French sent Nixon not only intelligence, but also orders.

Judging from the situation at that time, French should not have received the Air Force's war report, that is, they were not sure that the first round of attacks launched by the Air Force ended in failure. However, according to the information disclosed after the war, the US Air Force sent the war report to the Pacific Fleet Command at 1:30. From this, it can be roughly concluded that French should have known the result of the first round of attacks. In this case, it is a bit unreasonable to order Nixon to attack the Second Fleet.

Compared with the Air Force, the US Third Fleet's carrier-based fighter jets have only one advantage: they can use anti-ship guided bombs.[]

The problem is that there must be a prerequisite for using anti-ship guided bombs, that is, obtain absolute air supremacy. Only when absolute air supremacy is mastered can fighter jets carrying anti-ship guided bombs launch a smooth attack. If there are enemy planes on the battlefield, the attack effect will not be much better.

The reality is that there are indeed a large number of fighter jets over the Second Fleet.

The US Air Force's battle report has shown that the fighter jets that were left to identify the results of the battle were attacked and were expelled by Chinese fighters.

The problem lies here.

With the strength of the US Third Fleet, at most less than 150 fighter jets could be dispatched at a time. If there were more than 50 air defense fighters over the Second Fleet, the air strikes of the US Third Fleet would not have achieved great results. At that time, the number of fighters covering the Second Fleet reached 72.

Forty-eight of these fighters arrived after one point and did not participate in the previous battle.

The twenty-four aircraft that arrived before one o'clock also had three hours of patrol capacity, that is, these fighters would return before two half past two.

At this time, Nixon's tactical arrangements will play a crucial role.

In a sense, Nixon had no illusions about annihilation of the Second Fleet. As a direct participant in the Second Digo Garcia Naval Battle, Nixon was very clear about the combat effectiveness of the Chinese fleet, especially the air defense combat capability. However, he was more aware of the Chinese fleet's strike capability, especially the artillery strike capability. The Micronesian Naval Battle has proved that the Chinese Navy has large-caliber electromagnetic cannon shells with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, and the distance between the two sides was about 1,000 kilometers. What's more serious is that the speed of the Second Fleet was as high as forty-five knots, and it was heading towards the Third Fleet of the US military. In other words, no matter how Nixon changed its course, the distance between the two fleets was shortened at a speed of more than 12 nautical miles per hour. The Second Fleet did not launch an attack for the time being, not because it was impossible to attack the Third Fleet of the US military, but it had not discovered the Third Fleet of the US military, because the first fleet with aircraft carriers was far away more than two thousand kilometers away.

In this way, Nixon faces an extremely serious problem: if his whereabouts are exposed, the U.S. Third Fleet will suffer a devastating blow and will have no power to fight back.

Escape? Unless a miracle happens, you will definitely not be able to escape.

Faced with this life-and-death issue, even if Nixon is unsure of launching an attack, he has to bet all his bets on the attack.

Of course, the situation is not entirely unfavorable.

Distance is both a fatal hole in the U.S. Third Fleet and a favorable factor that can be exploited, because it means that the returning fighter jets have enough fuel to hover over the fleet waiting to land, unlike when attacking enemy ships two thousand kilometers away, they must land immediately.

In other words, Nixon can dispatch as many carrier-based fighters as possible and can arrange attack tactics flexibly.

In addition, there is another advantageous factor, that is, there is no need to consider being attacked by Chinese fighter jets for the time being.

With these two favorable factors, it is not difficult to choose tactically.

After two o'clock, Nixon first sent out an escort fighter jet, or in other words, the air defense fighter jets that were taken off to patrol the air to perform escort missions.

Because when air defense fighters are deployed, it is not certain when they will be attacked. These fighters take off in full state. Therefore, at two o'clock, the fighters still have two-thirds of the remaining oil, enough to fly one thousand kilometers away, perform half an hour of air combat missions, and then return to the fleet to land. Under normal circumstances, air defense fighters that are urgently launched often carry only two-thirds, or even half of the fuel.

Of course, Nixon also sent out four early warning aircraft over the fleet.

Although the fighter jets of the main fleet of China cannot attack the U.S. third fleet, they can definitely cover the second fleet, so it is necessary to send additional early warning aircraft.

Immediately afterwards, Nixon asked the fighter plane to take off on the attack mission.

However, at that time, the U.S. Third Fleet was not prepared for the attack. In fact, before receiving French orders, Nixon had never thought of attacking the Chinese fleet.

For a moment, the air service personnel on three US aircraft carriers were in chaos.

You should know that before Nixon decided to attack, the U.S. Third Fleet prepared fighter jets according to air defense methods, and there were air defense fighter jets ready for emergency takeoff on the flight deck. Now, to arrange for fighter jets to take off for the attack mission to take off, the first thing to do is to move the air defense fighter jets away, then hang ammunition in the hangar and load fuel onto the flight deck, and eject them in turn.

