The northern section of the Straits of Malacca.

After a three-day voyage, the British finally arrived in this area, and so far the British army had not been harassed in any way, which also made the originally overly nervous British relax a little.

Commander Weatherall did not dare to relax in the slightest, he turned back and asked the ship's staff officer: "Where is Diego Garcia's Tempest fleet?" ”

The staff officer replied: "It will be over the fleet in 30 minutes at the latest, and then it will be ready to launch air strikes on Lumut and Kuala Lumpur." ”

What Margaret Thatcher wants to see is that the South Liberation is hurting, so launching an air force to attack it is the best action. The main task of Weatherall and his task force was, on the contrary, to provide the fleet with a certain amount of air defense and to strike at the Lumut naval base in the southern liberation. Although the two light aircraft carriers only survived 32 AV-8 Sea Harrier STOVL fighters, and their ability to hang bombs was also limited, more than a dozen main combat ships were all artillery, and it was still possible to bombard the port facilities with one blow.

Weatherall nodded, and before he could say anything, suddenly a sharp air defense siren came from the ship.

"A large number of air targets were spotted coming towards us, and it was determined that there were at least twenty of them, oh no...... At least thirty enemy aircraft! ”

Weatherall swallowed a mouthful of spit with difficulty, and said in his heart that fighting with the Chinese was really different from the Argentines fighting ah, during the Falklands War, the Argentines did not even send a fleet of ten fighters, but to deal with the South Liberation was to spill thirty fighters in one breath, so that the fleet immediately faced huge air defense pressure.

"The air force of the alert air defense will be intercepted immediately!" Weatherall was a little nervous, but he reacted quickly. The Sea Harriers carried by the two carriers are not completely parked in hangars or on decks, because there is a certain level of vigilance and patrol around them during the voyage, so four AV-8 fighters are already in the air, and when they are almost used up with fuel, they will land and be replaced by other fighters.

This state of affairs is generally adopted in the waters of relatively high-risk theater areas.

Weatherall knew very well that the four Sea Harriers were basically going to die, but he needed to block the Southern Liberation Air Force so that he could have more time to send more carrier-based aircraft into battle, and also prepare the fleet's air defense. There were also as many as thirty-two Tornado fighters in the follow-up, and as long as they could arrive earlier, it was difficult to say who would die in this battle.

The group of Nanjie planes in the sky did not appear to be densely packed, they organically combined into battle formations, alternately covering their comrades from different directions, and launching surprise attacks on the enemy. There are a total of 32 fighters in four groups, of which 16 are FC-1 Thunder fighters, who are mainly engaged in escort missions, and the other two groups are Flying Leopard fighters equipped with attack weapons. All four air brigades have adopted a low-altitude penetration close to the sea surface, and this technique is not very easy to master, and it is also related to the performance of their own fighters.

Fighter planes generally maintain an altitude of 100 meters above sea level, which may not seem low enough, but is actually quite dangerous. The fuel consumption of the plane at this altitude is much more powerful than at an altitude of 10,000 meters, but fortunately, this distance is not far from the Malay Peninsula, except for the Thunder Dragon, who really needs to hang a lower belly fuel tank, and the flying leopard does not even have to carry the fuel tank.

The advantage of low-altitude penetration is that the British fleet officially discovered their enemy when the fighters penetrated within 100 kilometers.

"2 AV-8s are in the direction of 1 o'clock, Zilong 1-1 and Zilong 1-2 are ready to engage, well, there are two more at 10 o'clock, Xunlong 2-1 and Xunlong 2-2 are ready to engage." Behind the fleet there is a ZDK-03 early warning aircraft that has just entered the PLA Air Force, although it does not use phased array radar, and its performance is a bit behind that of the Air Police-200, but the system and equipment are still very good, especially in the environment used by the Navy is very reliable.

The four Thunder fighters didn't even mean to throw off the auxiliary fuel tank in the lower abdomen, and directly faced the AV-8 fighters that rushed over. At that time, the AV-8 Sea Harrier could still show off against the Argentine Stiletto fighter and shoot down a few enemy planes, but at that time, the British had not yet shamelessly called out that the plane did not need supersonic speed at all, and the subsonic fighter was like a subsonic fighter to dominate the world.

However, the following air battle soon made the British realize that supersonic fighters and subsonic fighters are completely two different concepts. Dexterous and swift, the Owl can easily shake off the Sea Harrier that wants to bite him with little effort, and when the Owl Dragon turns on the afterburner, the Sea Harrier can only eat exhaust in the back. Even the slightly conservative aerodynamic shape is much better than the ugly sea harrier. Moreover, this batch of Thunders are all models that use vector engines, and this daring Thunder actually recklessly changed the direction of the spout, and after a stunning back, it made a flanker family's signature Pugachev Cobra.

