Dominate South Asia

Iraq did not gain electromagnetic dominance. Iraq just pulled the United States to the same level as itself, that is, they were all interfered with and could not use radio waves!

Not only the communication was interfered with, but even the radar of the fighter jets was seriously interfered with.

In theory, only radars with phased array systems can point electromagnetic signals in one direction and gather the most energy to prevent interference. At this time, the airborne phased array radar is still in the development stage, and the pulse Doppler radar of the flat slot antenna has also become blind.

In the entire Gulf region, only the radar of the Patriot missile is still holding on.

However, the radar of the Patriot missile has a detection range of only 100 kilometers, and it cannot conduct radio communications, let alone guide the coalition fighters to compete for air supremacy.

On this day, the battle started again!

After suddenly using a large number of jammers to successfully interfere with the electromagnetic signals of the coalition forces, and even the newly taken-off early warning aircraft was interfered and could not be used, the Iraqi fighter jets bravely took off and fought.

The coalition's powerful air force comes largely from the system. The early warning aircraft monitors the entire combat airspace, commands fighters to fight through data links, and controls electromagnetic power and information power. The backward countries are almost passively beaten.

But now, the situation has changed.

Even the radar of the best F-15 fighter has a search distance of no more than ten kilometers. Such a distance is enough to be seen with the naked eye. It is completely a visual air combat method!

Those coalition pilots who are used to the early warning aircraft indicating the direction, calmly discovering the enemy from the airborne radar, and conducting BVR (beyond visual range) attacks suddenly found that they had to use their eyes to find the possible location of the enemy aircraft like their predecessors who drove the P-51 Mustang fighter in World War II. Do close-range dogfighting.

A four-plane formation was flying in the clear sky, with the tail engine spewing hot tail flames, and the top of the double vertical tail was sprayed with the logo of the US Air Force.

Obviously, Iraq released such strong electromagnetic interference, and there must be a large-scale operation! Therefore, these four F-15E Strike Eagles were equipped with air superiority mounts. Four AIM-120 active radar-guided air-to-air missiles are already the most powerful air-to-air weapons of the US Air Force.

The advantage of active radar is that after the launch, the carrier aircraft does not need to continue to use its own radar illumination. Although it may need to continue to guide in the early stage, it can leave later. Compared with the sparrow, this missile has a huge advantage.

In previous battles, relying on this air-to-air missile, the US Air Force can easily win by relying on beyond-visual-range air combat without getting involved in close combat with enemy aircraft.

But now, under strong electromagnetic interference. The radar of the carrier aircraft cannot intercept the target, and beyond-visual-range air combat has become a delusion. Moreover, as a pilot, the most important thing to grasp is the surrounding air situation, and now, they are completely in the dark.

Although the AIM-120 missile is mounted, it is unusable. Therefore, the main reliance will be on the other four AIM-9 Sidewinder combat missiles.

At this time, the four F-15 fighters in the formation were flying in the sky. There was a constant buzzing sound in the earphones. The people in the formation had to shout to barely hear it. At the same time, the pilots on the outside of the formation kept twisting their necks to observe the surrounding airspace.

At this time, they envied the Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter. That fighter has the AN/AL-1 tactical camera reconnaissance system, the core of which is a long-range optical TV. In clear weather, it can automatically search and long-range identify air targets within more than 90 kilometers from the aircraft and display them in the cockpit.

If there is such a system, they don't have to work so hard and can only rely on their naked eyes to observe the surrounding airspace. The lack of airspace perception is quite terrible for pilots.

Moreover, they also knew that their weaknesses just became the opponent's strengths. At this time, the coalition forces already knew that Iraq was equipped with a certain number of MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. These fighters all carried optoelectronic systems. Even the OEPS29 optoelectronic system of the MiG-29 with slightly inferior performance had a detection range of more than 20 kilometers! And the optoelectronic system of the Su-27 can observe targets like the F-15 at a distance of up to 50 kilometers in a clear sky!

Tollet's eyes looked at the airspace on the right. As a wingman on the right side of the formation, he had to detect threats on the right in time for the formation.

However, after the formation made a heading adjustment, the area he needed to defend was the direction where the sunlight just came from.

Although wearing goggles, it was still too difficult to observe the airspace from the background of sunlight. After looking for a while, Tollet's eyes felt a little uncomfortable, and he had to lift up the goggles and rub them with his gloved hands.

