Empire Conquest
Chapter 319 - 315: The Reorganized Air Force

Chapter 319: Chapter 315: The Reorganized Air Force

During mealtime, Shen Pu and Zhu Huasheng had just rushed over and briefly introduced the situation of the Air Force.

Actually, there was not much change.

Of course, some adjustments had been made in the organizational system, mainly reducing the size of Wings and Squadrons, and eliminating the sub-units that were previously between Squadrons and Flights.

According to the new organization system, a carrier-based aircraft squadron on a carrier formed one Wing, and then according to the type of aircraft, a Squadron was set under the Wing, and then Flights under the Squadron.

If needed, directly affiliated Wings could be added to carry out special tasks with specific Squadrons or Flights.

Additionally, the Wing was the highest echelon in the Air Force, and above that was the Fleet Air Combat Commander.

This organizational system was nominally to simplify command procedures, but actually it was to prevent the shipborne air force from becoming too powerful and to avoid incidents like those with the Land Air Force.

Although the Land Air Force had not yet become independent and the establishment of the Air Force was sure to be delayed until after the war, the current Land Air Force was already in a semi-independent state, having little relation with the Army. Probably to bolster their presence or apply a poor solution, someone proposed to integrate the Navy Air Force into the new Air Force system to form a Big Air Force, thus more effectively organizing and utilizing the air combat troops.

To this, the Navy was firmly opposed.

The reasons were sufficient: the shipborne air force was a combat weapon loaded on carriers, its value determined by the carriers, so it had no significance to operate independently.

In theory, the highest military rank that shipborne air force officers could achieve was only Colonel, further, one would have to transition to serving as the Fleet Air Combat Commander.

Importantly, the command above the Wing was actually in the hands of the Fleet.

Also, the shipborne Air Force Wing serial numbers were a standalone system, unrelated to the Special Mixed Fleet.

This arrangement was mainly for the convenience of scheduling.

Under the new organizational system, both Shen Pu and Zhu Huasheng were Wing Captains, and they were promoted to Colonel at the end of August, after completing their combat deployment in the Northwest East Ocean.

According to the draw results, Shen Pu was the captain of the 4th Wing, and Zhu Huasheng was the captain of the 3rd Wing.

The 1st and 2nd Wings were deployed on two carriers of the 21st Special Mixed Fleet, while the 5th Wing was in the homeland, responsible for training new recruits.

Frankly speaking, the new organizational system was more reasonable.

In the long run, this new organizational system could more effectively utilize the combat capabilities of the shipborne air force troops, more suitable for carrying out high-intensity combat tasks.

Additionally, there was another invisible benefit.

It broke down the barriers, disrupting the interest groups that had been rooted in the Navy for decades, built on top of and centered around the Fleet.

From now on, the officers and soldiers of the shipborne air force would only recognize orders, not persons.

In fact, this was also the first significant result of the Navy’s command system reform.

As for the carried ship-borne aircraft, there was not much to say, it was still the same ones as before.

Both Wings’ "Xiaotian" Fighters had been replaced with the latest batch, featuring new engines, and three internal fuel tanks had been added.

The new engine’s nominal power had not increased, but an emergency power feature had been added by injecting water into the cylinders to increase power output. Although it could only last five minutes, it was of unmatched value during over-loaded take-off and air combat maneuvering.

The addition of three internal fuel tanks included one water tank, the other two could hold 300 liters of gasoline, increasing the operational radius by about 100 kilometers.

Additionally, all ship-borne aircraft had corresponding model names.

Providing standardized model names for combat aircraft was a profound cooperation between the Navy and the Army after the outbreak of war on military management.

In the aviation field, the Navy and Army adopted and adhered to a common naming standard.

Fighters were designated by adding a numerical code after "Fighter."

Attack aircraft were differentiated by the number of engines and also assigned numerical codes, following the descriptors "Light Attack" and "Heavy Attack."

Bombers were similarly categorized by engine number as light, medium, or heavy, and numerical codes were added after "Light Bomber," "Medium Bomber," and "Heavy Bomber."

Other types of aircraft, such as transport planes and patrol aircraft, were all assigned official model names following this standard.

In principle, the Army used odd numbers and the Navy used even numbers.

Usually, specific names could be added after the numerical codes.

If modifications were made, sub-model numbers or production batches were added between the numerical code and the name.

Because the "Typhoon" was still in use by secondary troops, it received the designation "War 2 Type," and the "Xiaotian" was designated as "War 4 Type." Similarly, the "Wasp" was the Light Bomber 2 Type "Wasp" Bomber; the "Flying Fish" became the Light Attack 2 Type Attack Aircraft.

The new naming system was primarily for ease of management and to reduce logistical support difficulties.

In practice, pilots and commanders still preferred to use common names, and only the logistical personnel were more concerned with the specific models.

Regardless, this could be considered a step forward for the Navy’s shipborne air force.

In fact, the most valuable improvement was not the ship-borne aircraft but the onboard equipment.

After nearly half a year of effort, the Empire’s electronic equipment manufacturers had finally developed a voice radio with a communication range of 500 kilometers.

This equipment was indeed bulky, weighing over one hundred kilograms.

Additionally, the production volumes were still low.

Because of this, it was only installed on a few "Flying Fish," and all were aircrafts reserved for squadron leaders and above. As a result, the number of bomb handlers was reduced; more precisely, the rear-seat machine gunners. Navigators took the place of machine gunners, combining the duties and freeing up space and weight for the radios.

Of course, the situation was not exactly the same for the two wings.

The 3rd Wing currently had 27 fighters, 32 bombers, and 24 torpedo bombers, plus 8 specialized reconnaissance aircraft, totaling 91 ship-borne aircraft.

The 4th Wing currently had 28 fighters, 33 bombers, 24 torpedo bombers, and 8 specialized reconnaissance aircraft, totaling 93 ship-borne aircraft.

Both wings were over-strength, having added an extra squadron of bombers and a few extra fighters and reconnaissance aircraft.

This was also related to the current military operation.

Since the main objective was to deal with the Newland Navy’s fleet carriers, Shen Pu and Zhu Huasheng both felt it was best to prioritize bombers based on prior combat experience.

According to their understanding, dive bombers were more valuable in combating carriers.

Though there was no precise statistical data, the dive bombers almost exclusively claimed the achievements of sinking or critically damaging carriers in battles against the Saiyi Navy. Besides, the "Wasp," with its engine upgrades, could carry a 500-kilogram bomb, making it equally capable of bombing main battle ships.

Furthermore, to penetrate deep into enemy territory and search for enemy ships in vast ocean areas, there was a definite need to carry more fighters and reconnaissance aircraft.

Due to the over-strength load-out, neither carrier had any spare ship-borne aircraft.

This was a slight regret.

Here, Shen Pu also specifically mentioned that all eight cruisers were equipped with new model seaplanes, totaling twenty-four.

Although these seaplanes were much slower than ship-borne aircraft, they had sufficiently long range and were all equipped with long-distance radios.

As for the pilots’ experience, there was no question; they all had participated in blockade actions.

Bai Zhizhan also made arrangements here, leaving He Weigu in charge of the seaplanes’ command and organizing the search tasks for the seaplanes.

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