On the bridge of the USS George Washington, David Glick was discussing the next flight plan with the chief flight commander Martin Rothman, both of them were very relaxed, drinking coffee leisurely, and the bright sunshine outside the window made the USS George Washington this afternoon look a little lazy.

In the scorching heat, the GIs of the U.S. Navy became lazy, and in addition to the work that had to be done, most of the sailors during the rest began to find ways to cool themselves down.

Some just hid in the lower deck to blow the air conditioner, but for the young sailors, the heat did not allow them to lock themselves in an air-conditioned place, and even if it was just a simple cooling, the entertaining American GIs could still come up with all kinds of ways to refresh themselves and kill off their excessive energy.

The inflatable pool was tumbling and jostling, and the huge water nozzles that washed the deck were used to lunge at the crowd that had gathered together, and some people ran a few steps before jumping on the water on the deck surface, sliding farther than anyone else, in short, how to have fun, how noisy, noisy, and having fun.

So many days have passed, and every day it is its own aircraft and ships that harass China's aircraft carriers, and the Chinese side has no intention of approaching at all, except for passive interception, and even carrier-based aircraft have not taken the initiative to take the air. Although the alert level remained at 4 in the middle of the mission, all the American officers and men, including the captain, were relaxed, and for many it was just another routine ocean trip.

"You won't be able to schedule a plane to take off today, right?" Martin Rothman took a leisurely sip of coffee, looked at the Chinese Jiangsu aircraft carrier battle group marked 570 kilometers away on the map, and said: "After all, it is more dangerous to land at night, so let those young men rest for a day, what do you think?" ”

David Glick comfortably took the coffee in his mouth, tasted it carefully before swallowing it, hummed in admiration, praised the taste of the coffee, and then said to Martin Rothman: "Martin, you are the flight commander." ”

The implication was obvious, Martin smiled and said, "Then do it, I think those lads will thank me, haha." ”

The two commanders on the bridge were talking and laughing relaxedly, but the officers and men in the CIC combat command center were not so relaxed. This not too big cabin is full of all kinds of monitors and tactical panels, and the faint light of dark blue, light green, dark red and other colors fills this not too big cabin, and the operation of the officers and soldiers is basically to use these lights to complete their work. Fluorescent lamps are installed in the cabins, but unnecessarily bright light can interfere with operations, so the fluorescent lamps are almost never turned on in the cabins of the CIC Combat Command Center unless necessary.

The radar man observes his radar interface as usual. It's a boring job, and you really can't imagine staring at a tiny circular screen for hours without any happening and it's maddeningly boring.

It is easy to get sleepy after a long period of boredom, but today's radarman has just changed shifts, and he is looking at the screen in front of him very energetically at the moment, and he even has a lot of leisure in his mind to fantasize that there are enemy planes approaching him in front of him, and then he looks at the radar and notifies the commander loudly, and then a whole set of working procedures runs on, and finally succeeds in repelling the enemy and so on.

The radarman did not expect such a situation to happen in reality, but the radarman who was thinking about it soon found a target on his radar interface that was moving quickly towards the USS George Washington, and he remembered that there should be no planes from his side passing by in that direction today, but in order to avoid false alarms, the radarman hurriedly checked today's work manual, and soon, he determined that there was indeed no plane from his own side flying from that position today.

The radarman was nervous, and hurriedly called his immediate superior, announced what he had discovered, and at the same time began to urgently send contact information to the other party, asking for confirmation of identity, but there was no answer at all, and the IFF did not show anything, could this be an enemy attack?

The CIC Operational Command Center immediately transmitted the information to the bridge, and the two top commanders who were leisurely drinking afternoon tea and chatting easily immediately jumped up like a burning butt, and David Gorrick even directly put down the coffee he had just sighed about, and directly picked up the communicator and asked, "Has the identity of the other party been confirmed?" ”

"No, we haven't received any feedback back, sir."

"Oh, damn it." David Gorrick cursed in a low voice, and then immediately gave the order: "Sound the emergency alarm, let the pilot quickly rise into the air to intercept, I want to know what it is." Martin Rothman nodded, and hurriedly arranged for the pilot who was on duty to carry out an emergency liftoff.

The four pilots who were on standby, the expressions of the relaxed chat between each other disappeared instantly, and at the same time as the alarm sounded, they picked up their helmets one after another, and quickly rushed to the flight deck of the USS George Washington, chose their own planes, and the four of them climbed the escalator respectively, got into the cockpit, put down the cockpit cover, and then started the aircraft engine and began to slowly slide towards the take-off position.

At one end of the beveled flight deck of the George Washington, an F18 Hornet has been connected to the catapult under the control of the pilot, and behind the pilot, the radar operator and pilot are performing the take-off inspection procedure.

"Radar."

"Checked."

"Weapons systems."

"Checked."

"Ejection system."

"Checked."

……

In just 30 seconds, with the tacit cooperation of the pilot and the radar operator, dozens of inspection steps have been completed. A thumbs up to the ground crew to indicate that it was ready, and then the F18 Hornet rushed into the sky like an arrow off the string, with the help of a powerful steam catapult system. At the same time, another F18 Hornet took off successfully on another flight runway.

"Knight, this is the Graver, and I'm getting into your wingman's position." The F18 that took off after it connected with the previous aircraft that took off on the beveled deck and then automatically moved into the wingman position.

"Understood, ready to turn on afterburner, we have to push the interception line forward." The knight replied.

"Roger, it's in place, it's ready."

"Understood, ready to open the afterburner, listen to my command, 3, 2, 1, go." As the knight's words fell, the two F18 Hornets began to drag two long wakes and scurry forward.