A large number of Brute Dragon attack planes fired nearly 50 Hong's Penguin-3 anti-ship missiles, and in addition to a few small warships in the US fleet, a considerable number of "Hong's Penguins" were shot down by the fleet's destroyers and aircraft carriers.

The biggest result was that the flight deck of the USS Cade was hit, blowing out a big hole, making it impossible to take off and land the aircraft.

This effect made the pilots of the brutes so painful. In fact, before the Hong's Penguin-3 anti-ship missile was installed, many people questioned its ammunition of only 150 kilograms. It's just that at that time, there were no more reliable anti-ship missiles for the Navy and Air Force.

Some of the anti-ship missiles fired at the USS Essex and USS Yorktown were blocked by the massive battleships in the form of meat shields, but they did not cause much damage to the armor of the thick-skinned South Dakota-class battleships.

The battleships Indiana and Massachusetts, with a displacement of 35,000 tons, were each hit with at least three or more "Hong's penguins". With the exception of one that hit the foredeck of the Indiana, causing a fire and causing casualties among several sailors, none of the other missiles that hit the sidechord armor caused casualties.

In the history of human warfare, the first large-scale launch of anti-ship missiles was actually just "just listening to the thunder and not seeing the raindrops."

The arrival of the 31st Eagle Squadron led by Gao Jian put an end to the chaotic situation in which the attack planes were chased by the Javelins and fled. The ineffective attack of the "Hong's penguins" made Captain Gao cry and laugh.

"Nima, that's a precision-guided missile, not a bomb thrown indiscriminately, not a mortar! The ammunition department is too small, you have to blow up the armor? ”

The course of the war has accelerated the research and development of weapons, but it has also forced the troops, especially the navy and air force, which have a higher scientific and technological content, to face a situation of continuous replacement of weapons. Even before the former weapon was fully familiarized, it began to receive more advanced ones.

Anti-ship missiles are also a novelty for Imperial carrier-based pilots who are accustomed to diving and dropping bombs.

Under the command of Gao Jian, three squadrons of Brute Dragon attack aircraft were regrouped in groups of eight, focusing on one target and accurate radar guidance to the superstructure and relatively weak waist of the battleship.

The Sparrow-7 once again exerted its might, clearing a small number of Sea Javelins, and the pilots of the Brute Dragon attack aircraft were able to calm down, lock on to the same target through the radar in formation, and launch the Hong-3 anti-ship missile again.

In the first round of attacks, the USS Indiana, which was highly resistant and powerful, was sadly selected as the target for testing the new tactics because the black smoke from the previous fire was too eye-catching.

Eight Hong's Penguins-3 ignited almost simultaneously. The sailors on the Indiana, who shot down several missiles and used themselves as Yorktown to block three "Hung penguins", were in a state of flux. But when the radarman suddenly realized that the eight bright spots in the sky were all running towards his Indiana, he immediately let out an inhuman roar.

Without him shouting, the rest of the crew also saw that through the covering smoke released by the previous destroyer, the eight missiles did not crash into the sidestring deck as before, but went straight to the battleship's superstructure.

The shooter behind the dense array widened his eyes, "Oh! God, were we too brave before? Why did it all shoot at us? ”

In a hurry, he didn't know how to choose, eight missiles, at the same time, which one to hit or which not to hit?

Luck has proven to be the least reliable.

For a moment, the Indiana seemed to have used all its good fortune, the anti-aircraft fire of the other ships in the vicinity had no effect, and its own close fire had only hit one.

The remaining seven Hong's Penguin-3 anti-ship missiles all hit, and the continuous explosions swept away the battleship's superstructure almost instantly, and the sailors operating the phalanx and anti-aircraft guns on the ship's strings were sent into the sky with the detonation of the ammunition beside them.

If you don't look at the string, no one can recognize the blazing ship as the Indiana.

There was a burst of cheers from the communication channels of the attack aircraft group!

"Tall, cow!"

"Boss Gao, God!"

……

The sound of sycophants was endless, which made Gao Jian's frustrated mood because of the command mistakes between him and the other feel a lot better, and the corners of his mouth also grinned smugly.

"Don't be a sycophant, don't get shy, go on!"

……

Half an hour later, when the first wave of attack planes began to return, the battleship Indiana in the U.S. fleet had to abandon ship because of the heavy fire.

The battleship Massachusetter was also hit several times, but the Centaur cruiser helped to extinguish the fire in time and brought the fire under control. Under the vigorous repair efforts of the American crew, the Marchusse was still able to sail, but the anti-aircraft fire on the ship was much weakened.

The escort aircraft carrier USS Card, along with two other destroyers and a minesweeper, were sunk.

But the two most valuable Essex aircraft carriers were unscathed, much to the regret of Gao Jian and the pilots of the first wave of attack aircraft.

At the beginning of the attack, more than half of the Pterodactyl torpedo planes were shot down, and together with Ingersoll's ring formation, the large aircraft carrier in the middle of the formation was well protected.

None of the more than 30 "bluefin tuna" hit, it's just evil!

However, Gao Jian was not worried, the aircraft in the first wave of attack aircraft were only one-third of the carrier-based aircraft in the fleet. On their way back, they had already encountered a second wave of attack aircraft.

