On the blue sea, the blue waves ripple.

On the surface of the sea, one warship after another, riding the wind and waves, drove forward, leaving behind the hull of white waves.

This is a large maritime formation, with frigates, destroyers on the periphery, cruisers on the inside, and at the heart of all ships there are two aircraft carriers.

Two large aircraft carriers with open decks that look like a fortress at sea.

"Right rudder three, turn to the headwind, ready to release the carrier-based aircraft." On board the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, Captain Bronch, who was wearing sunglasses and staring ahead with piercing eyes, shouted.

Although aircraft carriers have high-efficiency catapults, headwind, a way that can reduce the power of catapults and improve the take-off efficiency of aircraft carriers, has always been the favorite of aircraft carrier captains.

At this time, on the catapult on the deck, a Tomcat fighter loaded with Immortal Bird missiles was preparing for takeoff.

The Tomcat fighter has a flat belly, four of which are mounted in turn below, and two more are mounted in the wing box, for a total of six Immortal Bird missiles, which makes the Tomcat look full of power, and at the same time, it also greatly increases the take-off weight of the Tomcat fighter.

Each missile weighs half a ton, and six missiles add three tons of weight, and at the same time, when fully fueled, the Tomcat fighter reaches a maximum take-off weight of 33 tons.

Even Nathan was flying such a Tomcat fighter for the first time. In the past, he drove a tomcat that was basically unloaded, without hanging bombs, and now, he is already in high spirits.

"The Lone Ranger asks to take off." Nathan shouted over the radio as his fighter plane was on Catapult Three on the beveled deck.

The strength of the US aircraft carrier lies in its sortie efficiency, in later generations, Huaxia had its first aircraft carrier, so that countless Chinese people are proud of it, but also in addition to excitement, see the huge difference, Huaxia's aircraft carrier is by gliding jump to take off, can only use the bow of the jump deck, when taking off is risky, the flight efficiency is low.

And the Kitty Hawk in the seventies, which was already four catapults, could catapult four aircraft at the same time.

"You can take off."

A command came from inside the headset.

Nathan looked outside, the various vests were busy, signaling that he had hung up the ejection slider, Nathan turned on the afterburner of the engine, looking at the familiar posture of the ejection officer, on the back, a violent push back feeling came.

Now, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam in the catapult is surging towards the piston of the C-13 catapult, and the upper end of the piston pulls the landing gear in front of the fighter, and the acceleration is as high as 6G at the moment of ejection.

This process will make people want to die.

If you don't have any experience, you can faint right away if you sit in it, and even if you are an experienced pilot, the feeling of each ejection is different, and if you are not in good physical condition, you may lose consciousness instantly.

The body was pressed tightly against the backrest, and it was impossible to make any movement at all, and everything on both sides was rapidly retreating.

As the plane taxied forward on the deck, a puff of steam came out from behind.

The further back, the smaller this acceleration becomes, and as the piston moves forward, a large part of the thrust of the steam behind is pushed to the steam in front, giving people the feeling that the catapult is not as fast as the aircraft's own engine.

By the time we reach the front of the deck, the acceleration has dropped to about 1G, and the average acceleration in the whole process is 2G.

The moment the plane left the deck, the entire fighter plane sank downward, and at a speed of 185 knots, the fighter easily got rid of the sinking state and began to accelerate again.

Ejection successful!

During the Vietnam War, Nathan catapulted from an aircraft carrier countless times, but after flying a Tomcat, most of them flew on land, and only a dozen aircraft carrier catapults and landed opportunities.

Now, this familiar feeling is back in his body, he feels every cell in his body excited, and as a pilot, flying the most advanced fighter plane and fighting in the sky is what makes him the happiest.

This heavy-load ejection made him even more excited.

The two TF30 engines in the tail section are constantly jetting backwards, and the wings have been swept back to a minimum, which is the way to minimize drag, allowing the engines to achieve the most efficient flight in the case of insufficient thrust.

The Tomcat fighter has great potential for body modification, in later generations, Grumman once proposed the development plan of the Super Tomcat 21, after a large number of composite materials to reduce weight, changed to a bubble cockpit F14 replaced with General Electric's F110-GE-129 engine, The Super Tomcat can achieve supersonic cruise of the M1.5, which is a highlight and standard in the typical fourth-generation aircraft: supersonic cruise, in addition to the F14 itself can maneuver at the speed of the M2 with an overload of up to 7G, which is also one of the standards of the typical fourth-generation aircraft: super-maneuverability.

It's a pity that this excellent fighter was finally voted by Congress to stop production, which is simply a big loss for the US Navy. When the slow-moving big bugs hung their bullets and rushed to the battlefield at Mach 0.7, almost all the U.S. Navy was nostalgic for the sky where Tomcats dominated, right?

Nathan stopped his blind thoughts, these things are all twenty or thirty years later, now, let's do a good job of this exercise.

Shooting targets in the air, firing six immortal bird missiles at the same time, aiming at six targets, is the most arrogant display of one's own force.

"Hawkeye calls the Lone Ranger, and Hawkeye calls the Lone Ranger." In Nathan's headset, a new call came, and when he heard the call, Nathan immediately replied, "Lone Ranger received, please indicate the direction." ”

Twenty minutes before the target, an Hawkeye was ejected into the air.

Hawkeye, which is a carrier-based early warning aircraft of the US Navy, is the eye of the US Naval Aviation.

The earth is spherical, and the sea has an arc, so the shipborne radar on warships is limited, and generally speaking, warships on the sea surface a hundred nautical miles away have already exceeded the horizon, and the radar cannot search for them.

This is the meaning of the existence of early warning aircraft, and for modern air combat, early warning aircraft are multipliers of air combat strength.

From the beginning of 64, the first E-2A Hawkeye was delivered to the US Navy, and until now, it has developed to the E-2C, at this time, in the airspace of 6,000 meters away from the aircraft carrier formation 200 nautical miles, the E-2C AWACS aircraft is flying smoothly.

It is not a lonely one, around the AWACS aircraft, there are two F-4 fighters to escort it, and at the same time, there is an even stranger shape of the plane, with a large head and a thin fuselage, as if it were a big-headed monster. At the top of the hanging tail, there is also a large bulging bag.