For a long time, the imperial authorities regarded the Nuland Republic on the other side of the Guia as a fierce enemy, but did not see the Empire as a threat.

This is not only related to comprehensive strength, but also to the relationship between strategic and geopolitical aspects.

Although in the continental direction, the Liangxia Empire and the Eastern Bloc have always adopted a defensive strategy, in the maritime direction, which is related to core interests, the empire has always pursued an offensive strategy. Not to mention taking the initiative to compromise with the Xilu Group, it didn't even give the Xilu Group much room for development.

Here's the key.

Even if the Western Continent Bloc led by the Empire is very strong, and its comprehensive strength is not under the Nuland Republic, it will be difficult to exert it due to geopolitical problems.

To put it bluntly, the Imperial Navy only needs to choke the Xifan Canal and retreat to the Kibu fortress to keep the Western Continent Group out of the core circle of interests.

Attacking the empire from land?

Even if the Western Continent Group has enough troops, it will have to bow to the strategic depth of thousands of kilometers because the logistics support cannot keep up.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, no enemy has ever posed a threat to the empire from land!

In contrast, the relationship between the empire and the Nuland Republic is different.

Still from a strategic and geopolitical point of view, the Nuland Republic is the only country that can compete with the Liang Xia Empire for dominance on a global scale.

If anything, the Republic of Nuland has a unique, even a unique geographical advantage.

The point is that the Republic of Nuland is not on the island of the world, and it has a large enough territory and rich enough resources to participate in the competition for supremacy.

If you look at the world, there is no country like it!

In addition, the Republic of Nuland is bordered by two oceans.

It can be seen that the Republic of Nuland is a country facing the sea by nature, and it has the unique advantage of competing for maritime supremacy on a global scale.

If you want to say it, it is even more superior than the Liangxia Empire!

Even if the Liang Xia Empire has never taken the Riman Empire in its eyes, it cannot ignore the existence of the Riman Empire, let alone not defend it.

It can be seen that at any time, the Liangxia Empire was an empire on land and sea.

This meant that it was impossible for the Liang Xia Empire to concentrate its resources on either side, and at all times it had to exert its efforts in both directions at the same time.

In fact, this is also the reason why it is impossible for the Empire to reconcile with the Nuland Republic.

In order to contain, and arguably, to prevent the Nuland Republic from growing, especially in the vital Guia Ocean, which poses a threat to the Empire, the Empire has always controlled and occupied the Khowaii Islands, and has never mentioned the return of the Khowaii Islands to the Nuland Republic or the withdrawal of troops from the Khowaii Islands.

In addition, the Empire has been enhancing its military presence on the Khowaii Islands.

On a military level, the empire controlled the Khowaii Islands, mainly because the Guia Ocean was too large, and almost all of the islands were concentrated in the west.

Even the Howaii Islands are in the middle of the Guia Ocean, more than 5,000 kilometers off the west coast of the Republic of Nuland.

From the Khowaii Islands to the east, to the Lonely Continent, there are almost no islands!

This geography creates a very serious problem.

Even if the Imperial Air Force's strategic bombers took off from the Khowaii Islands, they would have to fly more than 5,000 kilometers to reach the skies over the west coast of the Republic of Nuland. If you want to bomb targets in the interior of the Nuland Republic, the bombers must have a combat radius of 8,000 or even 10,000 kilometers.

On the contrary, if the Nuland Navy controlled the islands in the Guia Ocean, even the Northern Horse Islands, which were relatively far away from the huge mainland, the bombers would only need to fly 3,000 kilometers to bomb cities located on the eastern coast of the empire, and even the imperial capital would only need a combat radius of less than 5,000 kilometers.

What's more, in the Western and Eastern Oceans, there are many islands closer to the mainland of the empire, such as the Sayi Islands and the North and South Sadou Islands.

This gap made it necessary for the Imperial Navy to maintain a strategic offensive posture in the Guia Ocean, because as long as the initiative was lost, the homeland could not be protected.

In addition, higher demands were placed on the Imperial Air Force.

At the end of the last war, the empire invested a huge amount of money, resources and personnel to develop super bombers with a combat radius of more than 5,000 kilometers, in order to use the Howaii Islands as a base to carry out strategic bombing of the Nuland mainland, and in the end, it was dismounted because of technology and cost problems.

Even now, this problem is very prominent.

Specifically, the strategic bombers of the Imperial Air Force had a combat radius about 2,000 kilometers higher than those of other countries of the same era.

