"Hawkeye 2, Hawkeye 2, here is Longbower 1, and the Longbow Squad has arrived at the battlefield smoothly. It looks very lively below. US fighter jets are attacking Japanese ships. It seems that one Japanese aircraft carrier is injured and caught fire. One is maneuvering and avoiding under the protection of the marching ship. The other has not been discovered for the time being. We will launch the attack as planned! Repeat, we will launch the attack as planned!"

The pilot who contacted his early warning aircraft via radio was Captain Joseph Bob of the Irish Navy. At this moment, he was in the cockpit of an ir-39t carrier-based fighter jet with a wide view, leading a combat formation composed of two ik-43t carrier-based bombers and six ir-39t carrier-based fighters to fly at a height of 10,000 meters with thin air. This is the flight limit of most carrier-based fighters at present, and Irish carrier-based aircraft is no exception.

As the main carrier-based bomber in the Irish Navy, the performance indicators of the ik-43t are almost the same as those of the US military's "Hell Diver", but their weapons are more well equipped than those of the US Navy's aviation. At this time, the Irish Navy's unique attack weapon, the radio-guided armor-piercing bomb nicknamed "One-eyed". This guided bomb weighs 670 kilograms, and the vertical speed when it drops from a height of 10,000 meters to the water surface is about 400 meters per second. Its kinetic energy is roughly equivalent to the state of 12-inch armor-piercing missiles flying 15,000 meters, which is enough to penetrate the 300-350 mm thick armor-piercing panels, and its loading volume is 65 kilograms. The explosive force after penetrating the target armor is three times that of the 406 mm naval gun armor-piercing bomb. It is not an exaggeration to call it a warship killer.

Unlike the early radio-guided bombs that rely solely on the rudder plate to change directions, the "One-Eye" is equipped with a unique rocket engine, which allows the aviation bomb to undergo a powered orbit change during the fall, thereby ensuring the attack accuracy of high-altitude bombs. In good weather conditions, Irish Navy pilots used the "One-Eye" to attack sea targets. The diameter error of the bomb dropping from a height of 10,000 meters can be controlled within 30 meters, which is more than doubled compared to the early models of radio-guided bombs.

After the leader's aircraft issued an attack signal, the two ik-43ts do not have to dive high platforms like dive bombers, nor do they have to look for attack opportunities like torpedo bombers. They only need to maintain a flight altitude that most carrier-based anti-aircraft guns cannot reach. The bomber searches and locks the attack target through mechanical sights, and then chooses the right time to drop the real highlight. From the moment the bomb leaves the bay, the bomber uses the bomb sight to continuously adjust the flight trajectory of the bomb to keep "coinciding" with the target image on the sea surface. Including air resistance, it takes nearly one minute for the bomb to fall from a height of 10,000 meters to sea level. During this period, the bomber needs a very stable viewing and control platform, otherwise the high hit rate of the guided bomb will not be guaranteed...

"Attention! Attention! Two enemy planes are coming! Changbow No. 2 comes with me, No. 3 and No. 4 are at any time to reinforce, No. 5 and No. 6 hold their positions!"

Faced with the sudden emergence of new enemy situation, Bob quickly issued combat commands, and then pushed the joystick, causing the ir-39t to dive towards the two Japanese fighters climbing from a lower altitude. At about 2,000 meters away from the enemy plane, Bob took the lead in firing two air-to-air rockets. They are not common "unable to shoot out" non-guided rockets, but radio-guided rockets manually controlled by pilots. They are top works of the Irish military industry and one of the earliest "missiles" to appear in this time and space. Although their mode of action is still very primitive, the attack radius and effective hit rate are still very limited, it undoubtedly set a precedent for the times and brought generation differences to users.

In the cockpit of the fighter jet with a good field of vision, Bob used the flight joystick to control the aircraft while using the four-way button on the top of the flight joystick to control two rockets that were simultaneously fired. In the optical scope in the front of the cockpit, the Japanese fighter jet he was targeting immediately danced in the shape of the z-shaped dance, trying to avoid the rockets in this way, but the simple method that had been tried and tested failed this time. The two rockets actually turned in the air. When they flew to more than ten meters away from the Japanese fighter jet, the scattered shrapnel immediately injured the Japanese plane. If it were a Zero fighter jet, it would probably fall down. However, this Japanese fighter jet, which was larger than the Zero fighter jet, was not shot down on the spot, but dragged a stream of black smoke and turned around and flew back.

When the rocket launched by the long aircraft exploded, the ir-39t, who served as the wingman, took the opportunity to launch rockets at another Japanese fighter. Seeing the experience of his companion, the pilot of the Japanese fighter did not dare to be careless. He first made a rolling circle in the air, and changed from straight climb to small angle diving, and then made a sharp turn to the left and right.

