At around 3:20 am, shortly after the 17102nd Armored Battalion was re-scheduled, a sudden disaster came to the vanguard.

There was no sign or even an alarm. More than 20 A-10As in a brigade appeared above the battlefield.

The worst thing is that at that time, all the Imperial Army tanks and chariots could be activated in the middle of the battlefield, and the armored forces of the Fan army had long been defeated.

For those attack aircraft of the Newland Expeditionary Air Force, there is no problem of enemy-to-eight identification.

In addition, according to the artillery tactics adopted by the Fan army before, I am afraid that I will not be worried about accidentally hurting my friendly army.

For the officers and soldiers of the vanguard who were still fighting hard, the attack aircraft that suddenly appeared above their heads were simply demonic existences.

The key is that the air defense company incorporated into the vanguard unit is under the 17304th Aircraft Battalion, at the end of the team.

In addition, the company only has a few self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, as well as several air defense teams that use individual air defense missiles on armored personnel carriers.

It must be said that the commanders of the vanguard forces ignored air defense operations.

Because the Van Luo Air Force had long been defeated and the Newland Expeditionary Air Force did not perform well, it only incorporated an air defense company into the vanguard, leaving the air defense company under the 17309th Aircraft Battalion in the rear to reduce the burden of logistics support.

But the problem is that the air defense company of the 17309th Aircraft Battalion is the main force, and the seventh Company of the 17304th Aircraft Battalion, that is, the air defense company, has not been in good condition. The main reason is that after arriving at Pakistan Railway, it was originally planned to provide the new air defense system to the company, but due to the transportation capacity issue, it has not been delivered in place. Because there has never been an air threat, the commander of the 173rd Aircraft Battalion is not in a hurry.

Interestingly, the temporary formation of several supplementary battalions has obtained a new air defense system.

The main thing is that there is no time for the officers and soldiers of the main force to adapt to the new air defense system. Even if the troops are added, they do not fully master the new air defense system. Otherwise, there is no reason to not use the new air defense system and let the old anti-aircraft guns take the lead in front.

The root of all this is to underestimate the enemy, especially seriously underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Newland Expedition Air Force!

In addition, it must be admitted that the Newland Expeditionary Air Force adopted the right tactics and seized the opportunity.

At that time, the joint command aircraft that was responsible for providing battlefield information to frontline troops and monitoring the changes in the battlefield was the joint command aircraft hovering over Jaisalmel. Because it upgraded its radar and had the ability to detect low-altitude and low-speed targets, the joint command aircraft was able to detect enemy armed helicopters. The problem was that the phased array synthetic aperture radar of the joint command aircraft was not suitable for detecting high-speed targets such as attack aircraft.

According to the deployment of the Air Force, early warning aircraft responsible for commanding air combat are deployed in the southwest of Barmer.

This arrangement is also to take care of the Marines in Gujibang. After all, the Imperial Air Force still needs to provide air cover for the Marines.

The result is that the early warning aircraft is almost 400 kilometers away from the front line.

If you only deal with the threat of the Vanro fighter jet, there is no problem with this deployment. After all, the joint command aircraft is more than 200 kilometers west of the battlefield, and there are several air-controlling fighters nearby. However, it provides cover for the ground troops, and this distance is indeed a little far.

For attack aircraft flying at low altitudes, the detection distance of "Finger-8C" is only 350 kilometers at most.

Those A-10As entered from a low altitude and were not discovered by the early warning aircraft.

In the next 10 minutes, the vanguard suffered the most painful losses after the battle.

According to the battle reports of the 171st Armored Brigade and the 173rd Aircraft Infantry Brigade, during this air strike, the main combat equipment of the five battalions of the vanguard troops was almost completely lost. Even the transport vehicles under the 17309th Aircraft Infantry Battalion were bombed and most of them were destroyed by attack aircraft.

Just a round of air strikes shattered the vanguard's counterattack operation.

If it were to be said, if the 17102nd Armored Battalion had turned the situation around before, the 17104th Armored Battalion also launched a counterattack before the air strike. In addition, the 17309th Armored Battalion controlled the middle defense line, I am afraid that the vanguard army would have been completely wiped out by the Fan army before this round of air strikes ended.

Of course, before being attacked by air strikes, the nearby Fan army had been defeated by the vanguard.

After receiving a call from the front line troops, the commander in the rear contacted the air combat aircraft as soon as possible and went to drive out the attack aircraft.

After the "War-11B" fleet arrived, the attack fleet of the Newland Expeditionary Air Force was immediately defeated.

More than 20 A-10As were shot down by "War-11B", and none of them escaped.

