The French fleet's trip this time was quite long.

After all, they came with the task of bringing the two sides closer, so most of the activities were actually on shore.

By the time the two sides conducted the joint exercise, it was already the afternoon of the fourth day of their visit to Hong Kong.

Originally, if it had been left aside a year or two ago, for example, the relatively delicate relationship between China and France, the so-called joint exercises would have generally consisted of sending one ship out of each country to engage in ship formation sailing, or such non-nutritious content as lights, flags, and signal training.

Generally, it is even placed on the way back to the port of the visiting formation, and it is sent directly to the passengers after the end.

However, in the past year, thanks to the previous cooperation opportunities, the relationship between the two countries has developed rapidly, so after the French side took the initiative to carry out more in-depth and large-scale exercises, our military also took advantage of the situation to give a positive response.

On the other hand, of course, our army is really seriously inexperienced in anti-submarine warfare.

Considering that much of the navy's relatively advanced antisubmarine equipment and technology come from France, it is obvious that a lot of experience can be gained by directly conducting a joint training session with the French military.

With the sound of a whistle, the Shima City and the Jeanbal, which participated in the exercise, unmoored and set sail one after another.

The multi-ship and multi-aircraft coordinated exercise is a fairly high-level content, and the two militaries have not conducted similar cooperative training before, so it is impossible to give themselves intensity from the beginning.

And although the Kazuki class, which has a displacement of less than 3,000 tons, can carry a helicopter, the ship itself does not have reliable submarine search capabilities, and as a second-class colonial frigate, it is not designed to undertake anti-submarine missions.

Therefore, in the end, each side sent only one destroyer of similar size to participate.

Anti-submarine exercises, naturally, could not be carried out near the shore.

What's more, the water depth in most places near the coast of the Yellow Sea is so shallow that a submarine can't even be seen with the naked eye, and there is no way to even set up a fake underwater target that simulates a submarine.

Therefore, the formation of ships sailed in a southeasterly direction for several hours before reaching the preset exercise area.

According to the plan, the false target in the submarine search subject will be coordinated by a 033 diesel-electric submarine, while the target of the submarine attack subject will be an underwater target that can make noise but does not have the ability to navigate autonomously.

In joint exercises, the focus is on joint exercises, and generally no subjects that are too difficult are set.

Otherwise, it will be very embarrassing if one party is not good at learning and playing. (Here @ the ROK Navy, which failed to berth autonomously many times during a joint military exercise in the Pacific Rim)

The prototype of the 033 submarine is the Soviet Type 633, and the essence is a magically modified XXI U-boat.

As a kind of naval equipment, it has long passed in 1998, and it has little actual combat value, and there is no need to worry about any trouble such as leaking voiceprints.

And submarines of this type are easy to detect unless they remain stationary underwater.

As an old submarine, its battery does not support long-term underwater navigation.

In short, there is almost no such thing as not being able to find a target.

At most, it will take a little longer.

It can be said that it is a very perfect imaginary enemy.

……

After entering the exercise area, the two warships quickly changed their longitudinal driving from one in front of the other to one on the left and one on the right in accordance with the previous arrangement, and they opened up a relatively long distance between each other.

This was mainly due to the fact that the four diesel engines of the Jean Barr were noisy, and if they were too close, they would have a detrimental effect on the gas turbine-powered Shima City.

"Release the towed Depth Sonar."

In the CIC of the Island City, the new captain Luo Zhangming sat in front of the command platform and calmly ordered.

"Sonar release complete!"

After receiving the report, he continued to give new instructions:

"Send helicopters to establish an anti-submarine patrol line, starting from the 340 direction of the ship, 10 nautical miles away."

For modern ships, every command issued in CIC can be transmitted directly to the corresponding compartment.

Therefore, the aviation department, which had already been ready, quickly pushed one of the helicopters out of the hangar and completed the loading of an anti-submarine torpedo in the shortest possible time -

The cost of torpedoes (even those without warheads) and false targets is high, so only one launch is expected during the exercise.

A few minutes later, two similar-looking helicopters took off from the Shima City and the Genbar, respectively, and rushed to their corresponding positions on the side of the route to begin the submarine search operation.

