Later that day, the U.S. fleet extended an invitation to the Ma'anshan to join in Operation Praying-Mantis. Luo Mingguang, Ulich and others on the ship naturally couldn't make such a decision, and hurriedly reported the matter to the domestic governor through the satellite connection.

Upon learning of the attack on the Ma'anshan, there were certain disagreements in China.

One side of the opinion is: "This is a war between the United States and Iran, we are just a fish in the pond, fortunately we have not suffered much loss, or don't continue to dwell on this issue, the interests of the United States are not our interests, besides, we still have normal economic and trade exchanges with Iran, in the future our energy gap will increase, Iranian oil is still very helpful for us to alleviate the future energy tension, in addition, Iran is also a major arms importer for us, if we rush to evil, it will not be good for our arms exports." ”

The other side retorted: "Our country has adjusted our diplomatic principles and policies, and this time the Iranians clearly saw that we were holding the Chinese flag and attacked us, which shows that they are ready to fight with us, and we turn around and stick Iran with good words, which will make Iran feel that we are easy to bully and can give what we want." How can you repay virtue with virtue? It is the right thing to repay grievances with straightforwardness and repay virtue with virtue. Our grand strategy in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf has just begun, and if we do not show our strength and strength, we will certainly have a difficult future here. ”

Qi Yiming did not participate in this debate, in his opinion this is just a small matter, the scale of the praying mantis operation is not very large, the core of its action is just the United States wants to teach Iran a lesson, and it is not easy to distinguish whether China participates or not.

The Chinese embassy in Iran expressed solemn protest and condemnation to Iran, demanding that Iran apologize to China, and if it does not respond for more than 24 hours, then China may retaliate by drastic means, including joining economic sanctions, arms embargoes, and even military action.

Although the Iranian side also wants to show toughness, but this time they are also unjustified, the wanton behavior of the people below has caused a backlash from China, and now Iran's main supplier of air defense weapons and air force weapons is China, if it really leads to China's embargo on Iran's military products because of this nonsensical thing, it is really more than worth the loss.

As a result, the Iranian Foreign Ministry quickly issued a statement expressing its sincere apology to China, and saying that the incident was an accident and that Iran had no initiative to be disrespectful to China.

This is tantamount to giving China a step down, and with Iran's statement, China naturally rejected the US invitation to send troops. China itself did not suffer any casualties, but the warships and planes were scratched, so they did not even ask for compensation in their diplomatic moves, and in fact, they did not want to act rashly because of such an unexpected thing.

Anyway, there is only one Chinese warship here, and there is not much difference between her and her, and the United States does not expect China to join in to form much help, but it is just habitually like to pull the younger brother to the house to uncover the tiles together. China is not stupid, Sino-Iranian relations are not as stiff as US-Iranian relations, and every year Iran can give China at least $3.5 billion in military orders, although not too big, but also profitable.

On April 18, the U.S. military officially launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iran, and the Chinese fleet did not participate, but as an observer group to see how the U.S. military fought the war.

The U.S. military has formed two surface ship battle groups, one is led by two guided missile destroyers led by the 17,000-ton dock landing ship Trent, and the other is composed of the 8,000-ton missile cruiser Wainwright and two missile frigates, and the targets are Iran's two oil drilling platforms, the USS Xiri and the USS Sassan, which are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.

The two oil rigs are far away from Iran and are located in the middle of the shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf, and although they do not produce the largest amount of oil, they can serve as Iran's radar warning center in the Persian Gulf, alert the sea and air, and can also serve as command and control centers to arrange mine-laying tasks in this sea area. It is because the United States has been unhappy with these two oil rigs for a long time and hopes to pull them out quickly.

At 9:01 a.m., the U.S. 2nd Surface Ship Strike Group began to attack the Sassang platform, they first shouted for the people above to evacuate, and after it was not recovered, the destroyer's 127mm main guns began to bombard the platform, and the Iranians who did not give in returned fire with the 23mm cannons on the platform. The disparity in firepower was too great for the Iranians to resist, the 23mm cannon was destroyed, and the U.S. military touched the resistance of the carrier-based helicopter gunship Cobra cleaning platform, and finally the U.S. Marines successfully captured the place.

Subsequently, the second battle group received a new order to destroy another drilling rig to the north, and the real and larger confrontation with Iran is only now officially begining!

Iran immediately took off two FC-1 fighters from the airbase after receiving the news that the US military was attacking its oil drilling platform, and in another plane, the Iranians sent two F-4s, but they returned due to technical failures. In this plane, the Iranian Air Force makes much better use of the small but capable FC-1 than the Tomcats before them.