When has the U.S. Air Force ever fought such a cowardly battle? They had long been accustomed to engaging the enemy under the command of the early warning aircraft, and now this method made them very uncomfortable.

When he rubbed his eyes with his hands, Tollet suddenly felt as if he had discovered something. He closed his goggles again, and his breathing suddenly became rapid.

What was flying in the direction of the sun? Some shining bright spots!

"Attention, missiles are coming!" Tollet shouted loudly on the radio. Amid the noisy interference, he didn't know if the others in the formation heard it. He pressed the joystick to the right hard and performed a high-overload maneuver.

Damn, how did those missiles fly here?

Inside the bulging spherical fairing, the 36T infrared seeker is working. This seeker technology is advanced and no longer needs tail-chasing attack. Instead, it is an infrared seeker that can carry out omnidirectional attacks! Behind the warhead are four trapezoidal stabilizing wings. There are four large inverted trapezoidal wings in the middle section that form the main control surface, and four fixed double delta tail wings at the tail.

This missile is the new generation of Soviet air-to-air missiles, the main R-27 for beyond-visual-range attacks!

The semi-active guided R-27 missile is a full generation behind the AIM-120. If it is under normal circumstances, the American fighters equipped with AIM-120 will fight under the command of the early warning aircraft and can beat the Iraqi Air Force to the ground.

But now, without the command of the early warning aircraft, the F-15 fleet in the air was running around like a headless fly, and the Iraqi MiG-29 and Su-27 fleets with optoelectronic detection systems began to hunt.

This time, it was a Su-27 fleet that arrived. The pilot of the fighter was a Polish pilot, Colonel Alex Serchiak, who was only a mercenary now. He led his four-plane formation and discovered the US Air Force formation with the optoelectronic system after takeoff. So he led his formation around the direction of the sun, then turned around and carried out an easy beyond-visual-range attack.

The electromagnetic interference was quite intense. Although the N001 radar with a large number of electron tubes had a stronger anti-interference ability, it would not have a detection distance of more than 15 kilometers, and it could not provide illumination signals for the semi-active radar-guided medium-range missiles.

Therefore, this time they did not carry the R-27R with a semi-active seeker, but the R-27T with an infrared seeker!

Due to the advanced electronic system, the United States has never used infrared seekers in medium-range missiles, because this guidance method will greatly shorten the range!

The front end of the missile with a radar seeker is an aerodynamic tip with low air resistance, while the front end of the infrared seeker is a spherical glass cover, which has much greater resistance and greatly shortens the range.

For example, the effective range of the R-27T is only 40 kilometers, which is an indicator at high altitude, and at low altitude, this effective range will be greatly shortened to 20 kilometers!

In order to successfully hunt, under the command of Alex, the Su-27 fleet used the optoelectronic system to lock the opponent at a distance of almost 15 kilometers, provided the R-27 missile with the launch parameters, and then launched its own missile. After the missile flew five kilometers by inertia, the infrared seeker in front successfully locked the target.

The air superiority that the United States is proud of, the heavy air superiority fighter F-15, suffered a heavy blow on this day.

In the strong electromagnetic interference, the lead pilot of the F-15 did not hear it and was still flying forward. After seeing the sudden maneuver of Tollet on the right, the wingmen behind realized something and performed sideways maneuvers.

Facing the incoming missiles, they could only rely on their personal performance. High overload maneuvers, combined with platinum bars or decoys, could get rid of the missiles.

Unfortunately, they subconsciously thought that the incoming over-the-horizon missiles were all radar-guided models, so they released metal mooring bars, which had no effect on infrared missiles.

"Boom!" The R-27 missile approached its target, and the proximity fuse detonated the 39-kilogram warhead. The fragmentation rod warhead flew in the air. For the F-15, this was a rain of death!

The attacked F-15 instantly turned into a fireball in the air. The pilot did not have time to pull the ejection handle and fell with the fighter.

Two of the four-plane formation were shot down. The other two fighters had just escaped death when they saw four large fighters coming out of the sunlight from the opposite side!

The American pilots who were used to beyond-visual-range attacks had to engage in close combat with the tough Soviet pilots! The distance between the two sides was closing rapidly. Tollet's breathing was a little tense. He quickly switched the weapon system to the Sidewinder missile, preparing to put the opponent into his missile attack envelope and then launch an attack! (To be continued ~^~)