Chapter 285 E-3 AWACS

F-4 takes off! Inside the Aomori base, one after another of the bloated F-4 fighter planes came out of the hangar, started their engines, and prepared for takeoff.

Originally, after the F-15 fighter jets were equipped to the US military stationed in Japan, the F-4 fighter jets were almost reduced to a supporting role. This heavy fighter jet had limited performance and was not suitable for fighting with flexible fighter jets. Therefore, they had been relegated to the second line. The original plan was to use the F-15 to seize air superiority, and then follow up with the F-4 fighter jets to attack the rolling Soviet armored torrent on the ground.

Therefore, the F-4 fighters are all equipped with ground-attack equipment. In addition to the auxiliary fuel tanks and two Sidewinder missiles for self-defense, they are mainly equipped with various ground-attack bombs and missiles.

Now, with the F-15s out of action, the F-4 fighters have to take on the main responsibility again. The ground crews are scrambling to remove the various bombs and replace them with medium-range Sparrow missiles, which will waste at least half an hour of precious time!

During this time, the fighter planes of the Plaster Flag that took off from the Chitose Base were being beaten by the Soviet 171st Regiment. The pilots of the Plaster Flag felt desperate again. Their fighter planes could not fight with the MiG-23 at all. The opponent was too flexible! Moreover, the opponent launched missiles too quickly, so quickly that they felt incredible! Even the pilots of the F-15 were extremely depressed.

Finally, the F-4 fighter jets hastily loaded with Sparrow missiles taxied from the runway and took off. Just as they took off and were climbing, they received an order from the early warning aircraft in their headsets: "Attention, a MiG-25 is coming from the direction of Hokkaido, at an altitude of 24,000 and a speed of 2.5!"

Pay attention, but that's all you can do. Such an altitude and speed have exceeded the interception range of the F-4 fighter. The pilot of the F-4 fighter continued to turn on the afterburner and climb while cursing the Soviets' shamelessness.

Throughout the 1970s, NATO trembled under the threat of the MiG-25!

"Fighters are taking off from Aomori base. Judging from the climbing speed, they are probably not F-15s." On the MiG-31 interceptor high in the sky, Andre heard the notification from the radar operator in the rear cabin.

Almost immediately after leaving the early warning aircraft, they flew toward the south while turning on the large radar at the front of the nose of the aircraft to scan the airspace on the opposite side. Just after flying over the original Kushiro-Rumoi border, the radar captured the situation in the south. Fighter planes took off from the Aomori base on the opposite bank!

If it were an F-15, thanks to the thrust-to-weight ratio advantage brought by the high-thrust engine, they could quickly climb at a high angle of attack, and now the American fighter jets that are in combat and taking off urgently will definitely take off with afterburners turned on! But now, the opponent is climbing slowly, which is not the way the F-15 flies at all!

What's going on? Andre was very confused. In the past, he had learned from reconnaissance that the Aomori base across the way had 24 F-15s deployed. The air combat capability of this base was very strong, but what about now? The Americans did not use their F-15s, but sent F-4 fighters over?

So weird!

"Keep observing." Andre said.

As the fighter planes fly quickly, they will soon be able to detect air force bases further south, such as the largest Yokota base!

Almost at the same time, the United States also realized that a MiG-25 from high altitude was coming alone!

"Attention, a MiG-25 has been spotted. Attention, a MiG-25 has been spotted!" A somewhat frightened voice came from the radio.

Of course I was terrified! At this moment, flying over Honshu Island was the most advanced equipment of the US Air Force, the E-3 early warning aircraft!

As a new generation of early warning aircraft of the US military, this aircraft is much more advanced than the original EC-121 early warning aircraft! It uses the fuselage of Boeing 707, and is equipped with an advanced AN/APY-1 S-band pulse Doppler radar with a diameter of nine meters on the top. It can divide the 360-degree azimuth circle into 32 sectors according to different combat conditions, and select the appropriate working mode combination in each sector. The friend-or-foe identification system can interrogate more than 200 air, sea and land targets equipped with transponders in one scan.

It can handle 400 targets at the same time, command its own machine guns to engage in combat, and detect ultra-low-altitude targets at a distance of more than 300 kilometers, while the effective range for high-altitude targets is as high as 500 kilometers. One of these strategic early warning aircraft is equivalent to ten E-2s!

At the same time, this type of early warning aircraft is expensive. Until now, the United States has only deployed two E-3 early warning aircraft on the island country, which are affiliated to the 961 Air Control Squadron.

In order to coordinate this operation, the US military launched an E-3 early warning aircraft, flying back and forth over the relatively safe Honshu Island. They can not only monitor the planes in the sky, but also vehicles on the ground if necessary!

However, they were not safe. The crew on the AWACS clearly remembered that the Soviet MiG-25 had once shot down an EC-121 AWACS! Although it was related to the carelessness of the crew on the AWACS and it actually approached the airspace over the strait, the MiG-25's powerful height and speed, and its fast flight that could not be intercepted, were still the natural enemy of the AWACS. It could be said that the thing was simply prepared to hunt down the AWACS!

And now, a Soviet MiG-25 came in so brazenly. What did it want to do? Was it coming for us?

"Quick, fly south!" the commander on the early warning aircraft shouted loudly. No one was not afraid of the MiG-25.

Compared with the EC-121, the E-3 early warning aircraft uses the Boeing 707 fuselage, which still has an advantage in speed. The maximum level flight speed can reach 850 kilometers per hour, which is also considered a high subsonic speed.

With four turbofan engines running at full power, the pilot operated the huge E-3 early warning aircraft and retreated quickly to the south.

At the same time, the two accompanying F-4 fighter jets were also ready to use their own bodies to block missiles at any critical moment.

At the same time, the MiG-31 interceptor also captured the target on the radar screen.

"We found a large target and two small targets. They were originally flying north, but now they suddenly changed their course and are flying south." The radar operator said, "The electromagnetic radiation from that large aircraft is very strong."

It was a large flight, with strong electromagnetic radiation. Could it be that I had caught another big one?

Andre's eyes were suddenly filled with fighting spirit. Now that he had discovered it, he might as well kill it!