novelaction Chapter 269: Navy and Air Force Refit
Chapter 269: Navy and Air Force Refit
Two new 80,000-ton conventional-powered aircraft carriers are about to enter service.
These two aircraft carriers and the four Enterprise nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that will be in service in the future are the real main aircraft carriers of the ancient country's navy in the future.
The Midway-class aircraft carrier was just a medium-sized aircraft carrier for the ancient navy.
But as of now, these two medium-sized aircraft carriers are still the main aircraft carriers of the ancient navy.
As a medium-sized aircraft carrier, it also began to follow in the footsteps of the Essex-class aircraft carrier.
As the tonnage and size of carrier-based aircraft increase, the number of carrier-based aircraft has been reduced.
However, the combat effectiveness did not decrease, but increased a lot.
According to Navy tests, it can carry up to 70 jet carrier-based aircraft.
Equipped with two squadrons of F-4 Phantom twin-engine heavy fighters, totaling 24 aircraft.
Two squadrons of A-6 "Intruder" two-seat, twin-engine heavy carrier-based attack aircraft, totaling 32 aircraft.
One E-2 Hawkeye carrier-based early warning aircraft squadron, with 4 aircraft.
One EF-10B 'Sky Knights' electronic warfare squadron, numbering 4 aircraft.
One SH-3 anti-submarine helicopter squadron, with 4 aircraft.
One C-2 Greyhound carrier-based general-purpose transport aircraft squadron, with two aircraft.
A total of eight squadrons and 70 carrier-based aircraft of various types.
This is the number of carrier-based aircraft that the Navy tailored for the Midway-class aircraft carrier.
The potential of the Midway-class aircraft carrier has been exploited to the fullest extent possible.
At this time, another shortcoming of the Midway-class aircraft carrier was exposed.
That is because the aircraft carrier's limited tonnage leads to limited area, making it impossible to continue to improve the aircraft carrier and lack an anti-submarine command center.
Therefore, there is no way to carry the latest S-2 'Tracker' carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft.
This anti-submarine aircraft has been in service since 54, but there is no aircraft carrier capable of carrying it.
Therefore, this anti-submarine aircraft has never been in service in the navy.
It will have to wait until the new aircraft carrier comes out before it can be installed to fill the last shortcoming of the aircraft carrier battle group.
It was precisely because of the various limitations of the Midway-class aircraft carriers that Jiang Hua decided to continue to add two Red Alert version Kitty Hawk-class conventional-powered aircraft carriers to replace the two Midway-class aircraft carriers.
The two Midway-class aircraft carriers will be converted into amphibious assault ships and continue to be used.
The only drawback is that the aircraft carrier has no dock and can only be used with ship-borne helicopters.
It is used simply as a helicopter carrier.
But this is also a good use of the material.
Just like the two Essex-class aircraft carriers, they were directly converted into fleet command ships, so that not one was wasted.
After all, large platforms can accommodate more electronic equipment.
As the central brain of the entire fleet, the command ship can be responsible for commanding naval and air forces to conduct operations without interference.
As for the F-8 carrier-based fighter jets, A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft, AD-4W early warning aircraft and other fighter jets retired from the aircraft carrier, they have all been sealed.
It is absolutely impossible for carrier-based aircraft to be sold for military purposes.
Although the ancient country is short of money now, it is not so short of money.
What's more, the "money" from the propeller fighters has not been fully utilized, so how could the jet fighters be sold?
Who would want an outdated propeller fighter when there are jet fighters?
The navy has begun to replace its new carrier-based aircraft with new aircraft carriers, and they are about to enter service.
But there are two problems.
The first problem arose from the somewhat disappointing F-4 Phantom fighter.
There is no doubt that this fighter jet has powerful performance, but the Eagle Sauce certainly did not equip it with a machine gun.
Because of the emergence of the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile, the technology tree of the Eagle Sauce has been distorted.
In the designers' view, air-to-air missiles can be used to shoot down enemy aircraft, so why do we need useless things like machine guns that only increase dead weight?
It would be better to remove the cannon, reduce weight and save valuable fuselage space.
So the current F-4 model does not have a cannon.
Fortunately, there is the option of a machine gun pod.
But this also wastes an included mount point.
Therefore, the Ancient Aviation Industry Group received an urgent modification task.
Adds a reliable cannon to the F-4 Phantom fighter.
At the same time, they also received another large project, with a budget of 500 million yuan, and more money can be added later.
This project is the new air-launched anti-ship missile project.
The Navy's technical requirements for the new air-launched anti-ship missile project are also relatively simple.
The weight must be limited to one ton so that the A-6 attack aircraft can be carried and used.
The guidance method needs to adopt terminal radar guidance, so that the attack accuracy will be higher.
These are the two general requirements.
The Navy's demand for anti-ship missiles is very urgent.
The combat method of using jet fighters to drop iron bombs is completely outdated and too risky.
Therefore, the navy must have the means of long-range strike.
It was precisely because of the urgency that the Navy even directly took over the AGM-12B Bullpup air-to-ground missile for use.
The B model of the AGM-12 Bullpup still uses radio guidance, with a maximum range of 17 kilometers and a maximum speed of Mach 2.4.
The launch weight is 812 kg and it is equipped with a 454 kg high-explosive warhead.
