But no matter what, whether it's fighting or blocking guns, in short, the threat of "death" has not yet come.

Of course, the helicopters flying close to the surface of the sea did not know anything about the one-sided fierce battle in the sky ahead, or rather a massacre, but the commanders of CENTCOM "saw" it very clearly. However, they have been familiar with the scythe of the "Grim Reaper" for a long time, and all they can do now is to stomp their feet and curse, and they can only temporarily pin their hopes on the "shark"; At the same time, the escort force provided by the Navy has finally been put in place, and all 20 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters of the VFA-136 squadron on the CVN-65 Enterprise have flown over the Turkish-Iranian border and entered the sky over the Black Sea.

With the strong support of these new forces, the face of the theater commander, Admiral Clark, became a little better, but he still hoped in his heart that the young men of the Air Force could fight for their breath and rely on their own strength to repel the hateful "Grim Reaper" and not be laughed at by the Navy again.

Well, it's said that it's "on your own", but now you can only count on "sharks"!

The tense atmosphere in the command headquarters is certainly incomprehensible to the front-line combatants; However, being on the front line of the dangerous battle, the officers and soldiers of the 101st Assault Division were really unsure at first.

Just a few minutes ago, as in normal training, my legs hung outside the cabin, reaching out and grasping the handrail of the cabin door tightly, looking at the receding large area of dark blue sea in my vision, and the American GIs in full clothes were still shouting and talking to each other from time to time, with a little nervousness and apprehension on their faces.

At the pre-battle combat meeting, although the commanders repeatedly assured that the troops would have air cover on their way, the GIs were well aware of the current state of operations. Almost everyone knows that NATO's tactical air force has not really achieved air supremacy over the Black Sea - in other words. They are now on a mission at the risk of being beaten by the MiGs. This is still a little unaccustomed to the US military, which has always relied on air superiority.

However, as the roar of the fleet moved forward, as if to inject confidence into the soldiers, the figure of a fighter plane catching up from the south gradually appeared in the sky; Seeing these cross-shaped fighters flying low in a line and full of gray-and-white missiles hanging under their wings, the commandos chewing gum were reassured, and they waved frequently to the fighters in the sky, of course, whether the pilots could see it or not was another matter.

The safety of the low altitude is temporarily guaranteed, but what about the situation in the sky ahead?

Just as the "Hornets" crossed the helicopters in dense formations and launched an interception line to provide them with aerial shelter, a fierce aerial battle over the Black Sea had just settled. The US Air Force was once again smashed with a lot of property by the "Grim Reaper", and together with its ally the Turkish Air Force, it paid a heavy price for nearly ten fighters!

However, it is quite ironic that in this fierce battle with the "shark" in person, Major Harold Fisher, who had high hopes, did his best, but did not hurt a single hair of the "Grim Reaper", and was finally forced to return because of the fuel shortage of the fighter.

For the "Agile Eagle" with the F100-PW-229 engine installed, the fuel consumption of the high-thrust engine will also be higher, but the internal fuel volume of the fighter has not changed, which is often ignored by many people, but in fact it is a negative impact on the continuous combat capability of the fighter. On the way home, the mentally exhausted Major reported to the command center that the "Caucasian Grim Reaper" had appeared in the air and was now out of the line. One of his speculations is that "the Russians probably ran out of missiles, or maybe they ran out of gas."

Dispatch of elites, including the "Agile Eagle". But there was a terrible defeat that would have been enough to make any commander furious.

However, contrary to the general speculation, the news that a large number of warplanes were dispatched to meet the battle, but were wiped out by the "Grim Reaper" like chopping melons and vegetables, reached the US Central Command, and the commanders present felt not only angry, but also relieved -- after all, if the terrible "Grim Reaper" had already gone on a killing spree in the sky, exhausted all the ammunition, and then flew back, it meant that this cruel and murderous "crazy Ivan" would temporarily disappear from the sky over the Black Sea. And no one will rush into the helicopter group out of nowhere, slashing and slashing the "Apache" and "Black Hawk" who have no ability to resist, right?

- Haha!

As long as this can be ensured, there is still hope for the United States to fight!

As for the terrible "Grim Reaper", his "flanker" has run out of ammunition anyway, and even if the Russians can ensure his refueling in the air, there may not be such an anti-heaven thing as an "aerial bomb machine".

So even if this guy is really a grim reaper, he can't fight with his bare hands, can he!

In the face of this "rare" battlefield opportunity, the high-spirited generals certainly did not miss it, and General Clark spat and instructed the front-line assault aircraft group to continue to carry out the mission, and at the same time coordinate with the navy, so that the VFA-136 "Super Hornet" squadron from the "Enterprise" insisted on escorting, and it was necessary to seize the opportunity to succeed in the surprise attack in one fell swoop.

