It took half an hour to stand by the radio station before Stark got the full telegram.

This is a long-wave radio station, which can only send and receive a few dozen characters of information per second, and it certainly can't be compared with a short-wave station, let alone a satellite station.

Definitely wouldn't use this thing unless there were special circumstances.

Now there are special circumstances.

At the beginning, to be precise, from noon on the 12th of Nuland East Coast time, the Liangxia Air Force launched an operation on a global scale, using various means to attack the satellite system of the Republic of Nuland. In just 3 hours, most of the military satellites were destroyed and disabled.

Even communications satellites deployed in high orbits did not escape.

According to the report provided by the NSA, those communication satellites serving the military are still there, but they are not in working condition, and it is suspected that the Liangxia Empire used directed energy weapons, such as high-power laser weapons that have been passed down for more than ten years. At least at known ranges, there are no missile weapons capable of attacking satellites in high orbits. As for suicide satellites, that is, satellites used for anti-satellites, it takes a lot of time to deploy in the early stage, it is impossible to coordinate with other combat units, and these satellites are monitored by the NSA after they are in orbit.

If this judgment is correct, the Liang Xia Empire already has directed energy weapons, and they can also be used in actual combat, even if they are too large and bulky to be used in the tactical field for the time being, the impact cannot be underestimated. In a few days, the military satellites of the Nuland Republic and the Western Continent Group will be finished.

Because of the lack of capabilities to deal with high-orbit satellites, the Nuland Republic will certainly lose its only advantage.

This is not an exaggeration.

When the Nuland Republic entered the war, the most prominent advantage in the information field, that is, the Western Continent Group, had already severely damaged the military satellite system of the Liangxia Empire before that.

Relying on this advantage, the Nuland Navy was able to roughly grasp the whereabouts of the Liangxia fleet before entering the war.

In fact, this is also the main reason for Stark's courage to take risks.

To put it bluntly, when the Newland Republic entered the war, the Liang Xia Navy was deployed on the Guia side, and only the 41st Task Force was deployed, and except for the 61st Task Force, the other task forces were not in the state, or could not rush to the aid of the Guia.

This situation will remain in place until at least the end of the year.

If this opportunity is missed, the Nuland Navy will not even have the slightest hope of victory.

After that, Stark led two task forces, first feinted to attack the Aliu Islands, and then rushed to the transit island, only to let the 53rd task force with a large number of troops lure the enemy in the eastern and eastern gaze oceans, and also based on the intelligence provided by reconnaissance satellites, it was concluded that the defense deployment of the Liang Xia Navy on the transit island was very weak.

Even in specific tactical operations, military satellites have irreplaceable value.

For example, with the help of communication satellites, it is possible to communicate with the rear in a relatively covert way, and the communication efficiency is also higher, so it is possible to grasp the battlefield situation in a timely and accurate manner. Without communication satellites, the use of traditional radio stations is not only much less efficient, but also exposes whereabouts.

Of course, reconnaissance satellites have long become an indispensable reconnaissance platform.

On the ocean battlefield, the value of reconnaissance satellites is even more prominent.

It has already been mentioned that with higher combat efficiency, especially the speed of assault, bombers have long replaced carrier-based aircraft as the main platform for sea operations.

The key to bringing into play the value of bombers is reconnaissance in the early stage.

To put it simply, it is to find the enemy fleet in time and obtain accurate tactical intelligence.

If you don't even know where the enemy fleet is, even if there are good bombers, it's just a decoration.

Of course, even in traditional naval warfare, early reconnaissance is crucial. In the Second Global War, several decisive naval battles were fought in the early reconnaissance phase. The subsequent attacks are not very outstanding, after all, the side that attacks first is often able to win. Because reconnaissance was very important, the Liang Xia Navy also invented several effective reconnaissance tactics during the Great War.

After entering the missile era, the importance of reconnaissance has not only not decreased, but has also increased by a large margin.

The difference is that in the era of missiles, reconnaissance relied mainly on technical means, especially various electronic equipment.

It was against this backdrop that reconnaissance satellites appeared on the stage of war.

The first to realize the great value of reconnaissance satellites was the Liangxia Empire, but it was the first to develop reconnaissance satellites, to be precise, it was not the Liangxia Navy that used reconnaissance to search fleets, and it was not the Liangxia Navy that served the naval battle, but the Yuanman Navy, which was not powerful, but had to face a huge threat.

If anything, it's easy to understand.

