……

The night is getting deeper, and the city of Beijing, which has been noisy all day, has entered a deep sweet dreamland.

At this moment, east of the Zhoushan Islands, which are more than 1,000 kilometers away from the capital, there are two dark gray fighters passing through the night sky.

Observing from the sea, the tail flame of the fighter planes several thousand meters above the ground was dim and blurred, and it seemed to be cruising unhurriedly in the dark sky, but the two Jian-17 "Swift Dragons" were routinely cruising at the northern boundary of the air defense identification zone in the East China Sea at a high speed of Mach 1.2.

Piloting the "Swift Dragon" with the number 31702, the major pilot was in a dimly lit blister-shaped cockpit, keeping the radar silent to receive the air situation information from the ground command center behind the coastline, and only occasionally maintaining radio contact with the wingman No. 31705 flying a few kilometers away. Yesterday morning, at the Beijing Aviation Training Center, he witnessed the curtain call of the Bian Chao, and after returning to the suburban base of Hangzhou by the Air Force transport plane, today's night cruise was carried out by him and his partner Chen Sheng.

"Skylark, lark, it is expected to arrive at the fourth track marker in a minute; There is no abnormality in the void, over. ”

"The lark received; The navigation information is confirmed to be correct, and it will arrive at the standard point after 50 seconds, and it will be completed. ”

After communicating with the command center, he turned on the radio encryption channel to contact the wingman, reminded his partner Lao Chen not to fly past the predetermined turning point, and then continued to observe the electromagnetic signal reception and scanning on the multi-function display. Cruising over the vast East China Sea is not a challenge in today's peaceful era. Since taking over the de facto jurisdiction of the airspace of the Ryukyu Islands, the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, which once played a huge role, has fulfilled its historic mission; The aviation aircraft that appear here today, in addition to the Air Force fighters and private jets, are the big guys of civil aviation. None of these things need extra attention from the distance.

If it weren't for the fact that a few years ago, the division finally waited for the J-17 "Xunlong" to be reequipped, and then it was deployed to serve as airspace control in the second line. They may still be in the inland northwest at this time, driving an old Su-27SK on a mission.

While cruising in a fighter plane, I thought of yesterday's wonderful but helpless game. Bian Yuan blinked in the cockpit, he felt a little sorry for his son. If he hadn't insisted on joining the "Uranus" and using the Su-27SK to compete, he might have been able to go further.

With a little bit of his own thoughts, Bian Yuan didn't know it at this time, and the long-range warning radar deployed in the coastal area behind him found a suspicious target from the east.

Ningbo, Zhejiang, a command center of the Air Force of the Nanjing Military Region.

In the busy air monitoring hall, on a large holographic display projection showing radar scan information, a target with very conspicuous speed and height suddenly appears in the radar operator's line of sight.

Unlike many of the surrounding targets that are displayed in pale green and drag the verified green thin routes, this bright spot that appears out of thin air and is still changing in height is immediately automatically captured and screened by the identification program; After quickly comparing the huge number of aircraft and the database of jù did not find a match. The system seemed to pause hesitantly for a second, and then an abrupt air alarm sounded.

The sudden alarm surprised everyone in the hall, most of them had never heard such an alarm since they had served here!

"Empty Situation Alert! Outside the northeastern boundary of the identification zone, an unknown target has been found! ”

"Oh-?"

After a brief moment of surprise for a second or two, the lieutenant colonel on duty immediately saw the orange target displayed on the control platform: the screening column was an orange font "suspected fighter", the target was located 630 kilometers east of Ningbo, and the altitude was about 4,000 meters when it was first discovered. is moving westward at Mach 1.4; The echo of the target is still very weak, which is probably why the alert radar deployed in the Ryukyus has not been able to detect it.

Altitude of six thousand meters, speed of Mach 1.4, radar stealth target?

Isn't this a typical enemy aircraft!

Without hesitation. The lieutenant colonel immediately moved his mouse and clicked to frame the target, which was about to enter the eastern boundary of the air defense identification zone in the East China Sea. Although it is not clear where this guy came from, the result of the system's automatic screening should not be wrong, is it an enemy plane playing a low-altitude penetration trick?

With the actions of the lieutenant colonel. The airspace monitoring system deployed on the eastern coast immediately became operational, and the automatic interception and guidance system searched for the nearby airspace for the airspace. Then use the number jù chain to issue the interception instruction.

"Skylark, lark! Air Situation Alert. The target number jù has been wound; Azimuth 70, coordinates 7529, 9030! Immediately after confirming the target information, intercept according to the predetermined line, this is not a drill! Again, this is not a drill! ”

"- The lark received! The target number jù is confirmed, and it is finished! ”

Suddenly hearing the call from the command center, the remote major and the wingman Lao Chen were shocked in their hearts, and the major stared nervously at the display screen in front of him for a while, and then he was convinced that this was not his hallucination - since joining the 15th Air Force Division, he has flown more than 3,000 hours in the sky, and in his more than ten years of service, he has never received a real air situation alarm, not even once!

