On a moonless night, the MiG-44s, with their wings flat and their tails shining through, quickly entered the predetermined training area in formation, and with the help of the remote command of the early warning aircraft, they carried out a confrontation drill with the "Raptor" fleet that was coming from another direction.

The so-called "training" often means "exercise" in the ALSA dictionary, or at least it is also a virtual confrontation without live ammunition, which is not the glorious tradition of the Arab League's defense air force, but at present, the war in the Middle East needs to be extinguished, and the training enthusiasm of a group of hired pilots is also rising.

Yes, of course, few people will not be tempted by the million-dollar bounty for the downfall, but at this moment, in the face of the vicious Syrian Freedom Party and perhaps the Baghdad regime, the mercenaries' inner convictions are further awakening; With ALSA's combat system, it is fully expected to achieve a victory, and the pilot's sense of honor and self-confidence can only really shine in the fierce battle in the sky.

Head-on into the predetermined war zone, the early warning aircraft continued to refresh the air situation, and the confrontation of the stealth fighters was like a fencing battle in the dark; with the help of the negligent looming target position, the "snow sculptures" flying forward in formation quickly divided into two squads and flanked the two wings of the airspace where the target was roughly distributed.

The fighter accelerated and flew fast, climbed all the way to occupy a favorable position, and the pilot aircraft that turned on the afterburner charge in front had turned on the N035 radar, and the rest of the fighters provided matrix electronic jamming in the rear, trying to drown the pilot signal in a large sea of noise.

A faint electromagnetic beam in the sky was detected, and several F-22s from a squadron of the 3rd Air Wing of the ALSA also responded immediately, and three pilot aircraft activated the electronic warfare mode of the AN/APG-77. Adopt the tactic of a central breakthrough that actively exposes the signal. The rest of the fighters immediately cleared left and right. With the help of the early warning platform and the battlefield situation camera from the central fighter; With the implementation of a set of complex tactics, more and more electromagnetic signals are spreading in the sky, like a little spark in the dark night, but under this dim and hazy radio wave, more silent giant birds are trying their best to change positions and maneuver flexibly, ready to quickly cut in from the opponent's unguarded position, and launch a fatal blow without warning.

System-to-system, low-detectable vs. low-detectable. It should be said that this is a battle of evenly matched platform performance.

Under such circumstances, the so-called victory or defeat on the battlefield, apart from a little luck in the sky, depends entirely on the integrated operational command system of the two sides and how well the pilots perform in battle.

In the dark, the "Raptor" that broke through in the center decisively "launched" a batch of AIM-120D, leaving one fighter to provide relay guidance, and the other two fighters dived into the evasive route to continue to attract the attention of the opponent; Just when the R-77M and AIM-120D were "flying" back and forth in the sky, the conflict on the flanks of the battlefield had also broken out. The fighters of both sides that briefly disengaged shook off the opponent's over-the-horizon attacks, and soon followed a curved course to the other side of the battlefield. Try to launch a sneak attack while circumventing the opponent's long-range detection system.

Approaching each other in silence, fighting with all their might once they find a clue, the stealth fighter confrontation drill in the night sky, in the eyes of the ALSA command center in the rear, seems to be more like a vast chess game, but for every mercenary pilot involved in the confrontation, being in the cockpit shrouded in darkness and dim light at this time is completely a life-and-death struggle with a high degree of mental concentration.

Yes, even if it is just an exercise, the pilots who go all out will only be treated as a real war, and there has never been a place for rookies in the sky of the Middle East, and the same is true for the unprepared!

With the battlefield scheduling of the command platform and the on-the-spot decision of the commanders of the formations on both sides, they competed back and forth in the airspace for several rounds, and launched a large number of missiles from each other, but the "Raptor" and "Snow Sculpture" fleets did not have any decent gains.

Compared with a real war in which there must be a certain tactical intent, in a free confrontation where there is little difference in the target and there is no way to distinguish between the offensive and defensive sides, it is not uncommon for stealth fighters to have "over-the-horizon and no gain"; Next, according to the command center's order, the two sides reorganized and dispersed into a group of free combat confrontations between two planes, focusing on training combat capabilities under complex meteorological conditions.

It had been several days since receiving the new fighter, and piloting the MiG-44 "Snow Sculpture" with a crimson five-pointed star painted on one wing, Gao Meiyu followed the pace of the long plane, and soon flew into the predetermined airspace, and entered into a visual confrontation with the two F-22s of the Third Wing in roughly fair initial conditions.

In the era of stealth when missiles are flying all over the sky, conducting fighter combat drills seems to be an outdated act like a "rifle stabbing stab" in the eyes of some people.

