After hesitation. Molovan made a decision. The reconnaissance plane, which took off ahead of schedule, first headed in the direction of the Strait of Malacca and took up the task of forward search. The three planes that were supposed to provide command and guidance for the attack aircraft group turned to the Strait of Malacca to assist the reconnaissance planes in carrying out search missions. In order to cover the AWACS, Molovan sent the mouthframe Shi-4 fighters. The "crucian carp" that had been put on the flight deck with anti-ship missiles were all sent to the hangar to escort the first four of the fleet air defense mission with Liuping to take off ahead of schedule and strengthen the air defense of the fleet, and each of the three aircraft carriers sent air defense fighters.

It is clear that Molovan has not given up hope at the last of his life.

The Strait of Malacca is not spacious, the narrowest place is only tens of kilometers, and the widest place is not more than many kilometers, not to mention the carrier-based early warning aircraft such as the Four Blankets, even the carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft can monitor and search the entire strait. As soon as the Chinese fleet is found, let the attack aircraft group immediately go out. Regardless of the outcome, the attack must be launched before the Chinese fleet.

Molovan's calculations are very accurate, and his ability to do math problems is not bad.

According to the information received earlier, the Chinese fighters attacking the Western Fleet are above the strength frame, which is equivalent to the old carrier-based aviation group, while the Peng large aircraft carrier has only the old carrier-based fighter group in total. That is, the Chinese fleet dispatched half of the fighters on board to attack the Western Fleet. Excluding the fighters used for the air defense of the fleet, the remaining fighters of the Chinese fleet could not pose a threat to the Eastern Fleet.

From this, Molovan has enough reason to believe that the fighters sent by the Chinese fleet to attack the Western Fleet are likely to be above the strength frame, of which about four fighters are on attack mission, and there are also escort fighters above the field frame, otherwise it is impossible to kill all the air defense fighters of the Western Fleet at the beginning of the battle. From this it can be concluded that the Chinese fleet attacked the Western Fleet with all its forces.

In Molowan's view, this bunch of theories is completely reasonable.

Shortly after the start of the battle, Chinese submarines ambushed the Western Fleet. Obviously, the Chinese submarine has long appeared in the Western Fleet, allowing the Chinese fleet to grasp the whereabouts of the Western Fleet. In the absence of finding the Eastern Fleet, the Chinese fleet will certainly concentrate on taking out the Western Fleet. To be on the safe side, the Chinese fleet will certainly leave plenty of anti-aircraft fighters. Attacking with two-thirds of the force and defending with one-third of the force is exactly in line with the laws of naval warfare.

After this conclusion, Molovan's tactical thinking was not clear.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were bombed at around the last minute of New Delhi time, while the Western Fleet was attacked about half an hour later. It is clear that the Chinese fleet first destroyed the military facilities on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a third of its strength, relieving the worries. And only then an attack on the Western Fleet. The attack on the Western Fleet ended around the corner of New Delhi time. If as expected, the carrier-based fighters attacking the Andaman and Nicobar Islands will return to the Chinese fleet before the New Delhi time point and take off to carry out the fleet's air defense mission before the flight point coincidence; The carrier-based fighters attacking the Western Fleet returned to the skies over the fleet before o'clock in the morning and attacked with about the same hitman Feng Fen.

Fernandez received an order that the time in New Delhi was about a tick.

In other words, Molovan still has more than 3 hours to find and attack the Chinese fleet. To be precise, as long as the Chinese fleet can be found before the early morning of New Delhi time, Molovan will be able to send a group of attack planes in time to retreat to the northwest before the Chinese attack group arrives, and do a good job of air defense of the fleet. Even if you can't take out the Chinese fleet, you can inflict heavy damage on the Chinese fleet with a single attack. When the time comes, it will also be able to withdraw into the hinterland of the Bay of Bengal to avoid being attacked.

