Will Task Force 51 be attacked?

In fact, this is the one question that needs no doubt the least.

After receiving the news that the Eastern Bloc coalition forces were going to launch a counterattack, Li Shenzhi immediately concluded that the 51st Task Force was about to be attacked.

The reason is also very simple, the Xilu Group needs to create a new hot spot to reduce the pressure on the frontal battlefield.

It is also about the unity of the Sairiku group.

To put it bluntly, because the Empire could not immediately increase its troops on the mainland battlefield to aid Xi Luosha, it could only take action in other directions, so as to show its resolute support for Xi Luosha and forge ahead towards victory, so that the leaders of Xi Luosha believed that they would soon receive assistance.

All in all, something has to be said.

Obviously, no matter how you look at it, there is a great possibility that the 51st Task Force will be hit.

Otherwise, Li Shenzhi would not have come to the commander's bridge so early.

As a result, when he completed the combat deployment, that is, after 7 o'clock, he received a piece of information forwarded by the Navy Command.

Yesterday night, to be precise, during the operation in the early hours of this morning, the special forces arranged by the Military Intelligence Bureau successfully completed their mission.

Not only was the undamaged cryptographic chip found, but a working encrypted radio station was also seized.

In other words, the Military Intelligence Bureau has a great deal of confidence that it will be able to crack the communication code of the Western Continent Group in a short period of time, and after that it will be able to provide reliable battlefield intelligence to combat units.

The key point is that the military communication password of the Western Continent Group is not only common to the three armed forces, but also adopted by all member countries of the group.

In this way, it may be possible to master its military deployment in the Balkan direction!

However, this is not to say that the MIA has mastered the communication code of the Western Continent group.

If anything, this telegram has little tactical value.

After that, Li Shenzhi waited for more than two hours.

This time, I was still waiting for an intelligence, but it didn't come from the Military Intelligence Agency, and it had nothing to do with the Western Continent Group.

On the other side of the world, on the isolated continent, the two major fleets of the Nuland Navy, the Sunset Ocean Fleet with Norfolk Naval Base as its home port, and the Guia Fleet stationed in San Diego all left port last night, and the five aircraft carriers all remained silent after leaving the port.

Among them, three supercarriers with a full load displacement of nearly 100,000 tons are all in the Guia Fleet.

In addition, the aircraft carrier that was repaired at the shipyard may also be relaunched in the near future.

All in all, in one night, the Nuland Navy was at its highest combat level.

According to the analysis of the naval command, it may only be intensifying the training, that is, the Nuland Navy will not be able to have an impact on the ongoing war in the short term in any case. The point is that the counterattack launched by the Eastern Bloc will not last long and will not give the Nuland Republic a chance to enter the war.

The Nuland Navy could not defeat the Imperial Navy if it could not launch a surprise attack before the Eastern Bloc ended its counterattack.

Obviously, there was not much time left for the Nuland Navy.

As for the frontal hard fight, not to mention the Nuland Navy, even the Nuland Republic is not qualified.

To put it bluntly, if you put together the warships of the three most powerful opponents, namely the Newland Navy, the Euman Navy, and the Royal Navy, they are not as good as the Imperial Navy. If the combat capabilities of the aircraft carrier battle group are taken by the standard, the Imperial Navy exceeds the rest of the global navy combined.

The point is that the Nuland Navy's East Eye Fleet has only 3 supercarriers, while the Imperial Navy also has 3 aircraft carriers on the Howaii Islands.

However, it is 3 large aircraft carriers of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

Because they are fighting with their backs to the archipelago, 3 large aircraft carriers will not suffer.

As a result, the Nuland Navy's Guia Fleet will spend at least half a month, waiting for reinforcements from the Sunset Fleet.

Even if the Nuland Navy were to take the risk, it would take a few days to mobilize reinforcements and deploy a battle group of four carriers.

It's just that Li Shenzhi is not so calm.

After receiving the telegram, he raised his vigilance, but endured not to give the order to send more carrier-based aircraft.

The point is, he knows that there must be a problem here, but he can't see where the problem is.

Did the Nuland Republic send troops to war?

There is indeed such a possibility, but as analyzed by the Navy Command, even if it is a full-speed mobilization, it will not have an impact until a few days later.

It would take at least ten days just to transport the troops by boat to the other side of the sunset ocean.

If the preliminary mobilization and related preparations are taken into account, it will take at least two months before the ground troops can be sent to the mainland theater to participate in the fighting.

This does not take into account the issue of command.

Because of decades of estrangement, the Nuland army may not be able to integrate into the command system of the Western Continent Group, and the Western Continent Group may not make changes for the Nuland army.

If it is divided according to the battlefield and fights separately, it will take more time.

If you want to say anything, the biggest threat is actually the strategic bombers of the Nuland Air Force.

