While thinking and piloting the fighter plane back, Long Yun, who had returned from the fierce battle, soon returned to Stavropol.

However, at this moment, just behind him, in the southern sky, above the vast Black Sea, a large-scale air assault operation was in full swing and secret.

On this cloudless morning with a good line of sight, just above a large rough dark blue sea, a continuous humming roar gradually came from outside the water antenna; As the sound of the blades became more pronounced, the figures of the helicopters gradually became faintly recognizable, and they were flying in a compact and dense formation all the way to the north.

This huge helicopter formation that quietly appeared over the Black Sea, all the fighters maintained a flight altitude of less than 100 meters, and from a distance it looked almost like a swarm of locusts flying forward against the undulating water; In this helicopter formation flying forward, more than a dozen AH-64 "Apache" gunships at the head and a large number of UH-60 "Black Hawks" followed behind, all of them were on straight routes, flying blades, and rushing in unison with each other.

Unlike NATO's tactical air force over the Black Sea, these helicopters are part of a well-known NATO rapid reaction force: the 101st-Airborne-Division (Air-Assault), the 101st Airborne Assault Division of the U.S. Army.

As the vanguard of the mobile assault, the sortie of the 101st Division was actually a long-planned operation of the US Central Command.

Since Operation Typhoon, which was in full swing on an unprecedented scale a few days ago, the 101st Air Assault Division, which was on standby at the Turkish forward base, had been on high alert and had never been ordered to attack.

As a lightly armed combat unit that is highly dependent on helicopter landing assault and lacks heavy weapons and logistical support in its formation. The air assault divisions were not suitable for a head-on confrontation with Soviet heavy forces. Rather, it is mainly used to carry out tactical tasks such as strikes behind enemy lines or flank attacks. Such a highly mobile and low-defense force. In the Caucasus, these two necessary conditions have not been met for several days since the start of the war, and the originally scheduled start date of the attack can only be postponed again and again.

However, just yesterday, after many days of fierce air battles, but still unable to seize complete air supremacy on the southeastern side of the Black Sea, the offensive of the ground forces came to a standstill for a while, and the US Central Command, which had lost patience, finally ordered that there was no need to wait for the weather to improve or the airspace to clear. The 101st Air Assault Division immediately prepared for a sortie and launched a "leapfrog" raid on targets in the interior of Georgia at dawn the next day!

The order to attack, in a certain sense, also reflects a kind of anxiety about the situation in the Caucasus.

Since the launch of Operation Typhoon, after several days of large-scale ground offensives, NATO's progress on the eastern and western fronts of the Caucasus has been lackluster, and it is getting farther and farther away from the scheduled operational schedule.

First of all, the situation on the Eastern Front, needless to say, the Guards were even more impregnable than the generals had imagined. The offensive to Yerevan has been a series of encounters; On the Western Front, where high hopes were originally pinned, the newly formed US Sixth Marine Division and the Turkish Army that cooperated with the operation. In the face of the Soviet Ninth Army and a large number of border guards, although they attacked the Black Sea port city of Batumi and drove the defenders north of the small city in street battles to the north of the small city, they never broke through the second line of the Russians' in-depth defense.

Since progress is so slow, it seems that the so-called goal of "cutting off the Black Sea coastal lines of communication and cutting off the Soviet interior from Transcaucasia" will not be accomplished in a short time.

The grim reality made the originally ambitious Americans gradually realize the reality, the Soviet Seventh Guards Army stationed in Armenia is certainly terrifying, and the Ninth Army, which was originally thought to be easy to break through, is not a soft persimmon to pinch!

Since there is no hope of a frontal offensive for the time being, and the battle reserve must not be lightly used when the battle situation is not yet clear, the US Central Command, which had amassed hundreds of thousands of troops in the Southern Theater before the war, is now somewhat constrained, and even feels that it has no troops to use. Moreover, from the analysis of the topography and landform of the Southern Theater, the Caucasian front is too narrow for the mechanized corps, and no matter how many troops are piled up, it may not necessarily be of substantial help to the stalemate of the war situation.

Faced with this situation, after some careful consideration, the commanders of CENTCOM finally made a decision.

For the offensive on the eastern front of the Caucasus, the 82nd Airborne Division, which was originally planned to be used for the "leapfrog" operation, was not suitable for the attack due to weather conditions, and in the face of the Soviet front-line aviation, which was still strong, it was indeed too dangerous to send transport planes to force the parachute; So just this morning, the elite troops of the 101st Air Assault Division finally set foot on the journey, and a large number of helicopters flew all the way to the distant Black Sea coastline in accordance with the navigation information.

The elite of the air assault who were ordered to attack initially flew to the coastal city of Sukhumi on the western side of the Black Sea.

A large number of helicopters of the 101st Aviation Combat Brigade of the 159th Air Assault Division maintained a dense formation posture, and the AH-64 "Apache" and UH-60 "Black Hawk" formations were one behind the other, sandwiching three EH-60 electronic countermeasures helicopters in the middle; In the cabin with the whirring of paddles, American GIs from the 502nd Regiment of the 2nd Combat Brigade of the 101st Division were loaded with live ammunition, crammed into cramped folding seats with equipment and weapons, or simply sat by the hatch, and mixed up with the guys from the brigade's special operations battalion.

Under the sunny sky, this large number of mixed helicopters is bravely advancing towards the airborne assault target 100 kilometers away; Looking forward from the cockpit of the helicopter, in the sky with good visibility, not a single Russian interceptor fighter was seen for the time being.

The absence of "natural enemies" of helicopters is good news for the assault formation.

Under the cover of the NATO tactical air force, the low-altitude raid, I have to say that the soldiers of the 101st Division were quite lucky; Although at this time, in the sky about 100 kilometers ahead, the F-15Cs of the Eighth Wing were being turned into fireballs and wreckage by the "Caucasian Reaper" one after another, but these "eagles" who were dying on the battlefield still played a certain role, and they actually dragged the footsteps of the "Reaper" in this way, and also attracted the full attention of the Russians, providing a vital air interception for the low-altitude helicopter team.

Having said that, what kind of air blockade is this when expensive fighters have become consumables! (To be continued......)

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There is a lot of support from the brothers who have recommended votes, do we dare to also go back to the last recommendation list, can't we fight science fiction, and can't we fight the military!