The battle that broke out in the depths of the ocean, the duel in the sky, often decided the outcome of the battle in an instant.

In the face of the Russian ace who drew a knife to kill the E-2C, under the mixture of anger and anger, Vice Admiral William Pratt roared in the combat command room, and his emotions were almost out of control, not because of the loss of an "Eagle Eye", the United States was not short of such an early warning aircraft and a few big soldiers on it, but he suddenly remembered that he had heard someone say at the Minneapolis Naval Academy, "The superstition of the Navy comes from luck", and now, he seems to be falling into the bottomless pit of "bad luck".

A "flanker", a Russian fighter that appeared out of nowhere, is now knocking out an E-2C "Hawkeye", but the outcome of the contest was actually doomed from the moment Ivan suddenly changed course and went straight to the US early warning plane.

The hateful Russians, somehow, they can actually determine the precise location of the AWACS aircraft, as long as the "sickle" rushes like this, and the carrier-based aircraft of the United States cannot stop this devil, then whether the E-2C is shot down or the soles of the feet are smeared with oil and escapes, in short, the eyes and ears of the air defense circle will be eliminated by this guy, and then the "backfire" of those flames will swarm in, and the "Tomcats" of the United States can only rush up with their own radars and bomb indiscriminately......

No, no, if you draw such a conclusion, it is tantamount to covering up your own command mistakes!

Although he was very reluctant to admit this, Vice Admiral Pratt knew very well that the Russians' ruse did not lie in the moment when the "Scythe" turned to pounce on the E-2C, in fact, from the moment this guy suddenly appeared in the night sky before dawn and shot down several "Tomcats" in a row, the inactive US Navy had already lost the battle.

Then. As a fleet commander. He's just speculating. The Russians brought the "Reaper" in order to make up for the lack of strength of carrier-based aircraft, that is, to provide a guarantee for the "backfire" to penetrate the defense -- according to this line of thinking, sending VFA-122 "Hornet" to entangle the opponent instead of continuing to invest in the precious F-14 interceptor plane, this response can be regarded as decent; after all, if the truth is really as he thinks, as long as the Russians' "backfire" assault is carried out with all their might, a wave of attack planes can be released to blow up and sink their ship formation. That "scythe" doesn't have to worry about at all, isn't it?

It is precisely because of this kind of thinking, coupled with overconfidence in the naval and air forces of the United States, that Pratt came up with such a stupid trick, in fact, this cannot be blamed on him, the intelligence agencies have never said that ordinary Russian fighter jets can intercept and analyze the S, P band scanning signals of AWACS.

In theory, the reality was a joke with the Americans, and what happened next, everyone in the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group couldn't laugh.

Key nodes of the air defense system were attacked. The E-2Cs deployed in the airspace west of the fleet died and fled, relying solely on the limited detection range of the ship's long-range warning radar. The Americans, who had been in control of the battlefield situation and could calmly maneuver their strategies, immediately fell into a deep panic.

The dislocation of the early warning planes and the obstruction of the refresh of air information are like addicts suddenly being forced to rehab drugs for the entire combat system of the US Navy; not only is the combat command center in a mess, but a number of fighter and combat attack aircraft squadrons that are stuck in the air are also in a state of confusion; because the E-2C, which is responsible for scanning the air situation and dispatching the battlefield scheduling, cannot play its role, and the fighter formations composed of "Tomcats" or "Hornets" are still not affected, but the combat orders and air situation support are almost paralyzed all of a sudden.

A little attack, total chaos, this kind of scene should not have happened; However, things on the battlefield are sometimes full of unpredictable variables.

Looking at the U.S. Navy's fleet air defense deployment plan, the patrol position of the E-2C "Hawkeye" is probably on a circle three hundred kilometers outward from the center of the fleet, next to at least two F-14s escort; As for the number of such patrol groups, according to the regulations, there should be at least four groups, and one E-2C should be deployed in the four directions of the fleet, east, west, north and south, so as to ensure that the entire airspace is under the monitoring of the early warning system.

Of course, this scheme is a general situation, if the mission is carried out in a high-threat sea area, as is the case today, the fleet needs to increase the number of "Hawkeye", and at the same time prepare at least one AWACS aircraft on the aircraft carrier to ensure that it can take off at any time to replace the E-2C that has broken down or is damaged in battle.

In this case, in general, the US Navy will encrypt the deployment in the direction where the enemy is most likely to attack, and the rest of the directions will not be completely relaxed.

So since midnight yesterday, William Pratt's three-carrier battle group has maintained a total of six E-2Cs patrolling in the air, which is almost the maximum number that the three aircraft carriers can support, considering the time of patrol aircraft and crew rotation; This arrangement, which would have been very safe, became a fatal flaw of the US Navy in the face of Viktor Rezenov's bright blade.