It will be used as a transitional model for air-launched anti-ship weapons.
The Ancient Aviation Industry Group also knew the urgency of the navy, so they also came up with an emergency method and began to develop the ancient country's first generation of air-launched anti-ship missiles.
Their emergency solution is to convert the RIM-24 Tatar ship-to-air missile into a light anti-ship missile.
The RIM-24 Tatar ship-to-air missile is one of the Navy's three current air defense missiles, and is used for medium-range and all-weather air defense missions.
Because it adopts full-range semi-active radar homing guidance.
Therefore, this ship-to-air missile can also be used as an anti-ship missile.
But air defense missiles and anti-ship missiles are not the same type after all.
The warhead used by the air defense missile is a fragmentation-killing type, and using it for anti-ship purposes is no different from scraping.
What effect can the fragments have when they hit the thick armor of the battleship other than scraping off a layer of paint?
Therefore, the ancient aviation industry group planned to design an armor-piercing warhead for it.
Since it needs to pose a threat to battleships, the warhead cannot be too light.
The navy's anti-ship missiles have become an upgraded system of the AGM-12B air-to-ground missile anti-ship version, the RIM-24 air defense missile anti-ship version, and the new anti-ship missile.
This is barely usable for the navy.
There are too many aviation industry projects in ancient countries now, which disperses their research and development capabilities, so we cannot demand too much.
For the navy, it's good enough to be usable.
What's more, the navy has more than one anti-ship method.
Submarines are also one of the navy's core anti-ship and anti-submarine means.
The Navy will soon have two submarine models.
One is the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine currently in service, and the other is the Lafayette-class strategic missile nuclear submarine capable of destroying the world.
This thing has been in service for 63 years. It is the third-generation strategic nuclear submarine of the United States and is capable of launching Polaris A submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 2800 kilometers.
However, the main anti-ship and anti-submarine model is definitely the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
Several new torpedoes are now in service.
For example, advanced active and passive sonar-guided and wire-guided torpedoes such as MK-37-2 and MK-48.
These new torpedoes will become deadly weapons for the enemy.
As long as the submarine approaches within 8 kilometers, no matter how large the ship is, it cannot withstand a salvo of fire from a Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
While the navy was quietly accumulating strength, the outside world's attitude towards the ancient country began to change.
The incident of John's Far East Fleet changing its course in Qionghai also made the Western powers realize that they could no longer underestimate this ancient Eastern country that was once poor and backward.
In terms of the size of the fleet currently equipped by the ancient navy, it is actually on par with the major powers.
This is the change brought about by national defense strength.
Only when your guns are strong enough will these Western bandits start to talk to you on an equal footing.
Only when you possess strength far exceeding theirs will they submit to you.
Jiang Hua has long seen this point very clearly, so he is so eager to replace the equipment of the navy, army and air force.
Of course, in Jiang Hua's opinion, it is not very urgent. They waited until after the New Year to start changing their clothes. How can it be called urgent if they did not change their clothes immediately?
The Air Force was the first to start changing its equipment after the New Year.
As for the army... just wait and see. The current equipment is enough. There won't be any wars to fight in the short term anyway.
Moreover, the Military and Political Committee is currently formulating a plan to streamline the army, so there is no need to be too anxious about replacing the army's equipment.
As one of the core combat forces, the Air Force must put equipment replacement on the agenda.
Because this replacement will bring about a qualitative change in the improvement of the Air Force's strength.
It is also a severe test for Jiang Hua's wallet.
This time the Air Force's equipment replacement is a comprehensive replacement, and the main replacement objects are fighter jets, fighter-bombers, attack aircraft, early warning aircraft, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, etc.
There are many types of fighter jets currently in service in the Air Force.
There is only one fighter jet, the F-86K, which will be completely replaced by the second-generation F-4 Phantom fighter.
There are two models of fighter-bombers, the F-100 and the F-105.
The F-105 Thunderlord will continue to be upgraded to the subsequent D model.
The F-100 fighter-bomber will be completely replaced by the famous F-111 Aardvark fighter-bomber.
There is currently only one option for attack aircraft, and that is the J-5 from Tokyo University.
Jiang Hua was very envious of the A-10 Warthog, but this thing was put into service too late.
Therefore, we can only use the powerful five to replace the AD-1 Sky Raider.
However, the performance of the Q-5 is not bad. As a jet subsonic attack aircraft, it is fully capable of doing this job.
The early warning aircraft will continue to use the EC-121, but will be upgraded to a subsequent model and will be equipped with a more advanced AN/APS-95 search radar instead of the previous AN/APS-20.
The tanker fleet will be augmented by a KC-135 jet tanker.
This tanker will also become the Air Force's only main tanker and will be put into service in large numbers.
As for reconnaissance aircraft, the famous SR-71 Blackbird strategic reconnaissance aircraft will be added as a supplement to the Air Force's strategic reconnaissance force.
In addition, more electronic reconnaissance aircraft models will be added to further enhance the Air Force's reconnaissance capabilities.
With various types of reconnaissance aircraft and military reconnaissance satellites, the future battlefield will be unilaterally transparent to the ancient country's national defense forces.
After all, other countries are simply unable to guard against these investigative methods.
It's a complete dimensionality reduction attack that transcends time.
At this time, the ancient country's national defense army could be said to be invincible.