The Thunder began to roar the world a month ago, and the ship raids over the Persian Gulf had intensified.

The ship raids actually took place at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, but the fiercest confrontation took place in 1985. As the name suggests, ship attack warfare is the use of fighter planes and missiles to attack the opponent's civilian ships, usually cruise ships carrying a large amount of crude oil, and the main purpose is to consume the war potential and economic strength of both sides. This is also a particularly classic and wide-ranging episode in the Iran-Iraq war.

By this time of the war, the Iranian Air Force had lagged behind the Iraqi Air Force, especially because of the declining availability rate, lack of spare parts, and insufficient international support, which made it difficult for the Iranian Air Force to independently support the Iraqi Air Force's elusive ship raids. Moreover, Iraq itself has built a large number of oil pipelines, and a considerable part of its crude oil is not transported by sea, or directly by sea in the Persian Gulf, but the vast majority of Iran's crude oil is transported out through the Persian Gulf route.

Iraq provoked Iranian cruise ships, and Iran turned around and wanted to retaliate against Iraq and found that it could not find a few Iraqi cruise ships, so the Iranians were angry and attacked other Arab countries or neutral countries that supported Iraq. The most serious losses have been the cruise ships of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries, which have also helped these countries to increase their support for Iraq to resist the retaliatory attacks of the Iranians.

In the face of Iraq's continuous ship raids, Iran was in a hurry, and although it was very cool to retaliate, it could not hurt Iraq too much, but suffered heavy losses of its own. This situation finally changed completely after Iran completed its first military aircraft exchange deal with the Celestial Empire.

Twelve FC-1 Thunder fighters were stationed at the Bushehr airbase on the coast of the Persian Gulf, and they were joined by two ZDK-03 AWACS aircraft in the Iranian Air Force.

The Iranian Air Force, which has an AWACS aircraft, has made a substantial leap in mastering the sky in the Persian Gulf, although the ZDK-03 is an AWACS aircraft improved by China on the platform of a medium-sized military transport aircraft such as the Y-8, but the electronic technology is still commendable, not to mention that for Iran, it is a breakthrough to zero, and it is a huge advantage to have this thing in the 80s.

That is, in the first week of the stationing of Chinese-made military aircraft at the base, the ZDK-03, which was carrying out routine patrol and early warning, captured the abnormal movement of the Iraqi Air Force.

The crew members of the AWACS aircraft are still Chinese, but in fact they are all Red Police fighters from the Red Police base. Iran has sent two trainee officers from its own air force to study on it, and both sides communicate in English.

"Tower, tower, here is Allah's Eye 01, found approaching the target at high speed, number 4, Mach number 0. 9. The distance is 300 km. It should be a super military flag. In fact, in order to maintain absolute safety, the AWACS aircraft did not fly out of the land at all, but kept flying along the coast of Iran in a shuttle manner, conducting training and providing the warning that might be needed.

The officers and men on board the AWACS aircraft were foreigners, but the air force commander on the ground who made decisions was Iranian. Of course, under normal circumstances, the air forces of various countries will give the air crew command personnel on the air command post the right to directly command the air battle, but the Iranians cannot trust this group of Chinese for the time being, so they still need to go around on the ground and be dispatched by the real Iranian commander.

The Iranian Air Force Major General was greatly excited, and found the enemy plane at a distance of 300 kilometers, he did not dare to slack off, and immediately gave an order to the fighters who were on standby on the ground at any time: "The FC-1 Golden Feather Squadron immediately sends two fighters into the air to intercept them, and the F-4 Angel Squadron responds!" ”

In fact, there were no F-14 fighters stationed at the Tab6 Bushehr base at this time, so after the Air Force Major General obtained 12 Thunder Dragon fighters, he immediately treasured them, but it is a pity that now his domestic pilots are still in the process of learning and familiarizing, only 4 fighters maintain regular combat readiness and are piloted by Chinese pilots, and the remaining 8 are mainly stepping up time for training.

In fact, the Iraqis sent two Super Flags and two MiG-23s, but the MiG-23s lowered their speed in order to accommodate the Super Flags. The Super Flag was not an attack aircraft bought by Iraq, but was rented from the French by Uncle Saddam, with a total of five aircraft and no losses in the war. But there are also Iranians who claim to have shot down the Super Flag, and as for Iraq renting five planes and returning five planes, that's another matter.

The MiG-23 is another variable-swept wing fighter that is more of the main force in Iraq in addition to the Mirage F1, MiG-21/Chinese F-7, MiG-25 and other fighters. Its design idea is to refer to the F-111 fighter-bomber, in today's positioning is to be able to both air combat and ground, but this type of fighter war history is not very good, whether it is the Middle East War or the Iran-Iraq War, and the subsequent Gulf War, and F-4, F-14, F-15 and F-16 and other American-made fighters are not very good-looking.

