Chapter 614

Chapter 614: Guided Attack Formation

Combining the world’s top aerodynamic design, the F119-PW-100 vector thrust engines installed on the “monstrous” demonstrated performance far exceeding that of the F-22 “Raptor,” as revealed by simulations on large servers.

Like the F-35 “Lightning II,” the Americans seem to waste good technology, compensating for insufficient aerodynamic design with engine power.

Although China’s aerospace technology still has some gaps compared to America, it is not completely without merit; in terms of aerodynamic layout design capabilities, China is far ahead of America.

Like a ghost, the “monstrous” firmly locked onto the “Mighty Dragon,” and the TWS threat warning system continuously emitted alarm sounds in the cockpit.

Locked on, locked on, unable to escape.

Colonel Jiang quickly felt sweat on his forehead; no matter how he evaded, he couldn’t shake off Lin Mo, who clung to him like gum.

The opponent’s position was very clever; his naked eye could only track it for a brief moment before it disappeared from his sight, slipping into a visual blind spot.

This was not good; if he couldn’t quickly change his disadvantageous position, the opponent could launch an attack at any moment.

Up to this point, he still hadn’t fully seen the exterior shape of the “monstrous” outside the cockpit; the fighter jet was simply too fast, creating a visual illusion that made it appear as if it was leaving afterimages.

How could that forward-swept wing fighter jet perform so powerfully?

Even when Colonel Jiang barely caught a glimpse of its fleeting afterimage, he felt a sense of astonishment arise within him.

Could the design parameters be deliberately falsified? How could that be?

What would be the point of falsification? Once on the battlefield, wouldn’t that be seeking one’s own destruction? That was completely unnecessary.

Another thin trail of white smoke appeared, and Colonel Jiang noticed that the “monstrous” had launched another missile. Rather than being fired in balanced motion, it looked more like it was ejected during high-overload maneuvering, then ignited, rather than igniting first before launching.

The speed combined with speed made the supersonic missile launch extremely threatening, and there was no doubt about that; many fighter jets around the world could do it, but not everyone could pull it off with ease.

That speed is nothing compared to light speed, and it doesn’t violate any physical laws.

Strangely, the missile was not aimed at the “Mighty Dragon,” but rather launched in another direction.

Then came another missile.

Still not aimed at him, but the more it was like this, the colder Colonel Jiang felt inside.

This kid’s combat power increased with the performance of the fighter jet, making him completely different from other pilots, even making it difficult to determine where this guy’s limits truly lay.

He saw it! That forward-swept wing fighter jet suddenly appeared beneath the “Mighty Dragon.”

Three-point encirclement; it was another three-point surrounding attack formation, the same as the previous surprise attack.

One J-20 “Mighty Dragon” seemed to face a three-jet formation; he couldn’t handle even one, let alone three coming at him together.

Rather than saying it was the same tactic again, it was more like striking first while the opponent was unprepared; Lin Mo took advantage of Colonel Jiang’s disadvantage before he could recover.

No pilot enjoys being the one who gets shot down.

Attack, attack, and attack again; to attack and defend is the way of the aerial knights—attack is what the aerial knights do.

Colonel Jiang unhesitatingly exited the supersonic mode, leveraging the high climbing performance of the “Mighty Dragon” to rapidly ascend at a 60-degree angle, avoiding exposure to the opponent who could strike from a large-circular maneuver under cannon attack angles at any moment.

Colonel Jiang had deep experience with Lin Mo’s cannon skills; he managed to shoot down one missile only by relying on his expertise with the J-8 II, but he couldn’t shoot down three missiles continuously with the same confidence that Lin Mo displayed. If hitting one was luck, hitting the second and third was a demonstration of extraordinary aerial combat technology.

Just giving the opponent half a second could put him in danger of being shot down.

Two missiles quickly curved around in a small arc, as if waiting there all along, intercepting towards the front of the “Mighty Dragon.”

Only medium-range air-to-air missiles had the ability to do this. If it were short-range close combat missiles like the PL-4, they would have run out of fuel and self-destructed before even making the turn.

The seemingly aimless missile launches utilized the all-aspect missile’s 360-degree attack envelope, combined with the clever use of inertial guidance and angles at launch to create an ambush formation.

From start to finish, it remained connected to the guidance data link of the “monstrous” fighter jet’s on-board radar.

As an active radar-guided missile, it operated under the control of an active radar combined with a strapdown inertial navigation system, allowing it to simply fly toward the predetermined interception point during a battle, without needing to constantly track the target with proportional guidance, thus providing more tactical space to optimize its trajectory.

