Chapter 195 Naval Exercises

The second ship, Minsk, is currently undergoing sea trials and will be put into service next year. The third ship, Novorossiysk, was already under construction in 1975. It is definitely too late to modify it now. Only the fourth ship, Baku, will be under construction next year. If the top brass changes their minds now, then by the time the Novorossiysk is off the slipway next year, there will be enough time to build a newly designed aircraft carrier!

And now, the process of pushing the top leaders to change their ideas and determine the direction of shifting to Western aircraft carriers is being carried out under Andre's planning!

On June 5, 1977, just three days after the Kiev aircraft carrier entered the new base of the Red Navy in the Far East, the first combat cruise finally began!

The Kiev aircraft carrier that set out from the port was no longer a single warship. Sixteen large and small warships of the Red Navy had rushed from Vladivostok, crossed the Soya Strait and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, joined the Kiev aircraft carrier, and then crossed the Nemuro Strait and arrived in the Pacific Ocean in a mighty force.

The channel has been opened, and the Pacific Fleet can finally enter and exit the Pacific Ocean freely at any time!

The Red Navy claimed that this action was a Red Flag 77 naval exercise, but everyone knew that this was clearly a provocation against the battle group consisting of two aircraft carriers of the US Navy.

The planned exercise area is the sea area of ​​1,000 kilometers southeast of Hokkaido, which is only 800 kilometers away from Tokyo. The US aircraft carrier fleet has been wandering in this area, waiting for an opportunity to sail north at any time to support the battle over Hokkaido.

The Soviet Navy dared to come and provoke, didn't they know that the Pacific Ocean belonged to the United States? Did the Soviets think that they could dominate the ocean with such an incongruous aircraft carrier?

Ridiculous! What kind of vertical take-off and landing fighter is this? The United States has been observing this aircraft carrier all the way here. Although an EP-3 was intercepted by a Yak-36M and almost crashed, the United States has also accurately collected data on this carrier-based aircraft. It is almost the same as the British Sea Harrier, which is a useless existence!

Under the deception of the United States and the continuous decline of the British economy, even the British could not afford large aircraft carriers. They began to build small and medium-sized aircraft carriers and chose the Sea Harrier as their carrier-based aircraft.

And now, the Soviets also fell into the trap and developed vertical take-off and landing fighters, and equipped their aircraft carriers with these fighters. Even so, they could not compete with the American aircraft carriers at all. Just think about using their own Tomcat fighters to beat those poor Yak planes. The American aircraft carrier formation was full of confidence.

Inside the tall bridge, Captain Steve, the captain of the USS Kitty Hawk, looked through the glass at the USS Enterprise sailing on the other side. The battle group composed of the two aircraft carriers was invincible in this sea area!

At this time, on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, an E-2 early warning aircraft was catapulted from the runway. The air was filled with steam and personnel at all levels were working in a tense and orderly manner.

"Captain Steve, the satellite has sent the latest pictures." Just as Colonel Steve turned around, he saw the commander of the flight wing, Colonel Ted, holding a document in his hand.

After the Soviet Navy set out, the US Navy's battle group also entered a state of high alert. Almost at the same time, reconnaissance satellites began to capture the traces of this fleet.

Although the aircraft carrier formation is huge and makes a lot of noise, it is as small as an embroidery needle on the sea, and it is difficult for reconnaissance satellites to detect the movements of the aircraft carrier formation.

These photos were captured by the Soviet aircraft carrier formation when it was leaving the Nemuro Strait, and the images are very clear.

"Look at the Soviet aircraft carrier formation." Steve took the documents while holding a cigar in his mouth.

Suddenly, his hand stopped, the cigar in his mouth continued to smoke, choking his eyes, he poked the cigar into the ashtray to extinguish it, and muttered to Colonel Ted: "What are the Soviets going to do?"

The photos taken by the satellite are bird's-eye views, looking down from high altitude. Only professionals can see the clues. However, as the captain of an aircraft carrier, Steve has seen satellite photos of the Kiev aircraft carrier many times. When he held this photo in his hand, Colonel Steve could find the difference.

This is an overhead view of the Kiev aircraft carrier. You can see the sturdy anti-ship missiles at the front of the warship, as well as the huge bridge on the right and the flight deck on the left.

The flight deck is painted with the brick red paint most common in the Soviet Navy, but what is that at the front end of the deck?

"CIA experts have done an analysis and found that the angled deck of the Soviet aircraft carrier can be tilted upwards." Colonel Ted said, "The Soviets are really crazy. Can their aircraft carrier also take off by ski jump?"

There is an arch at the front end of the angled flight deck, just like the British Invincible-class aircraft carrier. This is also the take-off technology for small aircraft carriers invented by the British, the ski-jump take-off flight deck!

God knows what the Soviets did! The warship was built, but the bow could be changed! Is there a hydraulic cylinder underneath?

When Steve saw this photo for the first time, he was of course extremely shocked: "Why did the Soviet aircraft carrier look like this? Is it for their blacksmiths to take off in a short distance?"

Vertical take-off and landing aircraft are subject to great restrictions in takeoff, so after the British invented the Sea Harrier, they began to develop short-distance takeoffs. The use of short-distance taxiing can greatly save fuel while increasing the take-off weight. This is a last resort.

Although short-range takeoffs of carrier-based aircraft on the Soviet Kiev-class aircraft carriers have not been observed, in theory, this is still possible.

"Not necessarily. Look at the next photo," Colonel Ted continued.

The next photo is even more rare. It just happened to capture the opponent's side elevator taking the plane out of the hangar. You can see that the plane is very large, almost twice as long as the Yak-36! The rear of the fuselage is suspended in the air.

"MiG-25! Damn, this is a MiG-25! When will the Soviets be able to deploy this kind of aircraft on a warship? Impossible, this is absolutely impossible!" Colonel Steve was extremely surprised.

It can be said that the biggest headache for the U.S. Air Force now is fighting against this kind of high-altitude, high-speed heavy fighter. The enemy flies fast and high. In the battle, the enemy has all the initiative and can launch missiles to attack us at any time, while our missiles can't reach the enemy at all!

Although the United States has tried hard to obtain various performance data of this fighter, many attempts have failed. Until now, this fighter jet is still a mysterious existence.