The fighters that followed the "Attack-11" group and entered Iraq were the 12 anti-aircraft suppression fighters of the "Snow Owl" unit.

That is, the "Zhan-10AD" fighter with anti-radiation missiles and appropriate improvements to the electronic equipment.

Among the thousands of tactical aircraft of the Imperial Air Force, the "Battle-10AD" of the "Snow Owl" unit can be said to be the most special and important one.

Of course, it is also because the difficulty and risk of air defense suppression are very huge.

In the words of the pilot, this is a battle between a falcon and a cobra, and even if the falcon is a natural enemy of the cobra, it may be buried under the mouth of the snake.

In the eyes of outsiders, the pilots of the unit are a bunch of outlaws!

In addition, it takes much more than the courage and skill of the pilot.

In the early stages of the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Air Force had enough of the lack of air defense suppression capabilities and realized the importance of air defense suppression.

Later in the war, the Imperial Air Force improved several attack aircraft to enable them to use anti-radiation missiles and carry out suppressive tasks against air defense systems, and named them "Snow Owls", meaning that they could attack by hearing "sounds" like Snow Owls.

In the last years of the Polish-Iranian war, the value of the "Snow Owl" units was fully demonstrated.

According to the statistics made by the Imperial Air Force, under the suppression of high-intensity air defense, the combat efficiency of the enemy's air defense system was reduced by several orders of magnitude, and the hit rate of anti-aircraft missiles was also reduced by a hundred times. Correspondingly, the rate of combat losses of the Imperial Air Force was also significantly reduced.

How much?

In the four years after the war, the battle loss rate of the tactical aviation of the Imperial Air Force was reduced from 15 per 1,000 in the previous four years to less than 1 in 1,000.

It is precisely in this way that the "Snow Owl" unit has become the leading star of the Imperial Air Force.

The "Snow Owl" unit, that is, the 777th Tactical Aviation Wing, has a total of 244 combat aircraft, of which more than 160 are anti-aircraft suppression fighters alone, and more than 120 are "Zhan-10AD" that have only been put into service in recent years, and the other 40 are also improved "Attack-7ED."

The key is that the pilots of the "Snow Owl" unit are all elite of the Air Force.

To join the Snowy Owl unit, you need to have at least 2,500 hours of flight time and fly more than 3 types of tactical aircraft.

Only about 5% of the approximately 40,000 pilots of the Imperial Air Force's tactical aviation met this standard.

In addition, even if the criteria are met, they may not be selected.

Every two years, the "Snow Owl" unit conducts an open selection for other wings of the Air Force, and there are three examinations in total, and the admission rate is between 1 and 2 percent.

Of course, the strength of the "Snow Owl" unit is not only excellent pilots and combat aircraft with advanced performance, but also equally advanced weapons.

That's right, anti-radiation missiles.

If it is to be said, the only difference between the "Zhan-10AD" and the "Zhan-10A" is that it has the ability to mount and use anti-radiation missiles.

Now the anti-radiation missiles of the Imperial Air Force have been developed to the third generation.

Compared with the previous two generations, such as the second-generation anti-radiation missiles that are still in service, the "KD-18" anti-radiation missile, nicknamed "Meteor", is actually modified from the "KK-6", to be precise, the "KK-6" missile body is used, and only the seeker and warhead are replaced. In addition to being able to fly at Mach 2.5 and have a range of up to 80 kilometers, it is also equipped with a wide-band seeker and has a memory function.

To put it simply, a single seeker can cover most of the radar's operating frequency bands.

In addition, after locking on the radar, even if the radar suddenly shuts down, or shifts the direction of irradiation, which was previously commonly used to counter anti-radiation missiles, the "KD-18" can calculate the location of the radar based on the signals it has obtained, and complete the attack under the control of the inertial guidance system.

Crucially, the "KD-18C" has enhanced anti-jamming performance, which may not be able to play a role even if the enemy uses active jamming equipment.

Theoretically, one "Zhan-10AD" can carry 4 "KD-18C" with composite pylons.

In addition, an attack formation consisting of 4 "Battle-10AD" usually consisted of a single attack formation, which ensured that sufficient firepower was possible to destroy the enemy's air defense system.

Tactically, two "Battle-10AD" aircraft are often allowed to fly at high altitude in front to lure the enemy's air defense radar to turn on.

In this way, the "Battle-10AD", flying at low altitude in the rear, will be able to open fire without threat.

However, in the face of high-strength air defense systems, electronic warfare aircraft are also needed.

That's it this time.

The 12 "Battle-10AD" are divided into 3 formations, and about 20 kilometers behind each formation, each has 2 "Attack-8FZ" aircraft dedicated to electronic jamming missions.

This is also the last batch of "Attack-8" still in service with front-line troops.

