Warship of Great Power

The Pacific Ocean is magnificent, with two huge aircraft carriers riding the wind and waves. Near the aircraft carriers, accompanied by other warships, flags of various colors are flying on them.

The annual Rim of the Pacific Exercise is so lively, with warships from various countries joining in the fun, and this time, it is even more lively.

There are two Nimitz aircraft carriers as the main force, and the other warships look like children's play, but in fact, one of the warships that looks unremarkable is the core of the entire formation.

Its bridge is located in the middle of the warship, with flat decks in front and behind, and some balls can be seen on it. It looks very ordinary and very special. Among the equipment of the US Navy, it is a very special and irreplaceable equipment: the Blue Ridge command ship.

If the navies of other countries have an aircraft carrier, they can just use the aircraft carrier as the flagship, but the US Navy cannot, because they have too many aircraft carriers, and how to command the aircraft carrier is also a big problem.

In the 1970s, at the peak of the Cold War, the US Navy had 15 aircraft carrier battle groups, more than 40 landing craft, more than 600 warships, and more than 40 cruisers. Therefore, the US Navy could not use ordinary aircraft carriers to command these warships, and must have professional command ships.

So, they modified this command ship based on the Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship. The amphibious assault ship was chosen purely for easy modification. As long as the original vehicle deck and dock were improved to become a command cabin, it would be fine.

Although the Marine Corps is independent, if it is to be in a large-scale amphibious operation, it still has to listen to the unified command of the Navy. The Blue Ridge is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet.

Generally speaking, this kind of equipment will be cherished, but this maritime exercise is too important, so the Americans took out this command ship and used it as the command center of this exercise.

On the warship, Harris stood on the bridge and looked at the spectacular scene outside.

"We invited the Orientals to participate in this Rim of the Pacific exercise, which is an important milestone." Harris said: "We can only defeat them by getting close to them and studying them. What warships do you think they will send?"

If it were an ordinary military exercise, the warships would have been determined a year ago, but this time was different. The Orientals did not say it in advance, but just agreed on the time and sea area, and then joined in and participated in the exercise together.

"The 055 should not be sent. After all, that kind of warship is too important and too powerful. The Orientals will not take actions that provoke us." Clemens said: "They are very low-key. This may be the philosophy of the East. I think they should send 052."

The 055 is too tough. If the 055 comes, how can other warships play? Even the Ticonderoga-class cruiser can't compare with the East!

It won't be 055, then what will it be?

The 052 is the most suitable. The Orientals not only use this kind of warship for themselves, but also export it in large quantities. At present, the Eastern Aegis warships have expanded to many countries, which makes them feel headache.

"Yes, it should be 052. After all, this is their main warship. Although the Orientals have to choose to keep a low profile, they also want to show their strength. The 052 is the most suitable warship!"

"Report, the early warning aircraft has found the target at sea!"

"Send fighters immediately!" Harris said excitedly: "Now, the mystery is about to be revealed. Let's see which model the Orientals sent, Luyang-2 or Luyang-3."

The West is not used to saying digital numbers. They have their own set of standards. Whether it is 052C or 052D, they are all Luyang-class here, but the specific standards are different.

Two Super Hornets whizzed away, and soon they approached the formation of two warships on the sea, a destroyer and a comprehensive supply ship.

"Gum, we have to go down and take a look." A pilot shouted on the radio.

"Okay, Bullet, let's go down. Hey, why are you diving like this? You only do this when you attack!"

A Super Hornet has dived down from several thousand meters of airspace, heading straight for the formation on the sea, as if it is going to dive and attack.

On the 112 warship, the radar officer shouted: "Two targets are diving down, diving and attacking us!"

"Damn it, are they welcoming us like this?" Someone cursed immediately.

Captain Du Yu stood behind the porthole, watching the waves rushing over the bow, with no expression on his face. Before coming, he had already guessed that there might be such a scene. These Americans would not welcome us sincerely, but they don't have to worry too much. The more rough and barbaric actions the Americans do, the better.

"The camera is pointed at them, and it must be recorded clearly." Du Yu said: "We will also simulate a counterattack. Be careful not to lock on to them."

This dive bombing method has long been outdated. In modern naval battles, few fighters will use this method to attack warships. After all, fighters cannot get close to warships within a few dozen kilometers, and they will be killed by anti-aircraft missiles.

The other party's behavior is purely a provocation, and the team just uses them to practice.

"Yes."

At this time, the pilot nicknamed Bullet was driving the Super Hornet and continued to dive. In his field of vision, the two warships on the sea were getting bigger and clearer.

The ship's length-to-width ratio is about 10, and the bridge is full of weapons. There is no stealth appearance, and no iconic four-sided phased array radar. This is actually... Luhu-class?

