|||->-> Field airfield on the southern outskirts of Balmel in the early morning of November 10.

After watching the last "Y-9F" take off, Liu Zunshan boarded the military vehicle next to him, waved his hand at the driver, and signaled to return to the command center.

In fact, the command center was running into the barracks on the other side.

Combat operations, if anything, began 10 days ago.

On 1 November, the day after Ding Zhennan returned from Lahe Air Base, the Eastern Coalition began preparations for the ground offensive as planned.

To be precise, that is, the early air strike.

Because the fighting has been going on for more than a month, and it has been bombing military targets in the territory of Van Luo before, the requirements for air strikes in the early stage are not high, or there is no need to expand the scope of strikes. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is to keep an eye on the main forces of the Vatican army.

Although they are all armies of the southern faction, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

For example, the three main armored divisions in Udaipur, each with hundreds of main battle tanks, pose a considerable threat to the coalition ground forces.

The air strikes of the past few days were a battlefield blockade, and all the troops were heavy attack planes and multi-role fighters.

The reason is also very simple, the main forces of the Southern Army of the Vatican Army are almost all deployed in Udaipur, or farther away than Udaipur. The straight-line distance from Udaipur to Hydebara is more than 500 kilometers, because it is necessary to circumvent the field air defense system of the Vatican army, so the actual combat radius of combat aircraft from Hydebara is definitely farther, while the combat radius of front-line attack aircraft under normal conditions is less than 500 kilometers.

In addition, due to the limitations of transportation capacity, even if a field airfield was built on the outskirts of Balmer, it would not be possible to deploy tactical aviation there.

As a result, attack missions can only be carried out by heavy attack aircraft and multi-role fighters.

Fortunately, on the second day of the battle, the first air force from the North-Western Theater of Operations arrived in Hydebara and was engaged in battle that night.

The air force has more than 400 combat aircraft, including 240 Battle-16A.

By 5 November, more than 1,000 combat aircraft had taken part in the fighting, and 600 heavy attack aircraft and multirole fighters had taken part in the fighting.

High-intensity air strikes had an immediate effect.

In just 5 days, thousands of military targets were destroyed, and more than 2000 armored targets alone. The three main divisions deployed near Udaipur were all severely damaged and basically lost their combat capability, which greatly relieved the defensive pressure on Balmmel's side.

To put it mildly, preventing the enemy from sending additional combat troops to the front line and striking at the enemy's main forces deployed in the rear is the core task of battlefield interdiction.

What happened to the Van army in the past few days was exactly the same as what happened to the Iraqi army in the Poshawan War.

To put it simply, the second-rate troops deployed in the front line cannot withstand it, and the main forces remaining in the rear cannot go up.

As a matter of fact, this is precisely the essence of "air-ground joint operations" advocated by the new military doctrine, and it can also be regarded as the core value of "air-ground joint operations."

To put it more bluntly, the "air-ground joint cooperation" war is aimed at defensive tactics based on the "strategy of great depth."

Leave the main forces in the rear, use second-rate troops to guard the forward defense line, and in the early stage of the war, rely on the huge depth of the battlefield to delay the enemy's advance speed, consume the enemy's strength and combat effectiveness, and when the time is ripe, the main forces deployed in the rear will launch a counterattack.

This set of defensive tactics, since its inception, can be said to have been tried and tested again and again in the past few decades.

To crack it purely by ground attack, it is necessary to invest several times, or even more than ten times the number of troops.

Crucially, the material consumed by a ground offensive, as well as the casualties that may be suffered, are enough to make the side that tries to launch an offensive think twice.

According to the relevant theories of the "Great Depth Strategy", to deal with an opponent such as Van Luo, the empire needs to go all out, and even have to carry out a full-scale war mobilization.

It is precisely in this way that the highly targeted "air-ground joint operation" came into being.

According to the practice of the Imperial Air Force, that is, the tactics adopted in the Posha Bay War, in fact, it was to use powerful air power to complete the battlefield cutting, strike at the enemy's main forces deployed behind the battle line, prevent them from maneuvering on the battlefield, and weaken the enemy's frontal defense line.

To put it simply, it is to cut out the enemy forces deployed in the forward defense line, and then encircle and annihilate them.

Throughout combat operations, aviation, to be precise the heavy attack aircraft of tactical aviation, took on campaign-level assault operations that would otherwise be carried out by armored groups.

Obviously, this is also the key to the success of "air-ground joint operations".

