Great warships

Chapter 1234 Pacific Rim Exercise
The Pacific Ocean is magnificent. Two huge aircraft carriers are sailing against the wind and waves. Near the aircraft carriers are other warships with flags of various colors flying on them.

The annual Rim of the Pacific Exercise is always so lively, with warships from various countries joining in the fun, and this time it is even more lively.

With two Nimitz aircraft carriers as the main force, the other warships seem to be child's play, but in fact, one of the seemingly unremarkable warships is the core of the entire formation.

Its bridge is located in the middle of the warship, with flat decks in front and back, on which you can see some spheres. It looks ordinary, yet very special. Among the equipment of the US Navy, it is a very special and irreplaceable equipment: the USS Blue Ridge command ship.

If the navies of other countries have an aircraft carrier, they can just use it as the flagship, but the US Navy cannot do that because they have too many aircraft carriers, and how to command them is also a big problem.

In the 15s, at the peak of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy had aircraft carrier battle groups, more than landing craft, more than warships, and more than cruisers. As a result, the U.S. Navy could not use ordinary aircraft carriers to command these warships and had to have professional command ships.

So, they modified this command ship based on the Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship. They chose the amphibious assault ship purely for the ease of modification. They only needed to improve the deck and dock of the original vehicle into a command cabin.

Although the Marine Corps is independent, it still has to obey the unified command of the Navy in large-scale amphibious operations. The Blue Ridge is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet.

Generally speaking, this kind of equipment would be treasured, but this maritime exercise was too important, so the Americans took out this command ship and used it as the command center for the exercise.

On the warship, Harris stood on the bridge and looked at the spectacular scene outside.

"Inviting the Orientals to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise is an important milestone," Harris said. "We can only defeat them if we get close to them and study them. What kind of warships will they send?"

If it were an ordinary military exercise, the warships to be sent would have been determined a year in advance. But this time it was different. The Orientals did not tell us in advance, but just agreed on the time and sea area, and then joined in and took part in the exercise together.

"They probably won't send the Type 055. After all, that kind of warship is too important and too powerful. The Orientals won't do anything to provoke us." Clemens said: "They are very low-key. This may be the philosophy of the East. I think they should send the Type 052."

The 055 is too tough. If the 055 comes, how can other warships play? Even the Ticonderoga-class cruiser can't compare with the Eastern ones!

If it can’t be 055, then what could it be?
052 is the most suitable. The Orientals not only use this kind of warships for themselves, but also export them in large quantities. Currently, the Oriental Aegis warships have expanded to many countries, causing them a lot of headaches.

"Yes, it should be 052. After all, this is their main warship. Although the Orientals choose to keep a low profile, they also want to show their strength. The 052 is the most suitable warship!"

"Report, the early warning aircraft has discovered a target at sea!"

"Send fighter jets immediately!" Harris said excitedly. "Now, the mystery is about to be revealed. Let's see which model the Orientals sent, the Luyang II or the Luyang III."

The West is not used to using digital numbers. They have their own set of standards. Whether it is 052C or 052D, they are all Luyang-class, but the specific standards are different.

Two Super Hornets roared away, and soon they approached the formation of two warships on the sea, a destroyer and a comprehensive supply ship.

"Gum, we have to go down and check it out." A pilot shouted on the radio.

"Okay, Bullet, let's go down. Hey, why are you diving like that? You only do that when you're attacking!"

A Super Hornet had dived down from several thousand meters in the air, heading straight for the formation at sea, as if it was going to launch a dive attack.

On the 112th warship, the radar officer shouted: "Two targets are diving down, diving and attacking us!"

"Damn it, is this how they welcome us?" Someone immediately started cursing.

Captain Du Yu stood behind the porthole, watching the waves rushing past the bow, with no expression on his face. Before coming here, he had already guessed that there might be such a scene. These Americans would not welcome them sincerely. However, they did not need to worry too much. The more rough and barbaric actions of this kind the Americans made, the better.

"The camera should be pointed at them, and it must be recorded clearly." Du Yu said, "We will also simulate a counterattack. Be careful not to lock onto them."

This dive bombing method has long been outdated. In modern naval battles, few fighter jets will use this method to attack warships. After all, it is impossible for fighter jets to get close to a warship within dozens of kilometers and would have been killed by anti-aircraft missiles.

The other party's behavior is purely a provocation, and we can just use them to practice.

"Yes."

At this time, the pilot nicknamed Bullet was still diving in his Super Hornet. In his field of vision, the two warships on the sea were becoming larger and clearer.

The length-to-width ratio of the ship is probably less than 10. There are many weapons on the bridge, but there is no stealth shape and no iconic four-sided phased array radar. This is actually... the Luhu-class?