Bullethead immediately lost all interest and pulled up the plane. This Luhu-class is too backward. How can the East send such an outdated warship to participate in the exercise?

"Bullethead call, visually confirm the target, it is the Luhu-class destroyer of the Eastern Navy!"

What?

On the Blue Ridge, everyone was dumbfounded.

They prepared such a huge operation just to see the Eastern Aegis warships. In order to conduct joint military exercises together, they had to let the Easterners leak some secrets. However, they did not expect that the Easterners would be so disrespectful, or not afraid of losing face, and actually sent out the outdated Luhu-class!

In fact, the Luhu-class is not old. Take No. 112 for example. It started construction in 1989, launched in 1991, and served in 1994. It has only been more than ten years, but the Eastern Navy's equipment has developed too fast! In a dozen years, the 112th has completely fallen behind.

There is no four-sided phased array radar, no universal vertical launch, various antennas on the bridge, and even the close-in defense gun is a double-barreled 37mm machine gun. This kind of warship is only at the level of the West in the 1960s and 1970s.

Harris gritted his teeth: "Clemmings, you are right, the Orientals have always been low-key, this is their philosophy, but I hate this philosophy of the Orientals!"

"That's right, look at us in the United States, we just want to take out our most advanced things, show them, let others know how powerful we are, these Orientals always hide their most advanced things!" Clemmings also complained.

The two didn't know that the most advanced things in the East had of course come over, but they were 500 kilometers away from the entire exercise area, and no one noticed them at all, not even the E-2 Hawkeye.

The most advanced aircraft of the US Navy is the E-2D. This early warning aircraft is equipped with the most advanced active phased array radar. Like the Eastern carrier-based early warning aircraft, it also has a pole antenna, rotating search, and has two means of mechanical and electronic scanning. Its performance is far better than the early models, and the search distance for warships at sea exceeds 500 kilometers.

However, this early warning aircraft is still under testing and has not been replaced on a large scale in the US Navy. The main early warning aircraft currently used by the US Navy is still the latest modified Hawkeye 2000 of the E-2C early warning aircraft. Although the early warning aircraft uses the latest 8-blade propeller, it still uses the old AN/APS-145 radar and the Yagi antenna. The search distance for ships at sea is only 300 to 400 kilometers.

Since the early warning aircraft has to undertake the air warning work of the entire formation, the task is very heavy, and it is impossible to notice a special-looking ship 500 kilometers away.

There are many big balls on this ship. Even laymen can know that antennas must be stuffed inside. However, they don’t know that these antennas do not actively release electromagnetic signals, and the antennas are mainly passively received.

At this time, inside the cabin, there are rows of workbenches, each with three monitors, and someone is sitting in front, operating the keyboard and mouse from time to time.

"X-band radar signals have been detected. It is very likely that the two Super Hornets used radar to lock our warships when they dived."

"Okay, analyze the band characteristics!" Electronic warfare officer Luo Qiang said calmly: "Find its signal characteristics and prepare for our future electronic interference!"

Isn't it a dive? Isn't it going to attack? Okay, it's just right for us to analyze the radar characteristics!

"The analysis has been completed and entered into the database!"

"So fast?" Luo Qiang was a little curious.

"Yes, the key is that our Loongson computer is too fast."

What was received was only some electromagnetic wave signal fragments, which were not complete. Next, a powerful computer was needed to analyze them in order to find the information contained in them and formulate relevant strategies.

This requires powerful information processing capabilities. Their electronic reconnaissance ship is equipped with advanced Loongson computers, and processing these data is a piece of cake.

"We have received UHF band information, which we have never received before. It is very likely that it was sent by the Blue Ridge."

"Analyze, it is best to decipher their system!" Luo Qiang continued to give orders.

Unlike before, this time they can get close to the Blue Ridge. This warship is equipped with a large number of antennas. It is the brain of the US Navy and is also quite fragile. It will release a large number of electromagnetic wave signals. If it really reaches the battlefield, it can be killed by an anti-radiation missile.

However, in addition to hard kills, soft kills are also required. If the signal on this warship can be deciphered, it will be more useful. For example, when necessary, it can invade its command system and issue wrong orders, or just monitor their various orders, which can win the initiative for the war.

Electromagnetic waves keep coming, entering various data antennas, and being constantly analyzed and processed. The entire electronic reconnaissance ship has become the busiest warship at this time.

The highlight of the exercise is the sea attack, and the target is a target ship. The target ship used this time is still a retired cruiser!

After World War II, the United States had a large amount of surplus materials. They used those World War II-era artillery cruisers to improve the first batch of missile cruisers. However, after all, they were not professional, and many of them were retired in the 1980s. Some were sealed and some were dismantled.

