Just because you don't see the smoke and bloodshed of the battle doesn't mean there's no risk.

Immersed in the "lancers" who have traveled all the way, always pay attention to the number of instruments and the navigation path prompts on the display screen, the gloomy sky outside the cabin is completely gray, and the situation on the ground is not clear at all; Looking around in the rather spacious cockpit of the B-1B bomber, Fisher's worries and nervousness were not unfounded.

They had just been told that there was no sign of Russian fighters approaching in the sky ahead, but was this information really reliable?

As a strategic air force pilot transferred from the continental United States to the front, unlike the guys in the fighter wing, Fisher has not directly felt the death breath of war for the time being; But before that, he had already discovered in private exchanges among his colleagues that the base was full of talk from top to bottom about that terrible Russian "Grim Reaper".

Originally, as the crew members of strategic bombers, Fisher and others were unlikely to encounter Soviet fighters, so they did not need to worry about the potential threat of the "Caucasus Reaper"; But this situation soon became history, and after a period of long-range precision strike missions, the command issued an order the day before yesterday that the "Yellowstone" squadron began to try to fly over the Asia Minor Peninsula and launch cruise missiles over the Black Sea from today, with the aim of attacking targets in depth for the Russians.

The combat value of this strategy is undoubted, but it requires the bomber fleet to risk approaching the northern airspace where the enemy is distributed; In the face of Russian fighters that may roar at any time, these clumsy "Lancers" who have no self-defense ability can only rely entirely on the Navy's F-14D "Super Cat".

But right now, where are the "super cats" escorting them?

It's not the perfect fit as planned. There will always be countless surprises on the battlefield.

At a time when the strategic air force and the navy are further coordinating and liaison. Previously from the "Carl Vinson" squadron of the "Red Boar" several F-14Ds. But it did not appear in the high sky in front of the "Lancer" as promised.

Because they entered the space about eight minutes earlier than scheduled, these "Super Cats" were still hovering near the Black Sea coastline and doing their air defense duties, but they were immediately pulled by the Air Force Command to be firefighters who were hit head-on by MiGs, and relied on the long-range deterrence of AN/APG-71 and "Immortal Birds" to deal with the large-scale attack of the Romanian Air Force.

Without the strong cover of the F-14D, the "Hornet" of the Navy's carrier-based aircraft wing is also somewhat stretched, the detection range of the radar in the wind and rain weather will be attenuated, and the fighters deployed in the sky seem to be particularly sparse; But the Air Force Command, of course, did not want the bombers that had been coming from a long distance to return in vain, and after contacting the E/F-18 fighters in the nearby airspace and ordering them to increase their interception efforts. It was decided to continue with the original battle plan and take advantage of this storm of unprecedented scale to intensify strikes against targets in the interior of the Soviet Union.

In any case, for US fighters with perfect navigation equipment, the advantages of a rainy day attack basically outweigh the disadvantages; And since it is certain that the "Caucasus Reaper" is fighting in the eastern sky, it should be relatively safe over the Black Sea now, right?

This seemingly logical, but obviously somewhat risky choice, determined the fate of the "lancers" next.

Flying all the way north according to the command center's engagement order, seeing that the navigation indicated that the fighter plane was approaching the Black Sea coastline, Major Fisher turned on the radio, reconfirmed the operation arrangement, and handed over the instrument pilot to the second pilot beside him:

"'Yellowstone' No. 1 is called 'Lake Erie'. It is expected to arrive at the path navigation point in one minute; At present, the altitude is 800 (feet), the speed is 650 (knots), please provide the combat plan to confirm the authorization. Complete. ”

"'Lake Erie' received, -- the program authorization was sent, and again, the program authorization was sent."

"'Yellowstone' No. 1 received, receiving and acknowledging, over."

As the communication between the bombers and the Ankara command center coordinated, invisible radio waves spread in all directions in the vast sky, and the crew quickly received the attack authorization from the command center, and the four B-1Bs, which were far away from each other, had entered the climb and prepared for missile launch.

Unlike the "Lancers" deployed at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, these four B-1B strategic bombers temporarily transferred from a strategic air base in North America to Tunisia have been participating in nuclear strategic duty before, and the cumbersome launch authorization and key transmission cannot be canceled for a while, and the command center can only provide weapon launch authorization when carrying weapons close to the battle line. With the confirmation message sent above, the weapon operator sitting in the back row of Fisher completed the parameter correction on the workbench, checking that the navigation and matching information were accurate; With the push of a finger, the B-1B's belly slowly opens with a narrow magazine, followed by a five-second drop of ammunition between the two missiles.

If it weren't for the fact that the sight deteriorated on a rainy day, the scene of missile salvo firing by strategic bombers would have been quite spectacular.

After the operator pressed the unlock button, the AGM-86C conventional warhead cruise missiles mounted on the "Lancer" magazine and the fuselage hardpoint began to detach from the pylons in turn; With the movement of the rotating pylon, the "Alkham", which is 6.3 meters long and has obvious lines, was thrown out of the cabin one by one from the bomb magazine in the middle of the fuselage with the hatch wide open, and the flying wings immediately deployed, and the turbine engine immediately ignited and emitted a faint blue smoke. The missiles launched one after another, lined up in a long slash in the stormy sky, and these seemingly bloated but extremely deadly "Alqam" quickly moved away from the carrier aircraft behind them, bid farewell to the "lancers" who were pressing the slope into a turn, and embarked on a long journey of thousands of miles.

In the sky where the wind is howling and the rain is pouring down, a large number of gray-white "Alqam" that maintain a low-altitude cruising posture are like silver swordfish shot in the water, and like thick spears piercing through the rain curtain; They were separating from each other along a pre-planned route, dragging almost imperceptible tail smoke as they cruised away from the northern land, opening a vast web of death in the sky.

Launching a dense burst of missiles on the side of the battle line, the long-range attack of the "Lancers" proceeded very smoothly.

But it was also at this moment, passing through the low lead-gray clouds, a touch of blue-gray correction shadows cut through the dense rain like wind and electricity, and the big red five-pointed star on the wings was still very eye-catching under the baptism of the wind and rain, and the Su-27 fleet of the 224th regiment had already attacked from a low altitude of less than two thousand meters!

The long sharp knife has been unsheathed. (To be continued......)