Because they were talking about things, they ate the meal for two hours, and it was already evening when they were finished.

By the time Bai Zhizhan went to the commander's bridge, it was already dark, and the last fighters on air defense patrol were preparing to land.

At the rear end of the flight deck, there are two longitudinally arranged "light bands" with 100 spotlights each, and at the back of the deck stands a landing guide holding a strong light stick.

Enhancing the night landing capability of carrier-based aircraft is arguably the most important thing for the Imperial Navy in the past few months, and it is still the number one problem that must be solved.

Fortunately, the hard work paid off.

After months of painstaking exploration, an obscure orderly came up with a whimsical solution, using the principle of prisms, to allow pilots to judge whether they were in the correct course by the color of the light they saw when flying the plane towards the aircraft carrier.

To put it simply, you can see the right color in the right channel, and if you deviate from the course, you will definitely see other colors.

After that, the Imperial Navy organized technicians and pilots to conduct tests on the "Sea Dragon".

It turned out to be a true work.

After more comprehensive tests on the "Yokoe", the method was extended to all other carriers.

To put it mildly, 100 spotlights equipped with prisms are installed on both sides of the landing runway on the flight deck, at a distance of one meter between the front and rear. Because the angle of each spotlight is different, the pilot looks like two light strips arranged along the runway from the air.

The use of light strips is mainly to improve the success rate of landing.

In addition, it is impossible to find a suitable light source with sufficient power.

In order to facilitate guidance, all carrier-based aircraft are equipped with navigation lights, and there are three, one on the wingtip and one on the belly of the wing.

When guiding, the guide on the aircraft carrier uses a special optical equipment to observe the carrier-based aircraft and judge whether the route of the carrier-based aircraft is deviated.

If there is no deviation, the assistant facilitator in charge of assisting will always wave the green light stick.

Instead, wave a red flashstick.

For pilots, as soon as they see a red signal, they must immediately pull up and go-around.

All in all, the success rate of night landings is now much higher than in the past, and experienced veterans, as long as they are not distracted to do other things, can generally be in place at one time. Even if something goes wrong, you can pull it up and go-around, and if you try a few more times, you will definitely be able to land on the aircraft carrier.

The point is that there is no longer a need to pull up the blocking net, which reduces a lot of trouble.

In September, the training of the two air wings attached to Task Force 41 was dominated by night landings.

To this end, the Navy has built a runway that simulates the deck of an aircraft carrier at the air base north of Naqiu Harbor for pilots to train at night.

Enhancing the ability to land ships at night can at least extend the combat time to the evening, which is of great combat value.

It's just that if you want to launch an attack at night, you can't do it for the time being.

Although the Imperial Navy has begun to explore night tactics, so far it has not found an effective means to improve the hit rate of night bombs.

In addition, the safety of night flights is also questionable.

Even a real old bird can hardly accurately judge the altitude at night, let alone drop bombs and torpedoes at the right distance.

Bombing stationary targets on the ground, the problem is not so much.

It will certainly not be possible to deal with a fast-sailing warship.

If anything, it is that the radar does not reveal the whereabouts of the battleship, so it can be boldly used anti-aircraft radar.

The discovery was of great significance to the fleet on a covert assault mission.

The use of air defense radar can reduce the patrol range of air defense fighters as much as possible, so as to avoid exposing the whereabouts of the fleet due to the fighters going out on patrol.

Of course, the premise is that there must be enough warships equipped with radar, that is, air defense warships are required to expand the patrol range.

All in all, compared with the war more than half a year ago, the current task force has greatly improved both its attack power and defense power.

Don't say anything about one or two, you will definitely be able to beat an evenly matched opponent.

After the last fighter successfully landed on the carrier, the light strip on the flight deck was turned off.

A few minutes later, Zhou Yongtao came to the bridge of the commander's ship.

Although he is the operational staff officer of the fleet, most of the time, Zhou Yongtao does the work of the aviation staff officer and is responsible for the aviation operations of the fleet.

Fortunately, he is young enough and has a lot of energy.

"You guys talk first, I'll get some coffee."

After dropping this sentence, Li Mingbo left the commander's bridge.

Actually, there's not much to talk about.

The information to be explained is marked on the nautical chart, which can be said to be clear at a glance.

Task Force 41 is located northeast of the Volcanic Islands, east of the main island of Sagi.

Geographically, this is the Guia Basin.

The specific location is around 35 degrees north latitude and 155 degrees east longitude.

Because there are more than a dozen warships, distributed in the sea area within a radius of tens of kilometers, there is no way, and there is no need to mark accurate latitude and longitude coordinates.

In principle, it is based on the location of the flagship.

It's just that the battleship is always sailing, and its position is changing at any time, so it is not required to be accurately marked.

Task Force 21 is located in the northeast, more than 300 kilometers away from Task Force 41, at about 38 degrees north latitude and 158 degrees east longitude.

In addition, Task Force 21 did not conceal its whereabouts and kept shouting on the radio channel.

Further northeast, the Nuland Federation's convoy sailed toward the Imperial Kingdom of Sayo on the Great Loop through the Guia, and the battleship formation escorting it was about 600 kilometers northeast of Task Force 21, and like Task Force 21, it was also shouting on the radio channel.

Task Force 42 and Task Force 43 were still behind, to be precise, north-west of Task Force 41, heading towards the Nuland fleet.

The 42nd Task Force, which consisted mainly of four "Longxing" class ships, was in the front, and the 43rd Task Force was in the rear.

Judging from the time marked, at the latest at about 4 a.m. tomorrow, Task Force 42 will encounter the battleship formation of the Newland Federation.

If Task Force 43 picks up tonight, it will simultaneously appear in the southwest direction of the battlefield and outflank the battleship formation of the Nuland Navy from the flank.

Although there were only eight of them, four were fast battleships, and all of them had gunsight radars.

Before coming over, Bai Zhizhan asked specifically.

The four "Longxing" class ships of the 42nd Task Force returned to port to install gun-aiming radars and conduct commissioning during the interval between deployments.

After the end of the combat operation to land on the local territory of Sagi, the barrels of the main guns of the four "Longxing" class ships were also replaced.

To put it simply, all four "Longxing" class ships are in the best condition.

As for the four fast battleships, there is no need to say more.

In addition, the eight battleships of the Imperial Navy were all 400 mm guns, while the Nuland Navy's ten battleships were equipped with sixteen-inch guns only three of the "New Mo" class and the other seven were all fourteen-inch guns.

If there is a real fight, it is likely that the Nuland Navy will suffer.

Besides, with the transport fleet behind and the 21st Task Force still watching, the commander of the Nuland fleet would not dare to act rashly even if he was sure.

To fight, but also to let the convoy leave.

It is actually five fleet aircraft carriers that have to be guarded out for.

What both sides are showing now is just a meat shield, and the 21st Task Force can be regarded as a meat shield with the ability to counterattack at most.