The performance of the Hellfire heavy carrier-based bomber is in the leading position in the world, and behind this honor is Zhang Meng's foresight and the result of smashing banknotes.

Needless to say, Zhang Meng's name of foresight naturally goes without saying, since he knows the future direction of the aviation field, it is impossible for him to make a detour in Datang's aviation career.

Because of the enormous military pressure from the Japanese side, Zhang Meng had to revise his national development jihua several times, and many development projects had to be accelerated.

It's like all kinds of warships of the Tang Royal Navy, because of the urgency of time, he had to spend more money on them to complete the construction as soon as possible. The Hellfire heavy carrier-based bomber was also born in such an atmosphere, and the cost of each Hellfire was as high as 12,000 Tang Yuan, making it the most expensive heavy carrier-based bomber in the whole Shijie.

However, Zhang Meng's money is not wronged, since the hellfire was officially installed in the aircraft carrier unit of the Tang Royal Navy, in just two months, the naval air force has tested its destructive power.

The results showed that when the Hellfire dived at high speed, the THZ-3A 500-kilogram aerial bomb mounted on it was extremely powerful. A direct hit can penetrate 300 mm of Krupp homogeneous steel armor, the amount of throwing is tested at 500 cubic meters, the kinetic energy of the explosion fragments penetrates the armor of a 100 mm homogeneous tank with a radius of 10 meters, the shock wave test is razed to the ground with brick structures within a radius of 100 meters, and the average kinetic energy of the explosion fragments within a radius of 200 meters is close to 300 joules, which can still cause fatal damage to the human body.

At present, the power of the 500-kilogram aerial bombs carried by the mainstream land-based bombers of various countries can only reach 80 percent of the Tang Army's THZ-3A aerial bombs. (T stands for Tang, HZ stands for aerial bomb, -3A stands for model)

The THZ-3 Type A aerial bomb can have such great power, mainly because Zhang Meng knows part of the formula of the high-power ammunition of the People's Liberation Army in later generations. Although it is only partially formulated, it can still bring a huge power boost when added to the Tang Army's regular ammunition.

Hellfire heavy carrier-based bombers carrying THZ-3A aerial bombs to participate in a large-scale bombing campaign against the Indian tribes in Fiji are tantamount to killing chickens with knives.

Basically, five or six aerial bombs can destroy a small tribe. Although the combined tribal wealth of the Indians was not enough to produce a few aerial bombs, the purpose of the Tang Army was to test the actual combat performance of the Hellfire and the THZ-3 Type A aerial bombs, as well as to train the battlefield psychological quality of the naval aviation pilots.

Of course, the political intention behind it is indispensable, that is, to let the Indian natives of Fiji know the strength of the Tang Army. At the same time, it is not excluded that it is to help the Tang people settle in Fiji in advance to clear up the 'idle people' and 'make room' when they enter Fiji in the future.

In addition to the Hellfire heavy carrier-based bomber participating in the bombing operation against Fiji, the Tang Army's Raptor heavy carrier-based fighter also participated in the military operation as a companion partner who designed, developed, and produced at the same time as the Hellfire and served in the aircraft carrier battle group.

Although Fiji had no air force or even anti-aircraft weapons, Raptor heavy carrier-based fighters took part in the operation, covering the advance of the Don army from the air and attacking the forces of Fijian Indians and other tribes.

When the Raptor fighters fired at the Indian army at a low altitude, the four 20 mm caliber THP-1B rapid-fire guns on board burst out with powerful firepower, and the high-explosive and armor-piercing shells fired by them showed terrifying lethality, causing heavy casualties to the Indian army.

In particular, when the high-explosive bomb fired by the Raptor fighter hit the ground personnel, the entire human body was instantly torn into a bloody scene of blood mist and countless pieces of flesh, which almost made the enemy's spirit collapse instantly.

Originally, the on-board armament of the Raptor Heavy Carrier-based Fighter was designed as six M2 heavy machine guns, but after testing, it was found that too many weapon systems invisibly increased the structural weakness of the wings. Especially for carrier-based aircraft, the Raptor is designed with folding wings, and the installation of six M2 heavy machine guns is very tight.

