As an air situation monitoring platform for continuous cruising in the theater, the technical support, staffing and logistics support of the AWACS aircraft are much more complex than those of ordinary fighters, and they do not have complete continuous air cruise capabilities.

Compared with the E-2C "Hawkeye" with limited information processing capability and less than ideal detection distance, the E-3A "Watchtower" has a longer stay time in the air and has a very mature air refueling capability. However, fuel can be replenished, but the crew cannot always be in good condition, so the continuous rotation tactic is still a necessary means to ensure 24-hour air control in the theater.

From Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the continuous confrontation in the Far East, all directions require continuous early warning of the air situation, and the number of early warning planes really assigned to the Middle East theater is very limited, and basically can only ensure normal combat duty, and there is not much wealth to speak of.

As for the expansion of the production capacity of the US domestic military industrial system after the start of the war, it is true that the production capacity of various types of weapons and equipment has been greatly increased, but the production cycle of early warning aircraft with extremely high platform complexity is much slower than that of fighters and missiles, and for a time it can only replace the old aircraft in the "watchtower" fleet that have flown for many years and whose life is close to exhaustion, and the overall equipment scale has not been greatly improved.

According to Long Yun's rough estimate, if the Americans had not demolished the east wall to make up for the west wall and doubled the number of large early warning aircraft in the Middle East theater, then the NATO Air Force would have been categorically unable to do the so-called "online backup", that is, to keep two E-3As flying in the same airspace at the same time, once the previous one had a problem or was simply shot down. The latter one immediately took over the heavy task of air situation monitoring.

Case. Then it's easier to do.

Flying the MiG-29N over the Sea of Marmara and into Turkish airspace. Long Yun continued to recall some of his considerations for this "assassination" plan: since "online backup" is impossible, if he can really lead his wingman all the way to sneak and crash down the "watchtower" in the sky, even if the Americans immediately take off the backup plane from a large airport in Turkey or Israel, it will take at least a few hours to restore order in the airspace of the Fù theater of operations.

But in these few hours, VVS will go all out to clear out NATO fighters that have lost their unified command, and when the belated E-3A returns to the war zone, how many of their own planes will be left in the sky?

Long Yun naturally wanted to know the answer to this question.

Stay radio silent and fly all the way. With the help of the gray clouds below as cover, Long Yun and the wingman kept a very close distance of tens of meters, which was convenient for observing each other; Flying over the sea of clouds in cloudy weather is naturally very conducive to concealment, but it also makes it inconvenient for the two MiG-29N to receive radio messages from ground guidance stations, and the next operation can basically only rely on the pilot's own experience and judgment.

In the cockpit of the MiG-29N fighter that has been refitted, or rebuilt, the original place where the radar display screen was placed has been replaced by a green screen of the radio detection and analysis system. Search for the S-band scanning beam unique to the E-3A from electromagnetic signals scattered throughout the sky.

As a fighter in pursuit of "low detectability", the engineers of the MiG Design Bureau have done everything they can. However, the existing electronic technology of the Soviet Union could not provide an airborne radar with good RF management functions - and if ordinary radar, such as the N019, the radar antenna and other structures in the fighter head cone would become an unavoidable source of reflection, which was very detrimental to the overall stealth design of the fighter.

Therefore, the current MiG-29N is completely a fighter without radar, but with a high-sensitivity radio detection system in the fuselage, it can be said that it is an assassin dressed neatly for "anti-radiation operations".

But even so, piloting a "low detectability" fighter to engage the enemy, Long Yun's pace of action was still very cautious.

To deal with the E-3A "watchtower" in the sky, if you want to quietly approach and launch an attack, the pilot had better have an F-22, J-20 and other completely radar stealth fighters -- and like the MiG-29N that he and his partner are now flying, the signal attenuation capability given by the MiG Design Bureau is about 20 decibels, which is not very large. Therefore, if it flies directly to the approximate position of the "watchtower" as it is now, there will be good Doppler frequency shift detection conditions for the PD radar, and even the "radar stealth" will be detected by AN/APY-1 at a distance of hundreds of kilometers.

Therefore, it is completely different from the analysis on paper, and the real execution of a mission to assassinate the "watchtower" is a kind of contest of wits and courage between the combat systems of the two sides.

