Chapter 194： naval exercise

The second ship, the Minsk, is undergoing sea trials and will be ready for service next year, while the third ship, the Novorossiysk, started construction in 1975. Now it is too late to refit, and there is only a fourth ship. The Baku will not be able to start construction until next year. If the top management changes their minds now, then when the Novorossiysk gets off the slipway next year, it will be enough to build a newly designed aircraft carrier!

And now, it is under the planning of Andre to push the high-level people to change their ideas and determine the direction of the transformation to Western aircraft carriers!

On June 5, 1977, three days after the aircraft carrier Kyiv was stationed in Biaojin Port, the new base of the Red Navy in the Far East, the first combat cruise finally began!

The aircraft carrier Kyiv, which departed from the port, is no longer a single warship. From Vladivostok, 16 warships of the Red Navy, large and small, crossed the Zongya Strait and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and joined the aircraft carrier Kyiv. Convergence, and then cross the Nemuro Strait, and come to the Pacific Ocean in a mighty way.

The channel has been opened, and the Pacific Fleet can finally freely enter and exit the Pacific Ocean at any time!

In this operation, the Red Navy announced that it was conducting a Red Flag 77 naval exercise. However, everyone knew that this time it was obviously a provocation against the battle group composed of two aircraft carriers of the US Navy.

The planned area for the exercise is the sea area 1,000 kilometers southeast of Hokkaido, which is only 800 kilometers away from Tokyo. The US aircraft carrier formation has always been wandering in the waters of this area, and at the same time waiting for an opportunity to sail north at any time to support the battle over Hokkaido.

The Soviet Navy, dare to take the initiative to provoke, don't you know that the Pacific Ocean belongs to the United States? Did the Soviets think they could dominate the ocean with such a nondescript aircraft carrier?

ridiculous! What a vertical take-off and landing fighter! The aircraft carrier came all the way, and the United States was constantly watching. Although an ep-3 was intercepted by a Yak-36m and nearly crashed, the United States has also collected accurate data on this carrier-based aircraft, almost the same as the British Sea Harrier. It's like a chicken rib!

Under the flickering of the United States, coupled with the continuous decline of the British economy. Even the British couldn't afford a large aircraft carrier, so they started to engage in small and medium-sized aircraft carriers, and chose the Sea Harrier as the carrier-based aircraft.

And now, the Soviets are also in the game, and they have also come up with vertical take-off and landing fighter jets, and use this fighter jet to equip their aircraft carriers. In this way, they simply cannot compete with the US aircraft carriers. Think about using your own Tomcat fighter jets to abuse those poor Jacques aircraft. The US aircraft carrier formation is full of self-confidence.

Inside the tall bridge, Captain Steve, the captain of the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, looked through the glass and looked at the Enterprise sailing on the other side. The battle group composed of two aircraft carriers was an invincible existence in this sea area!

At this time, an E-2 early warning aircraft was on the USS Enterprise. It is being ejected from the runway, the steam is full, and the personnel at all levels are working in an orderly manner.

"Captain Steve. The latest picture from the satellite." Just when Colonel Steve turned around, he saw Colonel Ted, the commander of the flight wing, holding a document in his hand.

After the dispatch of the Soviet Navy, the US Navy's battle group also entered a state of high alert, almost at the same time, reconnaissance satellites also began to capture the traces of the fleet.

Although it is said that the aircraft carrier formation is mighty and the movement is very big, but when it reaches the sea, it is as small as an embroidery needle. It is also difficult for reconnaissance satellites to detect the movements of the aircraft carrier formation.

These photos were captured by the Soviet aircraft carrier formation in the Nemuro Strait. The picture is very clear.

"Look at the Soviet aircraft carrier formation." Steve took the documents with a cigar in his mouth.

Sudden. His hand stopped, the cigar was smoking continuously in his mouth, and his eyes were choked. He poked the cigar into the ashtray to extinguish it, and muttered to Colonel Ted: "Soviet Union What are people doing?"

The photo taken by the satellite is a top view. Looking down from a high altitude, only professional people can see the clue. However, as the captain of the aircraft carrier, Steve and many times have seen the satellite photos of the aircraft carrier Kyiv. Colonel Steve can see the difference when a photo is in his hand.

This is an overhead view of the Kyiv aircraft carrier, showing the stout anti-ship missiles on the front of the warship, as well as the huge bridge on the right and the flight deck on the left.

The flight deck is also painted with the most common brick red paint of the Soviet Navy, but what is the front of the deck?

"Experts from the CIA have analyzed that the angled deck of the Soviet aircraft carrier can be upturned." Colonel Ted said: "The Soviets are really crazy, can their aircraft carrier still ski-jump off?"

The front end of the angled flight deck is arched, just like the British Invincible-class aircraft carrier. This is also the take-off fighter technology of the small aircraft carrier invented by the British, and the leap deck for ski-jump take-off!

God knows what the Soviets did! After the warship is built, the bow can be changed! Is there a hydraulic cylinder underneath?

Seeing this photo for the first time, Steve was of course extremely shocked: "Soviet aircraft carriers, what are they doing like this? To take off their blacksmiths at short distances?"

The take-off of vertical take-off and landing aircraft is greatly restricted. Therefore, after the British invented the Sea Harrier, they began to take off at a short distance. Using a short-distance roll can greatly save fuel and increase the take-off weight at the same time. This is a last resort.

Although the short take-off of carrier-based aircraft on the Soviet Kyiv-class aircraft carrier has not been observed, in theory, it is still possible.

"Not necessarily, you look at the next picture." Colonel Ted continued.

The next one is even more rare. It happened to capture the other side's side lift extracting the plane from the hangar. It can be seen that the plane is very large, almost twice as long as the Yak-36! The rear of the fuselage is suspended.

"MiG-25! Damn, this is a MiG-25! When did the Soviets put this kind of aircraft on a warship? Impossible, it's absolutely impossible!" Colonel Steve was even more surprised.

It can be said that the biggest headache for the American aviation now is to fight against such high-altitude and high-speed heavy fighter jets. The missiles cannot reach each other at all!

Although the United States tried hard to obtain various performance data of this fighter, many attempts have failed. Until now, this fighter is also a mystery. (To be continued.)