The 52nd Special Mixed Fleet could not hold on until sunset, and at around 3 pm, they used up their good luck.

Just like before, when the air defense fighter jet was sent, the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet suddenly sent a telegram about being attacked.

Perhaps because he didn't believe it or was worried about a mistake, the staff officer in charge of communication did not report it as soon as possible.

It took about 15 minutes to delay, and at 3:00, after receiving the second telegram from the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet, the communications officer reported to the commander.

In fact, it's not considered a delay.

The two fleets are hundreds of kilometers apart. Even if they send fighter jets 15 minutes in advance, they will have to arrive at least 45 minutes later. Even if the 52nd Special Mix Fleet is in its best condition, they cannot last for 30 minutes, let alone not being in its best condition. Strictly speaking, when the 52nd Special Mix Fleet is attacked, the combat state can be said to be very bad.

The battle after that is the best proof.

The key is that when the enemy planes attacked, there were only 12 F-14Bs patrolling the air, and only 4 were in the direction of the enemy planes attacking.

The worst thing is that even on the flight decks of the two "Newland" class, there are only a few heavy fighter jets in combat readiness.

These air defense fighters face a total of 16 "War-9Bs".

In addition, at least one "Finger-6C" and four "Observation-5CZ" participated in the offensive operation, which was to be precisely supported by the forward escort fighter jets.

All of these enemy planes came from the east.

In less than 5 minutes, four F-14Bs in this direction were shot down.

What's even more terrible is that before fighters in other directions rushed over, the E-2C that was moving here lost contact with the rear.

It was not until this time that the commander of the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet realized the seriousness of the problem.

Strictly speaking, the main reason is that the attack came too suddenly, and in just a few minutes, the command system of the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet did not react at all.

When the air defense warship started the radar, it was discovered that the E-2C that was missing in the east had been shot down.

In addition, the number of incoming enemy aircraft, to be precise, was not 16, but 24, of which 8 were divided into two formations, flew at low altitudes.

Before entering the E-2C search range, the fighters flying at high altitude successfully opened the sight of the early warning aircraft.

If you want to say it, this is also a major flaw of the carrier-based early warning aircraft.

Due to the limitation of the platform, the main reason is that the carrier is too small to be equipped with advanced data processing equipment, which is often called airborne computers. Small early warning aircraft such as E-2C are difficult to take care of all aspects, so they often have to cooperate with other platforms in combat use.

Relatively speaking, the independent combat capabilities of carrier-based early warning aircraft are very limited.

To put it bluntly, when E-2C needs to rely on radar to monitor enemy aircraft that are approaching rapidly at high altitudes, it is difficult to pay attention to other directions.

The result is that these eight "War-9Bs" approached E-2C without being discovered.

Given the situation at that time, it is reasonable to believe that the four F-14Bs were shot down and these fighter jets approaching from low altitudes.

Although the F-14B had already opened fire at high altitude enemy aircraft before it was shot down, after being shot down, the "Immortal" long-range air-to-air missile it launched did not enter the end autonomous attack stage because it lost its mid-stage guidance, and it did not pose a threat to the incoming enemy institutions.

Of course, after the early warning aircraft was finished, the peripheral air defense net of the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet had been penetrated.

The eight F-14Bs that arrived later were shot down by enemy planes without much suspense.

There is nothing strange about it. There are early warning aircraft and electronic attack aircraft behind the enemy plane. Not only can they detect approaching Newland fighters in time, but they can also suppress and interfere with Newland fighters, weaken the detection performance of fire-controlled radars, and ensure that their fighters can launch attacks first.

By the time the fighter jets on standby on the aircraft carrier were launched urgently, the enemy planes had approached the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet.

Before this, the enemy planes had found the right direction.

Don’t forget that after the peripheral early warning aircraft was shot down, the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet entered a state of combat, allowing the air defense warships to activate the radar.

In other words, even if the "Occasion-5CZ" did not intercept the telegram sent by the "Neurland", it would definitely intercept the electromagnetic signals sent by the air defense warship.

As long as you fly towards an air defense warship, you will definitely be correct.

In fact, the three "Tikang"-class cruisers compiled in the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet are all near the aircraft carriers, one of which is located east of the two aircraft carriers.

At that time, it was the cruiser that first activated the radar.

That is, before entering the air defense warship, to be precise, the effective range of the "Standard 2" air defense missile, the fighter jets that suddenly turned and flew away.

Obviously, with the support of electronic attack aircraft, fighter jets can easily avoid air defense warships.

However, this also means that attacks will follow one after another.

What surprised Stark was that the first one to launch the attack was not Liang Xia’s Air Force bomber, nor was it a patrol aircraft affiliated to the shore-based aviation force.

Judging from the battle reports sent by the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet, the attack was launched by the carrier-based aviation force.

The reason is also very simple. Before being attacked, the air defense cruiser did not detect attack aircraft groups, nor did he detect anti-ship missiles fired from high altitudes.

The key is that the light anti-ship missiles attack the air defense cruiser!