Today's western airspace of Turkey is exactly the same as the situation of the past few days, and the sky is still full of Warsaw Pact fighters, and groups of attack planes loaded with ammunition against the enemy are frequently dispatched under the cover of MiG-29M and MiG-23MLD fighters to launch rapid air strikes against all high-value targets on the ground that are worthy of bombing.

In the face of these fighters heading south, NATO's tactical air force, which had recovered from the previous chaos, was also making all-out efforts to meet them, desperately dispatching and trying to maintain a complete fighter interception line under the mobilization of the air-ground integrated command system. In the sky, gray camouflage "Eagles" and "Fighting Falcons" flew rapidly, and eye-catching naval fighters were heavily deployed over the Aegean Sea; these airborne fighters were all under the command of the E-3A early warning planes patrolling the rear of the theater, and every combat order would be disseminated into the clear sky through the UHF antenna on the "watchtower" early warning plane.

The coordinated actions of naval and air force fighters are something that NATO's command system has been trying to accomplish for several days.

As an important support for the global hegemony of the United States, the huge fleet patrolling in the eastern Mediterranean now has two standard dual-aircraft carrier battle groups led by the CVN-69 "Eisenhower" and CVN-65 "Enterprise" aircraft carriers, and a total of more than 10 E-2C "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft.

However, compared with the weak opponents encountered in previous battles, the air pressure of the Warsaw Pact bloc has become so heavy that the United States is deeply aware of it, and now it does not dare to be careless at all, especially the sharp "backfire" bombers and the large number of "fencers" on the large airfields scattered throughout the Balkans, which are a very serious threat to the aircraft carrier battle groups operating in narrow sea areas and lacking maneuverable depth.

Therefore, in view of the current situation, the US Navy cannot send too many fighters to support Asia Minor, and must maintain its own high alert, so it is natural that the E-2C "Hawkeye" can only take off in shifts to take off on alert, and have no time to participate in air situation monitoring and operational command in the Turkish direction.

For the US Navy pilots, who have always regarded themselves very highly and somewhat contemptuous of the Air Force, engaging in combat under the Air Force combat system is not an easy and pleasant job, but now that the situation is like this, the prejudices of the United States Navy and Air Force have to be put aside for the time being.

As the fighters of the two sides met in a narrow way over the theater of operations, both abandoned the traditional BVR confrontation method, adopted the radar shutdown tactic and evaded a wave of R-27P/EP fires of NATO fighters divided into several teams and entered the battle group, a series of tense and fierce visual air battles suddenly broke out in the gloomy sky. The fighters with bright tail flames flew and chased between the clouds, fighting each other with melee missiles and aerial guns, and tracer lights swept past the side of the fighters who were dragging the smoke down, and the missiles launched by the white smoke flew meandering in the sky; The sky battlefield full of explosions and debris made everyone fall into madness, and they completely subconsciously sacrificed their lives on the battlefield, evading the pursuit and delivering their own fatal blows!

The terrible battle in the sky made everyone in it completely crazy, and also made the witnesses on the ground tremble, not to mention the need to be ready for bomb attacks from the sky.

However, in this large area of wolf-smoked airspace, two unhurried MiGs flew all the way, but they insisted on moving forward all the way, with the help of Long Yun's good vision and consciousness judgment, this radar stealth squad evaded batch after batch of charging NATO fighters, and they kept a low profile all the way to penetrate hundreds of kilometers within the coastline, which is a very rare achievement in Asia Minor, where there are many swords and guns, and radars are everywhere.

Naturally, when it comes to the temporarily improved MiG-29N, Long Yun does not need to look through the data, he can see it with the naked eye alone, and the omnidirectional RCS control of this so-called "low detectability" fighter is not ideal, in other words, only in the front hemisphere of the fighter has a better stealth table.

At this time, if any of the anti-aircraft search radars were shining from behind, it would still be easy to catch the flight traces of the two of them; However, against the backdrop of such a Warsaw Pact's large-scale air raid and NATO's all-out interception, all the air defense warning radars on the ground are closely staring at the open airspace facing the north.

The special battlefield environment and unexpected combat operations allowed the Longyun twin planes to infiltrate the skies over the interior of Asia Minor; But to approach and assassinate the E-3A "watchtower", they need to do some more necessary homework. (To be continued......)