Super Invincible Battleship
Chapter 864

Chapter 864: Chapter 354 Air Duel_2 Chapter 864: Chapter 354 Air Duel_2 However, such analysis was simply unreliable because drone flight patterns differed entirely from those of normal airplanes; thus, the U.S. early warning aircraft's analysis of the drone's position was essentially a futile effort.

But when the early warning aircraft tried to analyze the drone's flight trajectory, they couldn't determine its potential location. They did, however, stumble upon an unexpected boon: because the air was filled with a large amount of volcanic ash, the drone was unable to avoid it. As it flew, volcanic ash gradually covered the drone's body. Over time, more ash accumulated on the drone.

So even though the drone was completely stealthy to radar on its own, once it was coated with volcanic ash, the situation reversed. On the radar of the U.S. early warning aircraft, the volcanic ash began to reflect radar waves. By analyzing the radar echoes from the ash on the drone's body, they surprisingly managed to capture the drone's whereabouts.

Since the volcanic ash wasn't firmly attached to the drone's body and could fall off during flight, the radar echoes about the drone on the early warning aircraft were very faint and varied between clear and fuzzy, not enough to lock onto the drone. However, compared to previously being totally unable to discern the drone's movements, now being able to grasp its general trajectory was a significant victory. With these radar echoes, the U.S. forces could at least know where the drone was, not completely defensive and under passive attack as before.

The volcanic ash in the sky caused a lot of trouble for Yan Fei's enemies, but the trouble was relative–it also troubled the drone, exposing its flight path on the early warning aircraft for the first time. Yan Fei himself was very aware of the situation facing the drone, but he wasn't too concerned about it because the fighter jet fleet ahead was simply not a threat to the drone's safety.

In the sky, the 10 AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missiles launched by the drone sped towards their target: the U.S. E-3 “Sentry” early warning aircraft at the rear of the fleet. The AIM-120s were enhanced versions with significantly increased power but lacking stealth ability. As soon as they were fired, they were detected by the radar of the early warning aircraft. The early warning aircraft, analyzing these incoming missiles' flight trajectories, knew their attack targets and started to develop combat strategies based on the specific positions and status of the nearby aircraft fleet.

From Yan Fei's previous combat experience, under the guidance of the Drone Quantum Radar, the 10 AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missiles should have ensured the destruction of the U.S. early warning aircraft. Unexpectedly, the drone had never encountered the early warning aircraft's joint command in combat before, so he had somewhat underestimated the combat power amplification capability of the early warning aircraft.

The flight trajectories of those 10 Enhanced AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missiles were perfectly captured by the radar of the U.S. early warning aircraft, which then began the data transmission and distribution for combat strategy, directing aircraft fleet operations. After receiving the specific combat tasks, the aircraft fleet began to execute them. Then, 22 dedicated F-15 Fighters quickly launched their AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missiles, firing two each, for a total of 44 missiles.

The 44 Air-to-Air Missiles, under the unified command of the early warning aircraft, formed a perfect defense network, without any vulnerabilities. When the 10 Enhanced AIM-120s launched by the drone entered the interception net, the US force's 40 AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missiles mobilized, with every 4 AIM-120s attacking one Enhanced AIM-120 from the drone. After a series of self-detonations, the drone's 10 Enhanced AIM-120 missiles were astonishingly shot down by the US fighter fleet; the U.S. E-3 “Sentry” early warning aircraft behind them remained undamaged.

In the first round, Yan Fei, without prior combat experience against early warning aircraft, failed in his attack.

Having discovered that all his launched missiles were intercepted, Yan Fei finally realized the terrifying effectiveness of U.S. forces in group combat. If he had encountered the unified command and coordination of early warning aircraft in his previous engagements with U.S. planes, judging by the outcomes, the drone might not have had any advantage, let alone upgrade to Level 5, because it would likely have been destroyed by U.S. military aircraft much earlier.

Just as Yan Fei recognized the true combat capabilities of the U.S. forces, the drone detected a strong electromagnetic interference, an omnidirectional full-spectrum interference. It turned out that two “Growler” electronic warfare aircraft within the U.S. combat fleet had begun to exert their power, unleashing intense electronic interference against the drone.

However, the drone was directly controlled by Yan Fei, who communicated with it in a way that Earth's technology could not comprehend; thus, despite the powerful capabilities of those two electronic warfare aircraft, their electronic warfare had no effect on the drone. Yan Fei didn't even notice any lag or delay in his perception of or connection with the drone.

Yan Fei's first tentative attack revealed the formidable collective combat strength of the U.S. fighter fleet, but he did not take these fighters to heart. Having upgraded to Level 5, the drone's weapon payload capacity increased significantly, with a total weapon weight of 92 tons after one data refresh. With the Enhanced AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missile weighing in at 0.3 tons each, the drone could launch as many as 306 AIM-120s in a single day. With such a vast number of missiles at its disposal, even resorting to attrition tactics could exhaust the U.S. combat fleet to death.

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