Like a ferocious king cobra that chooses to devour people, it quickly grabs the side of this sea harrier after raising its nose in front of its clumsy prey, and directly bites the tail of this sea harrier. The British pilot on the Sea Harrier could not believe what he had just seen, and the Thunder Dragon, who had already appeared behind him, fired a cannon shell that hit the Sea Harrier, causing it to drag black smoke to the surface of the sea.

An AV-8 on the other side was a little more experienced, and at a distance of 10 kilometers, regardless of it, it took the lead in firing two Sidewinder missiles, which were launched in a bad position, and the oncoming Thunder made a side roll and flashed these two missiles. The somewhat annoyed Thunder pilot also quickly found his fighter, he piloted the plane to turn into a more complex maneuver with the kinetic energy of the tumbling, adjusting the flaps and vector nozzles to deflect the nose inward after rolling, thus driving the plane to complete the steering at a relatively small distance.

If this action had been done more quickly, in a matter of seconds with fewer tumbling turns, it is estimated that the powerful G-force would have torn the plane apart, and the pilot inside would not have been lucky. Fortunately, there is a target push and the action is just in place, making this maneuver with at least 8G very beautiful.

After the steering is completed, the nose of the Thunder Dragon has been aimed at the AV-8 Sea Harrier that is still flying forward and preparing to turn, this time it is the Thunderbolt that launched two Thunderbolt-8 missiles, which is already an inescapable area for enemy aircraft, and the distance between the two aircraft is really a little close, and before there is time to react, this Sea Harrier was hit by two missiles and exploded in the air.

In just one or two face-to-face efforts, the British had already lost two warplanes, and Weatherall on the Ark Royal became even more worried, knowing that he was sending the Sea Harriers to their deaths, but also to complete his delayed mission, but he did not want these Sea Harriers to be unable to meet his requirements, and they were now like sparrows being played with by eagles after killing all sides in the Falkland Islands five years ago.

"Warning, warning! It was discovered that missiles fired by enemy aircraft were coming at me at high speed! ”

Counting on four fighters to intercept thirty-two enemy planes, it can only be said that Weatherall has read too many fairy tales. At such a close distance, it was already within the range of the air-launched YJ-83K, and after being assigned a target by the AWACS aircraft, the Flying Leopards immediately threw their missiles under their wings and watched them rush towards the enemy.

"Air defense, what about our air defense system?!" Weatherall was already panicking, and it was difficult to keep his composure.

Even if they wanted to fight back, only the three Type 42 destroyers in the entire fleet could attack the opponent's fighters beyond visual range, and it was not until the Flying Leopard had dropped a field of anti-ship missiles that a Type 42 destroyer, the USS Edinburgh, fired a Sea Javelin.

There are three sets of goalkeeper close defense systems on the Ark Royal, but this time it is inadequate. Qi Yiming, who can be called wealthy, sent 16 flying leopards to raid more than once, and there were as many as 6 missiles attacking this light aircraft carrier alone.

At such a critical juncture, one close-in defense gun could not work due to a circuit failure, so that only two close-in defense guns were used to defend against the incoming YJ-83 anti-ship missiles.

The high-velocity close-in defense gun itself is designed and manufactured to face such a situation, but in the past few decades since the advent of the close-in defense gun and its slow replacement by the close-in defense missile, the close-in defense gun has achieved few results, and some people also believe that it cannot meet the needs of naval ships for short-range air defense.

Six anti-ship missiles attacked, two goalkeepers defended by close defense guns, one of which fired a net of fire that covered one of the anti-ship missiles and destroyed it, but the other aimed at the other missiles and fired a flood of shells, none of which hit the serpentine YJ-83. In the end, five missiles successfully hit the pride of the British, and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the flagship of the task force.

All of the missiles basically hit the broadside below the flight deck and above the waterline, and although the power was not particularly impressive, the destructive force caused by five consecutive hits also caused the aircraft carrier to tilt slightly towards its left side. The two Sea Harriers, which were originally about to take off, were not properly controlled under the sudden tilt and tumbled off the deck.

The 20,000-ton large warship does have better stability and damage resistance than a small warship, and although five missiles were hit, several of them did not hit a particularly lethal position, and more of them entered the hangar, almost destroying the hangar.

Of course, no matter what, this exploded aircraft carrier can no longer organize defense and counterattacks, nor can it continue to serve as the flagship to command. Weatherall hurriedly left from the already dead aircraft carrier with his staff officers, and took a lifeboat to other ships to continue directing the battle.

However, just after the Flying Leopards damaged the Ark Royal, a Sea Javelin fired by the destroyer Exeter hit the left wing of one of the Flying Leopards, and the pilot, who was struggling to maintain his flight, had to choose to parachute, and the plane eventually crashed into the sea. This is also the first aircraft lost by the Yugoslav Liberation Army since the start of the war.

However, the loss of just one fighter plane could not stop the frantic attack of the PLA Air Force, and more Flying Leopards carrying anti-ship missiles and guided bombs continued to attack the opponent, and the battle entered a white heat.