On the afternoon of December 14, 1999, in the northeast of the Yanhai, the flagship of the First Aviation Special Mixed Fleet "Longjiang".

After staring at the dozens of carrier-based aircraft neatly placed on the flight deck for a while, Bai Zhizhan looked at the watch.

There are five minutes left before 2:00 pm.

This is the thirteenth day of the annual fleet exercise. If you still find nothing today, it may take another half a month.

Thinking of what happened in the past ten days, Bai Zhizhan couldn't help feeling a little upset.

Seventeen years ago, in the 82nd year of the Imperial Calendar, after obtaining the cabinet approval, the Navy resumed fleet exercises that had been interrupted for eight years due to the war.

The full name is "Exploring and discovering fleet tactics and existing problems in real-time combat exercises", but no one generally uses this title.

Before this, at the end of the New Calendar 1981, the "Sea Dragon" mothership was officially put into service.

This is the first mothership of the Imperial Navy. Like the "Langley" of the Newland Federation, it was transformed with a 10,000-ton fast cargo ship. Because it is mainly trained and does not require practical combat capabilities, it took only four months to complete the transformation and then took several months to conduct acceptance and testing. It was delivered to the Imperial Navy at the end of the 80th year of the New Calendar, but the personnel training was not completed until the second year.

The main thing is that training carrier-based pilots takes a lot of time, and they can't come even if they are anxious.

Only with the "Sea Dragon" can there be fleet exercises in the new era.

This is the focus of the fleet exercises after restarting. Through exercises, a new tactical system has been established.

In the first five years, that is, five fleet exercises from 1982 to 1986, the "Sea Dragon" and the carrier-based aviation force were basically doing so.

There is nothing strange about it, because in these five times, there was only one mothership called "Sea Dragon".

In order to make the exercise more realistic, or to imitate a fleet of several motherships, the Imperial Navy also used several seaplane and motherships to replace carrier-based aircraft with seaplanes and perform some low-difficulty tasks. During this period, the Imperial Navy officially named the warships carrying conventional take-off and landing aircraft "aircraft carriers" to distinguish them from seaplane motherships and other types of motherships.

During the five fleet exercises, the carrier-based aviation forces focused on reconnaissance missions. In the last two exercises, they only gained several opportunities for air defense combat.

During these five exercises, the protagonist of the naval battleship was still the battleship.

Not to mention anything else, the five exercises were ultimately determined through the "artillery battle" of the main ship.

It was not until the seventh fleet exercise held in 1987 that aircraft carriers and carrier-based aviation really became the protagonists, because this year, two real aircraft carriers joined the battle sequence of the Imperial Navy, namely the "Longjiang" built in Puzhou and the "Hengjiang" built in Tuzhou.

The two aircraft carriers were launched in the same month, and the completion time was only a few days apart.

The reason is that the former is supervised by the local fleet, while the latter is supervised by the Southern Fleet. The Navy Command has long made it clear that after completion, it belongs to two fleets. Therefore, during the construction stage, the two fleets secretly competed, and both wanted to obtain the fleet aircraft carrier in front of the other side.

Because the combat power is too strong, far exceeding the "Sea Dragon", the Imperial Navy proposed the concept of "Fleet Carrier", and set a threshold to promote this kind of warship by limiting speed, tonnage and number of carriers.

However, the "Longjiang" and the "Hengjiang" were not the largest aircraft carriers at that time.

As early as two years ago, the Lek and Sara of the Newland Federation were launched, and were both completed and put into service in the 87th year of the Imperial Calendar.

In terms of tonnage, the Lek and Sara are 40% larger.

In addition, the "Chichen" of the Nayi Empire was also delivered and put into service in the 87th century of the Empire's New Calendar, while the "Jahe" served in the 88th century of the New Calendar. The tonnage of the two warships also exceeded that of the "Longjiang" and "Hengjiang", which was comparable to the two giant ships of the Newland Federation.

The fleet exercises that year were the most complicated, lasting for nearly three months. According to different hypothetical situations, a total of three confrontations were carried out.

As for the way and result of the confrontation, it is the number one secret of the Imperial Navy.

Of course, it is no secret for Bai Zhi war, which participated in the entire exercise.

It was this fleet exercise that laid the foundation for the status of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aviation in the navy and established the development direction with aviation as the core.

Back then, Bai Zhizhan was promoted to major in the naval major and joined the ranks of senior officers.

In the next three years, three fleet exercises revolved around two motherships.

By the 1991st year of the Empire's New Calendar, the tenth fleet exercise after the restart was pushed to a new peak due to the addition of two brand new warships.

This is the "Mohe" and the "Linghe".

Like the two sister ships in front, the "Mohe" and "Linghe" also belong to two major fleets, and on this basis, both of the two fleets formed separate aviation squadrons to strengthen the status of aircraft carriers and improve the tactical flexibility of aircraft carriers.

The fleet exercises that year once again set a record of duration and were exciting.

It was also in this year that after the fleet exercises, Bai Zhizhan was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Local Fleet Aviation Squadron and was promoted to Navy Lieutenant Colonel.

In the same year, the Imperial Navy began a comprehensive reform.

Although he encountered huge resistance and could not cancel the two fleets, Zhu Shijian withstood the pressure and took all aircraft carriers back to the Navy Command to establish a separate aviation special-mix fleet. Because of this move, the two fleets were made, and it could even be said to be cutting off the two fleets. Therefore, Zhu Shijian took the lead and served as the commander of the aviation special-mix fleet, but he retained the original organizational system.

Simply put, the aviation fleet is divided into the First Aviation Special Mixed Fleet and the Second Aviation Special Mixed Fleet, which are the original crew of the local fleet Aviation Squadron and the Southern Fleet Aviation Squadron. They have not even changed the commander, but are nominally under the direct command of the Navy Command.

From a post-event perspective, before launching the reform, Zhu Shijian knew that he would be opposed, so he adopted the method of opening high and closing low.

Now, from the original squadron commander to the grassroots soldiers, they all became the direct members of the Navy Command.

However, it is hard to say what the weight of this direct lineage is.

Bai Zhizhan is a staunch supporter of reform.

Not only because he is the main beneficiary, but also because reform can more effectively exert the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers and aviation forces, which is the general trend.

Not to mention anything else, the Navy and the Newland Navy have successively carried out similar reforms to form fleets around aircraft carriers.

It can be seen that time is quite tight, and it can be said that time is not waiting for me.

If it takes a few years, there will be no need for reform.

The fleet exercises in the following years were mainly running-in training, allowing the officers and soldiers originally belonging to the two fleets to understand each other and show more tacit understanding during the exercises.

To this end, Zhu Shijian even ordered the cancellation of the confrontation.

It was not until last year that after Liu Xiangzhen, who was promoted to Navy Colonel in Baizhi Zhan and served as Chief of Staff of the First Aviation Special Mixed Fleet. Liu Xiangzhen, who was also promoted to colonel, took the position of Chief of Staff of the Second Aviation Special Mixed Fleet, took the position of Chief of Staff of the Second Aviation Special Mixed Fleet, that Zhu Shijian lifted the ban and added confrontation content to the exercise.

In fact, this year is the highlight.
Chapter completed!