However, it is not enough to just use those old warships in the past. They have to build brand new warships. After entering the 1950s, with the advent of the jet aircraft and missile era, they began to build missile frigates equipped with anti-aircraft missiles. The first batch was the 5,000-ton Farragut class, and the second batch was the Leahy class.

In 1975, the US Navy reclassified the warship standards. The first batch became destroyers and the second batch became cruisers.

The Leahy-class missile cruiser became the first class of missile cruisers built by the US military after the war. In the 1970s and 1980s, it also fought on the battlefield and made great achievements.

However, in the 1990s, this missile cruiser was already very outdated. After all, the US Navy began to focus on Aegis warships, so these warships were retired one after another.

Now, it has been more than ten years since the retirement. These warships are in poor condition. It is a routine operation to pull one of them out as a target ship. After all, the US Navy often does this.

Needless to say, this kind of old warship, even if it is an advanced aircraft carrier, after retirement, it will inevitably be hit by missiles. The Americans want to test their aircraft carriers' ability to resist strikes.

For example, the Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, the United States, has made great contributions, but in order to test the anti-strike ability of this monkey's aircraft carrier, they decided to sink it. Cameras and sensors were installed on various parts of the warship, and then various weapons were bombarded. After 25 days of tossing, the aircraft carrier was fine!

Finally, the Americans installed explosives on it and sank the aircraft carrier. After a lot of tossing, the ammunition cost more than 20 million US dollars, but it would cost 80 million US dollars to dismantle it, so it was still worthwhile. What's more, after this attack, the Americans were full of confidence and felt that their aircraft carriers were as indestructible as battleships.

The target ship this time was the USS Reeves. This warship was the last of the Lehi-class missile cruisers. In fact, it was in good condition and did not need to be pulled out for bombing. The reason for choosing it was that this warship had a great relationship with the East.

In 1986, the US Navy, led by Lyons, used this warship as the flagship and led two other warships to visit the East for a friendly visit, and was warmly welcomed by the East.

This warship bears witness to the friendship with the East in those days, but now, this friendship has long disappeared, so this warship must be sunk!

"The USS Reeves is a warship with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons. The Orientals' 112 warship is equipped with their Eagle Strike-81 missiles. This missile has a history of 20 years. As the Oriental Flying Fish, it still had a certain threat, but now, this missile has long been outdated." Clemens said: "They fired first and could not sink the target ship, which was a good opportunity for us to laugh at it."

The Eagle Strike-81 was exported in large quantities with the number C801, so the Americans also knew the performance of this missile. They determined that one of these missiles could destroy a warship of at most 1,000 tons, and two could destroy a warship of at most 3,000 to 4,000 tons, and it was impossible to kill a target ship of 8,000 tons.

Let the Orientals make a fool of themselves, and then they will be the finale, so that the Orientals can see how powerful their firepower is!

While they were discussing, a group of leaders in the capital of the East were also discussing.

"We don't need to expose our strength, just say that our warship does not carry anti-ship missiles." A leader said.

"That's right, we don't care about the cost of hundreds of thousands, the key is not to expose our strength."

While everyone was discussing, Wu Shengli looked at Qin Tao: "Taozi, what do you think?"

"Dad, I'm not from our navy. I'm here just to be a liaison. If there is a problem with the electronic reconnaissance ship, it can be covered up in the name of our Mingzhou Group Starship Company. I won't participate in the discussion here."

"Just say what I ask you to say, why are you talking nonsense."

"Dad, I think that since the Americans asked us to open fire, we will do what they want. A missile will sink the target ship into the sea and make everyone else dumbfounded!"

Qin Tao is full of expectations.

The Americans want to watch our show, so we watch the Americans' show. They also want to wait in the back to bombard and show off their muscles in front of us? Let's just sink the target ship for him!

Outsiders think that the 112 is equipped with an ordinary Eagle Strike 81, which is actually a big mistake. The last time the mid-term life extension upgrade was carried out, the Eagle Strike 81 was replaced with the Eagle Strike 83!

Eagle Strike 81 is a subsonic anti-ship missile with a range of only 40 kilometers. It is simply unable to undertake the attack mission of the modern battlefield. After all, the 112 ship cannot get close to the enemy at a distance of 30 to 40 kilometers to launch missiles. Therefore, the Eagle Strike 81 is eliminated, and the Eagle Strike 83 is one of the new generation of main anti-ship missiles of the navy!

PS: Recommend an old friend's new book "Mercenary I am the King". Song Heping, who wanted to make a little money to support his younger brother and sister, ventured to the war zone to make money, but because of an unexpected attack, he was involved in the war and became a mercenary.

My surname is Song, and my name is Song Heping. I came, I conquered, and I am the king! They call me "the king of war".