According to the generals' deployment for the battle, one after another F/A-18E/F fighters rushed through Iraqi and Turkish airspace, and the pilots quickly abandoned the auxiliary fuel tanks, divided part of their forces and climbed to an altitude of several thousand meters, and then met the oncoming Soviet VVS 177th front-line fighter regiment on a narrow road.

Not far from the front of the helicopter group, the "Super Hornet" tactic, painted with the Stars and Stripes insignia, as always, quickly occupied a favorable position for over-the-horizon operations.

At an altitude of several thousand meters far from the sea, the F/A-18E/F, which was full of gray-white AIM-120B missiles hanging under the wings, was struggling to accelerate, although they immediately abandoned the auxiliary fuel tank after receiving instructions from the early warning aircraft, and now a pair of tail nozzles are bright and obviously full of afterburner and are climbing at a faster speed, but they are dragged down by the aerodynamic design of the fighter and a large number of external plug-ins, and the "Super Hornet" that is struggling to sprint still cannot fly at a speed of more than 600 knots.

Compared with this group of companions who climbed to meet the enemy and prepared to fight BVR air combat, it was much better for a number of F/A-18 fighters to stay on alert at low altitudes, and they dispersed from each other under the dispatch of early warning aircraft to guard against ultra-low-altitude sneak attacks by Russian fighters.

Unlike the F-14 and F-15, which are accustomed to driving high and fighting high, with the intention of fighting for air supremacy in the theater, the "Super Hornet" is relatively good at combat air combat at medium and low speeds, and it is also more suitable for carrying out combat operations to cover low-altitude helicopters -- in order to carry out cover missions, fighters that only carry air combat configurations and have a reduced lift-to-drag ratio need to fly back at low altitudes and maintain coordination with a large number of slow-moving helicopters in order to detect and intercept any approaching air targets before the assault group is attacked.

The concentration of so many air units in the southeastern part of the Black Sea, where the raid fleet and cover fleet, coupled with the Russian fighters attacking from the north, has created a lot of pressure on NATO's battlefield coordination system; With the radar scanning of the E-3A "Watchtower" early warning aircraft, traces of another batch of MiGs appeared in the eastern sky, and the already chaotic battlefield suddenly became more complicated.

After receiving the transmission of the early warning aircraft, the VFA-136 fleet that was on low-altitude alert turned to the direction of the threat, and the "Hornets" who were scanning by radar soon made BVR contact with several MiGs passing by by by dozens of kilometers away, and an over-the-horizon battle at medium and low altitudes broke out immediately!

In the sky, the battle between the interceptor and the invader is unfolding; And on the rough sea, the low-altitude helicopter group had already reached the halfway mark point of the sortie route.

Under the cover of a large number of air superiority fighters, they secretly approached the coastline under the noses of the Soviet front-line air defense system, and the helicopter formation carrying elite assault forces turned to the east at the marked point.

After more than an hour of flying, the AH-64 "Apache" helicopter at the head of the head, the navigator looked up after checking the electronic map, and he could almost see the winding coastline ahead through the heavy bulletproof glass; After careful operational planning and the fact that the air force fighters finally came out to intercept at any cost, this large group of assault planes, which seemed to be murderous but extremely vulnerable in front of the fighters, finally achieved a surprise tactical effect, and one after another aerial monsters with roaring engines and flying paddles quickly crossed the undefended eastern coast of the Black Sea and pounced on the intended assault target -- the Georgian town of Kutaisi.

The so-called "leapfrogging" tactic, when properly implemented, does have a very strong tactical strike capability.

Just like this morning, unlike Sukhumi, which was deliberately released by the intelligence department, the elite forces of the 101st Air Assault Division changed their course at the predetermined assembly point in the depths of the Black Sea after flying over the sea: according to the unified dispatch of the tactical planning system, the entire fighter group made a 90-degree turn in place, and instead flew into the interior of Georgia from Batumi, which was in the midst of war, and Sukhumi, which was heavily defended.

Due to the suddenness of the operation, after entering the airspace over land, the formation did not encounter any decent anti-aircraft fire; Of course, such a large helicopter flying overhead will definitely be discovered by the Russian forward observation posts, but the air assault relies on quick action and quick victory, and by the time this kind of information is transmitted to the Russian battlefield command layer by layer, then it will be too late.

"All-Units, All-Units (Attention Troops), five miles from the predetermined theater of operations, all men are ready for battle, and it is expected that the airborne assault will begin in three minutes!" (To be continued......)