The sea is everywhere, and there is no radio navigation. The fighter jets flying out dare not easily leave the fleet too far.
In fact, most of the combined fleet fighters can only search along the edge of the outer guard fleet, and they can only see slightly further than the fleet.
As more and more Tang Army anti-ship missiles hit and seriously damaged the warships of the United Fleet, more and more black smoke appeared on the sea, and the pilots of the United Fleet looking for targets in the sky became more and more irritable.
They found no trace of the enemy, not even incoming anti-ship missiles. They were just searching aimlessly, looking for an enemy that didn't seem to exist at all.
"No target found! There is no enemy fleet on the sea." The pilot sent another message to the almost unreachable radio channel.
Unfortunately, they get no response, and most of the time the other party doesn't even hear what they say in return. It's just that they have to try again and again, hoping for the chance of a miracle happening.
Sure enough, their expectations were rewarded: the voice from the fleet suddenly appeared in their headphones, a voice that made them dream and excited.
"The aircraft carrier Endeavor has been sunk...you...return...cannot...land..." Intermittently, bad news came to my ears.
The Endeavor aircraft carrier was the Dorne aircraft carrier that was first sunk. Because it was designed in-house, its ability to carry aircraft was very low and its performance was not very good.
But... no matter what, it is still an aircraft carrier! No matter how bad an aircraft carrier is, it is still a maritime airport, and it is the "home" of all the aircraft pilots stationed at this airport.
Now that the aircraft carrier has been sunk, the pilots who have taken off from the aircraft carrier are homeless. It's okay if it's on land, at least there are other airports to choose from, but it's not that simple if it's on the sea.
The number of aircraft an aircraft carrier can carry is limited. If it wants to receive aircraft flying from other aircraft carriers, it must abandon its own aircraft.
Of course, many times there is a certain amount of space on the aircraft carrier, which can temporarily store a few more aircraft, but in order to improve the fleet's combat effectiveness... the United Fleet filled all 10 aircraft carriers with carrier-based aircraft.
Yes, under normal circumstances, aircraft carrier commanders will fall into a misunderstanding: the more aircraft they carry, the stronger their combat effectiveness will be.
But in fact, the combat effectiveness of an aircraft carrier is very complex. To evaluate the combat effectiveness of an aircraft carrier, one cannot completely look at its maximum number of aircraft.
Docking two aircraft seems good, but this will make deck scheduling more complicated, the release speed of the aircraft will be reduced, and the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier will actually be reduced.
Moreover, if a few extra aircraft are temporarily stacked, they are not the aircraft on the own aircraft carrier, and there will be problems with coordination, which will also affect combat effectiveness.
"We are running out of fuel! The Endeavor has sunk. Which aircraft carrier should we land on?" the wingman asked his lead aircraft a very realistic and pointed question.
"Return! Let's talk after we get close to the fleet. The communication here is close to the limit. The channel interference will be much better after we go back." The lead pilot said helplessly.
If the plane runs out of fuel, it will definitely not be able to continue flying. In order to ensure that they have other options, they are unlikely to fully calculate the fuel consumption for the return flight.
It is always necessary to leave some excess fuel for emergencies, so they must return now. Including the time to fly back, they had been struggling in the sky for more than an hour, flying back and forth boringly in the small cockpit of the aircraft, which was almost reaching their limit.
It can also be seen from here that the Zero fighter jet, which can fly in the sky for more than 3 hours, is a cheat for pilots. At the extreme range, the pilot sat in the cockpit for several hours, unable to even watch a short video...
The patrol fighters of the joint fleet that took off at the beginning were almost all running out of fuel, but many of them found that they could not find their home.
That's right, I can't find my home... Not only did some of the returning planes find that the aircraft carrier they were on was sunk, but some of the planes lost their navigation and wandered over the fleet, unable to find the aircraft carrier they were on. …
Radio navigation was intermittent due to interference. The fleet had been adjusting its course and was no longer near the anchorage.
There is also a whole formation of Stuka dive bombers circling stupidly in the sky. They are the first batch of attack aircraft groups. They have lost their targets and can only wander around in the sky.
As time went by, the Stuka, which had a shorter range, was almost running out of fuel, but they could hold on for a while. After all, they were above the fleet, and landing did not seem too difficult.
The second batch of attack aircraft was on standby further away. They still had enough fuel, but they could not find the enemy to attack, which made the formation commander very distressed.
In such a period of lull, the most serious problem of the combined fleet...that is, the "union" finally began to cause problems for the commanders of Qin and Dorne.
A group of pirate fighter jets returned home, yes, they were naval aircraft carrier-based aircraft exported by the Tang Empire. The inverted gull-wing fighter jets, also numbered F4, were attacked by jet fighters!
The scene was very chaotic. A group of short and lean jet fighters with extremely fast speeds and fierce nose air intakes rushed into the returning Phantom fighter fleet near the original anchorage of the United Fleet, and started a massacre.
The Phantom fighter force itself was almost running out of fuel. They had no intention of fighting and retreated. Only after a dozen of them were shot down did both sides react...
The one who hit him was a Type 183 jet fighter of the Qin Empire Air Force, and the one who got hit was a pirate fighter equipped by the Dorne Navy...
As the battle got closer to the combined fleet, communications gradually recovered, and the misunderstanding was finally resolved. This farce of one's own people beating one's own people has finally come to an end.
The Qin Air Force, which came to escort them, finally showed its face in front of the Dornish Navy, which came from afar, and everyone didn't get to know each other.
The good news is that no one seems to have to worry about which aircraft carrier the dozen pirate fighter jets on the Endeavor aircraft carrier will land on.
The bad news is that John Cleeves, the commander of the combined fleet, has lost another part of his combat power. Now he has another small task: to send people to fish out a few unlucky pilots who survived by chance in the sea.
The most ridiculous thing is that after beating up friendly forces, the Qin army's jet fighters ran out of fuel and had to return. All the naval commanders were dumbfounded by this black humor, and there was only one question in their minds: What are these idiots doing?