However, at this moment, Gao Meiyu, who felt the pressure of high G overload, was entering a spiral crawl with the long plane, trying to accumulate energy, and then broke away the opponent's cooperation in one fell swoop, of course, had no time to refute this worthless misunderstanding.

Putting aside anything else, let's just look at the over-the-horizon confrontations frequently carried out by the two sides of the confrontation just now, each side seems to be doing its best, but both have room for it, and the over-the-horizon missiles that break through the air but can only fall blankly have proved one point in themselves, that is, "over-the-horizon cannot solve all problems"; Unless it is a unilateral sweep of the sky, once it encounters an opponent with similar strength, even fighters such as "Raptor" and "Snow Eagle" that can hide in front of the radar must always be ready to kill within sight in one fell swoop.

While pulling the rod to climb, try to capture with a helmet sight, separate left and right after entering the awl maneuver, the radar briefly unlocks, and immediately continue tracking the target using EODAS!

Nervously maneuvering the fighter to change course, pulling the throttle valve slightly back, and the flight control system used the vertical tail rudder differential to assist in deceleration, Gao Meiyu, who maintained several chain contacts with the long plane, the green hollow cross in front of him had already captured a trace of tail flame light in the pure black background, but at this time, the situation of friend and foe was not ideal, and he could only "launch" an R-77M that was almost inevitably off the target to threaten slightly.

Yes, what kind of misunderstanding is the metaphor of "rifle fighting" as a visual combat of a fighter jet?

If it is said that the medium-range missiles carried by fighters can already hit the enemy with every shot, or that they will definitely hit the enemy when they are aimed, then this analogy is quite reliable, but the question is that how can over-the-horizon missiles do this, and it is more appropriate to say that a fighter with over-the-horizon missiles is a hunter with a few fierce dogs.

Between the lightning and flint, Gao Meiyu, who was nervously pursuing, could only think of these, he pedaled the rudder on the side, and used the TVC to compete with the "Raptor" who must also be maneuvering in the vector, the two fighters rolled and moved in the horizontal plane, but for a while no one could help the opponent, obviously the larger "Snow Sculpture" was still slightly inferior in the thrust-to-weight ratio, but the young man who piloted the landline was not worried now.

Purely competing with SEP, it has never been the original face of air combat, think about the visual confrontation between the F-15 and the Su-27 many years ago, and today's contest is more important than the disadvantage, will it still be the same as back then?

Previously transferred from the F-22 to the MiG-44, Gao Meiyu is well aware of the performance envelope of the "Snow Sculpture" and "Raptor" models, and he is cooperating with the ferocious attack of the long plane and using an R-73E to suppress the "Raptor" wingman's bag attempt, while considering the maneuvering strategy that should be adopted according to the target parameters on the display screen.

Over-the-horizon air combat is like a hunter releasing a fierce dog to pursue, but if any hunter will put his knife and gun in storage because of a few vicious dogs in his hand, and never practice the use of sharp knives again, then I am afraid that this person's hunting career will not be too long.

No matter how powerful the hound is, there is no guarantee that it will work, if it still can't get the opponent after being released, will it give up the place and turn around and run away?

In the fierce fighting confrontation, but in his mind thinking about such a simple truth, Gao Meiyu, who flew quickly, barely caught an opportunity, but in the fighting situation that changed rapidly, the diffraction flat display of the MiG-44 "Snow Sculpture" plus the helmet sight configuration was still slightly insufficient compared to the helmet display of the F-22 "Raptor", he subconsciously locked on the opponent, but he did not fire immediately because of the low hit rate.

A pilot, no matter how skilled he is in controlling electronic systems, if he only carries out a mission in the sky with the idea of playing video games or lining up for a shooting battle, he will sooner or later find that neither radar-guided missiles nor infrared-guided missiles can meet such a demanding hit rate requirement.

The repeated contest between spear and shield cannot give a weapon an absolute advantage over the times; This kind of law is the same for the single and twin engine fighters of World War II, the "ghosts" and MiG-21s of the Vietnam War, and the current over-the-horizon and visual air battles are actually the same.

The pilot and the long plane staggered through the sky, and with the light point of the sight, the opponent was locked again, and an R-73E poked out of the bomb bay and "flew" away, and a large field of dazzling hot flares flashed in the sky.

Just when the "Raptor," which was hurriedly turning sideways and throwing jamming bombs while reversing and detaching, had just entered the track, the "snow sculpture" with wide afterburner had already ghostly approached, and the aiming hotline pressed the blurred figure of the target, and when the button was pressed, a long series of virtual 30-millimeter shells swept the sky, and the winner and loser of the confrontation also changed in this instant. (To be continued......)