Empire Conquest

Chapter 649 - 2: Strong on Both Land and Sea_2

Clearly, traditional ship-borne attack aircraft stood no chance before the modernized air defense system.

For this reason, a new type of ship-borne attack aircraft capable of using modern ammunition was needed.

It was based on these requirements that the "War-12" multi-purpose fighter was developed.

When equipped with anti-aircraft ammunition, the "War-12" acted as a slightly inferior performer, but it could complement the "War-9" in battle and fill gaps in the fleet’s air defense.

With precision-guided munitions, the "War-12" was a considerably more advanced attack aircraft than the "Attack-6".

In fact, in all main aspects, the "War-12" completely outperformed the "Attack-6"; even the criticized range could be compensated for through air refueling.

Moreover, in terms of operational flexibility, the "War-12" far surpassed the "Attack-5".

Thus, after the "War-12" entered service, it was the "Attack-6" that it replaced.

In a standard configuration, a ship-borne aircraft Air Force Wing had four or five "War-12" squadrons, with only one squadron dual-tasked with air defense.

Regrettably, the production of the "War-12" was severely insufficient.

Not due to lack of production capacity, but because of insufficient funding.

To date, of the Empire Navy’s 15 ship-borne aircraft wings, only 9 had received the "War-12", and their conversion rates were all below 50%.

In other words, the "Attack-6" still served its remaining purpose within all the ship-borne aircraft Wings.

As for the "Attack-5", it was irreplaceable for the time being.

More accurately, the project to replace the "Attack-5" with "Attack X" was still in progress; it didn’t even have a prototype yet, and mass production was even further off.

The "War-12" had not replaced the "Attack-5" not just because of its payload issue but also due to concerns about operational radius.

From the standpoint of the Empire Navy, they certainly wouldn’t replace the "Attack-5", with its operational range of 2,000 kilometers, with the "War-12", whose range was less than 1,000 kilometers.

Without the "Attack-5", and with only the "War-12", the Empire Navy’s carrier battle groups would have to take the enormous risk of approaching enemy territory and engaging in close coastal warfare, something the Navy had consistently strived to avoid for decades.

In fact, this was also the key reason why the Empire Navy favored heavy attack and fighter aircraft.

The "Attack-5" not only had a maximum operational radius of 2,000 kilometers, but also had a maximum payload of 13 tons, nearly making it a small bomber.

Crucially, with buddy air refueling, the "Attack-5" could carry out ultra-long-range bombing missions without relying on the Air Force.

This ability ensured the Navy Air Force’s independence.

On the tarmac, there were several squadrons of "War-12", "Attack-5", and "Attack-6".

Other Navy ship-borne aircraft, such as the "Xun-4B" Anti-submarine Patrol Aircraft, "Zhi-6C" Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft, "Yun-6B" Shipborne Transport Aircraft, "Z-8F" Anti-submarine Helicopter, were not transferred over as they were not scheduled to participate in the upcoming joint military exercise.

However, stationed at the base were not only Navy combat aircraft.

Near the hangar, neatly arranged were more than a dozen heavy armored helicopters belonging to the Army Air Force.

The most eye-catching among them were four "Z-10" heavy armored helicopters that had only entered service three years ago and achieved operational capability last year, participating in a military exercise for the first time.

Although they did not appear as imposing as the Navy’s ship-borne aircraft, these armed helicopters were undoubtedly the lifeblood of the Army Air Force.

In fact, helicopters were all that the Land Air Force had.

According to the "military equipment division agreement" of the time, all equipment with wings that could fly belonged to the Air Force, which the Army later took advantage of.

Helicopters use rotors, not wings, and thus were not included under the "winged" equipment category.

It was precisely because of this that, during the Boi War, the Empire Army was able to establish the Army Air Force based on helicopters and allowed the Land Air Force to expand significantly out of wartime necessity.

In that war, the Empire Army deployed over ten thousand helicopters, suffering tremendous losses exceeding 5,000!

For this reason, the Boi War was also known as "the helicopter war".

In this war, the armed helicopter, built to strike ground targets, made its dramatic debut and displayed extremely formidable combat power.

