“…… No matter how the submarine is improved, the basic combat mode will not change substantially, and the ACA's research on submersible air carriers has also continued to encounter insurmountable obstacles, so it has become more and more difficult to create meaningful results in the face of the alliance's cluster escort, and if the ACA does not make a huge breakthrough in surface ships, it will be a matter of time before it loses its maritime control rights. ”

-- Military Outlook weekly

***

"Helis, put together a report on the situation for me right away, I know we can't help much, but I at least need to know how it is."

Got it.

When Ling Yu and the others rushed to the second tarmac, Jones. The John's helicopter was already suspended in mid-air, and Ling Yu noticed that it was an anti-submarine helicopter with two thick aviation anti-submarine torpedoes hanging on both sides of the fuselage.

"I thought the British Navy was fully equipped with anti-submarine rotorcraft!"

Ling Yu climbed onto the helicopter and watched as Arya carried Vivien to another cargo ship's civilian helicopter on the adjacent tarmac, took off the earphones from the pylons next to her and put them on her head, and then turned her head to look at Herris.

Commuter helicopters are also equipped with anti-submarine equipment, which can be used as an important complement to gyroplanes, and the average British destroyer has one anti-submarine rotorcraft and two anti-submarine helicopters.

"How did the British cram so much stuff into a tiny hangar?" Ling Yu teased, the helicopter had slowly lifted off, and the young man sitting by the hatch took the safety rope handed over by Helis, buckled it on his tactical belt, and turned his head to look at the destroyers in the distance - two destroyers, Jones. The John and the Black Rose were changing course, aiming the torpedo attack at an acute angle so that the interceptor torpedoes on both sides could weave a good web of crossfire. And in the rear of the destroyer, a gyroplane armed with sonar buoys and anti-submarine torpedoes is being towed out of the hangar, starting the engine.

"Sir, we've been ordered to drop sonar buoys in the designated area, is that okay?"

"Yes."

Ling Yu nodded, it seemed that it was useless to board the destroyer in this situation. The whole ship was in anti-submarine warfare procedures, and it was impossible for them to drive the gyroplane away.

"The sonar crew is in position, enters the anti-submarine warfare procedure, goes to the designated area to drop sonar buoys."

The captain of the helicopter gave the order bluntly, and the two sonar soldiers were already sitting in front of the sonar, and the helicopter adjusted its course and headed directly at Jones. The direction of the John flew.

The ACA's submarines have made the alliance suffer for more than ten years, so the anti-submarine role of destroyers has been greatly emphasized, and the equipment configuration has also moved in the direction of anti-submarine warfare. For example, in the Atlantic, it is difficult for ACA fighter jets to escape the defense network of satellites and AWACS, but submarines can move very close to the fleet with their advanced material technology.

"It's okay, they have already begun to enter the anti-submarine formation, it seems that they have discovered the origin of the torpedo, and they should be able to successfully intercept it."

Ethan's voice came through the headphones, and everyone watched as the caps of the interceptor torpedo tubes on the amidships on both sides of the destroyer opened upward, accompanied by a burst of fire and crackling. A platoon of at least five anti-torpedo torpedoes ejected from fifteen-pack launchers and plunged headlong into the water.

Listen to Ethan's explanation. Ling Yu nodded rarely, he had not studied anti-submarine warfare, but logically speaking, he should not encounter a situation in the middle of the Atlantic that he could not deal with.

But if it doesn't work...... Will the other party take the initiative to attack?

As if he had a mind-reading function, a line of words suddenly appeared in Ling Yu's mechanical eyes, and he turned his head. Seeing the same hesitant expression on Helis's face, he was about to open his mouth to say something, when suddenly, Ethan's exclamation came from beside him.

"Interceptor rockets were fired?! So many interceptor torpedoes were shot out of the air?! ”

Ling Yu didn't know much about anti-submarine procedures, but he could also realize from Ethan's exclamation that the situation was already somewhat urgent.

didn't wait for Ling Yu to ask in detail. Suddenly, a wave of water erupted, and a few hundred meters away from the destroyer, an underwater explosion completely boiled the already restless sea.

