It would be naïve to expect the arrival of the British fleet to be considered a real war. In fact, the battle has begun with the two sides quietly accumulating strength and gathering troops. The Southern Liberation Army was on the defensive, and it was waiting for work, but its relative naval and air strength was somewhat weaker than that of the British army. In fact, the weakness is mainly in the navy, although the Royal Air Force has a good fleet, but it is impossible to send all of them, if the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean is used as the starting point, even if the British army relies on air refueling, the types of aircraft that can radiate to Malaya are limited.

The first to arrive at Diego Garcia Base were three squadrons of the Royal Air Force, including the Victory tanker for aerial refueling, the British version of the F-4Gr2 Phantom to guard the base, and the large Hunter anti-submarine patrol aircraft for reconnaissance and patrolling. It is worth mentioning that none of the three squadrons were fully dispatched, which is also related to the size of the Diego Garcia base.

Unlike Ascension Island, the base of the Falkland War five years ago, Diego Garcia Island has a land area of only 30 square kilometers, which is two-thirds smaller than Ascension Island. Although its military facilities are very complete and can park hundreds of large and small fighters, this is only a theoretical thing. Although the island of Diego Garcia is a British territory, it is shared by Britain and the United States, and in fact the United States has more military power here. This occupied a part of the potential, which made it impossible for the British to fully utilize the base.

The British informed the United States before the war that they wanted them to temporarily transfer some of their fighters to vacate for the British army, but the British were ashamed that they had ignored American mediation and the United States rejected the British proposal. This, of course, limited the number of British troops in the area, so the three squadrons that arrived first were not fully staffed.

On Qi Yiming's map, he also has a headache for this isolated island more than 3,000 kilometers away from Malaya, after all, Britain still has a layer of unfinished sunset coat, although it is not comparable to the ability of the United States to deploy military forces around the world, but it is not something to be underestimated. In terms of these overseas bases that protect the country's overseas interests, they have Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic, which can radiate Africa and South America; The Mediterranean Sea has bases in Gibraltar, which controls the chokepoint, and Cyprus, which overlooks the Middle East; In the Indian Ocean there is Diego Garcia, which serves as a deterrent to the South Asian subcontinent and the Indochina Peninsula. Other miscellaneous bases also have a similar effect, and at this time, China does not have any overseas territories, nor has it built any bases.

This made Qi Yiming have a strong impulse, at this time, the national policy of non-interference has basically been played by Qi Yiming, and the next step is to build military bases in other places that can safeguard overseas interests.

Not to mention Qi Yiming's own calculations, after the British army arrived at Diego Garcia, they immediately showed their professional attitude and actions. The F-4s began to conduct defensive patrols near Diego Garcia, even though they generally knew that it was unlikely that ALL would have the ability to send planes that far. On the other hand, two Hunter anti-submarine aircraft of the 51st Squadron of the British Royal Air Force took off and went to the waters near Malaya to conduct reconnaissance.

Chinese military fans for anti-submarine aircraft, the first reaction is generally P-3C, which has made a bunch of models, and may not be familiar with the anti-submarine aircraft made on the basis of the British Comet airliner. The main reason, of course, is that the Hunter has not been exported, and only the Royal Air Force itself uses it, but this cannot hide that the actual performance of the Hunting Fan is much stronger than that of the P-3C.

This anti-submarine aircraft was the only large anti-submarine aircraft in the 80s, and it was not until later generations that there were P-8 Poseidon of the United States and P-1 of Little Japan, that there were anti-submarine monsters of similar size. The mission range of the P-3C is generally four or five thousand kilometers, while the hunting fan can reach as much as 9,000 kilometers. The main reason is that the P-3C is an anti-submarine aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of more than 60 tons, and the hunting fan is nearly 90 tons. Of course, with the development of the P-3C, it can carry more and more complex electronic equipment, which also makes it gradually surpass the larger size of the hunter.

The cautious British would not send two anti-submarine planes alone, and they also knew that the air force of the PLA was far stronger than that of the Argentines, and that the Argentines had short swords and super flags, which were of the same generation as China's J-7 and Qiang-5, and there was no intelligence showing that the PLA was now equipped with these second-generation fighters, and the only information the British now had obtained was that the PLA had dispatched a flying leopard to carry out a mission to the ground.

In the first place, in order to snatch Al? Yamaha agreement, the British also got to know the flying leopard, thinking that the performance was still some distance from their squall, especially in terms of flight performance. But the Flying Leopard also has its own strengths, that is, the weapons are more advanced. There are many complex guided weapons on the ground, and active medium-range ammunition on the air, which is also something that the Tornado does not have.

However, the British still believed that the wind was stronger than the flying leopard.

The Hunter did not start the mission immediately upon arrival, but waited until the third day when the four RAF Tornado planes had been transferred all the way from mainland to Diego Garcia Base, and the British were relieved to send the Hunter and Tornado partners, plus a Victory tanker to provide additional fuel for the Torne.

Two Tempests, escorting two Hunter anti-submarine aircraft, took off from Diego Garcia and flew northeastward, crossing the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, then turning southeast and beginning to gather intelligence offshore in the direction of the Strait of Malacca.