In addition, the Imperial Air Force maintained nearly 800 large tankers in peacetime, and also insisted on using a hard-tube refueling system that delivered fuel faster and had lower operational requirements for the receivers, which was also related to bombers, that is, the tankers of the Imperial Air Force mainly served bombers.

If I want to say that, the models of the Imperial Air Force are all on par with the "big", and they are also related to the strategic strike mission shouldered.

For example, the electronic reconnaissance planes of the Imperial Air Force all use large civil airliners as platforms, with a range of more than 10,000 kilometers. In wartime, the number one task of electronic reconnaissance aircraft is to assist bombers in combat, accompany bombers in flight, and jam and suppress the enemy's air defense radar and other electronic platforms.

In addition, this is the main reason why the Imperial Air Force insisted on the development of air-launched cruise missiles and made strict requirements for the size of cruise missiles.

The development of cruise missiles is understandable, that is, cruise missiles can increase the strike distance of bombers by thousands of kilometers, and can also allow bombers to operate in relatively safe airspace, without having to risk breaking through the enemy's air defense network and dropping bombs in the fire net woven by antiaircraft guns and air defense missiles.

As for the latter, it has a lot to do with the inherent flaws of the Imperial bombers.

In order to extend the combat radius of the bomber as much as possible, even if it can be supported by a tanker, the bomber needs to have a sufficient fuel load, that is, the tanker may not be able to fly to the front at any time, so when designing the bomber, the volume of the fuel tank must be ensured first.

Even if you can't take off with full fuel, you can take off with a full load, and then refuel in the air after liftoff, so as to obtain a longer combat radius.

After the size of the airframe is determined, the larger the fuel tank, the less space is left for the magazine.

Although the maximum bomb load of the Imperial strategic bomber was not low, the volume of the magazine was relatively small, and the length was strictly limited.

It is precisely in this way that the length of the air-launched cruise missile needs to be strictly limited, at least to fit into the magazine.

Even if it is possible to carry missiles on external hardpoints, at the design stage, the size of the magazine must be taken into account, and the size must be limited according to the standard of the inside.

In fact, the Navy was also deeply affected.

When the "Attack-5" was designed, it was required that the combat radius must exceed 2,000 kilometers, but in fact, it could reach 2,500 kilometers after attaching three large auxiliary fuel tanks. It is only a later improved version, because the empty weight has increased a lot, and the internal fuel tank is squeezed by electronic equipment, the combat radius has been shortened by several hundred kilometers. But even so, the "Attack-5" has a maximum combat radius of not less than 2,000 kilometers.

This is almost more than the combat radius of all fighters of the same era!

To say, even among the fourth-generation heavy fighters in service, there are not a few with a combat radius of more than 2,000 kilometers.

In addition, the "Zhan-9B" has a combat radius of up to 1,500 kilometers after hanging two large auxiliary fuel tanks.

According to the tactical requirements of the Navy, the "Zhan-9" had to escort bombers when necessary, so it needed a large range and a sufficient combat radius.

On the contrary, the "Zhan-12", which is used to replace the light attack aircraft, had to reduce its performance indicators and shorten the combat radius to 1,200 kilometers in order to control the price when it was designed, thus becoming the carrier-based fighter with the shortest combat radius equipped by the Imperial Navy after entering the Mach 2 era.

Fortunately, the Imperial Navy has always attached great importance to partner refueling technology.

In fact, this is also the key to the Navy's reluctance to let the "Attack-5" be decommissioned.

After attaching four large auxiliary fuel tanks and one partner refueling pod, the "Attack-5" can fly to a distance of 1,000 kilometers to replenish three tons of fuel for each of the three fighters, ensuring that these fighters can fly back to the fleet at cruising speed, or extend the combat radius by 500 kilometers.

This ability is incomparably valuable, and there is no substitute for it now.

The Imperial Navy has always emphasized the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft, in fact, it hopes to deploy the aircraft carrier battle group in the far sea, operating as far away from land as possible.

Although the Imperial Navy did not expect to avoid danger by distance, the farther away it was, the less threat it would have, and more time to organize its defense when attacked, and thus greater certainty of withstanding an incoming attack.

In fact, this is the key reason why the Imperial Navy also attaches great importance to cruise missiles and strives to improve the ability of various combat ships to carry cruise missiles.

When the range of cruise missiles is increased to 1,500 kilometers or even 2,000 kilometers, they can replace carrier-based aircraft and undertake some strategic strike missions. Because there is no problem of losing pilots, commanders have more options when making tactical arrangements, and they often use cruise missiles to strike at the enemy's strategic targets in order to reduce the combat losses of carrier-based aviation.