"The interception was successful—"

Ethan subconsciously screamed, but the next second, it seemed to be an extremely vicious joke, and Jones in front of them. The destroyer USS John, all of a sudden, exploded.

A violent explosion occurred from the bottom of the ship, and the huge explosion pressure caused the entire destroyer to be lifted several meters, and at the same time, the middle and rear positions of the hull exploded violently like a balloon that had been blown up, and a third of the entire ship disappeared into thin air, and the bow and stern of the ship were smashed back into the water with heavy blows, and then began to sink at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"No !!!"

There was a helicopter pilot's cry of pain in the headset, and a huge explosion wave instantly hit the helicopter that was approaching the destroyer, or the wreckage of the destroyer, the helicopter swayed violently, Ling Yu subconsciously grabbed the hatch, and the cabin was filled with all kinds of piercing warning sounds at this time.

"It's fine." Payne, who was sitting inside, helped Ethan, who was a little panicked, although Ethan was already an extremely good agent compared to his age, but he was only a little boy after all, and most of his career was spent in the calm cavalry military academy and Cambridge City, and he did not have the experience of Ling Yu and others crashing into a plane and a car, so it was inevitable that he was a little nervous.

But almost at the same time, behind them, another cargo ship also exploded violently!

"Could it be that there are a lot of submarines ambushing us?! Why didn't you intercept it again!! ”

Ethan had tried his best to calm his tone, but he was still a little flustered, and this time, Helis also turned his head and gave Ethan a reassuring look, only Ling Yu had been sitting on the floor of the cabin, looking at the burning wreckage of the destroyer without saying a word.

Because the freighter was hit, the helicopter was not affected this time, and within a few seconds, the pilot rebalanced the helicopter and pulled the helicopter back up.

"The flagship orders to immediately launch anti-submarine operations, and we are about to go to the coordinates-"

"Boom-boom-"

didn't wait for the helicopter pilot to finish, and likewise didn't give the people in the cabin time to think about it. Two explosions, almost one after the other, made the situation worse again - or rather, to the most critical moment!

"It's the flagship Thomas. Lennon! ”

The fire flashed, and the flagship of this escort formation, Thomas. The destroyer Lennon, as well as another cargo ship behind it, also exploded violently.

How could it be...... How is this possible!!

This time. Even Helis and Payne's faces changed, and Ling Yu gritted his teeth, but he also knew that he could still maintain his composure because he didn't understand the current situation at all.

-- Achieving such an attack means that they are likely to have more than three ACA submarines in their vicinity.

But is it possible?

***

Jones. John and the Black Rose launch anti-torpedo torpedoes! ”

Time pushed forward two minutes before the flagship of the 24th escort formation of the Confederate Sixth Fleet, the anti-submarine destroyer Thomas. Lennon. James. Lieutenant Colonel Watkins stood in the bridge, faintly uneasy.

This fast transport formation of six destroyers -- four from the Allied Navy's Sixth Fleet and two from the Allied Second Fleet in the North Sea -- and fourteen large fast freighters, unlike those slow formations of hundreds of ships, this transport formation carried cutting-edge medicines, precision instruments, high-level weapons and equipment and other urgently needed goods on the battlefield, so the ratio of escort ships to transport ships was close to 1:2. The average slow-speed fleet is generally composed of nearly 50 slow-speed cargo ships and about 10 escort ships.

It's just that. Lieutenant Commander Watkins has the same idea as Ling Yu - six destroyers can be said to be more than enough to protect such a formation, and the anti-torpedo launch network can cover all directions, because the ACA's submarine technology is extremely developed, after more than ten years of confrontation, the alliance's anti-submarine equipment is also developed unscientifically, taking the ACA's latest Neptune 7 type as an example. Six torpedoes can be fired at a time, and six destroyers can be guaranteed to be covered by two anti-torpedo torpedo launchers in any direction, and one anti-torpedo launcher can fire fifteen interception torpedoes in 15 seconds, with an interception rate of nearly 90%, calculated by various factors. To eat such a formation, at least 6-7 ACA submarines are needed to set up ambushes in this area.