The Sea Javelins in the American fleet have been lost, and the Krakens and Devils have been shot down in large numbers. What is the difference between a task force that has lost its volley force under the blow of anti-ship missiles and torpedoes and a dancing girl who has lost its robe?

Facts have also proved that Gao Jian's judgment is quite accurate, and under the blow of the second wave of attack planes, the task force of the Atlantic Fleet suffered an extremely heavy blow. The escort aircraft carrier Cole and the USS Borg sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea together with more than two dozen A-3 air fighters on the deck that had not yet had time to take off.

The deck was hit, and the Carder, which had lost its combat function, did not escape the fate of sinking, the rudder was damaged, and the side chord was also blown out of two large holes, and at the moment when the second wave of attacks was about to end and the Han aircraft began to return, it was hit by a bluefin tuna torpedo.

However, it is a pity that although the Essex and Yorktown were also hit by many "Hong's penguins", the multi-chamber water compartment technology used on this class of aircraft carriers gives them strong survivability.

Even though the Yorktown's right chord was blown out of a hole more than two meters in diameter, it still maintained its ability to sail after emergency repairs.

The third wave of attack planes of the Northern Fleet flew in vain and returned helplessly at the limit of the range, without achieving any results. The remnants of the American task force, under the command of Ingersoll, finally escaped from the Northern Fleet's attack range.

Ingersoll's prudence and prediction made it necessary for the Northern Fleet to take off carrier-based aircraft ahead of schedule, and the third round of attack aircraft returned in vain, while the two Essex-class aircraft carriers were saved.

Guan Canghai's last result was that the submarine Shangyong, which had returned to the battlefield, happened to bump into the CV-4 Ranger near Malta Island, which had to withdraw from the battle early.

This is also another kind of narrow road, right? After the ecstasy, Lin Jie commanded the Shangyong, and the first round of three yellowfin tuna torpedoes sank the destroyer Graves, which was towing the Ranger, and then fired two more torpedoes under the desperate gaze of the Ranger crew, hitting the CV-4's waterline and cutting it off.

The Ranger was not able to return to the Valletta base, and the CV-4 was not able to escape the clutches of the "skewers".

Admiral Ingersoll led the USS Essex and the USS Yorktown south to take refuge in the port of Tripoli and wait for the street to join the British Fleet C.

But then, Ingersoll received an order from Admiral King, Secretary of the Navy of the United States, to withdraw to Algiers overnight, and a few days later, with the help of tugboats, the wounded two Essex-class aircraft carriers were returned to Norfolk Naval Harbor, the largest naval base on the East Coast of the United States, for repairs.

Three large aircraft carriers sank one and two were injured.

Guan Canghai commanded the Northern Force Fleet to easily defeat the U.S. Atlantic Fleet task force in Maltese waters and successfully forced the U.S. Navy to withdraw from the Mediterranean.

Although Ingersoll, the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, was defeated, he calmly commanded and succeeded in preserving the two most important aircraft carriers on the battlefield, and was able to remain in office after returning to the United States. Like his cadet Nimitz, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, he was "ashamed and courageous" and devoted himself to the reconstruction of the fleet in an almost frenzied manner.

missiles, medium-range missiles...... Radar guidance missile, the phone between the two classmates can't say a few words, and they will unconsciously go around these words.

In Ingersoll's view, in the Battle of Malta, the task force lost on two points!

The first is intelligence. Until the end, the U.S. fleet did not discover the location of the northern fleet of the Han Kingdom, and the battle was ...... It's a war between the blind and the normal. The performance of the US carrier-based reconnaissance plane, more precisely the performance of the reconnaissance plane's airborne radar, has turned the task force blind in the modern naval combat mode. The comprehensive flight performance of the Catalina PBY reconnaissance plane was quite good, but because of the broken leg of the radar, it was easily intercepted by the fighters of the Han State.

The second is missiles. If it weren't for the fact that the Sea Javelin was only equipped with short-range AIM-9C Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, if the Sea Javelin could also have over-the-horizon missiles like the Han Kingdom, if ......

A thousand words into one sentence. Ingersoll angrily drank the liquor in the round foot glass, "If I had advanced missiles, would I have lost so badly?" ”

In the Wei Qing Pavilion, after reading the battle report of the Battle of Malta, His Majesty said with feeling: "Modern warfare is by no means determined by numbers and courage. War is fought with science and technology, and it is fought with comprehensive national strength! ”

Several bigwigs who stayed in Chang'an nodded fiercely, indeed, the era of relying on brute courage and the sea of people to win the war has passed, and the war has become a competition in technology.

"However, that Sparrow-7 is more than 600,000 Han Yuan, and Hong's-3 is about the same, right? Told Guan Canghai that the tactics of air and naval warfare had to be reformulated, and he thought it was a shell? You can shoot as much as you want! ”

After sighing with emotion, His Majesty suddenly remembered the scene in the battle report, when more than 50 "Hong's penguins" of the Barbarian Dragon attack plane fired in a salvo, and he couldn't help but feel a pain in his flesh.

"It's also called tactical groping! This is clearly a loser! ”