On cruisers and destroyers, the Imperial Navy had begun to popularize vertical launch systems capable of launching cruise missiles.

In addition, on the next generation of large attack submarines, the Imperial Navy also clearly demanded that 30 cruise missiles be carried and could not affect normal combat operations. To put it simply, large attack submarines also have to undertake part of the ground strike mission by carrying and using cruise missiles.

Of course, in the eyes of the Imperial Navy, the range of cruise missiles was still far from sufficient.

It was only when the cruise missiles were being developed that the navy and air force broke up unhappily. The Navy hopes to increase the size of the missile by loading more fuel, and to increase the range as much as possible while ensuring that other indicators, such as the weight of the warhead, are not reduced, even if the missile is larger and heavier.

In the Navy's planning, the next generation of cruise missiles must have a range of at least 2,500 kilometers to ensure that the platform can be kept away from dangerous sea areas.

In addition, it is best to increase the warhead to 1,000 kilograms, at least 50 percent on the existing basis, that is, to 750 kilograms, so that special warheads such as submunitions and ground-penetrating warheads can be used to improve the combat effectiveness and battlefield applicability of cruise missiles.

In fact, in all strategic plans against the Nuland Republic, cruise missiles have irreplaceable value.

Because it was too far away from Nuland proper, and after the withdrawal from the North Sunset Ocean, there was no longer a foothold of the imperial army near Nuland proper, so both the strategic bombers of the Air Force and the warships of the Navy mainly relied on cruise missiles to attack the Nuland proper.

In this way, the cost of a strategic strike becomes a huge problem.

If it is used when ammunition is consumed on a large scale, then the price of cruise missiles is simply unaffordable, and it can be said that it is an ammunition that is too expensive to use.

Especially in peacetime!

Because the quantity of purchases will not be too large, and high-tech weapons will have a certain timeliness, they will fall behind rapidly with the progress of science and technology, and it will be impossible to reserve large quantities, so the cost of cruise missiles cannot be reduced at all, and it is impossible to reduce the unit price by expanding the number of purchases.

The key is the storage cycle.

Although theoretically, any kind of ammunition can be stored for decades, but in today's rapid development of science and technology, which is changing all the time, no high-tech equipment can guarantee that after 10 years, it will still be advanced enough and will not be obsolete by more advanced weapons.

As a result, precision munitions such as cruise missiles are basically purchased as much as they want.

Not to mention anything else, the Empire's two cruise missiles, namely the "Painted Halberd" and the "Snake Spear", have been developed to the third generation, and the fourth generation is about to enter the mass production stage.

It can be seen that it is almost impossible to use cruise missiles to accomplish strategic bombing missions.

It is precisely because of this that Ding Zhennan has repeatedly emphasized that when facing the Nuland Republic, any idea of a quick victory will lead to a heavy defeat.

Of course, on this basis, Ding Zhennan also put forward a new set of military doctrines.

Judging by the current situation, it is precisely said that with the preparations that the empire has made in the past three years, it is not at all expected to defeat the Nuland Republic through a few decisive battles.

If anything, any effort in this direction is very dangerous!

Bai Huawei came to Ding Zhennan to talk about this matter.

In fact, Bai Huawei is not unaware of the powerful relationship, but he still has a little fantasy, or feels that he should try it.

Of course, it can also be seen as a way to correct one's own wrong views.

The two chatted for half an hour, mainly because the transport plane had already been ready to take off, and the ground crew called twice to ask when it would take off.

After all, this is a military base, and there are military planes taking off and landing at any time, so you can't let the transport planes stop by the runway all the time.

Of course, half an hour is enough time for Bai Huawei to change his mind.

When the ground service department called for the third time, Ding Zhennan drove Bai Huawei over and watched the transport plane he was on lift.

If you want to say it, Ding Zhennan is really a little worried.

There is definitely no problem with Bai Huawei's ability, his problem is that the pressure is too much.

In the eyes of outsiders, he is the youngest son of Bai Zhizhan, the "God of War of the Navy", and he is the most likely to inherit his father's mantle among several brothers.

Living under the aura of a father, it is impossible to live without stress!

If he can't let go of the pressure, it will be difficult for Bai Huawei to show his ability, and he may even make serious mistakes on the battlefield.

This is very similar to Liu Xiangzhen at the beginning.

It's just that Ding Zhennan can't help him.

What Ding Zhennan can do is to fight the ground war that is about to begin, reduce the pressure on logistics support as much as possible, and thus use more resources on the Guia side.

The ground war that is about to start here in Posha Bay is the key to the key!