Chapter 144: Dragonfly Skimming the Water

The R-60 missile is small in size and uses the APU-6011M dual pylon. One pylon can carry two missiles! The MiG-25's four wing pylons can carry eight missiles! Enough for one air battle!

Moreover, the MiG-25 is now equipped with the improved R-60M!

The original R-60 missile only had the ability to pursue and attack from behind. After the R-60 was equipped and put into service, the improvement work of the R-60 was steadily carried out. By installing the new "Komar-M" (OGS-75) search probe, it has quasi-omnidirectional attack capability. In order to make up for the lack of lethality, the weight of the warhead was increased by 17%, and the length was increased by 43 mm. The maximum range in the front hemisphere was increased to 5 kilometers, and the minimum range was reduced by one third to only 0.4 kilometers. Such a shortest effective range gives it a tactical advantage in close-range air combat.

The modified R-60 became an excellent close-range combat weapon. Even in later generations, the latest R-60MK was improved, which could track and lock targets with the helmet sights of MiG-29 or Su-27 fighters. It was the best close-range missile before R-73.

Now, the gift that MiG-25 has prepared for the F-15 is this air-to-air missile!

The longest range is the distance when firing head-on, but now, diving down from a high altitude, coupled with the speed of the carrier aircraft itself, the range of this air-to-air missile will far exceed five kilometers!

The reason is simple. Even if the engine does not ignite, the five-kilometer altitude difference is enough for the missile to accumulate a certain speed when it lands at 18,000 meters. Not to mention now, as the MiG-25 dives down, the speed is getting faster and faster. At Mach 2, the distance between it and the F-15 fighter below is less than five kilometers! At this moment, the flames under the wing flickered.

Two missiles detached from the APU-6011M dual racks on both sides and fired at the target that had been aimed at by the IRST in advance! Two missiles aimed at one target, the kill probability was over 80%!

At this time, the height difference is three thousand meters. After the missile is detached from the rack, the engine will propel the missile to a speed of Mach 4. At the same time, the height difference will prevent the missile from slowing down even if the fuel is burned out!

Attack, attack!

Eight MiG-25 fighters swooped down from the sky and launched the first wave of attacks on the F-15s in front and below. After launching the R-60 missiles, they immediately pulled their noses and began to sprint towards the sky again, quickly leaping to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters.

Such an attack was like a dragonfly skimming the water. Relying on the advantage of high altitude, it hunted down the American F-15 fighter jets without any danger.

Flying the most advanced F-15 fighter jet made in the United States, the American pilots were extremely depressed at this time.

Head-on attack! The Soviets' short-range missiles actually had the ability to attack head-on! In surprise, facing these incoming missiles, the American pilots were doing all kinds of escape moves.

Infrared decoy bombs are continuously released, forming beautiful light bands in the sky and dancing among the missiles. This feeling will make anyone who escapes death never want to try again!

"Boom!" An R-60 missile accurately hit the nose of the F-15 fighter jet. Countless broken rods flew everywhere, and tiny holes appeared on the nose.

At this moment, the pilot pulled the ejection handle, and under the huge overload, the seat flew out of the cockpit with him.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky. At the moment of flying out, a broken rod warhead happened to come into close contact with him, and blood sprayed out in the sky.

One attack, two planes shot down and two planes damaged!

The American pilot of the F-15 fighter jet below is going crazy.

The Soviet fighter planes were still there! They were circling in the sky, hiding in the sky after the attack. Then, they circled and turned. When the F-15 pilots were looking up at the sky, no one expected that the MiG-25s had already circled behind them!

The second round of attack occurred without anyone noticing. The MiG-25 fighter jets swooped down from the high altitude at the tail and fired two R-60 missiles at the same target!

The effect of the second round of salvos was even more obvious. There was no radar lock and their radar warning receivers were not triggered. Only when the missiles exploded did they realize that the attack was coming from behind!

"Boom!" An R-60 accurately penetrated into the anus of the F-16. When a violent explosion was heard, the pilot realized that he had been attacked. Looking at the dashboard in front of him, he tried hard to save his plane.

Skydiving was the last option, because the water below was the Sea of ​​Okhotsk! At this time, the temperature of the sea surface was almost zero degrees, and there were floating icebergs from the north. At this time, falling into the water was almost like committing suicide!

The F-15 fighter in front quickly turned around, trying to find an opportunity to engage in an air battle with the MiG-25. Unfortunately, after launching this round of missiles, the MiG-25 climbed upwards again, looking down at them, looking for another opportunity.

This air battle cannot be fought!

If the early warning aircraft in the rear could still function, they could have been notified of the movements of the MiG-25 in advance. But now, the MiG-25 overhead had exceeded the angle of their radar search, and their fighter planes could not continue to climb upwards. As a result, they were in the current situation where they could only take the beating and not fight back!

This battle was a complete failure. After the second round of attacks, three F-15 fighters crashed and four were damaged. The F-15 formation no longer had any combat effectiveness. If the MiG-25 fleet launched two more attacks, the F-15 fleet would be completely crippled!

Damn, at this time, why haven’t the Navy’s Tomcats come yet?

They had no idea that at this moment, the Navy's Tomcat fighters did not participate in the operation to encircle and suppress the MiG-25s as originally planned, and they had encountered new troubles!

The Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier formation was still sailing in the Pacific Ocean east of Hokkaido. As an important force to encircle and suppress the MiG-25, five minutes after the F-15 fleet took off, they catapult-launched ten Tomcat fighters. This time, each Tomcat fighter was equipped with four Phoenix missiles, which were enough for two salvos.

At the same time, an E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft and an EA-6B electronic jammer also took off. The United States is not without electronic jammers in its operations, they just flew along with the navy.

However, just five minutes after the catapult launch, when the Hawkeye early warning aircraft reached cruising altitude and began searching the nearby sea, it was surprised.