"The 132nd Submarine-Hunting Group is coming, and the first batch of heavy anti-submarine aircraft is expected to arrive in forty minutes!"

"Understood, keep in formation, enter anti-submarine procedures, pay attention to possible ambushes."

Lieutenant Colonel Watkins nodded, the possibility of being ambushed by a large number of ACA submarines is not impossible, but this is obviously not cost-effective, after the Washington incident, the alliance reorganized the fleet, and now in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Northeast, the Northwest Pacific far from land, there will be a large number of heavy anti-submarine aircraft every day to form a submarine hunting group, these anti-submarine aircraft are based on relatively flexible ATVT (Advanced TacticalVTOLTransport, vertical take-off and landing advanced theater transport) aircraft as the master, Equipped with a large number of detection devices and anti-submarine weapons, combined with tankers, high-power fusion batteries, and early warning aircraft, it can arrive within an hour at most -- although it is far from an hour for a submarine formation to carry out an attack, an hour is definitely not enough for these submarines to escape from the detection range of heavy antisubmarine aircraft.

All in all, it is worthless to gather a large number of submarines to ambush such an ordinary transport fleet, the price of this entire fleet is about 3 ACA submarines, and three submarines will definitely not be able to break through the anti-submarine network composed of six Alliance destroyers, and this is not counting the value conversion between ordinary Alliance civilian crews and ACA professional submariners.

"Captain, the Black Rose, Renard. The Duran reported that they had not yet detected the signals of the ACA submarine and had already begun to deploy anti-submarine aircraft! ”

"What about us?"

"Neither, sir."

The forty-seven-year-old captain nodded, he had already run this route dozens of times, and in this sea condition, the active sonar detection distance of the Allied "Cleveland"-class destroyer under his feet could reach more than 60 kilometers, of course, no matter how good the sonar was, it was impossible to completely guarantee the detection of a submarine close at hand, because this involved many complex factors, and the ACA's submarines were notoriously difficult to detect.

But the question is still - whether it is cost-effective, if a submarine really gets so close to the escort formation and attacks, then it is almost impossible to escape, and in all circumstances, the other side should have dropped a few self-guided torpedoes here earlier and fled.

That's not a big deal.

But there is another possibility......

Just when Lieutenant Colonel Watkins was in a tangle, suddenly, a shout from the communications officer made him stunned in place for a moment.

Jones. John report! The target used an air curtain bomb! Intercept the torpedo and lose the target!! ”

Air curtain bombs? Torpedoes using air curtain shells? Before Lieutenant Colonel Watkins could react, the communications officer shouted again.

Jones. The John launched the interceptor rocket...... Hit the target! ”.

Lieutenant Commander Watkins breathed a sigh of relief, intercepting underwater rockets can work at a depth of more than 300 meters and can reach speeds of about 100 knots, the disadvantage is that the range is too short, only a few kilometers, and can only be used for the destroyer's own anti-torpedo defense.

However, before Lieutenant Colonel Watkins could breathe a sigh of relief, a violent explosion rang out from the sound of his Thomas. There was a sound from the rear right of the Lennon, and he subconsciously turned his head and rushed to the side of the bridge in a few steps, and then saw the destroyer that had exploded!

"It's Jones. John! ”

One of the officers next to him shouted in a frightened tone, followed by the trembling voice of the communications officer.

"The torpedo hit the bilge directly, Jones. The John's sinks! ”

Before the words fell, another explosion sounded!

"The torpedo hit the bilge directly! The freighter Bluetail sank! ”

"Let all destroyers release anti-submarine aircraft at once! Enter the highest anti-submarine level, prepare for unknown weapons, get the Black Rose out of the sonar blind spot, turn on all search equipment, and let Reynard. The Duran goes south for reinforcements! ”

"High-speed propeller tone! Eighty-four! How can it be so close! It can't be—"

"Pull Collision Alert !!!"

This is Thomas. The last sound of the Lennon. (To be continued......)