After dawn, the battle was extremely difficult.

The Fan army concentrated its forces to launch a counterattack in the east and south, and retreated into the local garrison in the city of Deaogle. To be precise, armed personnel mainly policemen also took the opportunity to attack, such as in buildings hiding on the edge of the city, and fired cold guns at the Imperial soldiers close to the city, especially at the intersections of the periphery.

For a moment, the Marines guarding the landing site were almost surrounded by the enemy on three sides, and fought in three directions at the same time.

What's even more terrible is that the front-line attack aircraft of the Guardian Marine Corps all returned before dawn, and the heavy attack aircraft sent urgently lost their support capacity after dropping dozens of tons of bombs. As for other fire support, they were even more unreliable.

Affected by this, the third round of assault transportation started after dawn, sent to the front line were two light artillery companies provided by the 17th Armored Division.

One of the artillery companies is equipped with AL-100A type 150mm ultra-light howitzer.

As mentioned earlier, in order to enhance the combat capabilities of air assault forces, especially independent combat capabilities behind enemy lines, the Imperial Army invested in the development of a large-caliber ultra-light howitzer with a total combat weight of less than 3 tons and can be transported by a 10-ton general helicopter.

It must be admitted that the AL-100A is very advanced, but the combat weight of less than 3 tons can make all "light" howitzers dwarf. You should know that before the AL-100A, as long as the combat weight of the large caliber howitzers weigh less than 10 tons, they can be given the title of "light".

According to the Imperial Army's vision, this kind of howitzer can allow air assault troops to obtain battlefield suppression capabilities comparable to armored troops.

However, there is a big gap between ideals and reality.

Because the performance indicators proposed by the Army are too high and there are many technical obstacles that are difficult to solve in the short term, the preliminary development work took more than ten years. It was not until the beginning of last year that the project acceptance was completed and the military acceptance stage led by the Army was entered.

If the war hadn't broke out, the project might have been delayed for several years.

Although the AL-100A passed the military acceptance before the outbreak of the war and then began mass production, due to the limitation of expensive prices, the AL-100A's production capacity is very limited. So far, only one company was provided to each of the main forces, and they were all organized into the division's direct mixed support camp.

Interestingly, the various combat troops are still exploring how to use this light howitzer.

To be honest, when the project was first established, the Imperial Army did not think about how to use this ultra-light howitzer with heavy artillery power.

Being able to be lifted by a general purpose helicopter is actually just an excuse to start the project, or to apply for grants.

It was not until the development was successful that the Imperial Army suddenly discovered that after the "Zhi-15" was lifted into an AL-100A, it could not do anything. Especially in mountainous areas with slightly higher altitudes, not to mention transporting ammunition at the same time, carrying a few more gunners, the helicopter could not take off. Even if it was replaced with "Zhi-18", while lifting an AL-100A, it could only transport all gunners and half a base ammunition.

What's the use of this?

In high-intensity battles, you can knock out 1 base ammunition in a few hours.

There is no doubt that ammunition is the key to the problem.

Take the high-explosive bomb with the most used amount, just the projectile is close to 50 kilograms, while the mass of a standard launching drug module is 3 kilograms, and usually 5 to 8 modules are loaded. Including essential loading tools such as cartridges, the curb weight of a 150mm shell exceeds 80 kilograms.

According to the Imperial Army standards, one base is 48 shells and 330 launching medicine modules, with a total mass exceeding 4 tons!

If equipped with extended range shells, the total mass will exceed 5 tons.

In other words, even heavy helicopters like "Zhi-18" can only transport two bases of ammunition at a time, and the flight distance cannot exceed 300 kilometers.

If shipped by "Direct-15", the efficiency will be lower.

The key is that the AL-100A is assigned to the air assault forces. What can make the air assault forces show their strength is actually mountainous areas with complex terrain.

Simply put, the AL-100A is mainly used in mountain combat.

The impact of high altitude on helicopter carrying capacity becomes unnegligible.

Now, the reality before the Imperial Army is that even if the AL-100A can be deployed on a position close to the front line with a helicopter, it will become a decoration due to the difficulty of ammunition replenishment.

If performance defects are also taken into account, the problem of AL-100A becomes more prominent.

In order to pursue the ultimate lightweight and achieve a weight index of less than 3 tons, we can only find ways to reduce weight, such as using the 40-fold diameter tube that is about to be eliminated.

Before the project to develop the AL-100A was launched, the Imperial Army had already determined that the barrel length of the next generation of large-caliber artillery would be more than 50 times the diameter, and the final standard determined within the Oriental Group was 54 times the diameter. The artillery that had previously used 40 times the diameter tube would undergo upgrades and transformations.

