When the U.S. Navy sent additional fleets to the Indian Ocean, its and other navies were in the midst of a large-scale landing operation. [Full text reading]

The same as US President Rodgway guessed. From the very beginning, the authorities of the republic did not regard Eurasia as the main battlefield, and after identifying the United States as the number one enemy, the Pacific Ocean was the main battlefield of the republic.

The ground battle broke out in full swing in the afternoon of Yu. The 9th combat unit, which was the first to enter the battle, surrounded the 1st Airborne Brigade of the Russian Army without any suspense. And in the battle at dawn and night, part of the Russian army was annihilated, and the ironclad evidence of Russia's invasion of Kazakhstan was obtained. That night, Yuan Chenhao, in his capacity as the chief of the general staff of the Republican ** team, issued an order to counterattack, that is, if necessary. Ground forces can operate across borders. Less than half an hour after the order was issued, the artillery brigade of the 9th combat unit deployed in Karamay carried out a surprise artillery attack on the Russian troops assembled in Barnaul, and in the shelling of 3 bells, it threw tens of thousands of tons of various types of ammunition, directly crushing nearly 2 divisions of Russian ground forces.

This shelling can be regarded as the prelude to the Sino-Russian ground war.

Again, the shelling set several records. Among other things, the distance of the artillery fire up to the kilometer alone broke all previous combat records. The only one that can reach this range is the latest spiral electromagnetic gun. Although in the past wars, the Republic Army has long used its operational brigades to fire at the enemy thousands of kilometers away, and after throwing tens of thousands of tons of ammunition in a few minutes, it still shocked the outside world. You must know that if the Republic Army deploys artillery to the Atte and West Kazakhstan regions in northwest Kazakhstan, and one-third of Russia's European part, including Ryazan southeast of Moscow, will be within its coverage area, the Republic Army will even be able to rely on long-range artillery fire to support a large-depth strategic offensive without air support, turning Russia's vast territory into an ornament. If the war really comes to this point, Russia will not be far from defeat.

It was this shelling that made many people realize the true face of this war.

Among them, it naturally includes the Republic of Yuan Poison Chengyi.

In fact, long before this shelling, Pei Chengyi was based on the improvement of the combat capability of the army's artillery. Significant adjustments have been made to the strategic deployment. You must know that it was not Yuan Chenhao who first proposed that the Pacific Ocean should be the main battlefield, but Pei Chengyi. As we all know, Yuan Chenhao is an army general, and if he wants to get more performance opportunities, he must improve the status of the mainland battlefield, rather than treating the ocean as the main battlefield. As mentioned earlier, in the first several war plans, Yuan Chenhao regarded the mainland battlefield as the main battlefield, or insisted on a full-scale war with the United States after defeating Russia. The problem is that how and how a war should be fought is not determined by the subjective will of a particular person. According to Pei Chengyi's judgment, as long as the republic concentrates its forces against Russia, the United States will actively participate in the war, forcing the republic to adjust its strategic deployment. Rather than passively adjusting deployments, it is better to target the United States from the very beginning. After convincing Yuan Chenhao, Pei Chengyi asked the General Staff to reformulate the war plan. Among them, it is clear that the Pacific Ocean is the main direction and the main purpose is to defeat the United States. In other words, it is necessary to draw up a war plan against Russia under the condition of ensuring that it will not have a serious negative impact on the Pacific war and that it will be able to seize the initiative in a war with the United States. Among them, the artillery units of the Republic Army are particularly important. To put it bluntly, without a powerful artillery unit, the army needs a large tactical aviation, and the army aviation is obviously unable to meet the requirements, so it has to retain the air force while strengthening the space forces. There is no doubt that this will inevitably increase the burden of war on the country, have an impact on the overall strategy, and thus affect combat operations in the main directions.

All in all, at a time when the whole world believed that the republic would concentrate its forces on crossing the Urals. The Republic is busy landing on the Kamchatka Peninsula, except that it is not the army or the navy that acts as the main force, but the Marine Corps, which gained a high degree of independence during Bae Seung-yi's tenure as defense minister.