Compared with armored clusters, aviation is not only faster, but also has a stronger strike capability, and these two factors happen to be the main factors that determine the success or failure of a campaign assault operation.

This is not something to be happy about for the enemy on the other side of the battle line.

After the battle began, the commander of the Vatican army soon discovered that dispatching the main forces deployed in the rear was basically equivalent to death.

The reason is also very simple, as long as these troops leave the concealed positions, they will be attacked from the air after being exposed.

In the absence of air supremacy, even if there are field air defense units accompanying them, they will not be able to go to the battlefield hundreds of kilometers away in the face of fierce air strikes.

In fact, even if you stay in a hidden position, you may not be spared.

After all, the side that has air supremacy also has the right to control information, and some have the means to find the enemy who is hiding and deal a devastating blow.

As for the field air defense system, which was pinned on by the Vatican Army, it basically became an ornament in the face of the electromagnetic suppression and air strikes of the Imperial Air Force.

For example, the "Sidewinder" air defense system purchased from the Locke State was only a little over 10 kilometers long, and the firing height was only a few thousand meters, so during the five-day high-intensity battle, several sets of "Sidewinder" air defense systems deployed near Udaipur not only failed to shoot down a single coalition fighter, but were targeted by the coalition air defense suppression fighters, and at least dozens of launchers were destroyed by anti-radiation missiles.

Because the losses were so heavy, the Vatican air defense forces later simply gave up resistance.

The high-intensity bombardment, which lasted for five days, also destroyed the will of the Van army to fight.

According to the statistics made by the front-line command, in the past five days, the tactical aviation of the coalition forces made a total of more than 10,000 sorties, dropping more than 15,000 tons of ammunition, and mainly precision-guided bombs, and the consumption of 250-kilogram laser-guided bombs alone exceeded 30,000.

Of course, such a high intensity of use is also related to the climate.

Compared to Posha Bay, the climate of the southern subcontinent is not harsh, especially in the dry season, which is mainly sunny, which is suitable for the use of precision munitions such as laser-guided bombs.

Crucially, small-diameter precision munitions are ideal for armoured targets.

If anything, 250-kilogram bombs are still larger, and they can easily cause collateral casualties when used against targets in cities, especially military targets hidden in residential areas. Even in times of war, severe collateral casualties can have an impact on the officers who plan the strike. For example, during the five days of fighting, coalition forces did not strike military targets near civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals. As a result, after discovering this pattern, the Vatican army deliberately deployed a large number of important equipment near schools and hospitals.

In response to this problem, Ding Zhennan once again gave feedback on the problem to the quartermaster department in charge of equipment.

To put it simply, there is an urgent need for ammunition that is slightly less powerful.

Even if other indicators are worse, such as not throwing far enough, or only using a single guidance method, it is not a problem.

The quartermaster department also responded positively, saying that it would provide combat units with two types of small-power ammunition by the end of the year.

One is a 100-kilogram laser-guided bomb, and the other is a short-range air-to-surface missile evolved from a heavy anti-tank missile with a warhead.

Of course, battlefield breakout is nothing more than foreplay.

Beginning in the early morning of November 6, the air strike entered the second phase, that is, battlefield suppression.

If it is said that battlefield interdiction is scattered and attacked, then battlefield suppression is targeted air strikes.

Of course, the target is the target, which is Balmer.

Previously, the vanguard of the 5th Marine Division had only surrounded Balmer, to be precise, controlling external communications and blockading the city closest to the border.

Because of the lack of troops, the vanguard never stormed Balmel.

As for the Vatican troops who retreated to the city, they could not pose a threat to the marines outside the city because of the lack of heavy weapons.

As a result, by the end of October, when it was decided to launch a large-scale offensive on this side, the vanguard began to build a field airfield on the southern outskirts of Balmer.

If you want to say that, it is affected by this that it will take 5 days to carry out a battlefield interruption strike.

After the field airfield on the southern outskirts of Balmel was put into service, the storming of Balmel began.

The protagonist is still the tactical air force, but it has been replaced by a front-line aviation unit dominated by specialized attack aircraft.

Strictly speaking, there was no such thing as "front-line aviation" in the Imperial Air Force.

The Imperial Air Force evolved from Army Aviation, which originally had only two arms, Strategic Aviation and Tactical Aviation. It was only after the Polish-Iraqi War, that is, before the third military change, that support aviation was formed, and this system has been maintained to this day.

As for the so-called "front-line aviation", it is actually assigned under the name of tactical aviation.