This kind of attack aircraft, which was equipped with the Imperial Air Force more than 20 years ago and almost equipped with the Imperial Navy, and served as the main force during the Polish-Iranian War, was withdrawn from the front-line troops one after another several years ago, and the last "Attack-8E" squadron serving in the attack aircraft unit officially withdrew from the combat sequence the year before last.

It's just that about 8 of the Attack-8FZ, developed from the "Attack-8E", are still in service with the Air Force.

The reason is also very simple, the Air Force has not found an electronic attack aircraft capable of replacing the "Attack-8FZ" for the time being.

The point is that among the tactical aircraft of the Air Force, none of them can match the "Attack-8" in terms of tonnage and size!

If you want to say, the "Attack-8" is the only 50-ton attack aircraft so far after the war!

Not to mention the Imperial Air Force, even if you look at the whole world, there is no attack aircraft that can compare the tonnage of the "Attack-8".

The closest to the existence of the "Attack-8" is actually the F-111 of the Nuland Air Force, whose maximum take-off weight is only more than 45 tons, which is still nearly 6 tons lighter than the "Attack-8".

That is, because it was too bulky, the "Attack-8" was disliked by the Navy and failed to become a carrier-based attack aircraft, and the Navy could only let the "Attack-5" continue to serve.

In fact, this is also the key to the Air Force's choice to use the "Attack-8" to develop electronic attack aircraft.

Only with a large tonnage can it carry enough electronic warfare equipment to obtain a sufficiently powerful electronic warfare capability without having too much impact on flight performance.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that the miniaturization of electronic devices is not good enough.

Relying on its large tonnage and the large built-in bomb bay, which is also very rare among attack aircraft, the "Attack-8FZ" can carry about 6 tons of electronic equipment without using external pylons, and with its relatively high speed, accompany the attack aircraft on combat missions.

According to the usual tactics, the "Attack-8FZ" follows the "Battle-10AD" 20 to 50 kilometers behind the "Battle-10AD" to suppress and interfere with the enemy's air defense radar.

"Battle-10AD" plus "Attack-8FZ", not to mention the Iraqi air defense system, even the air defense units of the Imperial Air Force cannot parry!

According to the experience summed up by the Imperial Air Force during the exercise, the only effective tactic in the face of electronic attack aircraft and air defense suppression fighters is to increase the deployment density of air defense systems and let the air defense units provide cover for each other, so that at least half of the air defense units can be concealed.

Only in this way will it be possible to allow the air defense system in a hidden state to launch a counterattack when it is attacked.

It is not necessary to shoot down enemy aircraft, as long as it can force the air defense suppression fighters to abandon the attack and turn to evasion before launching anti-radiation missiles.

It is a pity that Iraq clearly does not have enough air defense systems.

Just after 2 a.m., several anti-aircraft radars south of Baghdad were bombed almost simultaneously.

After the radar is destroyed, the anti-aircraft missile becomes an ornament!

In addition, high-intensity electronic jamming has had an impact on the communications of the Iraqi army.

Even if it didn't have an impact, the Iraqi army was leaderless.

The "Attack-11" has already blown up strategic targets such as the Republican Guard Command, the Baghdad Air Defense Command Center, the National Telecommunications Center, and also bombed the presidential palace, so the communication and command system of the Iraqi army was paralyzed before the "Snow Owl" troops launched an attack.

Of course, the chaos is made even worse by powerful electronic interference.

According to later disclosures, on the night of 5 July, about six hours before the coalition forces launched Operation "Overwhelming," Hussein left Baghdad and, accompanied by a small number of cronies, went to his temporary official residence in Ramadi, where he remained as a stand-in for the presidential palace.

It can be seen that even Hussein has no confidence in the Iraqi air defense forces!

If the "Z-10A" of the Army Aviation only tore a gap in the Iraqi air defense system, the "Snow Owl" troops widened this gap into a gap.

Subsequently, hundreds of combat aircraft of the coalition forces will swarm in.

The first to be killed was not the fighter of the Imperial Air Force, but the attack aircraft of the High Giant Air Force.

12 "Attack-8MG" in one squadron.

Although the "Attack-8" has withdrawn from the front-line units of the Imperial Air Force, in many allied countries, the "Attack-8" is still an irreplaceable main attack aircraft.

The point is that the Empire does not have a model that can be used to replace the "Attack-8".

It is precisely for this reason that the aircraft manufacturers that produce the "Attack-8" are still improving this attack aircraft, which has been in service for more than 20 years and is not advanced in many aspects, mainly aimed at overseas users, but mainly to extend the service life of the aircraft.

In fact, most of the exported "Attack-8" still have a usable life of 10 to 15 years, and there is no problem that they must be decommissioned due to structural aging.

The most representative of these is the "Attack-8MG" of the Goju Air Force.

