hovering in the distance.

As for the outcome, there is no suspense either.

According to the battle report sent by the 52nd Task Force at 3:45, the "Nuland" was hit by a number of anti-ship missiles, lost its combat capability, and the speed was reduced to less than 20 knots, and it is very likely that it will eventually be reduced to 14 knots, that is, only 2 sets of propulsion systems can work normally. Whether the speed can be increased to more than 20 knots depends on the results of damage management and repair, and whether the damaged power system can be repaired.

If there is a problem with both the power system and the propulsion system, it is almost a death sentence for the "Nuland".

To put it bluntly, if there is no way to increase the speed, then the commander of Task Force 52 will have to consider abandoning the aircraft carrier in order to save the officers and men on the carrier. After all, there is no way to evacuate quickly, which means that it will definitely be attacked again in a few hours.

In addition, the situation with the "Kitty Hawk" was even worse.

At that time, the "Kitty Hawk" had stopped, and the water intake exceeded 10,000 tons, and it was increasing all the time. Although the officers and men of the ship have not given up, and the captain has not given the order to abandon the ship, unless a miracle happens, such as getting the power system to work again, the ship will definitely be finished.

Relying only on a few spare generators, even if the water ingress can be controlled, it will not be able to push the aircraft carrier out of the warring sea.

The officers and men of the ship, especially the captain, just did not realize that their efforts were meaningless.

Actually, it's the same for Stark.

Although only 4 warships were lost, and the other warships were unscathed, after the completion of 2 aircraft carriers, the 52nd Task Force was already dead in name.

The loss of Task Force 52 is equivalent to the loss of hope of retaking the Khowaii Islands!