Although he had only been here for a few days, Lian Mingyang did not feel anything uncomfortable.

Every year in the past, Lian Mingyang's assault unit came to Zhanjiala for half a month to a month in the name of training or exercises. Although he is training most of the time, for land aviation pilots like Lian Mingyang, there will be no Yaxing for sightseeing.

Actually, there's not much to do around here.

To the south is the endless Rennes Desert, and to the north is the West Siberian Plateau, where there is nothing but the Gobi and the desert.

It's also about the season.

It's the beginning of September, and the summer has just passed, and the temperature hasn't dropped yet. Although Jhangara is in the hinterland of the mainland, it can be regarded as a high-latitude area, but in the Rennes Desert, compared with Posha Bay, except for the slightly cooler temperature at night, it is also very hot during the day.

If anything, it's time.

For the past few decades, the Imperial Army has had to conduct a strategic war game every year in response to a possible global war, especially an all-out war with the Western Continent Group, and all of these exercises have emphasized that the West Continent Group must be victorious before the winter comes.

As long as it enters the harsh winter, any powerful ground force will have to lie on its stomach.

Regardless of the development of science and technology for decades, in the face of nature, the power of human beings is still very small.

Of course, the impact of technology is how long it will take to achieve a decisive victory.

This also directly determined the latest time for the Western Continent Group to launch a strategic offensive.

According to the deductions made in recent years, in the absence of a noticeable change in the climate, the time for the Western Continent Group to launch a strategic offensive should be no later than mid-September.

To put it simply, even if the Eastern Bloc is unprepared, it will take at least two months for the Western Continent to achieve a decisive strategic victory, and the harsh winter in the vast continental hinterland generally arrives in mid-November before the Eastern Bloc completes its full mobilization.

From this, it can be assumed that the latest time for the Sairiku group to launch an attack was mid-September.

No matter how late it is, it will be impossible to complete the offensive before the temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius at night, and there will be no way to take advantage of the winter to consolidate the defensive line.

Of course, there is a great deal of arbitrariness in such deductions, that is, uncertainty.

For example, the purpose of the Western Continent Group may only be to sweep the territory of the Federal Republic of Luosha on this side of the Western Continent, and it has no intention of entering the huge continent.

In the case of a relatively limited offensive purpose, the army of the Western Continent Group may only need one month to suffice.

However, it is impossible for the Eastern Bloc to be defenseless.

The Western Bloc will certainly have to mobilize for an offensive, and it will take enough time to complete the mobilization, so the Eastern Bloc will certainly use this time to strengthen its defenses.

Theoretically, there is no way for the Western Continent Group to launch a strategic surprise attack, or it is impossible to achieve strategic suddenness.

Then, even if the offensive purpose is limited, it will be difficult to complete it within the specified time.

Taking into account these factors, the General Staff insisted on the previous deduction and set September as the deadline for the Western Continent Group to launch a strategic offensive.

Of course, it's more likely to be early September.

Also based on this judgment, the General Staff also asked Shi Qiliang to adjust the combat operations of the joint forces and extend the air strike operation until October.

It can be extended if desired.

To put it simply, even if all the preparations required for a ground offensive have been completed, there will be no ground offensive in September.

For the same reason, the Imperial Army was unable to strengthen the defenses of the Northwest Theater while committing heavy forces to Posha Bay.

In fact, the key is the role played by army aviation in modern warfare.

The value of army aviation in the Polish-Iranian war was well proven.

In this war, the Imperial Army invested tens of thousands of helicopters and also lost thousands, and helicopters became the protagonists of the battlefield for the first time.

It is for this reason that there are many people who call the Polish-Iranian war "the war of helicopters".

The advent of helicopters, as well as their mass application, changed the mode of warfare.

After the Polish-Iraqi War, the Imperial Army shifted from strategic expansion to strategic contraction, and it took more than ten years for the Imperial Army to adjust its defensive deployment on the continental battlefield.

In fact, the entire core is to enhance and enhance the status of the army aviation and establish a modern defense system with the army aviation as the absolute core.

Crucially, helicopters have sublimated the "Great Depth Strategy".

The ability of helicopters to maneuver quickly over hundreds of kilometers has brought the value of strategic depth to the limit and has fundamentally changed the way defensive operations are conducted.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the increasingly expensive technical equipment.

As mentioned earlier, the cost of the main battle tanks of the "ZT-99" series is several times more expensive than that of the "ZT-80" series, and the army simply cannot replace them one-to-one.