There is no doubt that the Republic of Marines is a relatively special force.

As an independent branch of the armed forces established in the first military reform, the authorities of the Republic did not use the "American model" to create an all-round Marine Corps, as the outside world imagined, but strictly controlled the size of the Marine Corps. Until the outbreak of the Indian War, the size of the Republic's Marine Corps was very limited, with no more than 30,000 officers and men in the combat unit, and the total strength did not exceed 10,000, and it was only a branch of the navy. Although many people believe that there is no reason for the Republic to have a sufficiently strong Marine Corps when it has the world's number one army, and the exhibition of the Republic's Marine Corps is limited, which is also related to the Army, objectively speaking, before that, because the sphere of influence was mainly concentrated in the Abyss, the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim, either on the periphery of the mainland or near the allies, the land forces with strong strategic mobility capabilities were sufficient to deal with all ground combat operations, so there was no need for the Republic to spend huge sums of money. Maintain a strong and well-rounded Marine Corps. To put it another way, the United States has built the Marine Corps into a "fourth army" and its extensive sphere of influence. Especially in many areas far from home, there are great reasons to have a great relationship.

There is no need for an all-out Marine Corps in peacetime. It does not mean that it is not needed in times of war.

The general situation is. The weakness of the Marine Corps has made the national interests of the Republic a small threat. For example, in the military coup d'état in Pyrohron, although the Republic Army could mobilize a combat unit deployed in Kenya and use tactical transport aircraft to reach Cameroon within the time of Sunb. However, of the several countries that passed through, only Uganda agreed to open its airspace to the Republic's transport aircraft. Both the net fruit and the democratic talent have refused to open their airspace, and if they want to make a detour, they will not only need to call in the strategic transport planes of the Air Force, but also have to mobilize the aircraft carrier battle group into the South Atlantic and dispatch carrier-based fighters to escort the transport planes. The results can be imagined. Before the deployment of the Republic's navy was completed, the military coup ended with the secret execution of the pro-Chinese president. Imagine if the Republic had a strong Marine Corps, relying on Nigeria's naval bases, it could maintain a military force in the Gulf of Guinea in a forward-deployed manner, and send troops in time to quell a military coup, or even make a military coup stillborn.

The problem is that the amount of money required to build a strong Marine Corps is staggering.

More importantly, the Stockholm Accords set clear limits on the size of the Republic's Marine Corps. With the world's largest army and the superiority of troops, the Republic had to make concessions on the size of the Marine Corps, which was no more than 10,000 troops. Among them, the strength of the ground combat force is not overwhelming, which is equivalent to the US Marine Corps and spiders. It can be seen that the agreement does not impose any restrictions on the way in which the Marine Corps is organized, that is, the Marine Corps can have combat units such as amphibious assault fleets, aviation units, artillery, etc.

Affected by this, when Pei Chengyi was still the Minister of Defense, he made a comprehensive plan for the exhibition of the Marine Corps.

In terms of details. In addition to maintaining a large reserve force by signing re-entry agreements with retired officers and soldiers, as is the case with the Army, the combat capability of the Marine Corps is enhanced primarily by increasing independence. Among them, the most important is to transfer the amphibious assault fleet, the landing fleet, and the carrier-based aviation units that accompany them from the navy to the name of the Marine Corps, that is, under the direct command of the Marine Corps. And not by the Navy in command.

Don't underestimate this small change. This alone can more than double the combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps.

In the case of the amphibious assault fleet, once it is assigned to the Marine Corps, it can be built according to the needs of the Marine Corps, rather than according to the overall strategy of the Navy.

Of course, if this reform is to be implemented. There is one more thing that must be done, and that is to give the Marine Corps independent budgetary authority.