"Lieutenant Colonel, is it safe for us to fly so close to the enemy?" The young technical non-commissioned officer on an anti-submarine aircraft asked his commander worriedly.

The officer chuckled and comforted him: "Don't worry too much, the Southern Liberation should not have a strong enough warning radar, this kind of thing is not something that can be built in a while, and Malaysia obviously did not have such valuable equipment before, so they will not find us so easily." ”

It's just that they don't know what to do, Malaysia did not have many air defense warning radars before, and the PLA did not bring many air defense radars with relatively large power after it became the owner, but Qi Yiming has set up a sub-base here, and the radar of the base is enough to easily detect various targets within a range of 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers around.

When the British anti-submarine patrol plane passed through the Andaman Islands, Qi Yiming had already received an alert from the base.

"Send a brigade of Thunder Dragons to say hello." Qi Yiming didn't care.

Unlike the Anglo-American aviation organization, the Southern Liberation adopts a PLA-like formation model. The largest establishment under the Air Force Headquarters is the Air Division, which is also because the Southern Liberation itself does not have a large-scale air force, unlike China, which still needs to have a military region. An aviation squadron in Britain and the United States has more than 10 to 20 fighters, the aviation squadron in the southern liberation has four fighters, the brigade is two squadrons with a total of eight fighters, and the aviation regiment is composed of three flying groups with 24 fighters.

The British army sent a total of five military planes, of which there were only two fighters, Qi Yiming responded with eight fighters in one breath, obviously also wanting to teach the British a lesson, and tell them that you are not strong enough, so hurry up and send more troops. As for why you want to do this, of course, it's for the experience points!

In fact, the Southern Liberation Air Force deployed in Malaya is now mainly using Flying Leopards, and 60 Flying Leopards have been in place early in the morning, while the Thunder Dragon is mainly ordered to be manufactured and produced by Cheng Fei, so the speed is relatively slow, at first the base produced 48 planes and distributed here, and then Cheng Fei hurriedly built a batch of 12 planes and flew over, and also made up 60 planes.

After 8 Thunders ascended to the sky, they killed their opponents at a high speed of Mach 2. This batch of Thunder Dragons has been upgraded by the base and Chengfei design, and there are many improvements compared to the original Thunder Dragon. The reinforced and slightly enlarged fuselage led to the addition of a pair of pylons under the wings. The adjustable air intake allows the Thunder to reach Mach 2 instead of just one. Mach 4 is a pitiful number. In addition, the new batch of Nanjie self-use Thunder uses the WS-13C vector thrust of the J-8V, with an afterburner thrust of 90 kN, and can make more incredible maneuvers, which greatly improves its fighting ability in the air.

Considering that neither side explicitly said anything about declaring war, Qi Yiming sent the fighters into the air basically to intercept the mission, but in fact he ordered these fighters to provoke.

"A large number of unknown targets have been detected approaching, and it is possible that they are enemy interceptors!" The British pilots shouted nervously, warning their companions.

"What to do, there are too many of them, there are eight, they are very fast, they should be fighters, can we fight or not?"

Even if the two sides do not officially declare war, if each side regards the other as an enemy, it is sure to think in the worst direction. Immediately, the commander in the air ordered: "The anti-submarine aircraft and tankers should be withdrawn, and the fighters should be cut off." ”

Not long after the two Hunters and a Victory refueling aircraft completed their U-turn and retreated, the Thunder Dragons that came in formation in formation had already entered the sight of the two Tempests.

British pilots who had undergone an aircraft identification course immediately recognized the fighters: "It is China's third-generation export-oriented light fighter -- the Thunder Dragon, and there are a dozen of them." ”

The older pilot shook his head again and again: "There are too many of them, and it is difficult for two fists to defeat four hands, even if we shoot down many opponents, it will be difficult for us to escape." ”

The planes on both sides made a thrilling head-on, and soon the British pilots were shocked, and both sides maintained restraint and did not launch missiles and fire when they were head-on, but the treacherous PLA Air Force did a Tiannu scattered formation and disbanded, and the four Thunder Dragons did not turn back after passing at high speed, but continued to pursue the anti-submarine planes and tankers that were about to withdraw at great speed.

Hunting fans and victories are defenseless, they are simply white meat on the chopping board and cut at will.

Tempest immediately wants to support his teammates, but the remaining four Thunder Dragons have already bitten two Tempests with their more flexible turning advantages, and this is no longer the time to save others, the two Tempests must save themselves first!

In an average two-to-one air battle, even if the wind has greater thrust and speed, it can't get rid of the pursuit of the two fighters, and the cooperation of the two fighters will create a smaller escape blind spot for its escape, even if the wind successfully breaks away from the tail bite and bites the other party, but it can only bite one at a time, and the other can still catch itself after adjustment.

So far, no one has opened fire, but the pressure is obviously on the side of the British army, and if they fire, they will face a more ferocious counterattack from the enemy, and if they do not fire, they will likely be consumed by the enemy like this, and even the three large planes in front may be forced to land directly by the enemy.