Although the incident happened in a hurry, after confirming the target information of the ground guide on the chain, Yuan Yuan immediately called the wingman to move closer to him, and the two dark gray "Swift Dragons" turned on the afterburner to climb and accelerate, and rushed towards the target more than 100 kilometers away according to the planned interception route.

I didn't expect that today's ordinary cruise would have a real combat mission!

In peacetime like this, there are not many warplanes patrolling and alerting in the air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, and now there are only two of them "Swift Dragons" on standby in the airspace of several hundred kilometers in the vicinity. Piloting the fighter plane to fly in the southwest direction at a high speed, the green numbers of altitude and speed on the flat display continued to rise, and Bian Yuan and Chen Sheng had the same thoughts at this time.

In the East China Sea, where no enemy aircraft have appeared for more than a decade, and the Ryukyu cordon has not responded, where does this target come from?

Although according to the standard response process of the Air Defense Identification Zone, the suspicious target is first approached to make a visual observation, confirm the target type and intent, and then decide on the next course of action. But for such a high-speed target that rushes straight and has no radio response, since the implied hostility that dares to swagger over is already obvious, then it can already be shot down without saying hello!

The judgment of the two pilots was consistent with the emergency response order of the command center; However, observing the movement of the target captured by the radar, the expression of the lieutenant colonel on duty gradually became a little confused.

On the holographic display in front of you, the position of the orange bright spot representing the suspicious target is still changing, and the number next to it shows that the altitude has exceeded 8,000 meters, the speed is Mach 1.4, and it continues to climb higher!

"Lao Liu, could this be an American reconnaissance plane?"

Finding that the movement of this target was a little weird, the lieutenant colonel tilted his head with some confusion and asked Major Liu, who was in charge of inter-service liaison next to him, "Such a climbing method, isn't that looking for a beating?" ”

"I don't think so, otherwise the system should be able to recognize the model."

Looking down at the screen in front of him, Major Liu looked back with a hint of doubt, "Where did this come from?" The Navy's response has been replied, and the sonar base array has detected no signal; Satellite...... No, large surface ships such as aircraft carriers were not observed in the waters near the appearance of the target. ”

"So...... You see, it's still climbing! ”

At the moment when the two were talking, I saw that the orange bright spot on the holographic display had climbed to 13,000 meters, and it seemed that it would continue to rise, and the speed still maintained Mach 14!

"This? This is-" Glimpsing the display bar automatically screened by the system, the font had changed to red "Suspected Assault", and the lieutenant colonel's face immediately changed drastically. If it is really a strong attack aircraft, then it will be a big trouble, and it is by no means that the two "Swift Dragons" that the system automatically commands and intercepts can stop:

"-- Immediately confirm the patrol fighters in the nearby airspace, where is the nearest assault unit!"

"Report! Nearby airspace...... No assault units are in the air! ”

"-What?!"

Why didn't the raider plane be on duty, probably because the song and dance had been leveling for too long?

Thinking of this, the lieutenant colonel clenched his fists with some annoyance, but who would have thought of the current situation, this air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, which is covered by the Ryukyu Islands, usually doesn't even have eagles that dare to fly in without saying hello, what is going on today? He knew very well that the target information had been chained to the National Airspace Early Warning Center by the system at this time, but the lieutenant colonel was a little uneasy, and he asked Major Liu to immediately contact the command center of the military region, and at the same time ordered the controller to remind the "Xunlong" twin planes that came out to intercept:

"The Air Force does not have assault aircraft in the air? What about HNA, where are HNA's assault aircraft brigades? ――Lao Liu, you quickly overstep the level to contact the Kyushu base of HNA, they have a 'Yanlong' stationed in Nagasaki! Hurry up and let them dispatch urgently, and it will be too late to wait for the network to feedback layer by layer! ”

Yes, if that's a Raider-

The command center was busy, and at this time, the two "Xunlong" flying to the east also noticed that something was wrong, according to the standard head-on interception and engagement mode, they used the EOS system to capture the target more than 50 kilometers away under the condition of radar silence, and the infrared signature of the target in the dark night sky background was very obvious; But when he found that the target had climbed to an altitude of more than 16,000 meters at this time, he looked at the number sent by the command center with some doubts, and sure enough, it was this number, and it seemed to be still climbing, and the speed was Mach 1.4!

Supersonic speed has climbed to 16,000 kilometers and there is no sign of leveling?

Damn, what the hell is this, it can't be an American attack plane coming to kick the field!

Seeing the interception message prompt sent by the command center on the display screen, Bian Yuan immediately called Lao Chen on the radio without a trace of hesitation:

"Hole five, hole five, turn on the fire control system, prepare to implement over-the-horizon interception, the target is suspected of being a strong attack aircraft! Repeat, the target height is too high, it is ready to carry out over-the-horizon interception, and the target is suspected of being a strong attack aircraft! (To be continued......)