At about 3:25, less than 15 minutes after the air combat began, the cruiser "Bunker" located in the easternmost direction and served as an air defense sentry was attacked.

Because it was suppressed by electronic attack aircraft and the anti-ship missiles were flying at sea altitudes, they were detected by radar only when they were less than 40 kilometers away from the cruiser.

This distance is too close!

Even if they are all subsonic light anti-ship missiles, they can fly in about 150 seconds at a distance of 40 kilometers and snake-type maneuvering.

Just 2 and a half minutes!

In such a short time, the Bunker can intercept with long-range air defense missiles at most once, and then it will enter the short-range air defense combat stage.

The worst thing is that the Bunker is an air defense cruiser and is not equipped with short-range air defense missiles!

Although last year, the ship replaced the front and rear two Mk-26 double-arm missile launchers with the Mk-41 vertical launch system with the help of the first overhaul last year, greatly improving the number of missiles and the ability to engage in multiple targets, its short-range air defense firepower is still very weak.

The main reason is that the Mk41 is not yet able to carry the "Sea Sparrow" process air defense missile.

It’s not that I can’t hold it, but that in the Newland Navy’s view, doing so is too wasteful.

In fact, the Newland Navy has long recognized this problem and is also trying to solve it. This is, based on the "Sea Sparrow", a medium-range air defense missile with more advanced performance can not only be loaded with Mk-41, but also loaded 4 missiles in a launch tube. The method is very simple, mainly to use folding wings to reduce the loading space, and to use a dual-thrust rocket engine to increase the range.

What to say is also learning from Liang Xia Navy.

Before the outbreak of the war, Liang Xia Navy had already accepted a batch of new medium-range air defense missiles, and was used to equip the main battleships including cruisers. This new air defense missile adopts a one-pit four-bomb design, but its performance indicators exceed the upper limit of general medium-range missiles, such as the maximum range reaches 60 kilometers, which is similar to the previous generation of long-range air defense missiles and has a certain regional air defense capability.

Unfortunately, the new medium-range air defense missile invested and developed by the Newland Navy is still in the conceptual demonstration stage.

That's why there are no medium-range air defense missiles on the "Tikang" class air defense cruisers.

In response to this problem, the Newland Navy used formation tactics to make up for it.

Simply put, it is to use other battleships, such as general destroyers, to provide close-range air defense cover for air defense cruisers, so that air defense cruisers can concentrate on long-range air defense operations.

For this reason, there is usually a destroyer near the air defense cruiser.

But this time is an exception.

When the Bunker performs a pre-raid alert mission, it mainly cooperates with early warning aircraft, and the aircraft carrier battle group is about 50 kilometers behind it.

That is to say, there are no destroyers near the Bunker.

The two closest destroyers were fighting against the Newland and Kitty Hawk.

In fact, the destroyers of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet are not enough.

Don’t forget that the four Kidd-class ships that cover the retreat of the transport fleet came from the Xiluoyang Fleet, and were previously compiled into the 51st Special Mixed Fleet!

Affected by this, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had only four "Sp" class destroyers left.

Apart from the two left to cover the carrier, the other two are on the left and right front of the route, responsible for driving away the enemy submarines ambushing near the route.

In fact, this is the essential work of the destroyer.

In short, after launching more than 30 Standard 2s, the Bunker could only rely on two "intensive array" close-defense guns installed on both sides of the front chimney to deal with incoming anti-ship missiles.

Of course, there are two 5-inch naval guns in the front and rear.

As for the results, of course, there is no need to say more.

Although it was clearly mentioned in the battle that the Bunker battle reached the last moment, even when it was flooded with raindrops, the main gun and near-defense gun were still firing at the incoming missiles, all efforts were futile and in the end they could not avoid the result of the war.

At about 3:30, the Bunker sank in the Big Bang.

According to the battle report sent by the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet, the attack on the Bunker was a ship attack brigade, with at least 24 heavy carrier-based attack aircraft.

According to the calculation of each aircraft hanging on 4 anti-ship missiles, there are a total of 96!

Obviously, even if you add a destroyer, you can't withstand so many anti-ship missiles.

Of course, the battle is not over.

The 41st Special Mixed Fleet has 3 aircraft carriers. If one aircraft carrier dispatches a heavy carrier-based attack aircraft brigade, there will be two aircraft groups.

This obviously requires no guesswork.

At around 3:35, the "Kids" aircraft carrier battle group located north of the formation was first attacked.

It was almost the same as the encounter with the Bunker. Under the cover of the escort fighter jet, a heavy carrier-based attack aircraft brigade attack aircraft raided the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier.

The key is that these attack aircraft are still missiles launched at ultra-low altitudes and do not give air defense cruisers a chance to fire.

The difference is that the attack aircraft group did not waste ammunition on the escort warship.

Nearly 100 anti-ship missiles were all fired at the aircraft carrier!

The reason for this situation is simple.

Before being attacked, the "Kid Eagle" had entered combat state, including using the air-to-air alert radar to search for incoming enemy aircraft.
To be continued...