In addition, the volume of the pharmacy chamber is only 22 liters, which is only 80% of the volume of the standard pharmacy chamber.

Affected by this, the maximum range corresponding to the AL-100A when using ordinary shells, date pit bombs, bottom-row extended range bombs and rocket extended range bombs are: 17 kilometers, 21 kilometers, 25 kilometers and 29 kilometers, which are significantly lower than howitzers with the same length of tubes.

Of course, it is even less than the new howitzer that uses 54-diameter tubes.

The key is that compared with the Western Land Group's effective range, the Imperial Army's body-mounted artillery is relatively short.

In other words, in confronting enemy artillery, the AL-100A will be at a disadvantage because of its insufficient range, and at least it will not be able to gain advantage in artillery battles.

The worst thing is that the AL-100A is also a towing artillery with almost zero tactical maneuverability.

Although the Imperial Army required the AL-100A to have limited tactical maneuverability during design, such as being equipped with an independent walking unit, which can transfer positions on its own during combat and reduce the requirements for traction equipment and personnel, in order to achieve the purpose of weight loss, the Imperial Army finally gave up this requirement and proposed to equip a small engine to drive the ammunition loader.

After the deployment is completed, the AL-100A can only rely on personnel or light vehicles towing motors.

Obviously, this cannot keep up with the pace of modern warfare.

Even in an ideal state, the AL-100A will change from a deployment state to an action state, and all the six gunners will have to be busy for 10 minutes and need to be towed by a vehicle.

According to the tests conducted by the Imperial Army, even if it is on the plain, it will take at least 20 minutes to transfer a deployed AL-100L to a stand 500 meters away. If it is in a mountainous area with rugged terrain, it will take at least 30 minutes, and vehicles must be available.

It can be seen that if you want to use the AL-100A as a field artillery, you must at least equip it with a towing vehicle.

Just a general military jeep, but a 5-ton off-road vehicle is the best.

That's why after the AL-100A was installed, the Imperial Army discovered that tractors must be provided for artillery units equipped with AL-100A.

But the problem is that doing so makes the AL-100A's "lightweight" advantage meaningless.

To put it bluntly, light howitzers have almost no survivability in battlefields where AL-100A can survive, and there is no place to use it in battlefields where AL-100A can survive. You should know that compared with conventional howitzers, the range of AL-100A is pitifully short. As for providing traction vehicles, or even loading them on trucks, they will lose the lightweight advantage of being lifted by general-purpose helicopters.

If you want to say, it is because these problems were discovered, the Imperial Army's attitude towards the AL-100A was not lukewarm, and it has never been purchased in large quantities.

Not to mention anything else, on the mainland battlefield, several main forces rarely arrange the AL-100A to participate in the war, and most of the time they train gunners in the rear.

Fortunately, on Deaeger's side, the AL-100A is simply an invincible existence.

Although the Van Luo Army has thousands of large-caliber artillery, more than 2,000 self-propelled howitzers alone, and all are imported from Western powers, such as the M109 series of the Republic of Newland, its main artillery units are all deployed in the northwest and organized under the Central Army.

Many other combat troops are still using artillery from the Second World War.

Even if these "antique cannons" are still useful, they are definitely not opponents of new cannons such as the AL-100A. The range gap cannot be made up.

Of course, it is not just 16 AL-100A that are sent to the front line.

Another artillery company is equipped with 120mm heavy mortars.

To be said, heavy mortars are the main suppression weapon for light infantry troops.

In addition, the PJ-120 is the last weapon that the Imperial Army has been put into production during the Second Global War and has been used until now.

However, the current PJ-120F has almost nothing in common with the models in the war.

Strictly speaking, the PJ-120F is actually the result of a redesign. It is just because the basic design of the PJ-120 is too excellent and there is no need for modification, so it is almost completely preserved. Therefore, after the redesign, the original number was used and no new development was started.

The key is that the PJ-120F is compatible with all mortar shells of the same caliber.

According to the plan made by the Imperial Army, the PJ-120F will have to serve at least 30 years. When the precisely guided shell equipped with seekers is born, it may be able to serve for half a century. It can be said that the PJ-120 is very likely to become the longest fire suppression weapon ever.

In fact, in many cases, the first choice of suppression weapon for front-line officers and soldiers is the mortar.

The reason is also very simple, because the initial velocity is much lower and the shell can be made thinner. Therefore, the mortar shell can obtain a charge far exceeding the grenades of the same caliber without increasing the bullet weight, and has a lethality far exceeding the grenades of the same caliber when dealing with non-protective targets such as personnel.