It can be seen from this that Molovan still has a thug who will reach the southeastern waters of the Strait of Malacca. Complete the search mission for the entire Strait. The remaining blade minutes are enough for each of the three aircraft carriers to send at least island carrier-based fighters.

Molovan is calculating. Hua Jianfeng in the distance was also calculating.

Unlike Molovan, Hua Jianfeng did not hesitate and did not arrange combat missions based on "guesses".

Shortly before Molovan received Fernandez's order, Hua Jianfeng received a report from the reconnaissance plane.

Finally found the Indian Eastern Fleet.

Almost exactly as predicted in the "Bingjigo" drawn up by the Navy Command, the Indian Eastern Fleet did not follow the Western Fleet south to the Sunda Strait, but remained west of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Hua Jianfeng did not delay any time, and immediately asked Yang Jinjie to arrange aviation combat operations.

What is a little surprising is that Hua Jianfeng asked Yang Jinjie to arrange not an attack mission first, but fleet air defense.

It is not difficult to understand this, in Hua Jianfeng's view, the reconnaissance plane has appeared in the Eastern Fleet, and then the Eastern Fleet has also appeared in the reconnaissance plane.

In fact, Molovan did not have the reconnaissance plane that turned over Little Andaman Island, that is, the reconnaissance plane of the Indian Eastern Fleet.

It wasn't Molovan who was careless, but technical and tactical limitations that made him make mistakes.

At that time, only 2 4-2 aircraft were on air defense alert duty and had a thug band, and electromagnetic waves could not penetrate the ionosphere at the top of the large and layer. The continent is now an electronic reconnaissance satellite in space. The long-range warning radars of several air defense warships belonging to the Eastern Fleet operate in the lower frequency band, and as long as the radars are activated, they can be detected by electronic reconnaissance satellites. It is no secret that the frequency of radar operation of Indian warships, China must have adjusted the orbits of electronic reconnaissance satellites, and as soon as the whereabouts of the warships are revealed, the Eastern Fleet will be exposed. The positioning capabilities of electronic reconnaissance satellites are enough to provide the necessary guidance information for the Chinese fleet. The Indian Navy has a clear rule that in the case of sending carrier-based AWACS aircraft, as long as there is no definite air threat, the air defense warning radar on the warship cannot be used.

If it is faced with an ordinary target, the four 2 out is enough to take on the task of air defense alert of the fleet.

It's just that this time the four and one encountered each other with the little thug Zhao fighter.

Although the bombers of the Air Force have destroyed the anti-aircraft alert radar on the Andaman - Nicobar Islands. However, Yang Jinjie was still very cautious when arranging reconnaissance missions. The mouth frame reconnaissance plane dropped its external fuel tank when it was still 1,000 kilometers away from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 4,000 kilometers away from the thugs, and the Eastern Fleet was 3 kilometers away from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is said that when Xiao Zhao appeared in the Indian Eastern Fleet, the four 2 Zhuo had not yet detected Xiao Zhao. Yang Jinjie did not let the reconnaissance plane take risks, and immediately turned back after giving a clear order to the current Indian Eastern Fleet.

That's right, when the little thug Zhao turned and flew away, Molovan had no idea that his whereabouts had been exposed.

This point fully exposes the weakness of the planing. If the Indian fleet is carrying a fighter jet from the US Navy, the alarm is raised.

What is even worse is that the Indian fighters that are rushing to the Strait of Malacca have no reconnaissance planes that have returned to their homes.

When Ma Si was carrying out reconnaissance missions, its fire control radar was in the working mode of searching for the sea, and its air detection capability was very limited. If it is necessary to go to high-risk sea areas to carry out reconnaissance missions, the wounded four will not even use fire control radar, but will use the electronic reconnaissance pod they carry to passively receive the electric collision waves from the battleship, and use the optical reconnaissance pod to search for the radiation of the red parts from the battleship. In this case. It is even more unlikely that the enemy planes will appear in the sky.