The Riman Navy is essentially a defensive navy, with a very limited area of operations, concentrated near the mainland and in the Luxinhai to the south of the western continent, so the requirements for reconnaissance satellites are not high. In addition, because the search range is very narrow, there is no need to deploy too many reconnaissance satellites, and the cost of the system can be controlled to a low level, at least within an acceptable range, and there is no problem that it is too expensive to use.

This is also the key reason why the Liang Xia Navy stayed away from reconnaissance satellites at the very beginning.

Not to mention a few decades ago, even now, hundreds of satellites would need to be deployed to achieve global coverage, which is too high to afford.

Fortunately, in its attitude towards reconnaissance satellites, the Nuland Navy studied the Manman Navy, not the Liangxia Navy.

The reason is simple, even now, the Nuland Navy is essentially a defensive navy, and there are no operational requirements for global deployment.

It was on this basis that the Nuland Navy invested in the development of a series of reconnaissance satellites.

For example, the "Keyhole" series of reconnaissance satellites, controlled and led by the CIA, have received investment from the Navy, accounting for as much as a quarter.

The "hockey" series of radar reconnaissance satellites, which are also controlled and led by the CIA, are tailor-made for the navy.

This kind of satellite, using synthetic aperture radar, is not only capable of all-weather operation, but also has a certain ability to distinguish between real and false targets.

Crucially, its reconnaissance is more efficient.

Because the battleship is made of steel, it is a strong reflector of electromagnetic waves, and the larger the battleship, the stronger the reflected electromagnetic signal, so the efficiency of using radar reconnaissance satellites to search for battleships is much higher than that of optical reconnaissance satellites such as "keyholes", and it is more recognizable.

If anything, this kind of satellite is customized for the navy, and it mainly serves the navy in wartime.

Unfortunately, it was only launched for the first time two years ago, and so far three have been deployed, which can only achieve full coverage of key sea areas, such as the Northern Guia and the Eastern Guia Ocean.

With such a small number of deployments, the main thing is that they are too expensive.

The unit price of the first three pieces has reached NZ$1.5 billion, and even if mass production is achieved in the future, it will not be less than NZ$1 billion.

At this price, that's not ordinarily high.

Also two years ago, the Nuland Navy ordered the second batch of three "Nize"-class supercarriers, and the unit price was only 3 billion New Zealand dollars.

That is, 2 "hockey balls" are equivalent to 1 supercarrier.

Now, even the three "hockeyballs" deployed have been wiped out.

These three satellites are all in medium and low orbits, and according to the information sent by the NSA, they were all destroyed by the anti-satellite missiles of the Liangxia Air Force when they passed through the ice ocean.

In addition, other reconnaissance satellites were not spared.

As a result, the mission assigned by Stark, which focused on searching the waters northeast of the Khowaii Islands, could no longer be carried out.

Is this a coincidence!?

That's right, the Liangxia Air Force has the most powerful anti-satellite capabilities in the world, and the Liangxia Air Force was the first to study the military value of outer space.

The most prominent representative is that the Liang Xia Empire has always been keen on space activities.

Although the Liangxia Empire is not the initiator of the space movement, many firsts, such as the first artificial satellite, the first manned spaceflight, and the first permanent space station have nothing to do with the Liangxia Empire, but with strong national strength, as well as a stronger national will, and the ability to act on it, the Liangxia Empire is the last, and the development to the present, it is even more unbeatable, far surpassing all competitors.

If nothing else, more than 20 years ago, the Liangxia Empire built 12 space shuttles in just a few years, and they are still in operation today. The Republic of Nuland did its best, and only 4 were built, and after the wreck of the "Challenger", it was basically taken out of service. The Empire was even worse, having only built its first space shuttle last year, and has only made one unmanned test flight so far.

In addition, the Liangxia Empire's "Queqiao" project has completed its 32nd launch, sending 27 batches of 108 astronauts to the moon, and allowing 54 of them to successfully land on the moon. If it weren't for the outbreak of the Great War, the Liangxia Empire would have carried out its 33rd launch at the end of this year.

In this area, other countries scored zero.

Although more than 20 years ago, the Nuland Republic launched the "Sun God" program-for-tat, to become the second country after the Liangxia Empire to achieve a manned landing on the moon, but after suffering three consecutive failures in the test stage, the Nuland authorities retreated.

In fact, the key is money.

If the "Helios" project is completed according to the original plan, it will cost at least NZ$40 billion.

At that time, this money was able to purchase 20 large aircraft carriers of the "Nuland" class, and equipped with all carrier-based aircraft.