These "Attack-8MG" are actually improved from the "Attack-8EG", and the "Attack-8EG" is the last batch of production models exported by the Empire, which is basically the same as the "Attack-8E" used by the Imperial Air Force itself, but has made necessary adjustments to the requirements of other customers.

The main improvements are the replacement of the built-in bomb bay with a fuel tank, the strengthening of the external hardpoint, and the setting of an overweight hardpoint in the belly.

Although the maximum bomb load was reduced from 13 tons to 11 tons, the combat radius without refueling was increased from 1,500 kilometers to 1,800 kilometers under the usual 6-ton loadout, and after a refueling in the air, the combat radius reached an astonishing 2,700 kilometers.

Of course, the tactical use of the "Attack-8MG" has changed dramatically as a result.

To put it simply, in the Imperial Air Force, the "Attack-8" has always been the main attack aircraft after retirement, but it is actually a light bomber. Throughout the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Air Force deployed about 800 Attack-8s, all of which flew long-range bombing missions. Most of the time, dozens of planes of one brigade were dispatched at a time, each carrying 10 tons of bombs, to carry out intensive bombing on targets.

Of course, the loss rate of the "Attack-8" during the Polish-Iranian War was also frighteningly high.

Of the sorties of about 20,000 sorties, 372 were shot down, and 188 were lost as a result of accidents, for a total loss rate of an astonishing 24 per 1,000.

In this war, the average loss rate of tactical aircraft of the Imperial Air Force was only nine per thousand.

This is also the key reason why the Imperial Air Force gradually withdrew the "Attack-8" from the front-line troops after the war.

However, in the Gaoju Air Force, the "Attack-8MG" ushered in its second spring.

With the flight stability given by the high wing load, especially the stability during ultra-low-altitude fast flight, coupled with the ultra-low-altitude flight capability endowed by the altitude radar and automatic driving system, as well as the powerful bomb-carrying capacity, the "Attack-8MG" has become the absolute main force in carrying out ultra-low-altitude penetration missions.

Ultra-low-altitude penetration capabilities are particularly important when dealing with high-value targets that are heavily protected.

Now, the 12 "Attack-8MG" painted with the Taiji Bagua logo are dealing with the Iraqi air base southwest of Baghdad.

12 attack aircraft, all on the center of the belly of the super-heavy load hardpoint, hung a 3-ton ammunition spreader.

The ammunition spreader was filled with 2,400 anti-runway submunitions weighing 750 grams each.

It's all irregular time bombs.

After these small bombs are dropped, a few will explode immediately, destroying the airfield facilities and destroying them, so that enemy planes cannot rise into the air.

However, most bombs will be in a "ready-to-fire" state, making it impossible for the enemy to repair the runway immediately.

In order to reduce the spreading range, that is, to increase the effectiveness of the strike, the throwing height needs to be controlled between 200 and 500 meters.

This requires that the carrier aircraft must enter at an ultra-low altitude and fly over the airport, preferably over the runway.

This is also the key to arranging the "Attack-8MG" to carry out this mission.

Of all the tactical aircraft of the coalition forces, only the "Attack-8MG" is capable of reaching high subsonic speeds at ultra-low altitudes and maintaining sufficient stability after hanging a heavy 3-ton spreader.

In fact, the speed of penetration is very crucial.

The "Attack-8MG" can theoretically penetrate the defense at Mach 1.1, but it can generally only fly to Mach 0.95, and it can only reach Mach 1.1 when it is disengaged after losing the external ammunition and reducing the resistance, but this also means that it can fly out of the strike range of the enemy's air defense system at a faster speed.

This penetration speed, even compared with today's attack aircraft, is not backward.

In addition, the "Attack-8MG" also has cockpit armor.

Because they will inevitably be attacked by small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, those unarmored combat aircraft, performing such tasks is tantamount to death.

Even if it is the "Attack-8MG", the battle loss rate for performing this kind of mission is extremely high.

Although it can't be said to be a life of nine deaths, it is certainly a lot of bad luck.

In fact, the loss rate of ultra-low-altitude penetration is too high, so after the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Air Force increased its investment in precision-guided bombs, air-to-ground missiles and other high-precision, long-range ground-to-ground weapons, and gradually abandoned ultra-low-altitude penetration tactics.

In any case, the attack aircraft is not a tank, and the "Attack-8" was not designed with a view to breaking through the enemy's air defense network.

It is precisely because of this that when the mission was arranged, Ding Zhennan sent a squadron of 12 "Attack-8MG" to deal with an air base.

Theoretically, as long as two "Attack-8MG" flew over the air base and completed the bomb dropping, the base could be paralyzed for several days.

Obviously, no matter how low the penetration rate is, 2 of the 12 sorties will be successful!