Furthermore, with the advent of ship-borne anti-tank missiles, the Empire’s Army Air Force found that armed helicopters were the most ideal anti-armor platforms.

In joint exercises over the past few years, Land Air Force’s armed helicopters played the role of tank killers.

According to statistics from the Army Air Force, one specialized armed helicopter could offset more than 20 main battle tanks, with an astonishingly impressive cost-effectiveness ratio.

Of course, this data definitely contained a lot of fluff.

In order to secure funding for the research, development, and procurement of armed helicopters, Land Air Force surely had to exaggerate their value, especially the efficacy of anti-armor operations, which the Imperial High Command was most concerned about.

The approximately 50,000 main battle tanks deployed in the Luosha Democratic Republic by the Western Continent Group had long been a nightmare that the Imperial High Command and the 800 million citizens and soldiers of the Empire could not shake off!

It was against this backdrop that the Empire’s Army initiated the development project for the Z-10 after the Boi War concluded.

Strictly speaking, the Z-10 was the Army’s first type of specialized armed helicopter while the previously developed Z-7, in collaboration with the Marine Corps, was actually an armed helicopter derived from the Z-4 general-purpose helicopter with local improvements, retaining the basic structure of the general-purpose helicopter.

Compared to the Z-7, the most notable feature of the Z-10 was its enhanced attack ability and survivability, specifically geared towards anti-tank combat.

For this reason, the Z-10 was called the "flying tank" by the Army.

Of course, its official name was "Black Tornado."

The nickname "flying tank" was by no means an undeserved reputation.

With ceramic composite armor wrapping around the cockpit, engine bay, and the fuel tank area in the rear fuselage, it could withstand 30mm high-explosive bombs and 20mm armor-piercing bullets, and the thickness of the cockpit’s windscreen reached 20mm, able to block bullets from 15mm anti-aircraft machine guns.

In addition, the five-blade main rotor utilized a damage-resistant structure that allowed for continued flight for 15 minutes after any blade was shot.

All five main fuel tanks employed a self-sealing structure.

The dry gearbox could continue to operate for more than 30 minutes after being penetrated and completely losing its lubricating oil.

The two main landing gears of the rear tricycle gear system were high-stroke, impact-resistant structures that could still provide pilots with a survival probability of not less than 50% at a fall speed of 15 meters per second.

Of course, compared to its impressive survivability, the Z-10’s attack capability was even more formidable.

It wasn’t that the Z-10 could carry more or more advanced weapons than the Z-7, but rather it relied on a variety of advanced equipment for its more powerful breakthrough capabilities.

Utilizing the electro-optical detection equipment mounted on the nose and the third-generation thermal imager, the Z-10 could carry out precise strikes on ground targets within 10 kilometers while flying at less than 20 meters above the ground at night and under complex meteorological conditions.

Additionally, thanks to advanced electronic equipment, the Z-10 could fly at a height of the treetops at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.

This altitude allowed the Z-10 to avoid almost all air defense radars, and the lower speed prevented it from being targeted by early warning aircraft.

In joint exercises over the past few years, Land Air Force’s armed helicopters have shown strong assault capabilities.

However, due to their own performance limitations, the task of performing breakthrough duties by armed helicopters had always been only a concept.

It wasn’t until the arrival of the Z-10 that this concept had the possibility of becoming a reality.

How exactly to achieve this still needed to be explored and summarized during exercises.

At this time, the discussions related to this had been going on for several hours in the command center of the base. The focus of the debate was which military branch, or rather which combat platform, was more suitable for the task of firing the first shot in a breakthrough, that is, to destroy the enemy’s air defense nodes after the start of the war.

Typically, it was the air search warning radar in the entire air defense system with the lowest degree of interconnection.

On the tactical level, as long as a breakthrough could be made in the enemy’s air defense network, it would allow fighters and bombers to drive straight through and carry out precise strikes on high-value targets in the enemy’s rear, such as air force bases and command centers, as well as air defense positions and communications institutions.

As long as the enemy’s air defense and command systems could be paralyzed, gaining air superiority would be achieved with half the effort!

The problem was that this tactic still remained a concept and had never been verified in real combat, except in limited military exercises.

Obviously, what theoretically worked didn’t necessarily translate to practice.