Last night, nothing important happened.

It must be said that the anti-submarine frigate found several underwater targets that could be submarines, but they were all later confirmed to be false alarms.

The Imperial Navy has been working hard for decades in the heart of the eastern continent, and has long established a tight anti-submarine network here.

Almost 20 years ago, before the Polish-Iraqi War, the Republic of There had not yet declared permanent neutrality, let alone been dismembered in the national independence movement, and still maintained good relations with the Empire, and several military bases on the island of Crete were controlled by the Imperial Army.

After the outbreak of the first national independence movement, the Imperial Navy seized the last opportunity to lay a submarine anti-submarine sonar base array between Crete and the Xuan continent, and connected it to the port of Arisa with a submarine cable, thus creating an anti-submarine barrier on the west side of the East Continent Heart Sea.

In order to build this submarine sonar system, the Imperial Navy spent 600 million gold dollars.

Because the relevant funds were not approved by the two houses of parliament, the pensions of retired soldiers were embezzled, and the deficit was made up by making false accounts, so after the matter was exposed, all the main officials and generals involved in the matter were sent to the military court, and even Li Mingbo, who was the commander-in-chief of shipping at the time, was implicated.

In addition, the value of this submarine sonar system was very controversial at the time.

If it had not been completed and functioned normally, I am afraid that the two houses of parliament would order the system to be dismantled, in order to save tens of millions of gold dollars a year in maintenance costs.

After the declaration of permanent neutrality of the Republic of There and the establishment of an independent Greek state, this submarine sonar system showed unparalleled value.

The Imperial Navy only had to keep an eye on the northeastern part of Crete, the strait between it and the island of Karpathos, to prevent the submarines of the Western Continent Group from entering the Eastern Continent.

Because the Kasos Strait is very shallow, with an average water depth of less than 100 meters, it is not suitable for submarine activities, so it is not very difficult to keep an eye on.

It is precisely because of this that the anti-submarine pressure of the Imperial Navy in the Eastern Continent Heart Sea is not very large.

In the following 20 years, the Imperial Navy was able to firmly control the Eastern Continent Heart Sea, and went out to the North Sunset Ocean, which was closely related to this.

In addition, in the operation of this submarine sonar system, the Imperial Navy has mastered a lot of experience in submarine search and anti-submarine operation, and has also established a complete set of maintenance and management systems, which has provided great help for the later deployment and operation of several other submarine sonar systems.

In fact, it is this submarine sonar system that makes the Imperial Navy unwilling to give up the Eastern Continent Heart Sea.

Without this submarine sonar system, the threat from submarines alone would have been enough to force the Imperial Navy to abandon the idea of deploying a fleet in the Eastern Continent.

To put it bluntly, as long as the submarines of the Western Continent Group, which are equipped with heavy anti-ship missiles, can break through this anti-submarine net and sail more than 300 kilometers to the west, they will be able to launch a saturation attack on the imperial fleet operating in the heart of the East Continent with heavy anti-ship missiles with a range of 500 kilometers.

Obviously, in the event of a threat from submarines, the fleet simply cannot defend itself with full force.

With this anti-submarine net, only a few large attack submarines need to be arranged, and the enemy's submarines can be kept in the west.

This allows the fleet to perform other combat missions with peace of mind.

Besides, if you really want to withdraw troops from the Eastern Continent Heart Sea, even if it is for secrecy, you have to dismantle the sonar laid on the bottom of the sea, and this is a very troublesome thing.

It's just that now, Li Shenzhi doesn't dare to take it lightly.

At breakfast, he gave an order to double the number of air defense fighters on patrol from the usual four to eight, and the two aircraft carriers must keep the four "Zhan-9B" in the highest state of combat readiness, not only to hang up the missiles, but also to let the pilots sit in the cockpit, and at least let the two stay at the ejection point to ensure that they can be ejected into the air immediately after receiving the order.

In addition, it is necessary to send one additional "Finger-6C" to 150 kilometers northwest of the fleet.

In this way, it can overlap with the two "Finger-6Cs" deployed 450 kilometers to the northwest and west of the fleet, ensuring that no suspicious targets are missed.

Finally, it's about getting all fighter pilots ready.

If Li Shenzhi had to make a choice, he would prefer to trust carrier-based fighters rather than a few air defense cruisers in the battle group.

In fact, the "Zhan-9" is a heavy carrier-based fighter developed to counter the "saturation attack."

Before starting the design, the Imperial Navy only set a specific tactical index for the "Battle-9", which was precisely the tactical performance that must be achieved.