The detective who went out on a reconnaissance mission did not activate the radar before entering the Strait of Malacca. First, in order to avoid premature electromagnetic radiation, it will be attacked by Chinese fighters in the strait, and thus attacked by the air defense fighters of the Chinese fleet. Second, there is no need for this, as long as the Chinese fleet is active in the strait and the radar is activated after entering the strait, the Chinese fleet can also be seen in time. The third is to extend the reconnaissance time, because the continuous working time of the phased array radar in Siyue is less than the time limit, and if the Chinese fleet is present, it will have to provide guidance information for the group of attack planes that arrive later, and the continuous combat time is very likely to be more than four hours.

What's more, the mouth frame did not return to the original route.

Because the reconnaissance plane went out before the outbreak of war, it could pass through the narrowest part of the Strait of Malacca at a low altitude.

After the outbreak of war, the US Seventh Fleet, which had already arrived in Singapore, would certainly not do nothing, and even if it would not help the Indian Navy deal with the Chinese fleet, it would activate its radar, which was the eyeliner of the Indian Fleet, and it was later proved that the US Seventh Fleet's air defense cruisers had indeed activated the air search radar to closely monitor the aircraft that appeared in the strait. The little thug Zhao was able to deceive the AWACS aircraft of the Indian fleet, but he was not necessarily able to avoid the AWACS aircraft of the American fleet. When designing the route, Yang Jinjie not only took this into account, but also made arrangements. All said, small persuasion kilometer. On their way back, all the reconnaissance planes took the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand, first entered the Gulf of Thailand, then headed south along the eastern coastline of the Malay Peninsula, and finally returned to the fleet. Although this route has an extra range of about 1,000 kilometers, it can ensure the safe and sound return of the reconnaissance planes, and it can also ensure the concealment of the fleet's whereabouts and prevent them from being exposed prematurely.

The presence of the Indian Eastern Fleet did not make Hua Jianfeng feel relaxed.

It is only necessary to scrape the compass on the chart to measure the distance between the Eastern Fleet of India and the fleet of the Republic.

In fact, there is no need to go to such trouble, just input reconnaissance intelligence into the computer and you can get the answer.

The straight-line distance is a kilometer from Choukou, and if you need to avoid Malaysia and Thailand, the one-way flight is about a kilometer.

It's not too close, and the radius of the first four's attack on the sea without considering the air battle is similar to that of the thug Xu, and it is basically impossible to complete the attack mission alone.

It's not too far, if you can get the support of the tanker, Shi Si, say, Xiao Xu can attack with full load.

In terms of defense, Hua Jianfeng had to consider two uncertain factors

It is very likely that the Indian Air Force will send tanker aircraft to the Andaman Sea to resupply the returning attack aircraft fleet and allow the fighters of the Indian fleet to return to the aircraft carrier. The Indian Air Force has a total of large tankers, and if only the fighters are provided with return fuel, each tanker can refuel eight Ma-Si and can support the fighters. Unless he had to, Hua Jianfeng didn't want to use forced electromagnetic interference equipment, because it was a tactical means to kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred.

The second is whether the US military deployed in Singapore will provide support for the Indian aircraft fleet. "Crucian carp is American, and Indian tankers are American. Even if the U.S. does not deploy tankers at Changi Air Base, it will be able to fuel India's First Fourth with the Seventh Fleet's Carrier Companion Air Refueling Pod. In this way, if there are many fighters on India's three aircraft carriers, they can all be dispatched, and the first four generals who are responsible for the attack will drop their hands and drop a total of anti-ship missiles, posing a greater threat to the republican fleet.

On the offensive side, Hua Jianfeng also had to consider an uncertain factor.

That is, will Thailand allow tanker aircraft that provide fuel supplies for carrier-based fighters on attack missions to take off from its air bases? If the answer is yes, Hua Jianfeng does not need to worry about the attack distance, and the thugs deployed in Thailand will return to the aircraft carrier after completing the mission.

