Strategic airlift has always been the killer weapon of the Imperial Army, and the huge transport aircraft group is one of the two strategic pillars of the Imperial Air Force.

In terms of status and value, transport aviation actually surpasses tactical aviation.

If anything, it was precisely because of the large number of transport planes that the Imperial Army was able to shoot left and right, moving between several major battlefields.

Of course, this is also where Ding Zhennan's confidence lies in daring to temporarily adjust the battle plan.

Without those dozens of "Y-15A", even if Ding Zhennan ate the leopard's gall, he would not dare to make such a big adjustment to the combat deployment at this time.

Not to mention going deep behind enemy lines, with the logistical support forces invested by the coalition forces, even near the border, they would not dare to toss like this.

However, how to fight this battle still needs to be discussed with Liu Zunshan.

It didn't take long for Liu Zunshan to come back.

"You too, in fact, Master Hou has no other meaning at all, there is no need to do anything else."

"Of course that's the best thing." Ding Zhennan was speechless, Liu Zunshan originally had this straightforward character, and it can also be said to be very simple.

"You're really not kidding?"

While saying this, Liu Zunshan also pointed to the sign on the sand table, indicating that he was talking about the assault target selected by Ding Zhennan.

De Ogle.

A small town with a population of less than 20,000, but strategically important, 100 kilometers to the south is heavily defended by the Vatican army of Udaipur, about 150 kilometers to the northeast is Ajmer, and about 300 kilometers to the west of Balmer, where the vanguard of the Fifth Marine Division is located.

Crucially, Deogle is located in the middle of the Aravalli Range, with the Van Roe Desert to the west and the Malwa Plateau to the east.

The long-range artillery deployed in the vicinity of Deogle could pose a threat to the Vatican army within a radius of tens of kilometers, and Pilwala to the east was within artillery coverage. Theoretically, after the capture of Deogle, it would be possible to cut off ground communications between Jaipur and Udaipur with artillery fire. The deployment of an assault aviation force here would also pose a threat to a number of military powerhouses, including Kota. If they can send long-range rocket artillery over, they can even fire at Jaipur, and the local Central Army will suffer a lot.

However, the problem of Deogle is also prominent.

First of all, the town happens to be on a hilltop plain, and the terrain is flat on the north and south sides, and the railroad and road across the Aravalli Ridge are located on the east and west. There was no high ground to defend in the vicinity of the town, but the slopes of the eastern and western suburbs were not suitable for the construction of field airfields.

From the perspective of topography, the airport can only be built in the suburbs.

In this way, not only did it have to occupy the towns, but it was also necessary to expand the defense to the outskirts, which required the deployment of more troops.

Theoretically, a one-fold increase in the area of the defense zone would require a threefold increase in the number of troops required.

If the main position is on the slopes of the eastern and western suburbs, the area of the defense area will exceed 100 square kilometers. Even if the mobile defensive tactics of relying on the stronghold are adopted, at least three battalions are required, that is, one battalion is deployed in the east and one battalion is deployed in the west, and one battalion is left as a reserve.

Here, too, there is a very critical issue involved.

The vanguard of the 5th Marine Division was still in Balmel, and the distance from Deogle was as high as 300 kilometers in a straight line. Due to the range limitations of general-purpose helicopters, the combat range of assault aviation units must generally be limited to 150 kilometers, otherwise the combat efficiency will plummet.

It would be advisable to establish a transit point between Balmel and Deaugel.

It's just that after Liu Zunshan proposed it, it was immediately vetoed by Ding Zhennan.

The reason is also very simple, this will take a lot of time, and it will reveal the combat intent, lose the suddenness of the battle, and allow the enemy to prepare the defense in advance.

In fact, this is also the reason why Hou Chensheng emphasized the borrowing of heavy helicopters at the beginning of the discussion.

The main equipment of the Imperial Army Aviation and Marine Corps assault aviation is a 10-ton "Z-15" utility helicopter, with a maximum range of more than 300 kilometers in normal mission mode, and the carrying capacity is very limited, such as transporting large-sized cargo in the form of hanging.

In terms of combat application, the "Z-15" mainly transports soldiers and ammunition materials.

As for combat equipment, it has to rely on large transport helicopters.

It was precisely because the "Z-15" was not capable of transporting that the Imperial Army invested in the development and purchase of the "Z-18" heavy helicopter with a larger size and stronger transport capacity, and the "Z-19" special lifting helicopter, and also planned to purchase the "Z-17" heavy helicopter developed by the Navy at one time.

Because it is too expensive and cumbersome to maintain, these 3 types of heavy helicopters are very expensive.