At the same time, naval aviation conducted live firing with the SRA light tanks of the Don Army as targets, and found that the superiority and destructive power of the fire strike of 6 M2 heavy machine guns against armored vehicles was not very obvious.

One of the Raptor's design missions was to deliver lethal strikes against the Japanese Army's armored vehicles during ground attacks. Obviously, when the M2 heavy machine gun shoots at a ground tank from the air, the hit rate and destructive power are much lower, and a lot of on-board ammunition resources are wasted.

As a result, Raptor Aviation replaced the original six 12.7mm M2 heavy machine guns with four 20 mm THP-1B rapid-fire guns, with 460 rounds of ammunition, which can be combined with special 132-gram high-explosive shells and 175-gram armor-piercing shells produced by Haines Arms Company according to different tasks, and can also be used in a mixture of the two types of ammunition.

After testing, the firepower of the four 20-mm rapid-fire guns has been greatly improved, and the lethality effect of ground attack is very obvious.

As a heavy carrier-based fighter of the Datang Naval Aviation, the overall design concept of the Raptor is consistent with that of the Hellfire heavy carrier-based bomber, that is, regardless of speed, firepower, armor protection, or range, it requires extremely high standards, and is ahead of the international carrier-based fighter of the same type for at least ten years.

The Raptor heavy carrier-based fighter is 8.38 meters long and 4.2 meters high, using the same all-magnesium aluminum alloy skin process as the Hellfire, after the super wind tunnel test, it adopts a laminar airfoil close to the modern advanced propeller aircraft, with the excellent highly concise fuselage design of the S.6 racing aircraft, and a reasonable layout of the equipment in the aircraft, which makes its aerodynamic drag lower than that of the same type of aircraft of the same period by 38%, with a cruising speed of 460 kilometers per hour and a maximum speed of 660 kilometers per hour. And in a situation where the size and weight are comparable to those of similar aircraft, the fuel load has increased by 3 times, which allows it to reach a range of 1300 km.

At the same time, as a heavy carrier-based fighter, the Raptor not only has a thick, smooth and strong magnesium-aluminum alloy skin on the outside as protection, but also provides armor protection for key parts such as the pilot's cockpit, engine and oil radiator inside, and the armor weight even exceeds that of the Hellfire to 150 kg.

The main purpose of this kind of armor protection is to avoid the drawbacks of the Japanese Zero fighters' almost zero defensive power, and at the same time, it is also to improve the survival rate of the navy's carrier-based aircraft, so that after being damaged by enemy aircraft, the pilot can still fly the aircraft back to the aircraft carrier safely, after all, it is inconvenient for the aircraft carrier to replenish the aircraft when it goes out to carry out combat missions. Increasing the return rate means preserving the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers, which has a huge impact on the entire naval battle.

The Raptor heavy carrier-based fighter not only ensures high speed, long range, and high firepower, but also provides a large amount of additional armor protection, which is due to the fact that it uses the same TWF-1600 air-cooled turboprop engine developed by Datang as the Hellfire, otherwise it is difficult for the ordinary 1600 horsepower piston engine to achieve a comprehensive overall performance.

The Raptor is painted in all black brushed metal, the landing gear doors, flaps, oil radiator bleed, and gun loader are all hydraulically actuated, the tail hook and wing folding device are manually operated, and the hood gills are electrically controlled to close. Control surfaces such as rudders, elevators, and ailerons are skinned and have trim tabs.

Like the Hellfire heavy carrier-based bomber, the Raptor heavy carrier-based fighter has surpassed the level of similar aircraft for six to seven years in terms of comprehensive performance from the moment it was introduced, and it is destined to become a dazzling new star in the international aviation field.

The difference is that the raptor has its targeting. It was originally designed to be tailored to the future Zero fighter of the Japanese Navy, which was also an important part of Zhang Meng's Pacific strategic approach.

Zhang Meng believed that the Tang Army's possession of two sharp weapons, the Raptor and the Hellfire, was enough to tyrannize and ravage the Japanese devils in the future Pacific War.

It's just that what Zhang Meng hasn't realized is that when the birds of prey and hellfire appear, the Japanese devils will inevitably have corresponding countermeasures to deal with them, because they are not stupid.