More importantly, the Imperial Air Force did not attach much importance to front-line aviation, or rather did not regard it as the main combat force.

The reason is also very simple, according to the defense strategy pursued by the Empire, the value of front-line aviation is actually minimal.

Whether it is the theory of great depth pursued in the past or the air-ground joint operations developed from the new military doctrine, the side in strategic defense needs to deploy the main forces behind the defense line, not at the front of the defense line, and this is all the more true for the air force.

Obviously, the side that leads the offensive relies more on front-line aviation, that is, in offensive operations, front-line aviation is needed to open the way for the assault armored forces.

However, it is not that the Imperial Air Force does not pay attention to and does not need specialized front-line attack aircraft.

Crucially, the Imperial Air Force had higher requirements for the performance of specialized attack aircraft.

To put it simply, it is necessary to have a longer range, even if it is deployed at a rear airfield, it can provide air support to forward combat units.

It's just that this creates a very serious problem.

The front-line attack aircraft developed by the Imperial Air Force was established in 131 of the new calendar, and it was put into production not long ago after more than ten years of tossing.

This is the "Attack-9" that has already shown its strength on the mainland battlefield.

Strictly speaking, the "Attack-9" is a pure front-line attack aircraft, which is not much different from the same type of attack aircraft developed by the Western Continent Group and the Nuland Republic in all aspects, and has a clear mission target, such as focusing on anti-armor, and with special emphasis on low-altitude flight performance and survivability.

Obviously, under technical limitations, the Imperial Air Force was also able to reduce only part of its performance indicators.

In addition, the "Attack-9A" is not at all advanced. Because it is not equipped with a laser irradiator, the "Attack-9A" cannot use laser-guided bombs alone. Even if it is an external laser indication pod, it needs the cooperation of 2 aircraft, that is, 1 to drop bombs, and the other 1 to irradiate the target with the indication pod.

If anything, at the design stage, the Imperial Air Force did not think about the use of precision-guided munitions for front-line attack aircraft.

The reason is also very simple, the main weapon of the "Attack-9" is actually a 40 mm 6-barreled Gatling gun mounted on the nose, and it can even be said that the entire attack aircraft is designed around this cannon with a total ammunition weight of more than 2 tons, which is larger than a small truck.

In the words of the designer, this attack aircraft is a flying machine gun!

According to the idea of the Imperial Air Force, just relying on this machine gun and carrying thousands of armor-piercing shells, the "Attack-9" can destroy more than 20 main battle tanks equivalent to one armored battalion in one sortie, so even if there are no other weapons, the attack capability should not be underestimated.

The key point is that when the "Attack-9" was designed, precision-guided munitions were still very expensive, and it was not the turn of the front-line attack planes that "ploughed the ground" to use them.

Fortunately, after the outbreak of the Poshawan War, the Imperial Air Force immediately made adjustments.

The biggest improvement of the "Attack-9B" is the addition of laser irradiators and supporting fire control equipment, the ability to use various tactical precision-guided munitions, including laser-guided bombs, and the use of parallel composite pylons to greatly increase the number of ammunition carried.

Normally, the "Attack-9B" can carry 12 500-kilogram bombs, or 20 250-kilogram bombs, or 8 short-range air-to-surface missiles, plus thousands of 40-millimeter artillery shells, and can destroy 30 to 50 ground targets in one sortie, which is equivalent to the entire main battle equipment of a fully organized armored company.

This strike capability surpasses all front-line attack aircraft today.

On the mainland battlefield, the "Attack-9B" has long been famous. Because the firepower was so fierce that there was simply no grass in the place it passed, and even the tanks and combat vehicles hidden deep in the underground bunkers could not escape the catastrophe, so the officers and men of the Western Continent Group gave him a very loud nickname.

"Death Scythe".

To say, it's quite vivid.

In particular, when the 40mm Gatling cannon fires, it's like Death wielding a scythe, and any target in its path will be completely shattered.

During the combat operation against Balmel, the "Attack-9B" once again showed its might.

The Van army guarding Balmel held out for only one day, to be precise, after the "Storm-9B" was killed, and the Van army began to clear the Van forts along the main street with 40mm machine guns, the fighting spirit of the Van army was zero, but it took more than half a day to make the decision to surrender.

As a result, in the early morning of November 6, coalition ground forces marched into Balmel.

In Liu Zunshan's words, if he had known that he could defeat Balmel's defenders so quickly, he would definitely not have stayed outside the city for so long.