Empire Conquest

Chapter 664 - 9 Missile Pitcher

Euphrates River Delta, local time just past 1 p.m.

Before soaring over Basra, Hassan had lowered the altitude of the "Super Flag" attack aircraft to 150 meters to evade the shipborne early warning aircraft to the east.

Years before, the Iraq Air Force had witnessed the immense value of early warning aircraft.

In truth, they had been "used" to demonstrate the value of early warning aircraft.

At that time, during the second year of the war with Boi Country, after obtaining full support from the Tiaoman Empire and the tacit consent of the Liangxia Empire, the Iraq Army launched a reprisal and achieved a series of victories. In the last reprisal operation, the Iraq Air Force deployed nearly 300 combat aircraft in an attempt to seize the Lowland Province of Boi Country through a large-scale offensive and force the Boi authorities to admit defeat.

In this decisive battle that would determine the outcome of the Iran-Iraq War, Hassan took charge in the front lines piloting a fighter.

Unfortunately, the dream lasted only three days.

On the fourth day of the battle, to be precise, on the evening of the third day, the Boi Air Force launched a desperate counterattack, reversing the tide of battle in just a few hours.

The next morning, by the time Hassan took to the skies in his fighter, the victor had been decided.

In fact, in the first four hours, the Boi Air Force had destroyed the Iraq Air Force’s air defense positions outside of Basra through a surprise strike.

air defense missile systems from 8 battalions were completely destroyed!

After that, the Boi Air Force also claimed to have shot down over 50 Iraqi fighters in aerial combat and boasted of not losing a single aircraft in the fight.

Of course, that was surely boasting.

Hassan’s squadron had shot down a Boi fighter that day, and it was very likely one of the F-14As imported from the Newland Republic.

Still, no one could deny that the Iraq Air Force had suffered a terrible defeat that day.

Losing that air battle directly led to the loss of aerial supremacy for the Iraq Air Force, rendering them incapable of continuing to provide air support for ground troops.

After months of fierce fighting and hundreds of thousands of casualties, the Iraq Army had no choice but to abandon the operation to seize the Lowland Province.

For six more years of hard fighting, the Iraq Army never managed to penetrate the Lowland Province.

Exhausted, the two sides finally sat down to negotiate.

Hassan had long known that in those "black 12 hours," what helped the Boi Air Force achieve victory were the three early warning aircraft urgently supplied by the Newland Republic.

They were all shipborne early warning aircraft.

It wasn’t that shipborne early warning aircraft were more advanced, quite the contrary, they had a lower technological threshold, far fewer export restrictions, and were easier to master and operate.

During the entire air battle, the Boi Air Force relied on early warning aircraft to keep tabs on every move of the Iraq Air Force.

To put it bluntly, not long after Iraqi fighters took off, they were detected by early warning aircraft, with all subsequent movements clear as day.

The Iraq Air Force, relying on ground radar, never seized the initiative on the battlefield.

With the enemy hidden and us exposed, how could we not be defeated?

It was for this reason that before the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraq Army sought early warning aircraft from around the world.

Although, after much effort, they finally obtained a large early warning aircraft from the Tiaoman Empire last year—jointly developed by several West Continent group member countries—it cost billions of marks and had very advanced performance indicators. Yet, a year after its delivery, the aircraft had not achieved combat effectiveness.

According to the Tiaoman Advisors, this was because it was too advanced, resulting in its reliability not being high.

In other words, that early warning aircraft was not a weapon meant for warfare, but a high-tech showpiece.

The performance of the Liangxia Navy early warning aircraft would definitely not be inferior.

The world’s first shipborne early warning aircraft was born in the Liangxia Navy, and for decades, the Liangxia Navy has always had the most advanced shipborne aircraft.

The shipborne early warning aircraft sold by the Newland Republic to Boi Country were actually knock-offs of the Liangxia shipborne early warning aircraft.

Of course, under the guidance of the Tiaoman Advisors, Hassan and other Iraqi pilots already knew that the best way to evade early warning aircraft at the current stage was to fly at ultra-low altitudes.

Before entering the airspace over Boss Bay, Hassan had lowered the flying altitude once again and checked the status of the main equipment.

Earlier, in order to avoid exposing his attack intent prematurely, Hassan had followed a squadron of "Mirage" F1 fighters heading towards Kuwait City for a bombing mission after takeoff. He only turned to break away from the fighter formation after the first reduction of altitude.

According to the tactics provided by the Tiaoman Advisors, when flying over the sea, the altitude must be controlled below 50 meters.

The Liangxia Navy’s shipborne early warning aircraft were optimized against the mirroring interference produced by the sea surface, with strong detection capabilities for sea-skimming targets.

Of course, this was the only aspect that required the pilot’s attention.

Directly to the east of Basra, to be precise, 10,000 meters above the "Super Flag" piloted by Hassan, a patrol aircraft belonging to the Central War Zone Headquarters was using its sea-search radar to monitor the Liangxia escort ship that had been lingering in international waters.

Next, the patrol aircraft would use a data link to send battlefield information to the attack aircraft piloted by Hassan.

Because of this, there was no need to climb to an altitude of 500 meters before launching the attack and use the fire control radar to search for the battleship.

This greatly reduced the chance of exposure.

It also significantly simplified the attack process.

Without the support and assistance of the patrol aircraft, typically two "Super Flags" would operate in coordination, with one dedicated to navigation and target search.