For example, there are more than a dozen models of the 20-ton "Z-18", which were equipped with the Imperial Army Aviation more than ten years ago, and the output has not exceeded 1,000 until now, while the output of the "Z-15" in the same period has exceeded 3,000, and even the output of the "Z-10" helicopter gunship is close to 1,000.

As for the 30-ton "Z-17", they are even more pitiful, with a total of less than 300 aircraft.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

The price of the "Z-18" is 3 times that of the "Z-15", and the price of the "Z-17" is 5 times that of the "Z-15". The factory price of the latest modification of the "Z-17" even exceeds that of the "Zhan-9B", making it the most expensive helicopter in the world, and even the deep-pocketed Imperial Navy cannot afford it.

It is precisely because of this that both the army and the Marine Corps and heavy helicopters are uniformly deployed and deployed according to the task.

In the Marine Corps, all heavy helicopters are deployed in the landing fleet, to be precise, under the jurisdiction of the fleet, stationed in naval air stations in peacetime, and in wartime with the landing fleet and aircraft carrier battle groups, and assigned to combat units when necessary, and participate in combat operations.

As for the Army, it is not so strict.

As a rule, in the assault aviation or transport aviation brigade of the main division, there is a battalion equipped with heavy helicopters, and the number is generally between 20 and 30 aircraft. In the aviation brigade directly under the theater of operations, there are generally 2 such battalions, equipped with a total of no less than 50 heavy helicopters.

Simply put, in a theater of operations, there are at least 200 heavy helicopters.

The key is that the theater command can deploy these heavy transport aviation battalions according to the situation, such as concentrated deployment in a certain direction.

Of course, it's generally a decentralized deployment.

This time, two heavy transport aviation battalions came to Pakistan with the 17th Armored Division, one of which was from the aviation brigade directly under the Western Theater of Operations, with a total of 52 "Z-18s."

A few days earlier, the helicopters had flown from the Kib fortress to the port of Kuah.

If anything, the ability to fly thousands of kilometers in transit after attaching the auxiliary fuel tank and loading the internal fuel tank is a major advantage of the heavy helicopter.

The Z-18 has a transit range of up to 3,500 kilometers.

Theoretically, it is possible to fly directly from the mainland of the empire to the island of Tube.

In addition, it is possible to extend the range with in-flight refueling. However, this is generally not done, because only a dedicated tactical tanker can refuel the helicopter in the air, and the range of the tactical tanker itself is very limited, and it is not suitable for cross-theater refueling missions.

But the problem is that 52 is simply not enough!

According to Liu Zunshan's analysis, even if all 52 "Z-18s" were dispatched, they would only be able to transport one battalion of troops 300 kilometers away at a time.

It is impossible for all of these "Z-18s" to be in good condition, and the sortie rate is certainly not 100%.

In the Bosshawan War, the sortie rate of the "Z-18" was less than 80%, and even if it was calculated at 80%, a sortie could deliver at most an infantry battalion without an artillery company, and only one base number of ammunition could be delivered. With this amount of troops, I am afraid that even the occupation of Deogle will not be possible.

The point is, the battle damage has not yet been taken into account.

It is even more troublesome if you lose a few helicopters during the assault.

In fact, even if the assault was successful, the situation was not optimistic.

300 kilometers, it's too far.

Because a mission cycle is more than 3 hours, even if the "Z-18" can fly at the highest intensity, it can only fly 3 times a day.

It is a pity that the "Z-18" of the 17th Panzer Division will certainly not be able to reach the maximum sortie intensity.

The reason is also very simple, these two battalions were transferred from Posha Bay, and they have been on missions before, and most of the helicopters are not in very good condition, such as the need to replace or overhaul the engines, and the hulls of several aircraft were damaged in the battle and had to be completely refurbished.

If calculated on the basis of two sorties a day, in the crucial 72 hours, the volume of transportation is only 3,000 tons.

Strictly speaking, less than 3000 tons.

After deducting two infantry battalions, there is only a few hundred tons of surplus for this volume, and to build a field airfield that can allow the "Y-15A" to take off and land, there are as many as 800 tons of engineering equipment alone, and about 1,200 tons of engineering materials are required, and the transportation gap is more than 1,000 tons.

Fill this gap with a utility helicopter?

Carrying out a transport mission with a flight radius of 300 kilometers, the "Z-15" will not carry more than 1 ton of fuel at a time, because it has to be refueled at the destination.

In addition, Deogle is still in the mountains, with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters.

Although the "Z-15" was designed to optimize for the plateau environment, the plateau performance is very strong, its latest improvement, that is, the "Z-15F" equipped with the engine, the power has increased by 30%, and the plateau performance has been further strengthened, but like all helicopters, with the increase in flight altitude, the performance of the "Z-15F" will be sharply reduced, especially the carrying capacity.