The rocket flying at high speed did not have such powerful maneuverability. It missed the target and flew to the distance in a blink of an eye.

Seeing that the cunning Japanese fighter actually dodged the guided rocket launched by the wingman, Bob controlled the joystick and the throttle expressionlessly, driving his plane to pounce on it as a tiger. He chased to a distance of more than a thousand meters, and the Irish long-range pilot fired the rocket for the second time. After the rocket was fired, he focused his eyes on the shooting scope and placed his thumb on the four-way button used to control the rocket. After sufficient acceleration, this guided air-air rocket flew to 1.5 times the speed of sound, which was nearly twice as fast as the champion aircraft of the 1945 International Aviation Racing Championship, so the Japanese fighter in front could not escape the attack by diving acceleration.

Realizing that the enemy plane fired rockets from behind, the Japanese pilot was calm and agile. He made a circle rolling action again, changing the flight trajectory continuously, and then made a sharp turn to the right with the help of the air combat flap, easily shaking off the staves of the two rockets behind!

Realizing that his rocket could not bite the cunning loach, Bob did not continue to chase and attack, but brought two rockets that had not yet been launched and returned to a height of 10,000 meters with his wingman. During this process, on the ik-43t, the first bombing bomb, Sergeant Sidres Doy, the old bomber, stared at the hawk bombing sight in front of the seat without leaving any trace. Before performing this attack mission, he received eight months of systematic training and 34 live-fire launch training, with a training hit rate of nearly 80%, and 11 were hitting the bull's eye. Despite such excellent training results, when participating in the night attack on Manila a week ago, Doy dropped the bomb missed because he was too nervous, which made him feel very guilty. This battle was undoubtedly him.

An excellent opportunity to prove himself. There are the best mechanical bombing sights in Europe, the world's leading radio guidance technology, and the abundant sunshine that provides good sight. The conditions are the right time, place and people. Doy seems to only need to operate according to the training principles, but his target is an aircraft carrier running irregularly at more than 20 knots. Anti-aircraft shells explode from time to time over the warship, or flashing the figure of a fighter jet, which is much more complicated than any training. Even if Doy's fingers shake slightly, it may make the attack lose a little. The right hand holding the pole-type omnidirectional controller is already full of sweat, and he mutters in a low voice: "Man, go right, go right, go right... OK, just here, here... go up, guy, go up a little..."

Suddenly, the green light used to indicate the position at the tail of the guided bomb disappeared, Doy trembled suddenly. In a flash, a red flame flashed through the enlarged vision of the sight, and then it was swallowed by a large ball of black smoke. Doy was stunned for a moment, and then shouted: "Ahh, guys, the bomb hit the target! The bomb hit the target! This shot hit the lower right of the goal. If you are lucky, we will kill the Japanese aircraft carrier!"

Hearing the excited sound from the communication channel, Bob leaned his head and looked below. At this time, the flight altitude was close to 10,000 meters. The ships of all sizes on the sea were only the size of soybeans in sight, and the medium and low altitudes were covered with explosion smoke and fighter jets from both sides. With a quick glance at the naked eye, it was impossible to see clearly what the damaged Japanese aircraft carrier was like.

A moment later, another bomber pilot reported in the communication channel: "It's a pity that my ball slid past the door, and the landing point was only a few meters away from the Japanese aircraft carrier! Fortunately, Doy's strike was beautiful enough. The back of its deck was now covered by thick smoke. It seems that there is no way to take off and land the plane!"

Bob glanced at another glance that at least six Japanese fighter jets were flying towards him. It seemed that the Japanese had discovered a new fatal threat at this height of ten thousand meters, so he quickly ordered: "The attack has been completed, and now all return! All return! An enemy plane is coming, fighter jets pay attention to cover! Pay attention to cover!"

At this time, on the nearly boiling sea, two Japanese aircraft carriers were already shrouded in rolling black smoke. The one who was just shot was the "Asu", which had not been damaged before. The commander and his crew were trying their best to deal with the US torpedo aircraft that was coming from a low altitude. Someone at the observation post was specifically guarding against medium and high altitudes, but no one noticed that the bomb that fell straight down from a height of 10,000 meters, broke through the Izumo-class aircraft carrier with huge kinetic energy that was no less than heavy artillery shells.

The armored flight deck, which is claimed to be able to withstand the attack of 1,000 pounds of bombs, then ran through two layers of hangars one after another, and an explosion occurred above the oil tank used to store aviation fuel. The fire spread rapidly, almost turning the more than 2,000 crew members on the "Asu" into roast ducks. Due to the proper rescue method and the reasonable design of the Izumo-class damage pipe, the Japanese army controlled the fire in time, which allowed the main aircraft carrier to eventually evacuate with injuries.
Chapter completed!