After receiving the order, it took off urgently, flew 500 kilometers in 15 minutes, and then used the long-range missiles on board to intercept the bombers 150 kilometers away. From the time the order is given by the air defense command center of the fleet to the time when the bomber is shot down with a missile, the total time must not exceed 20 minutes.

Of course, this requirement can be said to be very demanding, to the point where it is almost impossible to achieve.

If nothing else, the Air Force's most advanced interceptor aircraft cannot do it, let alone a carrier-based fighter that must sacrifice part of its performance in order to be deployed on an aircraft carrier.

In the end, the Navy only relaxed the time limit to 25 minutes.

Obviously, this is definitely not a decision to pat yourself on the head.

This 25 minutes is actually a conclusion reached after repeated deductions.

Even in the most ideal case, that is, the carrier-based early warning aircraft goes forward to a distance of 400 kilometers, and the radar has a detection range of no less than 450 kilometers for high-flying bombers, and immediately issues a combat alarm after discovering the bomber, and the bomber will launch an anti-ship missile at a distance of 500 kilometers from the aircraft carrier, then the time left for the carrier-based fighter to rush over and intercept it will only be 25 minutes in total.

A subsonic bomber flies 350 kilometers and takes only 25 minutes at most!

Of course, by deploying fighter jets in advance, the interception time can be shortened, but it is also possible that a supersonic bomber will fly faster.

All in all, the "Battle-9" was designed from the very beginning in the form of an interceptor.

In the words of the naval aviation itself, the "Battle-11" is an interceptor among fighters, and the "Battle-9" is a fighter among interceptors.

It can be seen that in order to achieve the performance indicators proposed by the Navy, everything is used in the design.

The most representative is the use of variable swept wings.

Of course, this was the only solution that could be adopted under the technical conditions at that time, in order to have both low-altitude and low-speed performance and high-altitude and high-speed performance.

This was the key to the Imperial Navy's active procurement of the Battle-9B and the replacement of engines for the Battle-9A.

In addition, a fire control system that is unique to this day is adopted.

The "Zhan-9" not only has the most powerful airborne fire control radar today, but also has the most complex fire control system, which can control six long-range air-to-air missiles at the same time to attack six targets in the same sector, thus becoming the world's first fighter with the ability to attack multiple targets at the same time.

Of course, radar and fire control systems are only the basics.

In order to make the "Zhan-9" an interceptor in the true sense of the word, capable of firing at bombers carrying anti-ship missiles and posing a huge threat at ultra-long distances, the Imperial Navy also invested heavily in the development of the world's first long-range air-to-air missile, that is, the KK-9 "Saker Falcon" with a maximum range of nearly 200 kilometers and a power range of 150 kilometers. Its latest modification even has the ability to actively self-guide.

In fact, the KK-9 is a special air-to-air missile for the "Zhan-9".

Because it is a long-range air-to-air missile invested and developed by the Navy, it needs to be used in conjunction with the radar, and it also uses the Navy's interface, so the Imperial Air Force has not purchased and equipped this missile, and has always refused to develop a similar type of missile on the grounds that the hit rate of long-range air-to-air missiles is too low.

Strictly speaking, in fact, the Air Force does not have this need.

When the KK-9 was dealing with fighters, the hit rate was really not high, the main thing was that the maneuverability was not good enough, and the flight time in the middle section was too long, and the fighter could get rid of it by turning.

Fortunately, against bombers, especially those on attack missions, the KK-9 hit rate was not low.

To say, the KK-9 is mainly against attack aircraft, not fighters.

Compared with the navy, even if the air force needs interceptors, it will not be able to deal with bombers, at least there is no need to fire at bombers from hundreds of kilometers away.

The strategic threats to the empire's homeland were mainly medium- and long-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, not bombers carrying bombs on bombing missions.

For those bombers with cruise missiles, there is no essential difference between firing at a distance of 150 km and firing at a distance of 80 km. That is, compared with the range of cruise missiles, which often exceed 1,000 kilometers, the range of air-to-air missiles is not worth mentioning at all.

In fact, there were no advanced bombers available in the countries surrounding the empire.

It is actually the Republic of Nuland on the other side of the Guia Ocean that has this strength.

Because of the lack of forward bases, the strategic bombers of the Nuland Republic were mainly aimed at the military bases in the vicinity of their homeland, especially on the side of the Khowaii Islands, and the main force in this direction was the Imperial Navy after the last war.

If necessary, heavy carrier-based fighters deployed at land airfields are also used.

It can be seen that in terms of home defense, the Imperial Air Force does not have a very high demand for long-range interceptions.

