Empire Conquest

Chapter 648 - 2: Powerful on Land and Sea

At the same time, on the eastern shore of Balkhash Lake, deep in the Atla Desert, an Air Force base.

Though called an Air Force base, all the aircraft lined up alongside the runway were ship-borne aircraft from the Navy Air Force, with the most eye-catching being the "War-9B" heavy shipborne fighter, nicknamed "Giant Panda."

Strictly speaking, the "War-9" was the pioneering third-generation fighter.

While the Empire’s Air Force was worried about engines for the "War-11," the Empire’s Navy went ahead and procured and equipped themselves with the "War-9A," which had mature engines.

It’s not that the Empire’s Navy didn’t care about engine quality, but they were driven by circumstances.

Compared to the Air Force, the Navy was in greater need of an advanced fighter to address the increasingly prominent aerial threats, especially from enemy Plane Groups that could carry several, or even a dozen, heavy anti-ship missiles, organized using modern communication systems and able to launch attacks at Mach 2 speeds.

In other words, the Empire’s Navy urgently needed an advanced interceptor.

This requirement was fully embodied in the aerodynamic configuration of the "War-9."

Among the Empire’s four third-generation fighters, only the "War-9" adopted the variable Swept Wing configuration, which was commonly used on second-generation fighters and now considered to be more beneficial than not.

Even from an international perspective, there were only two third-generation fighters equipped with variable swept wings.

Interestingly enough, both were ship-borne fighters.

This also indirectly reflected the fact that the Navy’s tactical requirements were vastly different from the Air Force’s, making an Air Force’s fighter not necessarily suitable for the Navy.

In terms of specific performance, the "War-9" was more akin to a long-range interceptor.

Although its maximum flight speed was only Mach 2.3, lower than the Air Force’s "War-11" and even the "War-10A," with the high-thrust engines swapped in, the "War-9" had limited supersonic cruising ability and could sprint 600 kilometers at a speed of Mach 2.0.

Moreover, the "War-9’s" main combat weapon was a long-range air-to-air missile with a range of up to 150 kilometers.

Using its flat-plate slit fire control radar, the "War-9" could fire at up to six enemy aircraft simultaneously.

Additionally, due to its variable swept wings, the "War-9" boasted the most outstanding turning performance among the third-generation heavy fighters, also known as roll maneuverability.

If the "War-9A" was limited by its engine and had performance flaws, the "War-9B" with its new engines was definitely one of the best heavy fighters of its time.

In last year’s joint confrontation exercise, the "War-9B" making its debut performance humiliated its past defeats by achieving a proud record of 19 wins, 1 draw, and no losses in a one-on-one dogfight competition with the "War-11," teaching a harsh lesson to the pilots of the Empire’s Air Force.

However, the "War-9B" wasn’t perfect.

The most glaring issue was its poor reliability and maintainability, along with its ridiculously high operating costs.

Even as the Empire’s Navy avidly touted the combat power of the "War-9," they couldn’t deny that the "War-9" was a fighter the Navy couldn’t afford.

Furthermore, it lacked multipurpose capabilities.

Since the Empire’s Navy had its own dedicated fleet of ship-borne attack aircraft, and plenty of them, there was no need to make fighters perform strike missions.

To be clear, the "War-9" was a true "purebred" fighter.

However, its complex structure and excessive weight meant that the "War-9" couldn’t be converted into a multi-purpose fighter like the "War-10" and "War-11" by adding specialized equipment without significantly altering the airframe.

That’s why, after the "War-9" was in service, the Empire’s Navy purchased the "War-12" multi-purpose shipborne fighter.

The "War-12" was the Empire’s fourth and final third-generation fighter; it was officially commissioned in the New Calendar year 134, the very year the "War-10A" was already in large-scale service, and it took six years to secure a Navy procurement contract, with the first batch delivered in the New Calendar year 142.

By the time the "War-12" was combat-ready, the other three third-generation fighters had already taken Center Stage.

It was not because the "War-9" was too expensive that compelled the Empire’s Navy to compromise.

Fundamentally, it was new attack tactics and the operational requirements that these tactics demanded of combat aircraft that gave rise to the "War-12."

Put simply, the "War-12" was not intended to fill the void due to an inadequate number of "War-9s;" it was to replace the performance-outdated "Attack" series of shipborne aircraft.

It was labeled with the "War" series as it was easier to secure funding.

Before the "War-12," the Empire’s Navy had two sizes of ship-borne attack aircraft: the 40-ton "Attack-5" heavy attack aircraft and the 15-ton "Attack-6" light attack aircraft.

Strictly speaking, the "Attack-6" was a downsized version meant to complement the "Attack-5."

Primarily, the "Attack-5" was just too large; if arranged into five squadrons, it would lead to a substantial decrease in the number of ship-borne aircraft.

The key point was, the "War-9" was also a 40-ton class ship-borne aircraft.

It was precisely because of this that, on the Empire’s Super Carriers, a typical complement was three heavy attack squadrons plus two light attack squadrons, while the arrangements on large carriers were exactly the opposite.

Even so, this posed a challenge to the organizational system of the Shipborne Air Force Wing.

In its full complement, a Super Carrier could carry only three squadrons, a total of 24 "War-9B" aircraft, and the large carriers had to carry even fewer.

No matter the arrangement, as long as these were the ship-borne aircraft involved, there would inevitably be a shortage of either fighters or attack aircraft.

Both attack aircraft types were traditional shipborne aircraft, primarily using unguided munitions to carry out bombing missions at ultra-low altitudes.