However, when a "War-11B" was chasing A-10A, it was attacked by the Fan army's air defense missiles and shot down by the missiles.

In other words, at 3:30, the vanguard was defeated.

According to post-war investigations, after being hit by air, less than 400 officers and soldiers were left in the five combat battalions of the vanguard troops, and almost all were slightly injured. More than 1,500 officers and soldiers were lost due to serious injuries, and as many as 600 officers and soldiers were killed.

It can be seen that just this little combatant, let alone resisting the attack, was not enough to treat the wounded.

What's more, senior officers of the five battalions were either killed or injured. On the front line that was divided into several sections, the second lieutenant platoon leader was the temporary commander.

The officers and soldiers of the vanguard have not yet collapsed, and they just believe that the main force following behind is about to arrive and will soon be able to receive air support.

Of course, it also has a lot to do with the quality of officers and soldiers.

Given the situation at that time, the Fan army launched another attack and would definitely annihilate the vanguard.

Unfortunately, near the battlefield, there were no established Fan army troops, and there were only scattered soldiers who had been defeated and were almost the same as those of the mobs.

The key point is that the 171st Armored Brigade took action immediately after learning that the vanguard had been hit by an air.

At 3:30, the 17107th Artillery Battalion received an order from the brigade headquarters and opened fire for the first time in just 2 minutes.

The main reason is that the 171st Armored Brigade had already allowed the artillery battalion to be launched on the spot before this. It was just because the battle was too fierce and he was worried that he would accidentally hurt friendly troops, so the artillery brigade did not allow the artillery brigade to participate in the war. Therefore, after receiving the combat order, the 17107th Artillery Battalion opened fire immediately.

As the artillery battalion under the Armored Brigade, the 17107th Battalion was equipped with self-propelled howitzers, with a total of 36 ZS-66Es.

This self-propelled howitzer designed and produced by the Empire has served in the Imperial Army for nearly 30 years and has always been the absolute main force. Even though the ZS-86R was later introduced from Dongluosha, it was only provided to the main force of the Northwest War Zone in order to improve logistics support efficiency.

The main forces in other theaters are equipped with ZS-66.

In addition, the Imperial Army has been improving the ZS-66, and the E-type with a large number of equipment is no longer worse than the ZS-86R in many aspects.

Even with the range problem that has always been criticized, combined with the high-density launcher that was successfully developed before the war, the ZS-66E can reach 25 kilometers with ordinary shells. Even if it uses stock launcher medicine, the range is more than 20 kilometers, which can fully meet combat needs.

After all, the artillery battalions of the brigade are generally deployed from the front, not to mention that the artillery battalions of the armored brigade generally follow the armored troops to conduct assault operations.

In addition, the latest improved model that has been put into mass production also uses a 54-diameter body tube, which increases the range of ordinary shells to 30 kilometers, and the extended range of rockets can reach 40 kilometers, while the effective range of the new shells under development can even reach 70 kilometers.

However, this self-propelled howitzer named ZS-66F will not be delivered as early as next year.

Direct artillery fire support greatly alleviated the pressure on the vanguard troops.

However, at that time, the vanguard troops did not fight with the enemy. After all, the nearby Fan army had been defeated and there was no way to organize an attack.

What followed was the front-line attack aircraft.

In fact, these "Occasion-9Bs" had been hovering outside the battlefield for about half an hour. It was not until the air defense suppression fighter jets destroyed the field air defense system of the Fan army, especially the short-range air defense missiles that had shot down the "War-11B" before, that the joint command aircraft issued a combat order.

The key is that the front-line attack aircraft is directly commanded by the joint command aircraft.

Because the Fan army near the battlefield had been defeated, front-line attack aircraft were sent to the east to attack the Fan army reserve team gathered there.

That is, the troops drawn from three infantry divisions.

Previously, there were two main divisions besieging the vanguard.

Although these Fan army did not have many tanks and combat vehicles, they were infantry units after all, and were not the main force. It would be great to be assigned to some armored personnel carriers. In fact, most of them only have troop trucks, but front-line attack aircraft are not picky about food, and dealing with scattered infantry is also no problem.

In addition, front-line attack aircraft only opened up for large-scale air strikes.

In the following hours, to be precise, until dawn, the heavy attack aircraft of the tactical aviation and the bombers dispatched from the Digo base took turns to the stage, pushing the air strikes to a climax one after another. When dawn was approaching, the long-range artillery of the 17th Armored Division also joined the battle, plowing the Vatican camp of Pelodi with tens of thousands of long-range rockets, and putting the end of the fire strike.