As we all know, in the republican army, the Marine Corps has long obtained the status of an independent branch, but has not obtained the real sense of independent budget rights, the biggest difference between independent arms and the arms under the arms is whether there is independent budget power, basically most of the equipment procurement decision-making power is in the hands of the Navy and the Army. For example, if the Marine Corps wants to purchase ground main battle equipment, after applying to the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense, it must first contact the Army to see if it can jointly purchase it with the Army, rather than purchasing it alone. Relatively speaking, the problem of ground main battle equipment is not very big. After all, the Army's development to lightness is also very beneficial to the Marine Corps, and it is suitable for the Army's main battle equipment. It is also mostly suitable for the Marine Corps, or can meet the requirements of the Marine Corps with a little improvement. More importantly, purchasing with the Army can also greatly reduce procurement costs, save expenses, or expand the scale of procurement with the same expenditure. What really matters is the amphibious assault fleet. It can be said that as the combat capabilities of the ground forces become more and more comprehensive, the biggest difference between the Marine Corps and the Army is no longer the operational area, that is, the Marine Corps is a unit that operates in the coastal zone, while the Army is a unit that operates inland. Relatively speaking, the biggest difference between the Marine Corps and the Army is that the Marine Corps has the ability to attack from sea to land, and this ability is reflected in the amphibious assault fleet that delivers the Marine Corps. It can be seen from this that the dominance of the amphibious assault fleet is particularly important to the Marine Corps.

As a matter of fact, in a large-scale war, with proper training and the deployment of an amphibious assault fleet, the army can also undertake the mission of amphibious landing operations. For example, in World War II, the U.S. Army participated in many landing operations from North Africa to Sicily to Normandy, and was the main force of landing operations. Even in the Pacific theater dominated by the U.S. Marine Corps. The U.S. Army has also taken on many combat missions.

To gain dominance of the amphibious assault fleet. You have to have independent budgetary powers.

It can be seen from this that the reforms carried out by Pei Chengyi in the illusory era are equivalent to the liberation of the Marine Corps.

Of course, the amphibious assault fleet is also composed of warships, so there is also a relatively long construction period. It was not until Pei Chengyi left the Ministry of Defense and became the vice minister of the Republic that the Marine Corps truly gained independence and autonomy and became independent from the navy. It was only under the influence of the merger of the Celestial Army and the Air Force that the Marine Corps did not become the "Fifth Army." "It only emphasizes its status as an independent branch of the army. It was also during this period that the Republic created the second largest Marine Corps in the world.

What's more. Until the outbreak of war. The Republic already has three amphibious assault fleets of considerable scale, which are deployed in the Western Pacific Theater and the Southeast Asian Theater, which were originally subordinate to the Western Pacific Theater, but became independent in the year of the knife and became the third theater and the Indian Ocean Theater, and the South Asian Theater was divided into the Indian Ocean Theater of the Eastern Theater. Among them, the Indian Ocean Theater has inherited the mantle of the South Asian Theater. In accordance with the tactical criteria of sending an advance force with a force of about 10,000 troops at a time, and a standard marine brigade with a force of about 10,000 troops to a battlefield 4,400 kilometers away within a week, an amphibious assault fleet includes moving amphibious assault ships, four integrated landing ships, one amphibious landing ship, and four dock landing ships, and in wartime, four to eight roll-off cargo ships and container ships will be added according to the intensity of landing operations, and the size of the escort fleet will be determined according to the actual situation of the route, if necessary. It is also possible to add several warships that provide fire support.

It can be said that in terms of force projection, the amphibious assault fleet far exceeds the aircraft carrier battle group.

Even from the point of view of firepower projection, except for the amphibious assault ships that can only carry low-altitude attack aircraft with a limited range, which makes the long-range firepower strike capability weak, the firepower projection capability of the amphibious assault fleet is not even worse than that of the aircraft carrier battle group when the combat radius is o kilometers.