Taking into account the sortie rate and the fuel consumed, the use of the "Z-15" obviously outweighs the losses.

The two discussed for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that there were still not enough heavy helicopters.

To this end, Liu Zunshan proposed a workaround.

The first few rounds of raids were all carried out by infantry, and by parachuting, to be precise, by parachute, and by heavy helicopters to transport engineering equipment and supplies that could not be airdropped.

Of course, transport aircraft will definitely need to be used.

It's just that the point isn't here.

The Marines are not airborne troops!

Although the elite of the Marine Corps, that is, several special forces at the beginning of the "sea", can all carry out parachute missions, the regular units do not carry out parachute training, and at most they can only take helicopters for airborne operations, and it is certainly impossible to arrange special forces to carry out assault missions.

Then, this important task must be handed over to other units, such as the 177th Infantry Brigade within the 17th Armored Division.

The brigade's three infantry battalions, all trained in parachute combat, were formerly the Airborne Forces and are now one of the few light infantry units in the Imperial Army.

Obviously, even if Liu Zunshan was willing, he couldn't convince Hou Chensheng.

The key point is that the airborne troops are all genuine light infantry units, and there is almost no heavy equipment available, and their combat effectiveness is extremely limited.

In fact, this is also the key reason why the Imperial Army gradually eliminated the Airborne Forces.

Although the Imperial Air Force had the largest and most powerful transport fleet in the world, the Imperial Army was never equipped with airborne combat vehicles. Even after several demonstrations and evaluations, in the end, it was fruitless, and none of them entered the stage of engineering or even theoretical verification.

The reason is also very simple, the performance of airborne combat vehicles is too poor to meet the operational needs of the army.

In addition, the Airborne Forces were mainly used for offensive, and after the Second World War, the main mission of the Imperial Army was, in fact, strategic defense.

It was because of this that even if the Imperial Army retained this unit, it did not invest much resources.

In response to the needs of anti-armor warfare, the Imperial Army preferred to distribute various individual anti-tank weapons to the Airborne Forces rather than think of purchasing armored platforms.

After the Poshawan War, with the large-scale application of helicopters, the status of the Airborne Forces plummeted.

Compared with traditional airborne operations, air assault operations undertaken by helicopters have higher combat efficiency because they can deliver heavy weapons such as mortars and light artillery to the front line. As a result, several airborne units of the Imperial Army were all reorganized into air assault units.

If it were not for the fact that the helicopters were too short in range, the Imperial Army would most likely have withdrawn the Airborne Forces.

As a result, all three remaining airborne brigades were reorganized into infantry brigades, becoming the only three light infantry brigades in the Imperial Army.

Obviously, do not get your hopes up too much for the combat effectiveness of the light infantry.

Take the 177th Infantry Brigade, for example, the brigade did not go to Posha Bay, and was sent to Cala Harbor after the outbreak of the war, or more precisely, after the decision to send the 17th Panzer Division to Pakistan Railway. When the 5th Marine Corps arrived, the brigade went north to Sukkur to expand the military base there.

To put it bluntly, the 177th Infantry Brigade has been doing miscellaneous work and has not done anything serious.

In fact, in the battle plan formulated by Ding Zhennan, the task of the 177th Infantry Brigade is also to follow behind the large army and guard the logistics supply line.

Although necessary reinforcements will be made, such as equipping some armored vehicles to enhance battlefield mobility and be able to calmly respond to attacks, the 177th Infantry Brigade is still a "motley force" in terms of overall deployment, and there is no plan for it to be the main force.

Ding Zhennan's arrangement is also related to the quality of the officers and men of the 177th Infantry Brigade.

The brigade has always been a Class B unit.

Although it is one of the few full-fledged Class B infantry units, with as many as 80 percent of its officers and men in peacetime, the brigade's combat readiness rate has always been low, and the ability of officers and men at the grassroots level is even more worrisome; for example, more than 70 percent of officers and men have served less than two years, and the average length of service of officers is only four years.

Don't forget, this is the Airborne Forces.

A qualified airborne soldier will take more than 1 year just for basic training, and it will take at least half a year to acquire the necessary combat skills.

In other words, the vast majority of the officers and men of the brigade, especially the grassroots soldiers, are actually recruits who have not long joined the army.

How strong is such a team?

Of course, Ding Zhennan knew that Liu Zunling deliberately mentioned airborne operations, in fact, to dispel the idea of sending the 177th Infantry Brigade to participate in the war.

Then, we have to find a way to get more heavy helicopters.