Accurate intelligence on the target of attack is the most important and basic condition for a "surgical" strike.

In Gibraltar, the local Spaniards were all expelled by the British army more than a hundred years ago. After the start of the war, a large number of garrisons were deployed here as an important naval and air base and command base in many battles of the Allied powers.

It was difficult for the intelligence services of the allies to be able to penetrate such a military fortress. Fortunately, the Spanish side had been trying to regain lost territory for a long time, and Franco provided some sketches of the British army's defensive positions, and the navy and air force had recently carried out a large number of flight reconnaissance of the Gibb Strait. Even when approaching at low altitude to take pictures, the two pilots paid with their precious lives.

Of course, their sacrifice was not meaningless, at least the map of the surface defense in the fortress had already been massively placed in front of the staff officers of the General Command of the Cairo Theater of Operations.

On the basis of the information gathered, the "surgical" operation plan was gradually refined, with the seaport area on the west side of the Gibraltar Rock and the land neutral zone on the north side being prioritized as targets.

And then there's the world's most bizarre airfield, which crossroads the highway.

After several air battles, the Entente side suffered a devastating blow to its air forces in Africa. In order to ensure air supremacy in the Strait of Gibraltar, Britain had to deploy some of its own ace pilots and the fiery "Lightning" supersonic fighter to Gibraltar.

British aircraft designers have always been unconventional, and they have always maintained their unique style: beautiful, weird and romantic.

The design of this "Lightning" high-speed fighter was often mentioned and played by people in the aviation industry many years later.

The aerodynamic layout of the fighter of the "Lightning" type with a triangular upper wing with a cutout on the trailing edge and a flat-tail layout in the bottom position. The most peculiar thing is that the two engines are not distributed in parallel, but are arranged up and down in the fuselage, so that the area distribution of the entire fuselage meets the requirements of the area law.

Although the "Lightning" interceptor had a shorter range and a smaller bomb load, it reached 2. Mach 2's powerful speed and outstanding performance at high altitude still reveal the profound heritage of the old powerhouse.

Its nose cone is equipped with an Airpass A123S single-pulse fire control radar and an advanced fighter light sight, the radar has an operating range of more than 50 kilometers and an azimuth of plus or minus 45 degrees. The excellent "vision" configuration made the Han Empire, which was known for its "farsightedness" of fighters, envious.

It's just that the "lightning" appeared too late. Perhaps before the Battle of the Mediterranean, Britain would have been able to deploy a large number of "Lightning" interceptors in Africa, then the Allied bomber forces would certainly not have been so arrogant. The Mediterranean Fleet also does not need to face a joint attack by the naval and air forces of the allies alone.

The Lightning was the first twin-engine, single-seat high-speed fighter designed and manufactured by British Aerospace Industries to reach speeds of Mach 2, but ...... It will also be the last one. The real beneficiary of the world-leading technologies developed by the British, such as pulse fire control radars and fighter sights, is the United States on the other side of the Atlantic, and the United States has updated and developed a variety of advanced fighters on the basis of "Lightning" technology, so that it still has the confidence to compete with the Han and Germany in the North American war.

The two squadrons of "Lightning" produced in an emergency were deployed on the north and south sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, and together with a squadron of F-102 triangular Javelins, a squadron of the United States Army, became the main interceptor force to intercept the Allied air forces.

But this kind of information is not a secret at all for the Han who has been in close contact with the royal family for a long time. Through the transit of the Duke of Windsor, the numbers and commanders of the various units of the Han army company stationed in Gibraltar are clear.

For these nearly 100 advanced fighters, the main knife of "surgery" is ...... The main commanders, Guan Canghai and Long Xiaotian, did not take it lightly. Among the operational aircraft groups, the two "Raptor" squadrons of the Air Force and the 48 "Eagle" fighters of the Wenxiang aircraft carrier battle group were mainly aimed at the "Lightning" of the British Air Force.

In the first wave of strikes, the focus was on the air forces of the Entente and mobile anti-aircraft fire units on the ground. The Chiba Airport, the British command center and the Governor's Palace, the British warships in the port of Gibraltar, and the possible hidden aircraft hangar.

Completely eliminate the threat to aircraft in the British defense forces, and ensure the safety of their own air forces in the follow-up attack.

To this end, the plan of action for "surgical" operations was refined to the point of outrageousness. Even the number of planes that attack each section of the runway and the number of ground-penetrating bombs that must be hit by the attack have precise requirements.

Admiral Guan Canghai said bluntly after reading the plan: If the first two "Feitian" rocket plans had been carried out so meticulously, the "Feitian" would have successfully flown into the sky long ago.

The "Flying Sky" program refers to the development of the Imperial Flying Space launch vehicle. The use of carrier rockets to launch artificial satellites has already had two failed launches at the Xiangjun Space Center in Jiaozhou, southern part of the empire.

In the two investigation reports after the launch failure, it was mentioned that due to the limitation of computer functions, there were slight errors in the manufacturing process of the rocket, which led to the failure of the rocket to take off.

At the most recent meeting of the Military Commission in wartime, His Majesty had harshly criticized this seriously irresponsible behavior and demoted several rocket experts who were to be held responsible.