Earlier, when the Type 052 destroyer was designed, the Navy considered using a two-plane cooperation mode with a torpedo to attack and a sonar to search for submarines, so as to extend the anti-submarine combat radius of the carrier-based helicopter to the limit.

The double hangar on the 052 was designed for this.

But after really trying a few times, I found that the results are often less than 2 for 1 plus 1.

Later, they honestly returned to their respective sub-regions or time periods of carrying out tasks with sonar and torpedoes.

Of course, today the search on the other side is in charge of the French, so there is no need for the second helicopter to be dispatched for the time being.

Although the target sea area delineated by the exercise is not small, considering that the target of the submarine search is only a Type 033, there should not be a lot of pressure.

At the same time, a dozen nautical miles away.

The Great Wall 298 submarine is slowly sailing at the depth of the snorkel according to the predetermined plan before sailing.

"The ballast water tanks are filled with water, dive to a depth of 70, and turn off the power system."

Captain Ma Jie, who was wearing only a vest and shorts, stood in the middle of the command cabin with a stopwatch in his hand, giving a series of commands.

"Captain, turn off the power system, will they not be able to find us?"

Liu Changlin, the deputy captain next to him, looked a little worried.

One of the great advantages of conventional submarines is the possibility of completely turning off the power system without making any noise, immunity to the search of passive sonar.

"Two warships, three helicopters, or demarcated the sea area in advance, if you can't even find us here, he Luo Zhangming might as well go home and farm."

Although Ma Jie had to carry out the mission of the imaginary enemy assigned by his superiors, as a submarine officer, his last shred of dignity required that he at least not drive the humming diesel engine all the way at the depth of the snorkel while knowing that the two destroyers were "hunting" him.

Everyone knows that this kind of joint exercise has a strong performance component, but even if you are an actor, you always have to show a little acting skills.

A few minutes later, the Great Wall 298 went into complete silence at a depth of 70 meters, as instructed by the captain.

……

Above the surface, the two helicopters have also arrived at their predetermined positions.

In the process of hoisting sonar, the helicopter needs to maintain a hovering attitude and cannot search while advancing, so the efficiency is not as high as imagined, and anti-submarine operations are often carried out in accordance with the jumping method of point-by-point detection while advancing.

In the command center of the Jean-Bar, Vice Admiral Laurie Warjoul was keeping an eye on the two helicopters on the radar map and secretly calculating the time in his mind.

As a senior general who was born as an aircraft carrier captain, he is very sensitive to time, and can even complete accurate time estimation within 5 minutes without the need for a stopwatch.

Wojul was originally going to see how long the imitation dolphins in China could last 10 nautical miles away.

But soon, he realized that something was wrong.

The movements of the two helicopters were almost completely symmetrical at first, but as the number of detection points increased, the rhythm of the submarine search gradually appeared.

"Colonel."

He looked at the captain next to him:

"Have you noticed that their helicopters are hovering longer than we are each time they hover?"

As the captain of an air defense destroyer, Colonel Eric Bernally was not actually proficient in anti-submarine warfare, so he did not get the meaning of his superiors at the first time, but nodded somewhat inexplicably:

"Noticed, maybe it's because the personnel in charge of the submarine search operation are not skilled enough?"

Wojul waved his hand helplessly:

"Perhaps, but I mean, their helicopters hover for a minimum of 90 seconds at a time, and a maximum of 140 seconds at a time."

"What is the maximum hovering time of the AS565 helicopter on your ship with a standard anti-submarine load?"

He has been out of the front-line post in the Navy for some years, so the specific parameters of the new equipment are no longer very clear.

Colonel Bernally looked at the aviation officer next to him.

The latter quickly spoke:

"120 seconds, because the engine can only output a maximum of 120 seconds of continuous take-off power."

"Hiss......"

Hearing this answer, Lieutenant General Voljoul's heart was filled with a sense of unease.

His previous plans were based on the fact that the Chinese Navy's helicopter flight performance was slightly worse than that of the AS565 prototype.

But......

The reality doesn't seem to be quite like that......

(End of chapter)

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