In the storm, the blue-gray fighters followed up in a sparse formation, and it was Long Yun's white No. 20 and the white No. 20 Su-27S who temporarily served as wingmen at the forefront.

Less than thirty minutes earlier, an emergency message had been received from a ground guide that an American B-1B bomber had appeared in the sky south of Turkey; Realizing that the Americans' cruise missile assault was about to be launched, the White 20 separated from the rest of the fighters of the 224th Regiment, turned to the northwest accompanied by the wingman, and soon found the IL-78M air tanker in the Caucasus Theater under the GCI navigation prompt, and got a sufficient fuel replenishment.

The experience of refueling in the air is the first time for Long Yun.

As the fighters flew all the way north, gradually leaving the continuous rain area near the coast, the two Su-27S, which had bottomed out of fuel consumption, slowly approached the tanker at an altitude of 4,500 meters, and stretched out a retractable refueling probe tube from the upper part of the nose side to prepare for docking.

Long Yun had not undergone any training in the operation of in-flight refueling, and Viktor Rezenov's residual ideas did not help much: the MiG-29 that the Red Air Force pilot had flown before did not have in-flight refueling capabilities, and did not actually need such capabilities. But even so, approaching the fat IL-78M in the sky where the clouds gradually dissipated, while comparing the flight action of another fighter not far away, the docking of the hose and the cone sleeve is not a difficult task for him, not to mention that there are two Su-27Ps of the Territorial Defense Force nearby to carry out the vigilance, and now he only needs to concentrate on controlling the fighter to follow the flight pace of the tanker, and at the same time pay attention to the fuel gauge and radio contact.

"Number 20, here is number 19. Scheduled refueling 11,000 liters. After five minutes, the operation is completed and disengaged. ”

"Received on the 20th. Raising is over. ”

Keeping in touch with the white No. 19 wingman, who was also "hanging" behind the refueling fuselage and had completed docking at this time, the two Su-27S began to refuel at a limit speed of 1,600 liters per minute, and they needed to fill up the huge fuel tanks of the Sukhoi fighters as much as possible, and then turn south to join the second batch of fighters of the 224th Regiment.

When fighting in the 237th Regiment before, Long Yun had never carried out an air refueling mission, partly because there was no urgent need to extend the time in the air, and partly because the Soviet Air Force did not have such a tradition.

It is not the same as the air forces of Western countries, which often play the role of police and attack opponents from long ranges. The defensive operations of the Soviet VVS and PVO basically relied on a large number of forward bases, and they were not very enthusiastic about aerial refueling, a technical means aimed at extending the strike radius of the air force. Sitting on the world's largest air force, although the Soviet Union is also equipped with a certain number of IL-78 and IL-78M air tankers, the combat readiness tasks of these tankers are mainly two points: first, the strategic bombers accompanying the Soviet long-range aviation to provide mid-course fuel supply for transoceanic attacks against North America; Second, it is organized in the sequence of the Territorial Defense Force, which is used to ensure the long-range patrol mission of interceptors, and by the way, from time to time to rescue some planes that are running out of fuel but cannot find an airfield to land.

But today, because of the top-secret information sent by the KGB, Long Yun, who needed to wait in the sky for a long time, chose to apply for support, when the war situation was becoming increasingly tight. He didn't want to sit stupidly in the combat readiness duty room all the time waiting for the Americans to come to the door. As for this requirement of the number one ace of the Red Air Force, the headquarters naturally made every effort to guarantee it. To this end, a tanker aircraft of the Fifth Air Defense Force of the PVO was specially contacted to stand by in the skies over the Moldovan republic, so that the ace major general could save the cumbersome steps of landing, refueling and testing a fighter plane.

The battlefield is fleeting, and it is better to lie dormant in the sky and brush up some achievements by the way than to wait in the base.

A few minutes passed quickly, the operating refueling probe tube was detached from the cone sleeve, and the two "well-fed and drunk" Su-27S quickly turned to disengage and enter the climb; The fighter plane, which was filled with more than eight tons of aviation kerosene, became a little sluggish and clumsy, and Long Yun pushed forward the throttle valve to increase the speed appropriately, climbed to a cruising altitude of 6,000 meters with the wingman, and then drove a little afterburner to speed up quite luxuriously.

Just now, he had already received news from the radio that the second batch of fighters of the 224th Regiment had taken off to attack, and in order to match the rhythm of his comrades, he and his wingmen needed to speed up and catch up for a while.