Ten years of mass production, the total production of the "ZT-99" was just over 7,000 units, and after deducting exports, the Imperial Army had less than 5,000 units of equipment, and only more than 500 units were purchased on average per year. According to the calculation of the 30-year service cycle, it is simply impossible for the "ZT-99" to replace all the "ZT-80".

Actually, the Imperial Army also did not intend to replace all the "ZT-99" with the "ZT-80".

According to the latest plans, part of the "ZT-80" will be retained, and it will be modernized with the technology of the "ZT-99", including the use of the latest thermal imager, the addition of a two-way stabilization system for the turret, the use of a 1200-horsepower supercharged diesel engine, as well as the installation of explosive-reactive armor.

Once retrofitted, these tanks will be able to serve for at least another 20 years, waiting for the next generation of main battle tanks to be mass-produced and then replaced.

In this way, at least 30 billion gold dollars can be saved.

The Imperial Army dared to do this because, according to the current combat theory, the main battle tank was not of much value in strategic defensive operations.

Tanks are powerful tactical platforms, while modern warfare requires strategic platforms.

Do not forget that the tank, from the moment of its birth, is the most powerful assault weapon on the ground, and its value is reflected in the offensive.

Crucially, the tanks met a formidable enemy: helicopter gunships.

From another point of view, it can also be seen as a helpless choice for the Imperial Army.

To put it bluntly, without enough tanks and having to face the flood of armor from the Western Continent Group, the Imperial Army could only find a way in other ways.

Comparatively speaking, the armed helicopters of the Army Aviation are the most prominent.

Theoretically, one Z-10A can carry up to 16 heavy anti-tank missiles and destroy 16 armored targets in one sortie!

Taking into account factors such as the missile's hit rate, a helicopter gunship can theoretically destroy more than 20 armored targets before it is shot down.

In fact, in addition to helicopter gunships, the Imperial Army had other anti-tank means.

The more representative ones are the light anti-tank missiles that are distributed to the front-line troops, and the anti-tank rocket launchers that are directly distributed to the squads and do not account for the establishment.

However, what the army really values is laser-guided artillery shells that have not yet participated in actual combat.

This new type of ammunition, which was mass-produced only three years ago and handed over to combat units for testing, has increased the combat efficiency of artillery hundreds of times in one fell swoop!

It used to cost hundreds of shells to destroy a tank, but now it only takes one!

But the problem is that laser-guided artillery shells are not cheap, and the possibility of large-scale equipment is not very large, at least the army top brass does not feel that this is necessary.

Although the hit rate of laser-guided artillery shells is hundreds of times higher than that of ordinary artillery shells, the cost is thousands of times higher, and it is not cost-effective economically.

In addition, laser-guided projectiles have high requirements for the conditions of use.

All in all, the main anti-armor means of the Imperial Army is helicopter gunships.

Otherwise, it would not have invested heavily in the development and procurement of the "Z-10A".

It is a pity that the production of "Z-10A" has not yet come up.

At the end of the day, it's still too expensive.

In the case of ordering 450 units, the unit price of the "Z-10A" is 4 times that of the "Z-7W", and the maintenance cost is much higher.

Obviously, no matter how powerful the "Z-10A" is, the combat efficiency will definitely not be able to reach 7 times that of the "Z-4W".

As a result, the production of the "Z-10A" is less than 100 aircraft, and it is only supplied to a small number of elite troops in the northwest, west, and southern theaters for the time being.

The majority, it is still "Zhi-7W".

Of the 120 helicopter gunships deployed in Jhangara, only 30 are Z-10A, and the rest are all Z-7Ws that have been in service for more than 10 years.

Fortunately, these "Z-7W" have made the necessary improvements to carry and use heavy anti-tank missiles.

Of course, this is not to say that the "Z-7W" is useless.

Compared with the "Z-10A", the biggest advantage of the "Z-7W", which can only be regarded as a light armed helicopter, is actually that it has a low dependence on logistics support, can be deployed in forward bases for a long time, and consumes much less materials per sortie, especially fuel.

In high-intensity anti-armor battles, the "Z-7W" is the backbone force.

In fact, Lian Mingyang and they were only temporarily stationed in the Zhangara base.

By 1 October, if the war had not yet broken out, they would return to Posha Gulf to take part in the liberation of Kuwait, the attack on Iraq.

Because it was only a temporary deployment, only the necessary support equipment was delivered, except for helicopters.

After the outbreak of the Great War, other support equipment will be transported by air.

It is only necessary to let the strategic transport aircraft fly 5 sorties, and there is no problem, so even if it is not deployed in place, it will not have much impact.