Otherwise, when developing the fourth-generation fighter, the long-range interceptor would not have been directly abandoned, and the interception task would have been handed over to the "Zhan-11".

Relying on the combination of the "Zhan-9" and the KK-9, the Imperial Navy for the first time had a trustworthy and powerful long-range interception capability.

Theoretically, 4 "Battle-9Bs" in 1 squad will be able to cope with threats in one direction.

That is, when the KK-9D is dealing with large targets such as bombers, the hit rate can reach 80%, and the four missiles on which the "Battle-9B" is hung can theoretically intercept 19 to 20 bombers. When performing anti-ship combat missions, the Western Continent group often guarantees that 60 to 80 heavy anti-ship missiles can be put into one direction. According to the standard of 6 missiles per bomber, and the fact that the missiles have an 80% intact rate and a 60% penetration rate, then at least about 20 bombers need to be dispatched in one direction.

These data are by no means fabricated, but are the conclusions of the exercises.

Of course, there is also the credit of intelligence agencies such as the Military Intelligence Agency.

In addition, in order to increase the probability of success of assault operations, the Western Continent Group often launched attacks in two or even three directions at the same time.

Obviously, that's the key.

After the aircraft carrier battle group enters combat condition, it is necessary to keep a squad of "Battle-9B" on the aircraft carrier.

As long as the incoming bombers are detected in time, then 4 "Battle-9B" are enough to complete the interception mission.

2 aircraft carriers, a total of 8 fighters, plus 4 already in the air, can cope with threats from up to 3 directions at once.

Due to the limitation of the combat area, in the Eastern Continent Heart Sea, there is only a need to deal with threats from three directions at most.

The Aegean Sea in the northwest, the Zhonglu Xinhai in the west, and the Hokkugen region in the southwest.

Of course, there is a prerequisite.

The enemy did not send fighter planes to escort the escort, or did not arrange fighter jets to go out to seize air supremacy.

Otherwise, 12 air defense fighters will definitely not be enough.

In fact, this is also what Li Shenzhi is worried about, otherwise, he would not have ordered all fighter pilots to be ready to attack.

To say that I am worried, in fact, is a bit too much.

If the enemy sends fighter jets to escort the escort, it will inevitably reveal its operational intentions, and the bombers following behind will certainly not be able to deliver anti-ship missiles in time, and it will take more time to fly to the attack area, and there will be more time to dispatch more carrier-based fighters.

In fact, this is also a very common way of fighting.

When designing an aircraft carrier, it is necessary to take into account various extreme cases, that is, the need to arrange the maximum number of fighters to take to the air in the shortest possible time.

This is the key to the Imperial Navy's insistence on building large aircraft carriers, and the aircraft carriers are getting bigger and bigger.

Because the larger the aircraft carrier, the larger the flight deck area, and then enough fighters can be on standby on the flight deck.

According to the theory of the Imperial Navy, as long as the technology allows, and the cost-effectiveness ratio is not too bad, the larger the aircraft carrier, the better.

The standard displacement of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class exceeds 80,000 tons, and the full load displacement is more than 100,000 tons, and the planned next-generation aircraft carrier will increase by at least 15%, and the full load displacement is likely to reach 120,000 tons, and the comprehensive combat effectiveness will be increased by more than 30%.

Of course, there is also a scientific basis for how big the aircraft carrier is.

The Xue Yuanzheng class can place 16 "Zhan-9Bs" on the flight deck, and keep 12 of them in combat readiness, and the other 4 can be ready for liftoff within 15 minutes after the release of the first batch of 4 aircraft, that is, replenish fuel, load ammunition and complete the necessary inspections.

In fact, this is also the key to a carrier-based aviation wing carrying at least 2 fighter squadrons, with a total of 20 heavy fighters.

Counting the 4 that have already been sent, it is just enough to use all 20 fighters.

From a purely air defense point of view, even if it is to carry some more fighters, it does not make much sense because there is no way to send them all out before they are attacked.

Because it is often necessary to carry out air defense and escort missions at the same time, under normal circumstances, a Class A carrier-based aviation wing will have three squadrons of heavy fighters, all of which will have at least 24 aircraft, and can reach a maximum of 30 aircraft, and even increase to 36 aircraft if necessary.

This time, the two "Xue Yuanzheng" class ships each carried 24 "Zhan-9B".

It's not that air defense isn't important, but it's not far from Alexandria, and it's ready to draw anti-aircraft fighters from the shore-based aviation deployed there.

Now the question is, can these 48 aircraft, or to be precise, the 36 "Zhan-9Bs" that can be dispatched, withstand the upcoming air strike?