The problem is that when it is really necessary to use the amphibious assault fleet, the amphibious assault fleet's firepower projection capability and force projection capability are not able to shoulder the heavy responsibility. To put it simply, if it is only a local conflict or a regional war, under the condition that the combat intensity is limited, the army can undertake almost all combat missions by means of tactical airdrop or strategic airlift, and there is no need to use the amphibious assault fleet. Only when the intensity of the battle was too great for the army assault units that entered by air could not stand alone. before you need to be in the Marine Corps. No doubt. One delivery knife. Person. It takes weeks to deliver, and a Marine Brigade, even if three amphibious assault fleets are used, can only deliver three brigades and about 30,000 combat troops, which obviously cannot meet the needs of high-intensity operations, so the independent combat capability of the Marine Corps is still limited. It is precisely for this reason that there are many people who oppose the strengthening of the Marine Corps, believing that the overall combat effectiveness of the Republican Corps should be improved by strengthening the combat capability of the Army.

In fact, the way to improve the combat capability of the Marine Corps is also very simple, that is, to increase the delivery capability.

To put it bluntly, if one Marine Brigade can be sent to the front line within an hour, I am afraid that no one will think that the Marine Corps is a dispensable combat unit, and if it can send three to the front line within Sun Bushi. Marine brigades, and even more so, no one will think that there is no need to raise the status of the Marine Corps.

The way to increase the delivery capability is not complicated, and that is to make the sea base work for the Marine Corps.

Obviously, this is what the Marine War considers to be called the "Marine Corps" and is an independent branch of the Navy with ground combat capability under the name of the Navy. And not the root cause of the amphibious combat forces under the name of the Army. In fact, before the age of gravity, the Republic Army did have an amphibious force of varying size.

From the point of view of practical use, the sea base is definitely more helpful to the Marine Corps.

As a matter of fact, as early as the artillery tower, that is, when Pei Chengyi returned to the central government and became minister of national defense, it was made clear that the main tactical indicator of the sea base should be to support landing operations, rather than to seize sea supremacy as the main purpose. In accordance with this basic idea, Admiral Hua Jianfeng, then commander of the Navy, made a comprehensive adjustment to the main tactical indicators of the sea base and strengthened the nature of the "base."

As a result, the size of the system has been magnified several times.

As mentioned earlier, the first generation of sea bases, which came to power in the Middle East War in the secret year, consisted of 8 fast transport ships, of which the Kantan formed the main body and 2 were functional units. At. In the second generation of sea bases, the number of constituent modules was increased to the point of view. Because the design adhered to the tactical idea of sea control, it was quickly abandoned and did not enter the construction stage. In the third generation of sea-based designs at the beginning of the knife edge. The number of modules has increased to ships all at once. Among them, there are old main modules and 6 functional modules. It is a fourth-generation marine base that was designed and built in 202. The number of modules has increased to Songship, and the total tonnage of the system has reached an astonishing 640,000 tons. It can be said that when all the modules are put together, it is a man-made island made of steel that floats on the surface of the sea and can accommodate 10,000 people.

Of course, with such a huge system, the combat capabilities are also very comprehensive.

In fact, on the morning of the feather day, naval fighters bombed the base of the Russian Pacific Fleet. More than half of them took off from a sea base in the Sea of Japan, codenamed "Choxing Island". Just to prevent a counterattack by the Russian army. The sea base was not fully assembled, and was quickly disbanded as soon as the fighter ship was released, and split up for the next battlefield, and the fighters on the attack mission returned directly to the airfield on the Republic's mainland. More importantly, during the operation, it made full use of the favorable conditions of the Sea of Japan in the winter when the weather was complicated, avoiding the reconnaissance planes of the Russian Air Force and Navy, and also avoiding the US Navy's maritime surveillance satellites passing overhead.

As the blade of the "Changxing Island" was formed, a number of fast transport ships joined the escort warships that arrived at the night of Yuri and joined the amphibious assault fleet in the western Pacific. And in the early morning of the first day, from the eastern waters of the Kuril Islands to the north, the sea base carefully built by the Navy of the Republic will finally be unveiled in front of the world.