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The day after the arrival of the "Eisenhower" ship group in the Eastern Mediterranean, the horn of war was finally sounded.

Since about a month ago, it was decided to launch an offensive on the southern front on an unprecedented scale, and under the NATO war system launched by the US Central Command with all its might, the heavy forces of the Western world's land, sea and air forces have been continuously massed in the theater, and the continuous fighting in the sky has become more and more brutal.

In the face of the barrel-like defense of the Warsaw Pact front-line aviation and air defense forces, the NATO tactical air force, which was attacking with all its might, suffered repeated defeats and suffered heavy losses due to the emergence of the "Caucasus Grim Reaper", but it did not suffer a major loss of vitality. The large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and personnel replenishment from North America, as well as the "Eisenhower," "Carl Vinson," "Enterprise," and "Constellation," the four fully manned heavy aircraft carriers, and the amphibious assault ships crammed with helicopters and logged in troops cruising the southern Mediterranean, gave the commanders great confidence.

After a long period of careful mobilization and careful arrangement, they have every reason to believe that the hundreds of thousands of troops and countless advanced weapons assembled on the Turkish front line can completely offset the Warsaw Pact bloc's superiority in home combat and defensive depth. From the windy and shallow Strait of Malta to the rugged and majestic Zagros Mountains, from the 101st Airborne Assault Division, which has been in battle for a long time, to the 4th Marine Division, which has recently been reorganized and sent to the battlefield, the elite soldiers sent by the Pentagon are fierce behind the long battle line, full of swords and guns, and seem to have swept away the gray face of the previous Sino-European battle, the three-color camouflage painted M1A2 "Abrams" rumbled over the ground, and the roaring AH-64 "Longbow Apache" with rotors swept the sky in groups. The NATO coalition forces, with the US military as the backbone, have raised their black holes. Prepare to move forward with a tidal wave. Have a real head-on collision with the Iron Curtain Group in the north!

The curtain of the war was about to begin, but the first prologue to be staged took place the night before the full-scale offensive officially began.

The huge "Eisenhower" battle group, which had previously crossed the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the east, had a dirty encounter with the Italian Air Force during the voyage, but did not really exchange fire with it, and the relatively peaceful journey relieved everyone in the group.

On previous voyages, the Americans had been concerned about the Warsaw Pact air power suddenly moving south from the Balkans, using supersonic bombers to carry out intensive anti-ship missile strikes on carrier battle groups; As a heavy aircraft carrier with two fighter squadrons, the VF-103 "Hitter" and VF-143 "Spit Dog", as well as twenty F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-6B fighters, the CVN-69 "Eisenhower" is not afraid to entangle its opponents in the depths of the ocean. However, in the eastern Mediterranean, where the sea area is limited and there are many enemy airfields, they can't help but be careless.

The encounter with the "Eisenhower" battle group once made the generals of the Central Command relax their vigilance, although the intelligence services have repeatedly reminded them that the Russians' Tu-22M "Backfire" bombers and a large number of Su-24 "Fencer" fighter-bombers have entered the Balkans, and their only possible targets are NATO ships in the Mediterranean; But this warning did not attract enough attention from the military leadership, and on the eve of the outbreak of the war, a large number of Warsaw Pact fighters took off from bases in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and sped south. It was only after NATO's tactical air force successfully launched an attack, sinking and damaging several ro-ro cargo ships and the light warfare ships escorting them before they reached the engaged waters, and CENTCOM realized that the Russians had long been prepared for air strikes against targets at sea in the Mediterranean.

Face the United States aircraft carrier battle group consisting of Tomcats, air defense destroyers and terminal anti-missile systems. These huge and bulky warplanes may not be able to escape in their entirety, but they are more than enough to continuously attack the Mediterranean sea lines of communication and strictly curb NATO's sustained combat potential in the Middle East.

After the Soviet air-based anti-ship force was attacked, the reflection of the NATO naval top on this matter ended here.

At the moment of the war, immersed in the hectic scene of campaign planning and command and control, none of them would have imagined what it meant for a large number of Soviet long-range air forces to be stationed in the Balkans and ready to clamp down on the Mediterranean, but to let go of the aircraft carrier battle group and let it approach the southern theater of operations.

In the vast southern theater of operations, where so many aviation strike forces are gathered, NATO's campaign arrangements are not unscrupulous; However, in the face of the Warsaw Pact front-line aviation, which is about to master the secret weapon and fully meet it with new tactics, the changes in the battle situation can no longer be speculated with common sense.

The shadow of doom has already appeared in the sky; But the wheels of war were still turning, and the Caucasus was about to dawn, and at the darkest time before dawn, the rumbling of artillery accompanied by explosions and fires broke the silence on the border in one fell swoop.

In the dark sky, the thunderous roar of jet fighters continued, and the night sky was illuminated by the flash of explosions, and the faint figure of a helicopter was reflected from time to time; Along the winding road, across Turkey's northern border into the territory of the Republic of Armenia, the 1st Brigade of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division has just been hit by an inaccurate long-range rocket attack, and a battalion is regrouping from scattered formations/spreading along the rugged heights to launch a roundabout assault on the capital city of Yerevan, which is only a few dozen kilometers away.

Before the attack, a light rain had just fallen in the Transcaucasus, the tank tracks were running through the mud, and the soldiers were closely followed by the "Stryker" armored vehicles, and they had to intersperse the suburbs of Yerevan as much as possible, and cooperate with the friendly forces carrying out the airborne assault to encircle and occupy this small Soviet city with heavy political and propaganda value.

The attack across the border was surprisingly smooth at first.

In the queue all the way forward, Lieutenant Thomas Pitt, who was far away in the Stryker and followed the roaring engine in front of him, led the whole platoon, chewed gum in his mouth, and he fiddled with the portable information terminal on his lap while looking around from time to time through the periscope.

Immediately after the attack began, he rode in a chariot with his comrades, and encountered no resistance along the way, and the whole team of soldiers still did not fire a single shot, which made Lieutenant Pete, who was ready for a fierce battle, very uncomfortable, and he from time to time exchanged a few words with the members of the "Stryker" crew and repeatedly checked the electronic map, although as a small platoon-level officer, planning a battle or something was not his duty in the first place.

What are these Russians doing, who have crossed the border like a great enemy, but have not seen any decent enemies until now, and have they all fled? (To be continued......)