The missile didn’t need to fly directly toward the target; instead, it first climbed, storing precious energy from its rocket engine as gravitational potential energy. Then, at the terminal stage, the missile dove to accelerate and chase the target. Even if the rocket engine had shut off by then, the missile still had sufficient energy, largely avoiding the inherent drawbacks of semi-active radar-guided missiles.

Two missiles, guided by the “monstrous” radar, locked onto the fleeing “Mighty Dragon.” This time, trying to induce an explosion was clearly no longer as simple as dodging cannon fire.

The AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array radar (AESA), squeezed from Lockheed, weighed only half of the AN/APG-77’s equipped on the F-22 “Raptor.” Although it had some limitations in air-to-air performance with only 1,200 transceiver modules, it was still fiercely competitive with the active electronically scanned radar on the Old Russian T-50.

Moreover, with the “monstrous” fighter jet having a slightly larger nose area than the F-35, Lin Mo had reserved enough space for upgrades. He intended to expand the AN/APG-81 AESA radar’s transceiver modules to 3,100, which would enhance searching capabilities beyond that of the F-22 “Raptor,” thus improving the control over PL-12 missiles.

The three-point attack formation consisting of one aircraft and two missiles got closer to the “Mighty Dragon,” making it increasingly difficult for Colonel Jiang to respond.

At such a distance, it was hard for anyone to react; if it were an ordinary person, they would probably be dumbfounded and then blown to bits in the next second.

While pilots who could think of and use such missile attack formations existed, Colonel Jiang hadn’t expected that Lin Mo had also mastered this technique; it required an incredibly imaginative tactical approach.

Like the techniques Lin Mo had previously displayed, these remarkable tactics had never appeared in any pilot tactical textbooks.

Only experienced Air Knights who had gone through real combat could pass down such skills; simply studying books and watching tactical videos would not suffice.

Colonel Jiang knew very well that Lin Mo had been assigned out before completing all training subjects, but where did he learn this? It seemed like a huge mystery.

No matter how Colonel Jiang tried to evade, he still couldn’t shake off Lin Mo’s “monstrous” fighter jet. In terms of technical prowess, the “monstrous” was still above the “Mighty Dragon.” The designs of the “monstrous” had indeed involved experts from Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, and some advanced technologies not applied to the “Mighty Dragon” instead benefited this forward-swept wing fighter jet.

Instead of gathering dust on old blueprints, those experts were very happy to see some not-so-suitable but excellent technologies revived in certain areas, much like nurturing their own children, wanting them to succeed and find their place.

Boom!

From the launch of the missile by the “monstrous” to the explosion, only a few seconds passed like a flash of lightning.

The two sides started out a dozen kilometers apart, and in just those few seconds, almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, the explosion suddenly erupted next to the “Mighty Dragon.”

One PL-12 missile activated its terminal guidance attack at the right moment, causing the “Mighty Dragon” to shake from the impact.

While the exterior of the aircraft was undamaged, the engine malfunctioned at that moment.

In the simulated battle, the server determined failures based on the parameters of various components and their failure thresholds, leading to one of the twin-engine failures shutting down.

Another missile quickly followed, and Colonel Jiang’s face changed dramatically as he tightly grasped the control stick, barely executing an evasion maneuver with the remaining engine to avoid the explosion.

The 18 tons of thrust from the single WS-15X engine struggled to move the 20-ton-plus “Mighty Dragon.”

Boom!

The J-20 “Mighty Dragon” swayed violently, almost throwing it into a dangerous spin from the shockwave of the explosion, but its speed noticeably decreased.

Missiles were not as easy to dodge as everyone imagined; close-range evasion required immense courage and skill.

The ace pilot’s calm mental resilience and skilled handling saved Colonel Jiang once more as he strained to control the aircraft, continuously adjusting its attitude and using the aerodynamic layout of the “Mighty Dragon” to level it as much as possible.

The larger wing area not only failed to stabilize the aircraft but also created a series of adverse reactions with the incorrect aircraft positioning, resulting in severe drag that drastically reduced the aircraft’s speed, making supersonic flight a distant dream.

Having dodged two waves of four air-to-air missile attacks, this achievement would make most pilots in the world cry and rush to seek him out for mentorship.

But the danger was not over; the strongest point of the three-point attack formation was still there, and Colonel Jiang could not afford to be distracted.

Feeling uneasy, Colonel Jiang quickly began to restart the ignition procedure; he did not easily give up. Having gone through countless life-and-death aerial battles, he lacked the experience to turn the tide in a critical moment.

Even if there was only one foot of altitude left, the battle was not over.

The malfunctioning engine still showed no response.

A shadow loomed over the cockpit, and Colonel Jiang looked up to see a black-gray forward-swept wing fighter jet blocking the sun in the simulated combat space, as if it had crossed over from another world.

Herbst turn!