There is nothing wrong with the distribution of six E-2C "Hawkeye", one each in the northeast and southeast, and two in the northwest and southwest where the Russians are bound to attack.

However, the problem lies in the fact that in the face of the Red Navy's Tu-22M3 supersonic bombers and KSR-5 and Kh-15 air-launched anti-ship missiles, the Americans are disdainful on the surface, but in their bones they are already afraid of the nervous Cheng Dù, especially the carrier-based aviation units, which have always regarded themselves very highly, regard the interception of all "backfires" and the "kingfish" they project as their duty, even if the fleet itself still has the "Aegis" system.

Under these circumstances, considering that the operation of the "Hawkeye" equipment cannot be foolproof, the Americans' choice was to deploy the four AWACS planes in the southwest, west, northwest, and north of the fleet, on the grounds that "if one of the 'Hawkeye' fails, then the next one can be quickly replaced."

As a result, this kind of scheme, which looks quite beautiful, has become a joke under Long Yun's single-machine penetration and knife slashing.

Just lost one E-2C, the other was also forced to break out of position, the Americans' air defense circle was shattered in the northwest direction, even if the fighters in the air were still there, Lieutenant General Pratt and others were still anxious to order CVN-71 to immediately start flying a batch of F-14D fighters.

Now the situation is clear, since the "Eagle Eye" is out of position, the Russians have already premeditated, and they will definitely use this opportunity to break through the defense on a large scale -- before the E-2C was shot down just now, it had already detected the "Backfire" fleet attacking from the northwest direction of the fleet, but next, how will the Ivan surprise attack, will it be a wave of intensive charges, or will they take advantage of the fall of the AWACS aircraft to disperse in all directions and attack in unison?

Suddenly lost the "Eagle Eye", even if the refill plane was rushing to the battlefield, the panic of the Americans was still irrepressibly spreading everywhere, and everyone in the entire combat system knew what this meant, and the fighters that were hurriedly ejected into the air climbed all the way up, and the fighters that were still patrolling the air also hurried to take action, preparing to intercept the long-range bombers of the Russians.

Rear Admiral Stanley Cooper ordered the E-2C patrolling southwest of the fleet to act as an air command node, so that the battlefield dispatcher could immediately adjust the system and establish a digital link to relay commands.

In the face of the crisis, the Americans reacted quickly, but at this moment, the bombers in the distant sky were not slow at all.

In accordance with the instructions of the General Headquarters of the Far Eastern Military District, the 317th and 68th Guards Regiments of the Red Navy arrived on the periphery of the battlefield almost simultaneously, and more than 40 Tu-22M3 bombers were all equipped with Kh-15 missiles.

Through the transfer of "Ruslan", Long Yun reported his speculation to the general headquarters, although it was only a set of extremely simple coordinates, it had a decisive effect on the outcome of the entire battle.

Chasing and killing the "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft all the way, using the N011 radar to stare at the target that accelerates and escapes, but the speed is only 600 kilometers per hour, Long Yun does not need to use superpowers, he can guess the location of the US aircraft carrier battle group according to the escape route of the E-2C, this kind of inference is not accurate, but it is enough for the target to be indicated.

In the face of an imminent threat, the reaction of the "Hawkeye" pilots was not surprising, that is, they would subconsciously withdraw into the inner air defense circle of the fleet.

So for Long Yun, as long as it is combined with the escape route of the first AWACS aircraft, mental arithmetic can get the answer.

The tactics of a single plane penetrating defenses, attacking and harassing the enemy, and then spying on the movements of the US fleet sound almost incredible, but the Americans did make such a low-level mistake, because there was no plan for this kind of thing, and no one had ever thought about it: A lone Russian fighter plane actually dared to run into the air defense circle of the fleet and run around with the "Eagle Eye".

Revealing their position, but not knowing it at all, the generals in the "Roosevelt" operations command room were still racking their brains and nervously coping with their staff, trying to guess the intentions of the Russians without AWACS.

Attack, of course, the Russians' bombers have reached the outer edge of the air defense circle of the fleet, but how exactly will they act?

Offense and defense, an eternal contradiction in the history of human warfare, have now put the generals of the United States on the grill, and the US Navy, which is accustomed to thinking about how to attack rather than how to resist the enemy's attack, is worried from top to bottom, and they are now suddenly realizing that "defense" seems to be quite easy, but now they have the "Tomcat" and "Aegis" in their hands, but they do not know where to throw their troops. (To be continued......)