That's right, the power of a 120mm mortar shell is comparable to that of a 150mm grenade.

The key is that 120mm mortar shells are only more than 20 kilograms, less than one-third of the 150mm grenade. Therefore, with the transportation capacity being comparable, the mortar shells transported are more than three times that of the grenade, which is equivalent to increasing the duration of the fire strike by more than three times.

As for range, the minor matters that come back.

After all, the maximum range of the 120mm mortar can reach 12 kilometers, which is enough to cover the frontier battlefield.

In addition, a mortar squad only requires 4 gunners at most, and 2 people can operate if necessary. Therefore, the same company can have 24 mortar companies and only 16 mortar companies. Besides, the rapid rate of fire and continuous firing of mortars are faster than howitzers of the same level, so whether it is continuous suppression or full-speed firing in an emergency, the combat efficiency of the mortar company is greater than that of the howitzers.

Unfortunately, the two companies have too few troops.

In addition, due to ammunition restrictions, the role of howitzer company does not play a prominent role and can only be used to suppress the enemy's long-range body-managed weapons.

Most of the time, 24-door PJ-120F is firing.

To deal with enemies from three directions at the same time, 24 mortars are indeed far from enough.

The fierce battle lasted until around 10 a.m., and the Fan army had approached the airport's drop from the east and south, posing a serious threat to the defensive strongholds in these two directions.

When the battle reached the most difficult time, the small troops of the Fan army even attacked the airfield.

The key point is that after the Fan army approached, due to the possibility of accidentally injuring friendly forces, front-line attack aircraft and heavy attack aircraft did not dare to rashly drop bombs. The ground forces must guide the target, so the efficiency of air support was greatly reduced and failed to produce the effect of defeating the enemy.

Many times, because the officers and soldiers of both sides are too close, they can only use machine guns to strafuse the enemy by "Attack-9B".

If you want to say it, it is also thanks to more than 100 "Occurrence-9B" sent by the Air Force.

According to the Air Force's battle report, by noon on the 10th, more than 350 orders of 120 "Occurrence-9Bs" deployed at the air force base outside Hyde were dispatched, and almost all the attack aircraft that could fly had three orders, with an average of one order every 3 hours.

It means that these "attack-9Bs" almost all drop bombs after flying over the battlefield. The average number of each squad stays over the battlefield for less than 15 minutes.

This dispatch frequency can be said to be extremely high!

As for the strength of the attack, there is no doubt.

In these 10 hours, 120 "Occurrence-9Bs" used up more than 1,500 250 kilogram bombs, nearly 1,000 short-range air-to-ground missiles, more than 3,000 80mm rockets, and 200,000 40mm shells, with a total drop of an astonishing 1,500 tons.

If it weren't for these "attack-9B", the airfield would have been captured by the Fan army long ago.

However, the air support provided by "Occurrence-9B" will last until noon on the 10th.

It is not that the Air Force is unwilling to continue to contribute, but that the tanker that is responsible for supporting the front-line attack aircraft will return at noon on the 10th, and then it will not be redeployed until after 22 o'clock at night. Without the support of the tanker, the "Occurrence-9B" cannot fly directly from Hydebara to Deager.

In addition, after three consecutive dispatches, almost all "attack-9B" need to be maintained.

That's true, in the plan, only close air support provided by front-line attack aircraft is required to last until noon.

According to the plan, the counterattack of the Fan army will be defeated before noon.

Unfortunately, until the last batch of "Occurrence-9B" flew away after 12 noon, the Fantasy army's counterattack troops still launched an attack on the airport in the south and east.

Although a round of interruption bombing initiated by heavy attack aircraft successfully crushed the first round of offensive operations launched by the Fan army at noon before 1 pm, the heavy attack aircraft was not on call, and after suffering a series of violent impacts, the outer defense line of the aircraft was already crumbling.

The key is that the Marine Corps suffered a lot of casualties, and the reduction rate of both battalions has exceeded 30%.

Under the circumstances at that time, as long as the Fan army launched two more rounds of attacks, they could break through the outer defense line of the aircraft's subsidence and even encircle and annihilate the two land battle battalions with weak power.

It was in this context that Liu Zunshan had to launch an emergency plan.

It must be said that Ding Zhennan has a good habit, that is, no matter what the situation on the battlefield, he will always keep his hands when making plans, and often he will prepare multiple backup plans to ensure that after an accident, there is room for maneuver and not be helpless.

This time is no exception!
Chapter completed!