"Warhawk squadron, pay attention to maintaining speed and course, we are still escorting this time, not volleying." Reyer said on the radio that the No. 3 aircraft at the rear of the formation was flying a little fast.

"Yes, understood."

Now, bombing missions are carried out almost daily, and for several days the air force of the Northern Military District has been making frequent sorties, flying on the front line of Baghdad to Bakhtaran to cover the bombing squadrons.

Because of the weakness of Iran's air defense forces, not only the MiG-23 and Su-20 have been put into bombing operations, but even the backward Il-28 and Tu-22, two bombers that have no self-defense capability, are also bombing Iran indiscriminately.

This time, the MiG-25 squadron led by Reyes was escorting the four Tu-22 bombers behind.

When it comes to the Tu-22 bomber, many people may think of the kind of backfire bomber that makes the West tremble, with large rectangular air intakes, twin engines and variable sweep wings, with nuclear strike, conventional strike and anti-ship capabilities, and can penetrate defense at low altitudes. In particular, it can carry high-power anti-ship missiles and attack US aircraft carrier formations quickly and over long distances.

This kind of bomber, numbered Tu-22M, is a big killer weapon of the Soviet Union, but it is almost two different concepts from the Tu-22B eyepatch bomber equipped by Iraq.

Tu-22B eyeshield, with a slightly smaller fuselage than the Tu-16, the wing sweep angle of 55 degrees, two engines are placed at the root of the vertical tail of the aircraft, due to the reduced drag, it can sweep over the target area at a speed of Mach 1.52, low-altitude supersonic penetration bombing, which is the design concept of this era.

Iraq imported a total of 16 aircraft, making it one of only two Tu-22 exporters, the other being Syria.

At the very beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, the Tu-22 carried out several bombing operations against Tehran, losing several aircraft, and, in the frenzied retaliation of the Iranian Air Force that followed it, the H-3 airbase suffered losses, and the Tu-22 almost lost its combat capability.

It was only later that the combat effectiveness of the Iranian Air Force weakened sharply, the H-3 base was repaired, and the bombers were revived.

Now, the mission to bomb Bakhtaran is very easy, because the Iranian Air Force is almost non-existent, and the only thing they need to guard against is the occasional surface-to-air missile on the ground.

The Warhawk squadron met with the bombing formation in the sky over Bagubai and began to enter the province of Bakhtaran in formation.

After crossing Naft Shahr, the ground began to rise and fall significantly, and it had entered the Iranian plateau, but this did not feel any change in the fighters in the air, and their current altitude was about five thousand meters.

Although the sky was clean, Reyes turned on the powerful "Echo A" radar of his fighter and began to search the surrounding airspace, which was their mission.

There is nothing in the sky, and at this altitude, the air currents on the complex Iranian plateau have little effect on them, especially the MiG-25, since it is able to fly to an altitude of 30,000 meters, the cold is nothing to them at all.

Radar only searches the surrounding airspace, and for low altitudes, it can't do anything, and the complex terrain on the ground makes it impossible for simple radar to analyze useful signals in those chaotic echoes.

Reyes knew that if the Iranians had fighter planes coming, then they would never be able to find the Iranian planes flying close to the ground, but this possibility was very small, and most of the Iranian fighters were lying on their stomachs, as long as they didn't hang around Tehran, the Iranians rarely even took off the fighters.

Even, Reyer came up with a clever plan, if they kept harassing around Tehran, did not bomb, but only lured the opponent's fighter planes to take off urgently, and then took advantage of the outstanding acceleration of the MiG-25 to escape, then the Iranian planes would soon be grounded due to lack of spare parts.

It's a pity that his superiors didn't agree with him.

He did not know that the Tomcat fighters of the Iranians, who had taken off from the Tehran airbase at this time, were already flying towards them at the low altitude of the complex.

Two Tomcat fighters of the Iranian Air Force, numbered 3870 and 3875, finally took to the skies again after months of loneliness on the ground.

The two captains, Akbari and Jarad, each piloting their own eagles, and the weapons behind them were also busy, ready to use radar to guide the Immortal Bird missiles under the belly of the aircraft.

With this batch of weapons, the Iranians were generous again, and this time, each Tomcat had two Immortal Bird missiles mounted on its belly.

Be sure to let the Iraqis taste the mighty, the sky here is Iranian!

After the long-range early warning radar deployed in Hamadan spotted the aircraft flying high in the sky, the Tomcat of the Iranian Air Force in the rear began its first active attack after a few months of silence.

This time, let's use blood and fire to prove the strength of the Iranian Air Force!

Akbari skillfully piloted the huge Tomcat fighter plane, skillfully flying over the mountains, their height above the ground, only about 100 meters, in the complex terrain, this altitude, very challenging.

Still, they were undaunted.