If the answer is no, Hua Jianfeng will have to arrange for fighter jets to provide partner in-flight refueling, so that the number of attack aircraft will be reduced to less than a fighter.

The difference between the two is too great, and the impact on the outcome of the attack is very obvious.

Of course, for Hua Jianfeng, who has already won a major victory, how to keep the results is the key issue.

In this case, Hua Jianfeng asked Yang Jinjie to take the air defense of the fleet first.

Next, Hua Jianfeng contacted the Navy Command and the Front Command.

What is Thailand's attitude, Hua Jianfeng doesn't count what he says, and it's useless to say it, so he can only let the Navy Command and the Front Command work hard to try to get Thailand's support, at least to get Thailand's acquiescence.

Anyway, Thailand is not Indonesia.

As one of the Republic's most important allies in Southeast Asia, Thailand turned to the Republic after the South China Sea War, completely abandoning the United States. Although Thailand has always supported the Republic in major international affairs and will certainly not drag the Republic back on the issue of war, the Republic must also respect Thailand and not act recklessly.

Because tactical intelligence is exchanged through the military network, when Hua Jianfeng is thinking about this issue, Lin Xiaomeng is also thinking about this problem.

Before receiving Hua Jianfeng's report, Lin Xiaolei contacted Xiang Linghui, who was still in Pakistan.

At this time, Xiang Linghui had already sent off the chief of the Pakistani General Staff and was discussing the next battle with Pei Chengyi.

On the one hand, he ordered the commander of the air base stationed in Thailand to let a tanker plane loaded with aviation fuel take off urgently to carry out the "exercise mission" over the Gulf of Thailand.

What to do, Wang Yuanqing is naturally measured.

Of course, even if Thailand is hesitant, there are solutions.

That is, the group of planes that have completed the attack mission will once again enter the Gulf of Thailand from the Kra Isthmus, rendezvous with the group of tankers carrying out the "exercise" mission over the Gulf of Thailand, and after replenishing fuel, they will not return to the fleet, but will go to the air bases of the Republic of China in Shupu Zhai and Vietnam in the name of "exercise", and wait until dawn before returning to the fleet. At that time, even if the matter is pierced, it can be covered up in the name of "exercises," so that the Thai government will not be unable to step down.

As for whether this method was thought of by Xiang Linghui or Pei Chengyi, I'm afraid no one can say clearly.

After Xiang Linghui made arrangements, Pei Chengyi sent news to Hua Jianfeng, asking him to organize an attack as soon as possible, and be sure to annihilate the Indian Eastern Fleet according to the plan, and don't worry too much about other things.

At this time, Wang Yuanqing also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action.

Obviously, it is very unrealistic for Thailand to immediately make a decision in favor of the republic to go to war against India.

Wang Yuanqing had no other choice but to get off the donkey down the slope and, according to Xiang Linghui's arrangement, informed the Republic Navy that it was conducting military exercises in the South China Sea and needed to use Thai airspace. According to the relevant agreement signed between the Republic and Thailand, unless the Thai Government immediately rejects the Republic's request, the Republic's fighter jets can peacefully use Thailand's airspace without endangering Thailand's national defense and security.

Whether it is peaceful use or not, that is the question.

Strictly speaking, the passage of fighters of the Republic Navy through Thai airspace after completing the task of attacking the Indian Eastern Fleet is certainly not considered a peaceful use, since it is part of the war operation. But from another point of view, the fighter planes of the Republic Navy have completed their attack mission and are on their way back, and will not attack any enemy targets on the way back, and the military operation has ended, and the passage through Thai airspace can also be regarded as a peaceful use.

In any case, this kind of diplomatic nonsense is certainly troublesome.

No matter how troublesome it is, it is unlikely to have an impact on the upcoming battle.

After receiving Pei Chengyi's order, Hua Jianfeng no longer hesitated, and immediately asked Yang Jinjie to start arranging the attack.

All the problems were solved, all that remained was to wait for the return of the fleet that attacked the Western Fleet of India.