"Plans are not precise enough, calculations are not precise enough" has become a joke among the top people in the Empire. That's why Canghai complains about the "surgical" action plan, but this also reflects the importance that the Allies attach to the "surgical" operation.

Scientific experiments on launching launch vehicles can fail, but there is no room for error in the campaign operation. Scientific experiments are explored and advanced in failure, but mistakes in campaign operations cost the lives of soldiers.

On March 27, 1943, a week after Spain announced its membership in the Iron Alliance, several aircraft carrier battle groups of the Northern Fleet began to move towards the Algerian capital, the port of Algiers. This made the commander of the Entente Mediterranean Front, Admiral Alexander, particularly nervous.

The local royalist movement also brought great ideological fluctuations among the British troops stationed in Africa, and some aristocratic officers even openly pledged their allegiance to the British king.

Alexander was very worried that once the Allies began to attack Algeria in a big way, the presence of these royalist officers would greatly reduce the combat effectiveness of the British army.

The actions of the Allied fleet added to this fear. After the loss of air supremacy in Africa by the Entente, operations on the battlefield became more difficult. In the event of a massive air attack by the Allied navies on Algiers, Alexander no longer had any confidence that he would be able to make an effective return fire and maintain the combat effectiveness of his troops.

Although a huge fleet of nearly 200 warships remained in the waters north of Algiers and did not attack the British, this potential threat had kept Alexander awake at night.

Guan Canghai did not expect that this move to cover the "surgical" operation of the Wenxiang aircraft carrier battle group actually had an unexpected effect, which soon after, Alexander had a psychological breakdown, and his declaration of allegiance to the British king was actually a surrender to the Allies, which played a role that could not be ignored.

At 4 a.m., the waters of the Mediterranean Sea east of the Strait of Gibraltar had turned from dark green to grayish white. Although the light was enough to visualize, the decks of the aircraft carriers Wenxiang and Youjie of the Royal Han Navy were still brightly lit.

A number of J/Z-39D Linglong combat reconnaissance planes have taken off one after another and are heading straight for the Strait of Gibraltar, which is more than 200 nautical miles away.

At the same time, the Royal Air Force Z-40C Thirtlesaur high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft on the island of Sardinia also began to depart. Together with Linglong, they will form reconnaissance forces at different heights, and send the latest situation of the Gibro Fortress to the strike groups that will take off later.

The Air Force's fleet of Raptors fighters, Weilong attack planes, and 12 H-40C Helleye strategic bombers equipped with Hong's Penguin-5 air-to-surface missiles began to take off from various airfields on Sardinia, as well as three Y-2 spinysaurus early warning planes converted from heavy "Tyrannosaurus Rex". The second-stage Spinosaurus early warning aircraft, which replaced the first-generation Fengshen Pterodactyl early warning aircraft, can already perfectly dock with the Beidou system on the ground and shipboard, and its ability to coordinate and command operations has been greatly strengthened.

The new generation of AWACS pulse Doppler radar can well suppress the chaotic interference on the ground, and also has the ability to detect low-altitude or ultra-low-altitude flying targets on land. At the same time, the avionics equipment on the second-generation Spinosaurus early warning plane, such as friend or foe identification, intelligence processing, command and control, communication and navigation, and electronic countermeasures, has also become more advanced, so that the "Spinosaurus" has not only strengthened its ability to intercept and monitor low-altitude intrusive targets, but has also greatly improved its efficiency in guiding and directing its own fighters to intercept and attack, and has become a qualified air early warning command center.

In addition, the Tyrannosaurus rex has a larger range, minus the weight of onboard weapons and other loads, it can carry more fuel, and the time in the air is also greatly extended.

After Zhong Yi took off with the second-generation "Spinosaurus" early warning plane and experienced the new functions of the early warning aircraft, he directly predicted that the entry into service of the "Spinosaurus" would increase the combat capability of the Royal Air Force exponentially.

On the sea, the J-15A "Eagle" and G-41B "Brute Dragon" formations of the Wenxiang aircraft carrier battle group took off one after another, and the anti-submarine helicopters and rescue helicopters on the cruiser also set off.

At 5:40 a.m., the command ship Zhongmou received a report that the naval and air force formations had completed air coordination, were ready, and called for an order for rescue and attack.

Guan Canghai, the battle-hardened imperial general, actually had a rare hint of nervousness. The fingers that clenched the microphone lost their blood color due to too much force, and they appeared a little white.

It's not that Commander Guan hasn't seen the world, it's not that the scene is much larger than the scale of this attack aircraft group, it's not that he hasn't seen it! The Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Battle of Malta, and the Battle of the Jarlit Strait, which was a life-and-death battle with the British Mediterranean Fleet, it can be said that no one in this world is more authoritative than Guan Canghai in commanding naval battles.

But this time there was something different, in the words of His Majesty "It's a high-tech operation!" ”

Thinking of the thick stack of paper battle plan, Commander Guan was a little drumming in his heart, so many detailed requirements, what kind of pilot will be executed in actual combat, and the kind of secret weapon that has been developed for a long time, but has been kept mysterious and has not been carried out in actual combat, can it really destroy the radar station of the British army in the first place?

All of this made Guan Canghai think that this was the most bottomless battle he had commanded since he joined the army. Even the four words "start acting" feel a little difficult to say!