Bullet immediately lost all interest and pulled up the plane. The Luhu-class warship was too backward. How could the East send such an outdated warship to participate in the exercise?
"Bullet calling, visually confirming the target, it's the Luhu-class destroyer of the Eastern Navy!"

What?
Everyone on the Blue Ridge was dumbfounded.

They prepared such a huge operation just to test the Eastern Aegis warships and conduct joint military exercises, which required the Orientals to leak some secrets. However, they did not expect that the Orientals would be so disrespectful, or not afraid of losing face, and actually sent out the outdated Luhu-class warships!

In fact, the Luhu class is not that old. Take the No. 112 for example. It was started in 89, launched in 91, and put into service in 94. It has only been ten years since then. However, the equipment of the Eastern Navy has developed too fast! In ten years, the No. 112 is completely outdated.

There is no four-sided phased array radar, no universal vertical launch, all kinds of antennas on the bridge, and even the close-in defense gun is a twin-barreled 37mm machine gun. This kind of warship is only at the level of the Western world in the s and s.

Harris gritted his teeth and said, "Clemmings, you are right. Orientals have always been low-key. This is their philosophy. However, I hate this philosophy of Orientals!"

"That's right. Look at us in the United States. We always want to bring out our most advanced things and show them off to let others know how powerful we are. These Orientals always hide their most advanced things!" Clemens also complained.

The two men didn't know that the most advanced things from the East had already arrived, but they were 2 kilometers away from the entire exercise area, and no one noticed them at all, not even the E- Hawkeye.

The most advanced aircraft of the US Navy is the E-2D. This early warning aircraft is equipped with the most advanced active phased array radar. Like the Eastern carrier-based early warning aircraft, it also has a shoulder pole antenna and a rotating search. It has both mechanical and electronic scanning methods. Its performance is far superior to earlier models, and its search distance for warships at sea exceeds kilometers.

However, this type of early warning aircraft is still under testing and has not been replaced on a large scale in the U.S. Navy. The main early warning aircraft currently used by the U.S. Navy is still the latest modified version of the E-2C early warning aircraft, the Hawkeye 2000. Although the early warning aircraft uses the latest 8-blade propeller, it still uses the old AN/APS-145 radar and the Yagi antenna. The search distance for ships at sea is only three or four hundred kilometers.

Since the early warning aircraft had to take on the air warning task of the entire formation, the task was very heavy and it was impossible for it to notice a special-looking ship 500 kilometers away.

There are many large balls on this ship. Even a layman can tell that there must be antennas stuffed inside them. However, they don’t know that these antennas do not actively release electromagnetic signals. They mainly receive signals passively.

At this time, inside the cabin, there were rows of workbenches, each with three monitors. Someone was sitting in front, operating the keyboard and mouse from time to time.

"We detected X-band radar signals. It is very likely that the two Super Hornets used radar to lock our warships when they dived."

"Okay, let's analyze the band characteristics!" Electronic warfare officer Luo Qiang said calmly: "Find its signal characteristics and prepare for our future electronic interference!"

Isn't it a dive? Isn't it going to attack? Okay, it's a good opportunity for us to analyze its radar characteristics!
"Analysis completed, entering into the database!"

"So fast?" Luo Qiang was a little curious.

"Yes, the key is that our Loongson computers are too fast."

What is received are only some incomplete electromagnetic wave signal fragments. Powerful computers are needed to analyze them to find the information contained in them and formulate relevant strategies.

This requires powerful information processing capabilities. Their electronic reconnaissance ship is equipped with advanced Loongson computers, so processing this data is a piece of cake.

"We received a UHF band message. We've never received one before. It's probably transmitted by the Blue Ridge."

"Analyze, it would be best if we can decipher their system!" Luo Qiang continued to give orders.

Unlike before, this time they can get close to the Blue Ridge. This warship is equipped with a large number of antennas. It is the brain of the US Navy, but it is also quite fragile. It releases a large amount of electromagnetic wave signals. If it really reaches the battlefield, just one anti-radiation missile can kill it.

However, in addition to hard kills, soft kills are also needed. If the signals on the warship can be deciphered, it will be of greater use. For example, when necessary, its command system can be invaded and wrong orders can be issued, or simply monitoring their various orders can gain the initiative in the war.

Electromagnetic waves kept coming, entering various data antennas, and being constantly analyzed and processed. The entire electronic reconnaissance ship became the busiest warship at this time.

The highlight of the exercise was a sea attack, with the target being a target ship, which was a retired cruiser!
After World War II, the United States had a large amount of surplus materials. They used those World War II-era artillery cruisers to improve the first batch of missile cruisers. However, after all, they were not professional, and many of them were retired in the 1980s. Some were sealed and some were dismantled.