Obviously, no matter how you look at it, it is more cost-effective to choose an aircraft carrier.

As a result, the "Helios" program was strongly opposed by the military.

How strong is it?

A year before the first manned landing on the moon, then-President Kenny was shot dead by Assassins while attending a public rally. The first thing the replacement vice president did after taking office was to announce the dismissal of the "Helios" plan, or to be precise, put on hold indefinitely.

Although the two events are not directly related, it is rumored that Kenny's death is related to his forcible promotion of the "Helios" project.

The point, of course, is to the detriment of the military's core interests.

According to information that was later revealed, Kenny intends to use 5% of the defense budget, or at least NZ$15 billion a year, to promote the "Helios" program during his second term. The point is that this money comes from the defense budget, which is allocated by the Pentagon, and the military has no room for manoeuvre.

If Kenny gets it, the first thing to be unlucky is the Navy.

If nothing else, the construction of the "Nix" class will definitely have to be postponed.

The rest of the service is no better.

It can be seen from this that in outer space, the Liangxia Empire is several orders of magnitude ahead.

But the question is, if it's late, why now?

In fact, after the outbreak of the Great War, the Liangxia Air Force did not make a big deal about the satellite system of the Western Continent Group, and only destroyed some reconnaissance satellites in low orbits.

Although this can be seen as the Liangxia Air Force deliberately leaving a hand, in order to paralyze the opponent, such as the Nuland Republic, so that the opponent feels that the anti-satellite capabilities of the Liangxia Air Force are very limited, so before entering the war, it will not spend too much effort to strengthen the protection of its own satellite system, but the Nuland Republic has been participating in the war for almost half a month, and it is too low to suddenly start at this time.

This is not necessarily a coincidence!

The point is that in the early hours of the morning, Stark contacted the naval command and proposed to strengthen reconnaissance and search efforts in the waters of the eastern Guia, to be precise, the northeast waters of the Khowaii Islands. The three "hockey balls" were deployed in this way and made a trajectory change maneuver during the day. If they are not destroyed, these three radar imaging reconnaissance satellites will start scanning the designated sea area one after another from the late night of the 12th.

If Task Force 41 had been here, it would have been discovered!

So, what does this have to do with Task Force 41?

To Stark's chagrin, even if his speculation was correct, it could not be confirmed.

The satellite system has been paralyzed, but in fact it is completely finished, and even if the network is launched as soon as possible, it will take a few days before part of the reconnaissance capability can be restored.

Task Force 52 is northeast of the transit island, and the distance from Hounu Island is always more than 1,500 kilometers.

Obviously, even if carrier-based aircraft are sent on reconnaissance missions, they will not be able to fly that far.

Let the Air Force dispatch a large reconnaissance aircraft?

None of the reconnaissance planes of the Liangxia Air Force could approach the 51st Task Force, so why believe that the reconnaissance planes of the Nuland Air Force could detect the 41st Task Force?

Moreover, Task Force 41 is completely capable of operating under the cover of shore-based aviation.

In this way, even if the Air Force's reconnaissance plane was intercepted, there would be no way to prove that it must have been committed by the carrier-based fighters of the 41st Task Force.

And crucially, who can prove that this series of actions is not for the opponent to make a miscalculation?

Of course, the so-called miscalculation here is that after the destruction of Task Force 53, Task Force 41 did not return to the transit island, but went north from the east side of the Howaii Islands and went around to the rear of Task Force 51 and Task Force 52, thus forcing the Nuland Navy to make adjustments to its deployment.

How to adjust?

Whoever is in command, the first thing to do is to let the two task forces converge, then retreat to the east of the transit island, and switch to a state of naval supremacy.

Then, there will certainly be no way to continue to support the landing force.

The results are clear.

After Stark retreated with the two task forces and went to the east to search for the 41st task force, Bai Huawei, who had already reached the southwest of the transit island, would lead the two task forces to launch a counterattack, first annihilate the landing fleet, and then defeat the landing force, and then wait for the Newland fleet to go to a decisive battle.

If so, Stark is the historical sinner of the Nuland Republic!

Thinking of this, Stark was also very emotional.

If you want to say it, it's not the strategy that is bad, but the more important strength.

This series of combat operations is tantamount to hardening the Newland Navy, using unrivaled strength to smash and trick tactics, so that the Newland Navy will retreat in the face of difficulties.

If he could, Stark would have really chosen to retreat.

Unfortunately, there is no such possibility at all.

Even if you are tough, you must finish this naval battle!