At about 9 a.m., Li Hai arrived in the designated airspace.
The Sulawesi Sea is not well-known. It is neither a sea area passed by important routes nor an important geographical location. There are several countries nearby, and when flying through international airspace, it is more than 300 kilometers farther than the straight-line distance.
Li Hai flew very cautiously in international airspace, with international air routes above his head.
He deliberately contacted the big black fish. After sending a radio signal, there was no response for a long time, which meant that the big black fish was already diving.
The weather was very good, with sparse clouds and stable airflow. There was no sign of a catastrophe coming.
Li Hai slowly descended from the flight altitude and visually observed the sea surface. Judging from the whitening waves, the sea conditions were not good, but not bad either. For ocean-going ships that can weigh tens of thousands of tons or more than 100,000 or 200,000 tons, a wave height of a few meters is nothing.
One thing that is certain is that the big black fish must have discovered something on the bottom of the sea. Maybe you discovered changes in the trench during your extreme dive, or maybe you heard unusual noises from the trench during sonar search training.
Big Black Fish's judgment cannot be wrong, otherwise they would not report to the Submarine Command and send a copy to the Forgotten Reef longwave radio station at the same time. All naval vessels operating in this area know that the nearest contact point is the Forgotten Reef.
If there is a situation where it is impossible to contact the submarine command, the long-wave radio station on the Forgotten Reef is their only point of contact.
Li Hai's eyes suddenly condensed and he saw the whirlpool.
He hurriedly steered the boat over and took a closer look, oh, what a huge whirlpool. I checked the direction of the trench in the topographic map of the Sulawesi Sea, and when I compared it with the coordinates of the whirlpool, I saw that it was right above the trench. What is certain is that not only are the trenches changing, but new cracks are certainly appearing on the seafloor, creating whirlpools.
He adjusted the channel to the international channel, and as soon as he entered it, he heard English with various accents speaking wildly. When he listened carefully, it was all about the whirlpool. Basically, they are informing each other about the situation of the whirlpool so as not to be affected.
Freeing one hand to take out the camera, he flew around the whirlpool. The altitude gradually decreased. Li Hai started taking pictures of the whirlpool. There were no blind spots at 360 degrees. He took pictures at different heights, angles and distances in one breath. More than a hundred.
"Tower, Cave Three reported that a whirlpool was found on the water surface, about 800 meters in diameter, and there are signs of expansion. The coordinates are..."
For a while, there was no reply from the tower.
Li Hai frowned and called a second time.
Still no reply.
The tower called Li Hai earlier, but found that he couldn't. Only then did Xue Zhengrong realize that he had made a serious mistake—the mission airspace exceeded the maximum communication distance.
The Forgotten Reef Independent Brigade generally operates within a range of 500 kilometers. To be precise, it has never operated beyond the east, west, and south lines. Their missions are protection, assistance, and police patrols, and they have no combat missions.
This is the first time we have traveled 1,000 kilometers eastward.
The maximum detection range of the radar on the Forgotten Reef is less than 1,000 kilometers, which means that the tower can no longer see the position of J-8F No. 81103 at this time.
This is not a problem. When fighter jets at land-based stations engage in long-distance flight training, they disappear from land-based radars most of the time.
Before the Beidou system came into service, when conducting long-distance flight training, the ground command post and the air formation were unable to contact each other for a period of time, unable to provide guidance, and the air formation had to rely on itself. After the Beidou system entered service, this problem was solved. Theoretically, air formations can contact ground command posts anywhere in the world.
The problem is that the J-8F does not have a Beidou communication system and can only rely on shortwave radio to maintain contact with the Forgotten Reef tower.
1,000 kilometers is far beyond the combat range of airborne shortwave radio stations.
Xue Zhengrong immediately took remedial measures.
"The Party is for the People! Take off immediately!" Xue Zhengrong pointed at the Party for the People, "Open 81101, go quickly!"
"yes!"
Dang Weimin quickly left the tower and ran to the flight briefing room to dress, and then rushed to the apron, where Li Yuanchao and others were conducting emergency inspections on J-8FR No. 81101 before takeoff.
It is common practice to use another fighter aircraft as a communications relay. Every fighter plane has passive signal relay equipment on it. Assuming that Li Hai's communication distance is 300 kilometers and Dang Weimin is at a location of 300 kilometers, then the shortwave signal he sends will be received by the fighter plane piloted by Dang Weimin and then directly transmitted back to the ground command post. If the distance is still not enough, then the signal forwarded by the Party-Wei-Civil fighter will be received by other fighters and then try to transmit it back to the ground command post. Passive relay does not require manual operation by the pilot.
This is the purpose of letting the party take off for the people.
However, the communication distance of the J-8F was still not enough, so Xue Zhengrong asked Dang Weimin to fly the J-8FR tactical reconnaissance aircraft and mount a communication pod to increase the communication distance. As long as the Party for the People flies to a location three hundred kilometers away from Li Hai, it can play the role of a communication relay.
The maintenance staff installed two auxiliary fuel tanks for J-8FR No. 81101, hung a communication pod on the heavy-duty pylon under the belly of the aircraft, filled it with fuel, and handed the aircraft over to the Party and the People.
The party took off urgently for the people and rushed to the airspace over the Sulawesi Sea.
Unable to call the Forgotten Reef tower, Li Hai soon realized what the problem was. Suddenly losing ground guidance and instructions, Li Hai panicked for a moment and didn't know what to do next.
He quickly calmed down and thought about it, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing.
Furthermore, there will be more and more ultra-long-distance training in the future, and it is not advisable to develop the habit of relying on ground command and guidance.
Just take this opportunity to exercise.
He is a new pilot who has been in the army for less than three months and has continuously performed high-risk and difficult flying subjects, which is only possible in special places like Forgotten Reef. If you are in the Flying Shark Force or other shore-based aviation units, don't even think about it.
After thinking about it, Li Hai stopped being nervous and kept flying around, maintaining an appropriate altitude and airspeed, and observing changes in the vortex and sea conditions.
When an earthquake occurs on the bottom of the sea, the sea surface must be the first to change. If you keep an eye on this sea area, you will definitely be able to see the clues.
Li Hai can stay here for more than an hour, he is not in a hurry.
In fact, after knowing that there is a high probability that the earthquake will not affect the waters where the Forgotten Reef is located and the international shipping lanes, his attitude is not very positive. When he knew that the tsunami would cause devastating damage to the unprepared coastal city of Ike Island, he actually felt a little happy.
Of course, he knew that he was narrow-minded, but he had no intention of changing, especially when facing the Thousand Island Country.
He liked the words of a certain great emperor very much: Whatever crime they committed will be judged by God, and I am responsible for sending them to see God.
Now, a major earthquake from the bottom of the sea seems unavoidable. Li Hai believes that he is doing his best to be able to appear here and collect relevant information as much as possible.
However, even if a major earthquake occurs, it may not trigger a tsunami.
Li Hai's mood was very complicated. He didn't want it to happen, but he also wanted it to happen as soon as possible. In the face of natural disasters, all mankind should stand together to deal with it, but from a personal perspective, he hopes that the judgment from nature will make some people who have committed heinous crimes go to the eighteenth level of hell and never be reincarnated...