Not to mention the new B-1B, even the B-52H can carry 12 anti-ship cruise missiles and fly thousands of kilometers to attack.

In fact, allowing bombers to use anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of more than 600 kilometers was pioneered by the Nuland Air Force.

However, the Nuland Air Force has always believed that it is more reliable to project more anti-ship missiles at a time than to use heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles, so the Nuland Air Force has developed subsonic anti-ship missiles with a mass of less than 1 ton and bombers such as B-1B and B-52H that can carry 24 pieces.

But the problem is that there is no shortage of bombers in the Western Continent group.

Even if the Western Continent Group has no strategic bombers of real significance, they are all medium-range bombers, and the number of them is more than 1,000.

It is not difficult to organize dozens of bombers to attack.

If it is considered that the problem of command and coordination needs to be solved by arranging a long-distance attack by the Nuland bombers, it is better to directly use their own medium bombers.

Submarine?

The same is a false proposition.

The Nuland Navy has dozens of large attack submarines, but they are mainly deployed in the Guia Ocean, and the submarines deployed in the Sunset Ocean are also mainly deployed in the North Sunset Ocean to carry out anti-submarine missions.

In the past few decades, the Nuland Navy has rarely sent submarines to Luxinhai, let alone Dongluxinhai.

In addition, the Western Continent group likewise does not lack submarines.

Even if the submarines of the Royal Navy of Bran and the Beiman Navy are both carrying out anti-submarine missions in the North Sunset Ocean, they can rely on the submarines of the Raleigh Kingdom, the Rock Kingdom and the Spann Kingdom to deal with the 51st Task Force operating in the East Continent Heart Sea, there is no need to go far, let alone the submarines need to be deployed in advance.

It can be seen that the Nuland Navy sent all the fleets out at this time, which may have nothing to do with military operations.

Political significance?

Thinking of this, Li Shenzhi was taken aback.

Manifest your stance and determination to go to war through action?

If so, this may be the last necessary condition for the attack of the Western Continent group.

The reason is simple.

Because the comprehensive strength of the Yuman Empire is far inferior to that of the Liangxia Empire, if calculated by the group, the gap between the two sides is even greater, so before receiving strong assistance, that is, before the Beigu Group led by the Nuland Republic decides to participate in the war, the Xilu Group will definitely leave a way out for itself.

When it comes to the military level, it is actually to control the scale of the war and try to avoid wars at sea.

Not only because the navy has always been the weak point of the Western Continent group, but also because the navy is an offensive strategic service, but also because there are geopolitical relationships.

No matter how well you fight on land, you actually have a choice in the end.

To put it simply, in the end, only the sacrifice of Xiluosha can end the war with the Eastern Bloc, and there is no possibility that there will be no armistice.

Fundamentally, Dongluosha, which was fought in the ground war, has not been directly aimed at the Liangxia Empire for the time being.

When the war spreads to the sea, it's different.

After killing several aircraft carrier battle groups of the Liang Xia Navy, can you still negotiate peace with the Liang Xia Empire?

Even if we can talk about it, it's not now.

The Western Continent will operate at sea only after the Nuland Republic has taken a stand and begun to prepare for war, or even promised to do so.

This is also the reason why the Western Continent Group has not deployed aviation to Greece for several days after the start of the war.

Even on the side of the Bran Kingdom, that is, on the side of Scapa Bay, the Royal Navy of Bran only sent troops to recapture the bombed base. Even when the battleship was attacked and three destroyers were sunk, the Liangxia submarine that was operating nearby at that time was not attacked.

Now, the Nuland Navy has sent the fleet, even if it is not possible to enter the war immediately, it is tantamount to making a crucial guarantee to the Western Continent Group.

In this way, the Xilu Group has nothing to worry about.

Just, do you want to immediately strengthen the air defense of the fleet?

By the time the news was received, it was almost 10 a.m., and the air defense fighters that had been dispatched before dawn had returned to the sky over the fleet and were preparing to land on the aircraft carrier, while the replacement fighters had already been dispatched half an hour earlier to patrol about 450 kilometers northwest of the fleet.

However, there is no extra space on the aircraft carrier.

The carrier-based AWACS aircraft, also dispatched before dawn, also returned, landing about 15 minutes later before carrier-based fighters could be dispatched.

Of course, the replacement AWACS aircraft has already been dispatched, and at this time it is patrolling 400 kilometers away.

Later, one AWACS aircraft will be dispatched to replace the "Finger-6C" deployed 150 kilometers west of the fleet at about 7 a.m.

According to the arrangement, this time it was the "Li Mingbo" that dispatched the early warning plane, which had nothing to do with the "White Stop."

All in all, the "White Stop" was able to recover its ability to mobilize at around 10:15, while the "Li Mingbo" had to wait until around 10:30.