With its fierce flying style, the tomcat flies over the Iranian plateau and gradually approaches the war zone.

They did this to give the other side a surprise attack, knowing that as soon as their AWG-9 radar signal appeared, most of the Iraqi planes would choose to fly away.

After flying over Hamadan, Akbari finally completed the process of covert engagement, and at this time, the distance from Bakhtaran was already within the range of the undead birds.

"Climb, get ready to fight." Akbari said on the radio, and at the same time, he turned on the afterburner, pulled the pole, and the huge Tomcat fighter, with a blazing flame from its tail, raised its head high, and began to climb high into the air.

The huge immortal bird missile, when used, cannot be launched directly from a low altitude, the most suitable is a high altitude, so Akbari chose to climb, at this time, those Iraqi planes that are still bombing Bakhtaran will be his prey!

As the Tomcat fighter climbed, two bright spots immediately appeared on the radar screen of Reyer, who was on patrol duty.

"At nine o'clock, there are two enemy planes." Reyer shouted over the radio as he began to speed up his fighter plane, ready to meet the enemy.

Although he did not know where the enemy planes came from, he was sure that the Iranians' precious Tomcat fighters would never come here to compete with them for air supremacy, and the Iranians could not afford to consume them.

As for the Iranian F-4 or F-5 fighters, they can be solved with R-40 air-to-air missiles mounted under his wings.

The Tu-22 bombers in the rear are already about to enter the theater of operations to carry out bombing missions, and they want to blow up some of the positions arranged by Iran at the front to open the way for the army's offensive.

From his radar screen, Reyer suddenly noticed that something was abnormal, the two planes on the opposite side were climbing too fast!

Akbari climbed to an altitude of 5,000 meters and at the same time, accelerating to Mach 1.7, and said to the radar officer in the rear cabin: "Two missiles, attack two targets at the same time." ”

This time he was out of his mind, for so long, he had been holding back on the ground, and now, with the Immortal Bird missile, he wouldn't cherish it at all.

Missiles are to be launched and shot down enemy planes!

He chose to launch both at the same time, just to prevent the enemy from escaping.

The radar officer turned on the radar, and suddenly, a row of targets appeared on the screen.

"Two formations, one is rapidly approaching us, the other is slow in the rear, it should be bombers."

"Attack the formation behind first." Akbari said.

The biggest threat to the ground is those pesky bombers, take out the bombers first!

Moreover, the bomber's maneuverability is poor, and it is most suitable for the attack of the immortal bird, and because he uses two missiles to attack two targets at the same time, if he attacks a fighter with a good maneuverability, it is likely to get out of the lock.

The Tomcat's fire control system was calculating quickly, and after a second, all the data was entered into the Immortal Bird missile, which dragged the tongue of fire and flew away from the Tomcat's belly.

Two Tomcats, firing four undead birds, aimed at the four bombers.

During the experiment, the Tomcat fighter tried to attack six different targets at the same time with six missiles, and now it is only attacking two, which is not very difficult and has a high success rate.

After flying out, the immortal bird did not fly directly to the target, but continued to climb upwards to an altitude of 30,000 meters, at this altitude, the air is very thin, which is conducive to the flight of the immortal bird.

Although the power of the MiG-25 radar is very large, due to insufficient resolution, it was not found that at high altitude, the Immortal Bird missile launched by the Iranians has already begun the pre-programmed flight of the initial stage.

If it had been a Mirage F1, or an F-20, the radar would have already detected the target and notified the bomber formation.

And now, they are already on the track to intercept the other side, the Tu-22 bomber does not have an omnidirectional radar warning receiver, and it has not found itself in a catastrophe, it has begun to drop its own seven-ton aerial bombs on the ground, carrying out carpet-like bombing, one after another, from its belly, left the plane, and fell to the ground.

The Tu-22 bomber has a pointed head, and the pilot is in front of several pieces of separate glass, and the field of vision is very poor.

The Immortal completed its autonomous flight in the high-altitude segment and, guided by the AWG-9 radar of the Tomcat fighters in the rear, began the flight process with semi-active radar guidance.

At the same time, the distance between them and the MiG-25 is rapidly decreasing, and they will soon reach a distance where they can launch medium-range missiles.

Reyes has found that the situation is not normal, since it is a Tomcat, it means that the Iranians must have premeditated, however, he is still lucky, the Iranians have no dead bird missiles, they have an air battle with the Iranians, even if they can't beat it, the MiG-25 can also escape with the advantage of altitude and speed.

The Sparrow air-to-air missile will not fly to an altitude of 20,000 meters at all.

They will have to entangle each other in order to give the bombers behind them a chance to escape.

At this time, the pilots of the bomber formation also received a notice from Reyer that they must return immediately!

It's a pity that it's too late!

(To be continued)