After that light appeared, Wang Dong immediately picked up the telescope.

Immediately after, a second ray of light pierced the night sky.

Not rocket artillery, not anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft missiles!

Judging from the trajectory and speed of the light, it is some kind of vertically launched short-range anti-aircraft missile.

Russian "Doyle" M1?

That's right, it must be the Russian "Dayle" M1.

Wang Dong had long received information that Iran had most likely supplied the rebels with such a short-range air defense system, and that it was deployed somewhere near Kut.

The Doyle M1 is a standard field air defense system with a tracked chassis that allows it to follow the actions of armored units.

In terms of tactical use, the "Doyle" M1 also mainly provides field air defense for armored units to avoid being attacked by attack aircraft and helicopter gunships.

After a few seconds, the two rays of light disappeared.

After about ten seconds, a fireball appeared in the night sky, and it was an anti-aircraft missile that hit a fighter jet that was dropping a bomb over the Kut.

Saudi fighter jets?

Should be.

Due to the limited combat radius, all JF-17s deployed in Nasiriyah and Basra were sent to Diwaniyah, and Saudi F-15SA came here.

Because of the lack of precision-guided bombs and the need to achieve a sufficient hit rate, the F-15SA must have dropped bombs at an altitude of less than 5000 meters.

Attacked by anti-aircraft missiles, other Saudi fighters immediately dropped bombs.

If you drop bombs in a hurry, the hit rate will definitely not be high.

Wang Dong called an operative over and asked him to lead a team to find the downed F-15SA, the Saudi pilot who parachuted out, to be precise.

Although the pilot could not be seen at night, Wang Dong believed that the pilot would definitely parachute.

At this time, a message came from the front that the ground forces of the rebels had arrived.

At the forefront were the "Zulfirka" Type 4 main battle tanks, and there were dozens of them, and it seemed that there were at least two battalions.

Against it were 30 Salman, VT-4 main battle tanks.

Because they arrived ahead of schedule and were still in a favorable position on the defensive, all 30 "Salman" occupied a very favorable firing position.

When the distance was shortened to 4000 meters, "Salman" opened fire first.

4,000 meters, which is also the ultimate detection distance of the infrared imaging night vision sighting equipment of "Salman", can be regarded as the maximum engagement distance.

Relatively speaking, the power of tank guns is not a problem.

Using the fourth-generation long-rod tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile, the "Salman" tank gun can penetrate 800 mm thick homogeneous armor at a distance of 2,000 meters.

At a combat distance of 4000 meters, the depth of armor penetration will not fall below 700 mm.

Obviously, even if the frontal protection strength of the "Zolfirka" 4 reaches 700 mm, it will not be able to stop the armor-piercing shells fired by the "Salman".

Static counter-firing, "Salman" hit more than 90 percent at a range of 2,000 meters.

Even if the engagement distance is doubled, the hit rate will not be less than 80%.

You must know that even when shooting at a moving point, the "Salman" hit a target at a distance of 2,000 meters with a hit rate of more than 80 percent.

It can be said that the sighting system of "Salman" is comparable to that of the best Western tanks, far surpassing Russian tanks.

In the first round of fire alone, at least ten "Zulfka"4 were destroyed.

At this time, the tank crews of the "Zolfirka" 4 did not find the "Salman" hidden in the firing position at all.

To be precise, the tankmen of the "Zulfka" 4 did not know the exact location of their opponents at all before the "Salman" opened fire.

Let's not forget that Zulefka-4 is not equipped with an infrared imager, it uses an infrared searchlight.

Even in ideal conditions, the range of infrared searchlights does not exceed 1000 meters, and the use of infrared searchlights will inevitably expose their own position.

With a sudden blow, the armored forces of the rebels immediately dispersed and accelerated their advance.

Obviously, the rebels wanted to avoid the incoming shells by moving at high speed, and to shorten the engagement distance as quickly as possible to open fire on the enemy in front.

At the same time as the rapid march, the tanks of the rebels also began to shoot.

It's just that there is no threat.

Presumably because of the lack of confidence in the sighting system, the rebel tanks fired between movements using high-explosive shells instead of armor-piercing shells.

In fact, no matter what shells are used, they cannot pose a threat to "Salman".

Quite simply, Iran does not have the technology to create high-performance armor-piercing shells, so it can only import them from Russia, and the best armor-piercing bullet 3BM42 that Russia has for export has a maximum penetration depth of only 500 mm at a distance of 2000 meters, and in some cases only 450 mm.

What is this concept?

If those "Zolfirka" 4 use 3BM42, the engagement distance must be shortened to less than 800 meters, and it is expected to penetrate the frontal armor of "Salman".

It is important to know that without the use of additional armor, the equivalent protection of the turret and hull of the "Salman" is 750 mm and 700 mm.

Due to the use of additional armor, that is, reactive armor, the equivalent protection strength of these "Salman" frontal armor is more than 850 mm.

This protection strength is enough to block the M829A3 from 1500 meters away.

Dealing with the Russian 3BM42, naturally, is not a problem.

The rebel tanks began to charge, which really created some problems for the "Salman".

That is, when dealing with a tank that is moving fast and constantly changing its direction, no good sighting system can guarantee a high enough hit rate.

By this time, 30 "Salman" vehicles were still nested in the positions dug in advance, and only the turrets were exposed.

Comparatively, the frontal protection of the turret was the strongest, and the hull was slightly worse.

In addition, by using the pre-set position, it is possible to significantly reduce the area of the bomb.

Five minutes later, when the rebel tanks had managed to shorten the engagement distance to within 2,000 meters, there were less than 20 Zulfirka 4s that could continue to charge.

At this time, 30 "Salaman" broke out of the preset position.

The distance of 2000 meters is still far enough, and with the enemy approaching, there is no point in continuing to hide, it is better to rush out and kill it.

Almost at the same time, another 30 "Salman" appeared on the east side of the battlefield.

The rebels put two battalions of tanks in the front, leaving at most one battalion in the rear, in addition to a number of infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled guns.

30 Salmans are enough for a tactical-level counterattack.

Obviously, the rebels did not expect that the government army would be able to deploy dozens of tanks to launch a counterattack when it withstood a frontal attack.

What the rebels did not expect was that the tanks opened fire from a distance of 4,000 meters.

Although the rebels were numerous, they were helpless in the face of the 30 "Salman" vehicles killed from the flank, and did not even put up organized resistance.