In the South China Sea, under the blue sky, a huge fleet is cleaving the waves and sailing towards the northeast. Rear Admiral Scott Glenn, captain of the USS Ford, stood in the command cabin and looked at the quiet sea ahead, silent, although he is now commanding the latest generation of aircraft carriers in the US military, with all-digital and networked combat capabilities, and can centrally distribute and automate the main firepower of the entire fleet through the network center, compared with the older generation of aircraft carriers, the combat power has improved by leaps and bounds, several times that of the previous generation of "Nimitz" class aircraft carriers.

As the first new Ford-class aircraft carrier in service, the main carrier-based aircraft of the USS Ford are all composed of F-35B advanced stealth fighters, and compared with the previous generation of F/A-18 fighters, the improvement of air combat power is also very significant. With more than 70 F-35B fighters on board, Rear Admiral Glenn is even confident of defeating the air power of most countries in the world.

According to the intelligence reported by the CIA, the PLA's maritime forces have basically achieved nuclear powerification in the past few years, especially the submarine force, in addition to the original 093, 094, and 096-class nuclear submarines, the PLA has also carried out large-scale transformation of the power system of its Song-class and Yuan-class conventional submarines, basically realizing the nuclear-powered water jet drive.

This means that the main submarines of the People's Liberation Army are fully nuclear-powered and have stronger concealment capabilities. The strategic intent of the mixed fleet of the USS Ford aircraft carrier this time is very obvious, and Glenn believes that with the current military strength of the PLA, they will not sit idly by, and they will definitely do something.

Although he had sailed more than 1,000 kilometers from Singapore without incident, and had not seen a single PLA ship, let alone a PLA plane, Major General Glenn felt more and more uneasy about this unusual tranquility, and this was by no means because the PLA did not have this capability; according to Glenn's information, the PLA had built quite a number of air force alert bases on the Nansha Islands, and was fully capable of sending a small number of planes to conduct reconnaissance and tailing.

Even the "Shadow" UAV, which is based in Hainan, can carry out effective fixed-point reconnaissance patrols in the entire South China Sea.

But the E-200C AWACS and S-2 anti-submarine aircraft, alternately deployed in the air at a distance of 3 km ahead, found nothing. Despite this, Glenn still did not dare to be careless, and formed an interception formation with F-35B fighters and EA-6C "Prowler" electronic warfare aircraft in the air at any time to deal with possible aircraft and missile attacks from the air at any time.

The two attack nuclear submarines are deployed in an arc in front and on the flanks of the battle group navigation sequence, keeping a distance of 100 km to 120 km from the mother ship, providing submarine cover for the USS Ford, plus the anti-submarine destroyer and the anti-submarine helicopters carried by the escort ships form a 20-kilometer to 50-kilometer short-range anti-submarine defense line around the Ford, and the entire anti-submarine system can be described as very perfect.

According to common sense, such a strict lineup of air defense and anti-submarine systems, even with the capabilities of the US military's active submarines, is by no means easy to break through, and Rear Admiral Glenn should rest assured. However, thinking that the Song-class conventional submarine of the PLA Navy sailed into the sea area about 5 miles away from the "Kitty Hawk" aircraft carrier, it was like entering a no-man's land, and Rear Admiral Glenn knew that for the PLA, common sense was something that could not be trusted.

Rear Admiral Glenn was pondering, when suddenly the alarm sounded, "Report to the captain, 250 kilometers ahead, a fighter of unknown nationality was found, and the technical department is seizing the time to confirm it." Major General Glenn's intelligence officer, Captain Lane, reported loudly.

Without Captain Lane's report, Rear Admiral Glenn had already seen the latest information from the radar of the distant E-2C early warning aircraft from the integrated information terminal next to him, and now it was only displayed as two small black dots, but soon, the fleet's integrated combat information system judged that this was the PLA's J-11C fighter based on further radar information transmitted from the front.

Seeing that the shipborne integrated combat information system fed back this latest intelligence and confirmed the appearance of PLA planes, Major General Glenn breathed a sigh of relief, for these two uninvited guests who had been late for a long time, once they appeared on the radar screen, Rear Admiral Glenn had nothing to fear, in the face of an aircraft carrier formation that was armed to the extreme, no matter how powerful the two J-11C fighters were, they would always be stared at by the radar of the air early warning aircraft after they were discovered, and nothing could be done.

The F-35B fighters, which were on air alert, immediately split into two formations and approached and began to keep a distance from the J-11C two-plane formation, so that they were always within the attack range of the J-35B.

However, the two J-11Cs seemed to have turned a blind eye to the actions of the US military, and still kept a distance of about 50 kilometers from the opposing fighters and continued to fly towards the aircraft carrier. This is the high seas, even if the US military is very unwilling, they are helpless, the other side keeps a long distance, and does not turn on the fire control radar, it is clear that they are just coming to follow.

If it weren't for the unfathomable PLA, if any other country dared to do this, Major General Glenn would have ordered it to be shot down a long time ago, but in this part of the South China Sea, Rear Admiral Glenn still did not dare to attack the PLA easily, despite having the Ford aircraft carrier formation, which is powerful enough to destroy most countries in the world.

Seeing the intelligence information coming back from the front, it seems that the two PLA fighters are just here to harass and tailgating, and the two F-35Bs ordered by Major General Glenn to be on alert, as long as the two J-11C fighters are 100 kilometers away from the aircraft carrier, they will ignore it, and when they try to continue to approach, they will carry out radar lock warnings, and if the other side continues to ignore and rush towards the aircraft carrier, they will fire and shoot them down.

No matter how unfathomable the PLA is, Rear Admiral Glenn will never put his aircraft carrier within the attack range of the opponent's anti-ship missiles. Although the PLA's C802 series air-to-ship missiles have a maximum range of 150 kilometers, because their flight speed is not fast, as long as they can prevent the opponent from being 100 kilometers away, the multiple air defense interception firepower of the Ford aircraft carrier formation is enough to ensure the safety of the aircraft carrier.

The adversary seems to know to keep a safe distance, and when it is about 100 kilometers close to the USS Ford, it will no longer approach, but will begin to follow, and the airborne radar system will transmit the accurate position information of each ship on the sea surface of the USS Ford aircraft carrier formation back to a certain command information center through satellites, and then through the command information center, the information will be continuously sent to the air, and transmitted to several new PLA submarines that have dived to a depth of 450 meters to the bottom of the sea.

(Sorry, it's a little late for a party today.) ）