First of all, because China's uninterrupted supply of weapons allows them not to worry about running out of weapons and not being able to buy them, and the simple and efficient Thunder is easy to use, and some pilots can carry out more difficult tasks as soon as they become familiar with it. The high-intensity and high-frequency sorties also trained the Thunder pilots of the Iranian Air Force.

Iran didn't just buy planes and air-to-air missiles from China, they got hundreds of air-launched anti-ship missiles from the first deal, and although China never sold them again, these hundreds of missiles will be able to use them for several years. At this time, the two Iranian FC-1s each carried two air-launched C-802 anti-ship missiles, and approached the US fleet at high speed without detecting the danger in the low-altitude penetration mode taught by Chinese instructors.

"At a distance of 120 km from the target, the anti-ship missile is launched!" Iranian pilots with terrifying flames in their eyes dropped two C-802 missiles, which are not to be underestimated, although they are not as good as China's own YJ-83.

After the missile was launched, the US warship sounded the alarm bell, "Enemy air attack, enemy air attack!" ”

The attacked U.S. warships were not the Aegis ships of later generations, except for the dock landing ship, it was a Spruance-class destroyer and an Adams-class destroyer, and it was the Adams-class destroyer that was targeted by the missile, although the Adams-class destroyer McCormick had been upgraded from a Tatar anti-aircraft missile to a Standard-1, but the flight trajectory of her opponent C-802 was not so easy to intercept.

Before the McCormick's fire control radar could catch the two anti-ship missiles, the spinning and flying anti-ship missile hit the destroyer, which was more than 4,000 tons. Two anti-ship missiles were enough to inflict heavy damage on the modest destroyer, and the missiles blasted a hole bigger than the Roberts's mine, and the raging sea water immediately poured in, and the hull quickly tilted.

Another FC-1 also chose to launch anti-ship missiles at this time, and its target was the larger dock landing ship Trent. The US surface ship battle group, which lacks regional air defense capabilities, was unable to intercept the anti-ship missiles that were drifting out of position, so they could only sit back and watch as one anti-ship missile hit the bow of the Trent.

Although the US military immediately launched a rescue operation against the heavily damaged McCormick, the McCormick did not escape the fate of sinking, and more than 200 officers and men of the ship were rescued, but nearly 100 people were killed or missing.

The sinking of the USS McCormick and the heavy casualties infuriated the Americans, and the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier immediately sent several F-14 fighters and A-6 Intruder carrier-based attack aircraft to launch a counterattack against Iran. The two FC-1s that had completed the raid were intercepted by the fast-moving F-14s over the Persian Gulf, but instead of carrying the iconic Immortal Bird missile, the F-14s were equipped with configurations like the Sidewinder and Sparrow.

On the other hand, the FC-1 Thunder is still more than 30 kilometers away from the FC-1, and the Thunder, knowing that it cannot escape, fired two PL-12A air-to-air missiles at an A-6 of the US military. The U.S. A-6 had no power to fight back, and was immediately knocked into the air, becoming the second loss in the U.S. military's praying mantis operation.

In a rage, several F-14s laid siege to the Iranian Air Force's two Thunders, and the Thunders were eventually shot down due to their inferior performance and outnumbering. More U.S. A-6s then retaliated by bombing Iranian oil rigs in the Persian Gulf.

After the first battle group completed the destruction of the Xili platform, a US military helicopter searching 65 kilometers away from the battle group found three Iranian patrol boats, and the Iranians raised the Hongying-5 man-portable anti-aircraft missile purchased from China and directly bombed the US helicopter.

At this point, this battle was actually a bit evenly matched, and the US military even paid such a heavy price as a destroyer, and the original excuse to vent anger became a real anger venting action.

Perhaps it was the sinking of the U.S. destroyer by the Thunder that inspired the Iranians to think that the battle could be won, and they launched their own counterattacks across the Persian Gulf. At noon, a logistics support ship flying the American Stars and Stripes was blocked by an Iranian missile frigate, and the logistics ship came under shelling.

After that, Iran's missile boats gathered at the base on Clara Island and encountered the US cruiser Wainwright, at which time the Iranian missile boat Yoshan launched an anti-ship missile, which was not a Chinese Eagle Strike, but a Harpoon of the US military. U.S. warships have no way to deal with Eagle Strikes, but they are no longer familiar with their own anti-ship missiles. The Wainwright maneuvered as it fired chaff jamming shells, and the Harpoon was bewildered by its success and missed.

The Chinese C-802 does not have infrared terminal guidance, so it does not eat chaff jamming bombs at all, and there is a certain chance of eating ECM, but the anti-jamming ability is not comparable to the Western seeker at this stage, coupled with its spiral terminal flight trajectory, which increases the difficulty of interception and becomes the ultimate nightmare for the enemy.