However, it was not enough to just use the old warships of the past. They had to build brand new warships. After entering the 1950s, with the advent of the jet aircraft and missile age, they began to build missile frigates equipped with anti-aircraft missiles. The first batch was the 5,000-ton Farragut class, and the second batch was the Leahy class.

In 1975, the U.S. Navy reclassified the standards for warships, with the first batch becoming destroyers and the second batch becoming cruisers.

The Raich-class missile cruiser became the first class of missile cruisers built by the US military after the war. In the 1970s and 1980s, it also fought on the battlefield and made great achievements.

However, by the 1990s, this type of missile cruiser had become very outdated. After all, the US Navy had begun to rely mainly on Aegis warships, so these warships were retired one after another.

Now, it has been more than ten years since they were decommissioned. These warships are in poor condition, and it is a routine operation to use one of them as a target ship. After all, the US Navy often does this.

Not to mention these old warships, even advanced aircraft carriers will inevitably be hit by missiles after retirement. The Americans want to test their aircraft carriers' ability to withstand strikes.

For example, although the Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier USS America had made great contributions in the past, in order to test the aircraft carrier's anti-strike capability, they decided to sink it. They installed cameras and sensors on various parts of the warship, and then bombarded it with various weapons. After 25 days of tossing and turning, the aircraft carrier was still fine!

Finally, the Americans installed explosives on the aircraft carrier and sank it. After much trouble, the ammunition cost more than 20 million US dollars, but it cost 80 million US dollars to dismantle it, so it was still worthwhile. What's more, after this attack, the Americans were full of confidence and felt that their aircraft carriers were as indestructible as battleships.

The ship that was tasked with the target ship mission this time was the USS Lewis. This warship was the last of the Reich-class missile cruisers. In fact, it was in good condition and did not need to be pulled out to be bombed. The reason it was chosen was because this warship had a great relationship with the East.

In 1986, the U.S. Navy, led by Lyons, used this warship as its flagship and led two other warships on a friendly visit to the East, where they were warmly welcomed.

This warship bears witness to the friendship with the East in the past, but now, this friendship has long disappeared, so this warship must be sunk!

"The USS Reeves is a warship with a displacement of more than 112 tons. The Easterners' 81 warships are equipped with their Eagle Strike- missiles. This type of missile has a history of years. In the past, it was a certain threat as the Eastern Exocet, but now, this type of missile is outdated." Clemens said: "They opened fire first and failed to sink the target ship, which gave us a good opportunity to laugh at them."

The Eagle Strike-81 was exported in large quantities under the code name C801, so the Americans also knew the performance of this missile. They were sure that one of these missiles could destroy a warship of at most one thousand tons, and two could destroy a warship of at most three to four thousand tons, but it was impossible to destroy a target ship of eight thousand tons.

Let the Orientals make a fool of themselves, and then let them be the finale, letting the Orientals see how powerful their firepower is!

While they were discussing, a group of leaders in the eastern capital were also discussing.

"There is no need for us to expose our strength. We might as well just say that our warship does not carry anti-ship missiles." A leader said.

"That's right. We don't care about the cost of several hundred thousand. The key is not to expose our strength."

While everyone was discussing, Wu Shengli looked at Qin Tao: "Taozi, what do you think?"

"Dad, I'm not from our navy. I'm here just to be a liaison. If something goes wrong with that electronic reconnaissance ship, we can use the name of our Minzhou Group Starship Company to cover it up. I won't participate in the discussion here."

"Just say what you're told to say. Why are you talking nonsense?"

"Dad, I think that since the Americans asked us to open fire, we should just do as they wish. We can use a missile to sink the target ship into the sea and leave everyone dumbfounded!"

Qin Tao was full of expectations.

The Americans want to watch our show, so we will watch the Americans' show. They also want to wait in the back to bombard and show off their muscles in front of us? We will just sink the target ship!

Outsiders all think that No. 112 is equipped with an ordinary Eagle Strike 81, but that is actually a big mistake. During the last mid-term life extension upgrade, the Eagle Strike 81 was replaced with Eagle Strike 83!
The Eagle Strike 81 is a subsonic anti-ship missile with a range of only 112 kilometers. It is simply unable to undertake attack missions on modern battlefields. After all, it is impossible for the 81 ship to get close to the enemy at a distance of 83 to kilometers to launch missiles. Therefore, the Eagle Strike was eliminated. The Eagle Strike is one of the navy's new generation of main anti-ship missiles!

　PS: I recommend my old friend's new book "Mercenary I am the King". Song Heping, who wanted to make a little money to support his younger siblings, ventured to the war zone to make money, but an unexpected attack dragged him into the war and made him a mercenary.

　　My last name is Song, and my name is Song Heping. I came, I conquered, and I am king! They call me the "King of War".

(End of this chapter)