Sitting in the cockpit of the white No. 20 fighter plane soaring through the sky, feeling the slight push back caused by the acceleration, Long Yun and his wingman quickly flew to Mach 1.2 at an altitude of 7,000 meters, and the two blue-gray fighters with shining red stars dragged the light afterburner tail flame all the way and stabbed towards the gray sky in the south. With the Su-27 fighter's large internal fuel capacity all the way to afterburner flight, Long Yun couldn't help but sigh with emotion, air refueling seems to be a good means of multiplying combat power!

Thinking back to the fierce battle in the Caucasus before, if there was such a big cow waiting for him at any time behind the battle line, then maybe he could shoot down more enemy planes?

The battle scene of reverie out of thin air made Long Yun briefly excited for a moment, and then he realized that this was just nonsense. Not to mention anything else, basically every air battle he returns in a huff because he ran out of ammunition, even if there is an IL-78M on call, what is the use?

We can't set up a "bomb machine in the air" to replenish the missiles and artillery shells that have been depleted!

In other words, if the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment in Stavropol had two or three Su-27S, which were ready to be cleaned and full of fuel, and let him toss at will, then most likely there would be no need to trouble the PVO tankers.

In this way, while flying and thinking wildly, after entering the sky over the Black Sea, the Longyun twin planes received a GCI guidance prompt, and they maintained the flight altitude and course according to the command of the ground guidance station, and soon caught up with and surpassed the second batch of the 224th Regiment's fleet that was plundering southward from a low altitude, and a total of eight Sukhoi fighters went out to meet the enemy in a high-altitude and low-altitude echelon distribution situation.

After converging with the large army, the Longyun twin planes with afterburner turned off flew on the dense gray clouds, and the thick rain clouds that could not be seen at a glance completely covered the earth, but there was a clear clear sky overhead, this extraordinarily vast sky scene, so that Long Yun only felt a trace of involuntary physical and mental relaxation; If it weren't for the intense battle, he really wanted to fly on the sea of clouds like this, to slowly feel the vastness of the vast sky and how small he was compared to himself.

However, the beauty is always short-lived, and fierce battles are not long in coming.

Maintaining an altitude of 6,000 meters all the way to the south, and at the same time using radar to monitor a large area of airspace in front of and below, the Longyun twin aircraft and a number of Su-27S at low altitude carefully searched under the command of ground guidance, and also solved a single lost NATO fighter plane by the way, but did not quickly find a large number of cruise missiles attacking at low altitude.

In the bad weather with wind and rain, the use of radar was somewhat restricted, and after scanning for a while at high altitude using the downward view mode but without results, Long Yun still got the air situation warning from the low-altitude fighter through radio contact; The fighters of the 224th Regiment, which were traveling in the rain, reported that they had discovered a large number of low-detectable targets at a low altitude of less than 200 meters, and the number seemed to be at least dozens!

Sure enough, the Americans' B-1B came quite quickly and already launched a cruise missile attack first?

On the one hand, this is basically consistent with the information he received before the war, and on the other hand, he was also very clear that the range of the US military's "Alkham" air-launched cruise missile is about 1,500 kilometers, which is close to the combat radius of the Su-27S under normal conditions -- so it is basically a luxury to complete the interception before the opponent launches the missile.

Because of this, his current battle plan is also very clear, that is, after discovering that the "Lancer" launched missiles and exposed his whereabouts, he immediately sprinted at high speed to chase and kill!

As for this large pile of cruise missiles at low altitudes, it will be handed over to the fighters of the 224th Regiment for the time being.

"All personnel pay attention, closely track the incoming target, and immediately implement the predetermined plan and carry out close interception after determining that it is a cruise missile!"

"Received on the 12th, is turning to course 135, over!"

"Received on the 15th, done!"

……

Giving decisive orders on the radio, as if becoming a temporary cameo battlefield commander, Long Yun asked the low-altitude comrades of the 224th Regiment to pay attention to intercepting the "Alcams" who were skimming the sea, and then called the wingman to dive and began to follow the direction of the cruise missile.

Pursuing the missile in the direction it was launched was certainly not a clever tracking strategy.

However, whether the method is good or not depends on the actual situation: in the western part of the Black Sea, where there is a sack formation, with a large number of MiG fighters from Romania and Bulgaria to the west and the Crimean air force to the east, where can the American bombers go except to turn around and flee south?

The two blue-gray Su-27S, which had been bumpy due to the turbulence of the air flow, were accelerating away from the northern shore of the Black Sea one after the other, and the GCI guidance signal was gradually becoming weak and intermittent; Pursuing the "Lancers" who are fleeing at low altitude subsonic speed at such a speed, the final outcome can be said to be without suspense!

But before that, they had to penetrate the interception line ahead of them to deal with the incoming U.S. Navy fighters. (To be continued......)