This round of fierce fire strikes is not only about revenge and venting anger, but also about covering the vanguard.

It was just after dawn that the reinforcements sent by the 171st Armored Brigade arrived, and the helicopters dispatched by the Land Airlines also arrived after dawn.

It was not until this time that the threat to the vanguard troops was completely lifted.

In fact, it was only after receiving the report from the 171st Armored Brigade that Ding Zhennan left the command center and went to the officers' restaurant to have breakfast.

This time, the exquisite breakfast prepared by Chef Nayi did not arouse Ding Zhennan's appetite. If it weren't for being hungry and there were many important things to be dealt with as soon as possible, Ding Zhennan would not have come to have breakfast at this time. Staying calm at any time is actually a necessary cultivation for the commander.

Although the vanguard was ambushed, Ding Zhennan did not blame Fu Weimin.

No one can blame for what to say.

The most fundamental reason is that the previous battle was too smooth and there were no setbacks, so all the officers and soldiers, including Ding Zhennan, relaxed their vigilance.

Of course, from another perspective, this is not a bad thing.

At least, the losses suffered by the vanguard are within the range that can be tolerated. If these problems break out when attacking Jaipur, the trouble will be even greater.

The key is that the Newland Expedition Air Force was not defeated and still had strong combat power.

That's why, while waiting for the battle report, Ding Zhennan contacted Li Tianling, mentioned the matter of the Newland Expeditionary Air Force, and asked Li Tianling to find a solution.

Of course, even if Ding Zhen didn't call him, Li Tianling would find a way.

Before this, before Li Tianling arrived, the Air Force spent a lot of resources to search for the Newland fighter jets that left Trifan and moved to the hinterland of the Vanluo Kingdom. Unfortunately, except for concluding that the attack aircraft with huge threats were deployed in the northwest region and involved in combat operations against Pakistan, the Imperial Air Force spent a lot of effort and could not confirm the deployment location of the Newland Expeditionary Air Force.

According to a more credible judgment, these attack aircraft were deployed in an air force base near Jaipur.

But the problem is that there are only 7 large air force bases near Jaipur, as well as more than a dozen civil airports, as well as a large number of temporary field airports. The key is that Jaipur is an industrial center south of Decheng, with many factories and a large number of material warehouses.

Obviously, hiding more than a hundred attack aircraft is not difficult.

That's why the search for the Newland Expeditionary Air Force stopped after a period of time.

In addition, after Li Tianling arrived, he did not ask the Air Force to strengthen his search efforts, or did not have time to deal with matters related to the Newland Expeditionary Air Force.

Actually, this is easy to understand.

After all, the main force of the Newland Expeditionary Air Force was defeated in the previous battle, and only those front-line attack aircraft were transferred in advance could they escape the catastrophe.

In addition, even a small number of escaped fighter jets were almost consumed.

Not to mention Li Tianling, if anyone else, he would also focus on more important things. For example, after Ding Zhennan goes to the east coast to open up a new battlefield, how can the combat troops on the northwest battlefield take on the burden and use the foundation laid by Ding Zhennan to sweep the hinterland of the Fanluo Kingdom.

Now, such a thing happened, not only Li Tianling, but also the air force officers and soldiers from all over the world have lost all their faces.

Of course, Ding Zhennan was not concerned about the face of Air Force officers and soldiers such as Li Tianling.

After breakfast, he contacted Fu Weimin. After asking about the situation of the vanguard, he raised a very sharp but critical question.

Can the 17th Armored Division attack Jaipur as planned, or does it require reinforcements?

Under Ding Zhennan's questioning, Fu Weimin gave an ambiguous reply.

While ensuring the completion of combat missions, Fu Weimin emphasized the difficulties faced by the 17th Armored Division. For example, this battle directly caused the two main combat brigades to suffer heavy damage. Even the troops that did not participate in the war would stay and help the brothers clean up the mess.

The implication is that there are only three combat brigades who can attack.

Obviously, relying solely on this army, whether it can reach Jaipur is a question.

Don't forget that even if you take the opportunity to defeat Pelodi, you will have to attack Jodhpur next.

In fact, this reply did not surprise Ding Zhennan.

If you want to say it, this is Fu Weimin's character and he will never say anything to death at any time, not to mention that this involves tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 17th Armored Division.

On the phone, Ding Zhennan did not give Fu Weimin a clear statement, but asked him to act according to the original plan.

Obviously, even Ding Zhennan had to admit that the counterattack of the Fan army disrupted his combat deployment and inevitably affected subsequent operations.
Chapter completed!