Today's Mirage F1 and MiG-23 have encountered new enemies, and this is also the first time that French fighters and Soviet-made fighters have faced off against Chinese-made fighters on the battlefield, and have been talked about by military fans of later generations.

The Iranian AWACS aircraft hovering in the sky sent another communication to the tower: "Tower, Allah's Eye 01 requests to take over the command of air combat, over." ”

The Iranian major general was stunned, first a little annoyed, but a staff officer next to him whispered in his ear: "The biggest advantage of early warning aircraft to assist in air combat is that it can directly direct fighters to attack in the air, which is more intuitive and efficient, can we also take this opportunity to check whether the air combat system provided to us by the Chinese is effective." ”

The Iranian major general changed his mind and reacted, even if the air crew commander took over the command, if he won in the end, he would still be able to share the honor and military exploits, and even if he lost, he could find a way to shift the responsibility to this group of foreigners.

"Agree, command is transferred to Allah's Eye 01."

The early warning aircraft is a very new weapon of war, but because of its dazzling characteristics, it has almost changed the situation of air combat and air defense. In the Falklands War of 1982, the British aircraft carriers did not have AWACS aircraft on board, so that they could not detect the attack aircraft of the Argentine low-altitude raid from the sea, which led to a successful Argentine raid, sinking the British destroyer Sheffield, causing heavy losses.

Because of the influence of the curvature of the earth, the general land-based radar cannot detect the enemy aircraft attacking at low altitude on the sea surface or the ground at a long distance, and the clutter of the ocean will also have an impact on these land-based early warning radars. However, because the early warning aircraft are condescending, it is difficult for these low-altitude penetrating fighters to escape.

The four warplanes sent by the Iraqis were all in the form of low-altitude penetration, but they were still captured by the ZDK-03 AWACS aircraft that was flying and patrolling at a distance of 300 kilometers.

"Golden Feather 11, Golden Feather 12, pay attention to the receiving data link."

"Golden Feather 11 understood."

"Golden Feather 12 received."

The large early warning radar on the ZDK-03 has extremely strong combat effectiveness, and after detecting the enemy, it immediately switches to combat mode and locks it on. Through a complete set of air combat command systems (the integration of different subsystems such as combat management, command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence), a series of attack parameters such as the coordinates of enemy aircraft are transmitted by the data link to the two Thunder fighters that are also equipped with data links. This also makes up for the shortcomings of the Thunder Dragon's small size, insufficient radar power, and weak ability to detect enemy aircraft at a distance.

"Automatically assign targets for attack, choose weapons PL-12A, attack freely!"

When Qi Yiming sold the Thunder Dragon, he did not sell the Ultimate Demon Modified Thunder Dragon and airborne weapons to Iran, for example, the two air combat weapons he finally chose to sell to Iran were the PL-9 short-range combat missile and the PL-12A active blocking projectile. The PL-9 has always been the main missile exported by the Rabbit Air Force, and for its own use, it uses the PL-8 combat bomb improved from the Israeli Monster Snake and has a higher level. As for the Red Alert version of the PL-12 series, it is an extremely complex missile family. PL-12A is basically equal to the kind of active medium-range projectile used by the PLA in later generations, with a range of 85 km, and a frontal inescapability zone of 45 km and 35 km downward; The PL-12B is an extended-range version on its basis, but the volume has increased a little, but the range can reach 120 km; The PL-12C has greatly improved electronic components, such as a target finder, digital processor, etc., and enhanced its anti-jamming ability, with a range of 120 kilometers; The PL-12D is a greatly improved version, even a little smaller than the AIM-120C-5, with an increased overload, inescapable zone, two-way data link and satellite navigation, and a range of more than 160 kilometers. The PLA Air Force is actually using the PL-12C for its own use now, and although the subsequent improved version can be made, the price is too expensive.

However, the Thunder sold to Iran is not completely inferior to the original version of the other world, and does not use the DSI air intake, but uses an adjustable air intake with a surface layer, of course, this also makes the maximum airspeed of the Thunder reach Mach 2. In the 80s, stealth operations were not yet considered, but high speed made more sense. In addition, because the engine uses the base WS-13A, the thrust-to-weight ratio is increased, the performance is improved, and the utilization rate of composite materials is increased to 20%, the aircraft is greatly reduced, so that the empty weight of the aircraft is reduced to 6 tons, the maximum take-off weight is increased to 14 tons, the fuel in the aircraft is expanded to 3 tons, and the salary of the fighter pylon is increased to 4 tons.

In other words, the new version of the Thunder Dragon that has been improved by Qi Yiming's base is more suitable as a powerful light fighter in this era, and even compared to Sweden's Gripen, it is not at all lagging behind, and it has a good chance of winning when it encounters medium-sized fighters such as F-16. Of course, in 1985, the Gripen was still on the drawings, and the F-16 did not have the ability to launch active medium-range air-to-air missiles, so the current Thunder, even if it is a light fighter, is also a good hand in air supremacy.