Before the end of the 83 Project, it was "borrowed" to Nanzheng to solve the problem, which was definitely an accident.

But the turmoil in this world will not stop because of such an accident.

Just when Chang Haonan was trying to help Factory 182 solve the long-standing problem of wing icing, and was preparing to give the Y-8 a new lease of life, a new conflict was brewing on the South Asian subcontinent.

Flight briefing room at Parvatipur Air Base, Barelli District, Uttar Pradesh.

Lieutenant Colonel Sumit Mukherjee, the pilot of the 102nd Squadron, sat in a chair and listened to the squadron leader in front of him on a map about his upcoming mission.

As a unit with the most special status in the entire national air force, the ranks corresponding to all posts in the 102 Squadron are one or even two levels higher than those of other units.

Even among the ordinary ground staff, there are many officers.

In total, they had only 8 unarmed aircraft - 6 MiG-25RBK and 2 MiG-25RUS.

But that's enough.

Over the past decade or so, the 102nd Squadron has made numerous bold approaches and even cross-border reconnaissance attempts, but no adversary has ever been able to pose even a single effective threat to these aircraft.

Also because of the characteristics of the MiG-25, this unit is nicknamed "triple sound" within the Air Force.

But today, as a veteran pilot, Mukherjee is still full of doubts about the route drawn by the squadron leader.

According to the plan, after takeoff, he would first fly some distance west, raise the altitude to more than 23,000 meters, then turn north over the vicinity of Aligarh, cross the border for about 170 kilometers, and then make a sharp turn and fly west again, crossing the entire plateau into Kashmir, and finally making a large circle around Ibor before returning.

Although the range of the MiG-25RB is theoretically sufficient to complete this flight, the range of nearly 1,800 kilometers also means that it cannot use the afterburner mode as much as he wants, and more than 70% of the range of this reconnaissance activity is not in its own airspace, so it needs to be on guard against risks at all times.

"Squadron Leader, why can't you divide the mission into two separate missions?"

After listening to the briefing, Mukherjee asked the squadron leader standing next to the briefing board:

"Or you can take off two planes at a time, it's too extreme."

"Well, that's what the superiors wanted, and the order came directly from New Delhi, without specifying the specific reason."

The squadron leader put down the baton in his hand, walked over to Mukherjee, lowered his voice and continued:

"But I've heard that it's because the device you hang under the belly of the plane can only perform a maximum of 6 data reads and writes and then it will be scrapped, so the above wants to make it as useful as possible for each takeoff."

Almost at the same time, the two turned their heads and looked at the MiG-25 on the tarmac not far away, which was undergoing a pre-flight inspection.

Underneath its belly hangs a streamlined object that looks a bit like an auxiliary fuel tank, but is much larger.

"So what the hell is that, it feels terrible to fly with it."

In fact, this is another reason why Mukherjee is a little annoyed.

He only knew that this thing was some kind of reconnaissance aid, but it was definitely not something made by the Russians, because the MiG-25 carrier aircraft could only be controlled to start or stop working by a post-modified lever switch, and could not make any other adjustments to it.

And no pilot would want such an outside of control to exist on his plane.

Moreover, it will affect the aircraft's extreme flight performance, so that the MiG-25 will not be able to break through three times the speed of sound like their squadron name.

The squadron leader shrugged his shoulders and explained in a tone of uncertainty that was not so uncertain:

"The Americans sent it over, saying that it could conduct radar mapping of the terrain and record all the radar signals that came from the scanning."

"So this is a pod that can conduct active and passive radar reconnaissance at the same time?"

Mukherjee raised a thick eyebrow.

They did not buy two radar reconnaissance models, the MiG-25RBV and RBS, so in the past they could only conduct daytime optical reconnaissance of targets.

Although the reconnaissance plane itself is difficult to intercept, it is not difficult to prevent simple photographic reconnaissance, as long as the most primitive means of camouflage are used.

In particular, the other side also has a radar station with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, which can track the whole process from their take-off, and even in the face of the MiG-25, there is almost 20-30 minutes of warning time.

Therefore, the main purpose of their cross-border flights in the past was not so much reconnaissance as provocation.

After all, I suffered a big loss more than 30 years ago.

But with such pods, the situation is completely different.

The vast majority of optical camouflage methods are ineffective against SAR radars, not to mention the fact that they can also capture the characteristics of the adversary's radar signal, which is an important technical parameter in air-to-ground confrontation.

"That's right, the version I heard is that the Americans learned that Huaxia had deployed a new anti-aircraft missile regiment in Shigatse, and they thought it might be S300PMU1 and wanted to get relevant evidence to put pressure on the Kremlin."

The squadron leader continued to talk about some rumors he had heard when he went to the headquarters for a meeting earlier:

"New Delhi, on the other hand, hopes to carry out this mission while conducting a reconnaissance of our old adversary, especially near the Line of Actual Control, as well as ...... their nuclear plant. ”

Mukherjee stroked his mustache:

"Sounds like a deadly place, and there's even an anti-aircraft missile position?"

"This is also something that can't be helped, if your route is not aggressive, they may not turn on at all, and the meaning of this reconnaissance will be lost." The squadron leader gently patted Mukherjee on the shoulder:

"Moreover, that position is still dozens of kilometers away from your route, as long as you keep flying at an altitude of more than 23,000 meters throughout the whole process, it is impossible to enter the range of its killing envelope."

"What's more, we still have speed, you can save the afterburner just in case."

The ultimate range of most long-range air defense missiles is hit by a high-throw trajectory, that is, after launching, the missile is first allowed to enter the high altitude, and then it falls from the sky, and the potential energy is exchanged for kinetic energy to "smash" at the target.

The advantage of this is that it is guaranteed that sufficient speed and overload will still be retained at the end of the trajectory.

But when faced with a target that is close to the top of the trajectory at its own altitude, it will be relatively weak.

The two of them wanted to talk about something more, but they saw that the planned take-off time was almost up.

"I've got to get ready for the flight." Mukherjee stood up from his chair.

The pilots of the MiG-25 wore a very complex anti-load suit before takeoff, so the preparation time was much longer than that of a typical tactical aircraft.

"Brother, I wish you all the best."

The squadron leader saluted Mukherjee.

(End of chapter)