This is a troublesome thing when it comes to aircraft carriers where space is already limited.

It was not until 2:30 that the first batch of attack aircraft left the aircraft carrier. By 2:45, all 120 attack aircraft arranged by Nixon took off.

At this point, Nixon had sent 168 fighter jets.

At that time, there were still forty-eight fighter jets left in the U.S. Third Fleet, and they were all air defense fighters that were previously prepared to take off for combat when necessary.

Nixon did not hesitate and sent out the forty-eight fighter jets.

However, when the attack aircraft group was dispatched, all forty-eight fighter jets were transferred to the hangar and now they had to be re-sent on the flight deck.

Before this, the U.S. Third Fleet had to give priority to ejecting four carrier-based early warning aircraft.

The reason is very simple. The flight speed of the carrier-based early warning aircraft is slow and must be taken off first to ensure that the fighter aircraft carrying out air control missions arrives at the battlefield at the same time.

As a result, it was not until after three o'clock that the second batch of escort fighters took off one after another.

At this time, the battle over the Second Fleet had begun, with the two sides fighting were seventy-two J-33bs and forty-eight US fighters.

Obviously, Nixon didn't know that the First Fleet not only dispatched fighter jets, but also dispatched carrier-based early warning aircraft.

There is nothing strange about it. The range of a carrier-based early warning aircraft is much higher than that of a fighter, and the air stagnation time is greater than that of a fighter. It can basically accompany the fighter to perform air control missions throughout the journey. Since it is to cover the second fleet, the first fleet has no reason not to dispatch a carrier-based early warning aircraft.

In this way, this air battle, which Nixon believed was not much suspense, was indeed not much suspense. It was not the US military that occupied the overwhelming advantage, but the Chinese Navy.

In less than fifteen minutes of battle, not only forty-eight US fighter jets were shot down forty-four, but all four US early warning aircraft that came to help were shot down. The Chinese Navy lost only eleven fighter jets, nine of which belonged to the first batch of air defense fighters.

Fortunately, the US attack aircraft fleet delayed its departure by forty-five minutes.

When the first batch of US escort fighters were defeated, the US attack aircraft group was still 500 kilometers away from the second fleet and did not enter the detection range of the carrier-based early warning aircraft.

The result was that the US attack aircraft swung northward and did not launch an attack immediately.

For fighters with two anti-ship guided bombs, it is impossible to defeat light air defense fighters in air combat.

Of course, the first batch of US escort fighter jets were not sacrificed in vain.

After the first round of air combat, the first batch of air defense fighters returned because there was little fuel left. There were only forty-six j-33bs left above the Second Fleet, and two-thirds of the fighters used more than half of the interceptor missiles, and the other third also used some air-to-air ammunition.

What they have to face is the second batch of forty-eight fully armed US fighter jets.

Before four o'clock, the second round of air battle began.

Immediately afterwards, the US attack aircraft group, which had been hovering outside the battlefield for almost half an hour, began to charge and approached the Second Fleet from an ultra-low altitude.

It can be said that the situation was very dangerous at that time.

Even if the US escort fighter jets do not gain air supremacy, as long as they suppress the air defense fighter jets and limit the air combat airspace to the second fleet, the US attack aircraft group can successfully break through the Second Fleet's air defense network and drop anti-ship guided bombs over the Second Fleet.

Unfortunately, the US escort fighter jets not only failed to seize air supremacy, but also voluntarily retreated more than 100 kilometers after the attack aircraft group entered the attack line.

It’s not that the US fighter pilots are afraid of death, but that they are seriously lacking in practical experience.

You should know that the third US fleet at this time was actually the previous Pacific Fleet. In the Battle of Micronesia, the US Pacific Fleet lost 70% of the fighter jets, and the loss rate of pilots was as high as 50%. There were very few pilots who could escape by chance.

At that time, less than a quarter of the pilots of the U.S. Third Fleet had practical experience.

The other three-quarters are rookies recruited after the war breaks out, or newbies who only join the U.S. Navy Air Force after the war breaks out.

During the battle, these pilots only remembered the instructor's words, that is, do not interfere with the attack.

In their opinion, evacuating the attack area means not interfering with the attack operation.

Obviously, this is a very wrong understanding. Because only when they stay in the attack area, the medium-range air defense missiles on the Second Fleet air defense warships cannot exert their power, because air defense warships will also worry about accidentally injuring air defense fighters and will not easily use air defense missiles.

Since the US escort fighter jets have withdrawn, the air defense fighter jets have also withdrawn from the fleet's air defense area.

Now, when the fleet is conducting air defense operations, there is no need to worry about it.

The maximum range of medium-range air defense missiles is only 60 kilometers, and the air combat area is almost 200 kilometers away, so it is impossible to accidentally injure a friend's aircraft.

This is definitely a disaster for the US attack aircraft that is preparing to drop bombs.
Chapter completed!