In addition, Lian Mingyang was also guaranteed by the theater command.

As soon as a major war breaks out, transport planes will be arranged as soon as possible to deliver all the support equipment and personnel needed for long-term operations to Khangara.

Of course, it doesn't matter if there are guarantees or not.

After the outbreak of the war, Khangara is a strategic support point in this direction, so the theater command will definitely strengthen the military deployment there.

In order to stop the armored torrent of the Western Continent Group, it is necessary to rely on the helicopter gunships deployed here.

And, of course, the front-line aviation, which is also deployed in Chogara.

If helicopter gunships are the nemesis of tanks, then the front-line aviation of the Air Force is a nightmare for all ground forces.

Unlike the front-line aviation of the Western Continent Group, the front-line aviation of the Imperial Air Force was dominated by attack aircraft.

As for the fighters responsible for air supremacy, they are all organized in the tactical aviation unit and deployed on airfields in the rear as much as possible.

The reason is the same, to avoid competing with front-line aviation for forward-facing airfields, which are not very many.

Of course, this has to do with the fact that the Reich's fighters generally have a longer range.

Both the "Zhan-10" and the "Zhan-11" have a combat radius of more than 1,000 kilometers, and can even reach 1,500 kilometers under pure air superiority missions.

Comparatively, the attack aircraft of the Imperial Air Force did not have such a far combat radius.

As the main attack aircraft, the "Attack-9" has a combat radius of only 600 kilometers under the standard ground support load, and it is best to control it within 400 kilometers.

Interestingly, the "Attack-9A" does not have air refueling capabilities, and the production of the "Attack-9B" with an air refueling system has not yet come up.

That is, most of the "Attack-9" does not have the ability to refuel in the air.

Obviously, the risk of refueling attack aircraft on the front line is too great, and it is impossible for specialized attack aircraft to be deployed in the rear.

However, the anti-armor capabilities of the "Attack-9" are very strong, and it can even be said that it is a bit perverted.

This attack aircraft, which was designed from the very beginning in accordance with the idea of "fighting tanks", can be regarded as a 40-mm Gatling cannon that can fly.

To put it simply, the design work of the "Attack-9" revolved around the 40 mm 6-barreled Gatling gun.

For the sake of this Gatling cannon, the designers can be said to have gone to great lengths.

Because the weight was too large and the recoil when firing was very impressive, it could only be installed in the belly of the aircraft, and the nose had to be raised by half a meter. The two engines, which were supposed to be mounted in the rear fuselage, were also squeezed out and mounted at a 60-degree angle above the front of the horizontal tail, while the vertical tail could only be split in two and mounted at both ends of the horizontal tail. The forward fuselage, in order to give the pilot a better view, the cockpit was moved to the nose.

All in all, the appearance of the "Attack-9" can be said to be extremely ugly.

Only, it's also worth the money.

When this 40mm cannon was designed, there was only one requirement: to penetrate the top armor of the tank.

In the case of tungsten core armor-piercing shells, it can penetrate homogeneous armor up to 200 mm thick. Not to mention the tanks of the past, even the latest "ZT-99B" has an equivalent thickness of only 150 mm in its top armor, and it is the result of special reinforcement during design.

With this machine gun and 1,200 rounds of shells, an "Attack-9" was able to wipe out an armored battalion.

The key is that in order to improve the survival rate, or to say that it is designed for low-altitude combat, it is inevitable to face a large number of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, so the "Attack-9" is laid with armor in key parts, which can theoretically resist the direct attack of 30 mm high-explosive shells.

In addition, all the key facilities of the "Tap-9" have extremely high design redundancy.

Theoretically, only one engine is needed to maintain sufficient flight speed for the attack aircraft, and the flat wing used has an extremely high lift-to-drag ratio.

All in all, the "Attack-9" immediately gained the favor of the Air Force after its introduction.

If there is any flaw, that is, the first four batches of "Attack-9A" do not have the ability to use guided weapons, and can only use iron-shelled bombs and rockets to carry out strike missions, and only the next three batches of "Attack-9A" and "Attack-9B" have the ability to mount and use air-to-surface missiles.

Fortunately, the Northwest Theater is full of later batches of "Attack-9A", and the first few batches of "Attack-9A" are concentrated in reserve forces.

It can be seen that what is supporting the northwest defense line is actually the air force dominated by the armed helicopters of the army aviation and the front-line attack planes of the air force.

This defense system, which is entirely based on air power, has never been tested by war in the past 10 years. All the theories and tactics related to it come from exercises and deductions.

Perhaps, the opportunity to test is coming!