Prior to this, the two aircraft carriers could only use two catapults located in the take-off area, and could only catapult at most two fighters at a time, and could only dispatch eight fighters deployed in front of the island, and could not use the six fighters parked behind the island and in the standby area on the left side of the flight deck.

In the event of an emergency, the carrier-based aircraft recovery operation can be stopped immediately, and the fighter on standby on the flight board can be dispatched as quickly as possible. You know, every carrier-based aircraft has at least 15 minutes of fuel leftover, that is, it is used to deal with emergencies.

It really doesn't work, you can consider abandoning carrier-based aircraft.

One way or another, aircraft carriers are more precious.

In the last war, the Imperial Navy abandoned more than 1,000 carrier-based aircraft to protect aircraft carriers, nearly a third of which were forced to land during the return phase.

In fact, Li Shenzhi only hesitated for a few minutes.

It wasn't that he made a decision quickly, but that the situation changed.

At about 9:58 a.m., the "Finger-6C" deployed in the northwest of the fleet facing the Aegean Sea sounded the alarm and detected a large number of enemy aircraft flying in the direction of the fleet.

In accordance with the operational deployment, the four air defense fighters that had advanced to the western part of the fleet immediately turned to meet them.

This is just the beginning, though.

At 10 o'clock, the "Finger-6C" deployed in the southwest direction, that is, in the southeast of Trick Island, also issued an enemy attack alarm.

Enemy aircraft also appeared in this direction, still bombers.

Immediately, 2 aircraft carriers were transferred to combat status.

Prior to this, the two aircraft carriers had already entered combat status, and after receiving the news, each ejected 2 fighters located at the take-off point.

All four fighters were sent to the southeast of Crete.

At this time, both aircraft carriers were busy.

According to the order given by Li Shenzhi, the two aircraft carriers temporarily stopped the recovery operation and began to dispatch those fighters on standby as fast as possible.

The enemy launched a surprise attack from 2 directions at the same time, and it must have gone all out, and it was absolutely impossible to let go of the 51st Task Force.

If the Western Continent Group had been prepared, it would have been more than bombers coming.

There must be fighter cover, and more air defense fighters need to be dispatched.

Of course, it is also possible to launch a surprise attack in more directions.

Don't forget that the Hokuriku region is also under the control of the Sairiku group, so it is entirely possible that the bombers of the Sairiku group will make a detour through the Hokugen region.

It is precisely for this reason that Li Shenzhi specially instructed the staff officer in charge of aviation operations to strengthen the defense over there.

In fact, these things don't need Li Shenzhi to worry about at all.

He is the commander of the 51st Task Force, but he is also the interim commander of the Lu Xinhai Fleet, and the chief of staff of the fleet is mainly responsible for the operations of the fleet.

In addition, all combat operations are actually planned.

After receiving the second enemy attack alert, that is, after discovering the second group of enemy planes, the task force headquarters activated the operational plan, dispatched a small squadron from the fighters that were urgently dispatched to the southwest, and sent them to keep an eye on the Beixuan area and make preparations for intercepting the enemy planes.

The key is that the "White Stop" also urgently dispatched a "Finger-6C".

Because there is no need to carry ammunition and can take off with a full tank of fuel, the preparation of the carrier-based AWACS aircraft before the sortie is relatively simple.

When the fighter took off, the "Finger-6C" was sent to the flight deck and towed to the standby area behind the island.

According to the deployment, this AWACS aircraft will also fly to the southwest to direct the air defense operations there.

With the addition of one AWACS aircraft, the air defense deployment was adjusted, allowing the AWACS aircraft, which had been 150 kilometers away to the northwest, to retreat 50 kilometers and move to the north of the fleet. Not to send to monitor that side, but to assist the air defense cruiser in directing the air defense operation.

When entering the stage of internal air defense operations, the air defense cruiser will command the battle, and the carrier-based early warning aircraft will be responsible for assisting, mainly to convey combat orders.

This is also the biggest benefit of a dual-carrier battle group.

In extreme cases, 2 aircraft carriers can deploy 4 carrier-based AWACS aircraft, while 1 aircraft carrier can only dispatch a maximum of 2 carrier-based AWACS aircraft.

It's not that the number of carrier-based AWACS aircraft is insufficient, but that there are so many available.

1 supercarrier, carrying only 4 carrier-based AWACS aircraft, and there must be 2 stored in the hangar, one of which may be undergoing maintenance.

In the next 10 minutes or so, 12 fighters were dispatched from each of the two aircraft carriers.

By the time the last fighters took to the skies, it was already 10:15.

The AWACS planes that came out of the front have confirmed that among the incoming enemy planes, there are indeed quite a few fighters, and they are flying in the front.