Empire Conquest
Chapter 90 - 86: Clairvoyance

Chapter 90: Chapter 86: Clairvoyance

When the air raid alarm sounded, Liu Xiangzhen did not return to the command bridge but instead walked to the porthole and raised his binoculars to look over at the "Nanjing" not far away.

At the top of the foremast, there was an object rotating, looking like a large winnowing basket.

That was an antenna.

However, it wasn’t a radio antenna, and no radio antenna looked like that.

Yes, that was the radar’s antenna!

That antenna would only rotate when it was working; otherwise, it was kept stationary.

For the sake of secrecy, as well as to deceive and mislead, only a few ships equipped with radar were not allowed to use it when entering or exiting ports. The antenna had to be fixed at a certain angle, then covered with a canvas hood, making it look like some device to scare and drive away birds from afar.

Moreover, the Navy had never disclosed any information related to radar.

Up until now, intelligence agencies from other countries only knew that the Navy was equipped with an electronic device similar to a radio that could detect planes at a great distance. Its working principle was likely to determine the position of reconnaissance aircraft by listening in on their radios. Some intelligence agencies even erroneously believed that it was a kind of large-scale, high-precision telescope.

Actually, Liu Xiangzhen wasn’t sure about the value of radar.

There was no need to be surprised because a few months earlier, at the end of September, the "North River" and "Nanjing" started preparations for the upcoming fleet exercises. Only when they separately went to Puzhou Shipyard and Cizhou Shipyard for maintenance did they get equipped with radar.

Afterward, they had only tested it a few times.

According to the plan, in this year’s fleet exercises, to assess the tactical value of radar, a separate exercise item had been specially arranged.

Unfortunately, not long after the exercises began, the situation quickly deteriorated.

Liu Xiangzhen only knew that the radar on the "Nanjing" could detect plane groups at distances exceeding one hundred kilometers and could detect a single aircraft from up to forty kilometers away, far surpassing the range of the naked eye—though the precision of detection still couldn’t be considered ideal.

Of course, a slight lack of precision wasn’t a big problem.

As long as enemy planes were detected in time, it was possible to command anti-aircraft fighters to intercept them, thereby gaining more time and significantly improving the efficiency of the anti-aircraft combat.

According to the assessment report provided by Jinlin Radio Research Institute, which developed the radar, with the aid of radar, the combat efficiency of fighters could increase by twenty times.

Liu Xiangzhen thought those highly myopic engineers were exaggerating.

Still, even if not twenty times, an increase by several times was definitely not a problem.

In the few internal drills carried out by the Second Aviation Mixed Fleet, anti-aircraft fighters found and intercepted enemy planes in time and accurately under the guidance of radar.

In the words of the pilots, just being able to detect approaching enemy planes in time was enough.

In past anti-aircraft operations, the biggest issue was the inability to promptly detect approaching enemy planes, let alone anticipate their direction of attack. It was only possible to cover all bases, at least needing to deploy enough fighters in the main threat direction, wasting precious anti-aircraft strength.

With radar, targeted action could be taken.

This time was just such a case.

The one that issued the air defense alert was the "Nanjiang," which had detected a group of enemy planes flying from the northeast with its radar, presumed to be Saiyi Navy’s ship-borne aircraft.

A group of planes, about ten enemy aircraft.

"They are one hundred kilometers away, and our fighters are rushing over," Major Zhuang Bisheng, the Combat Staff Advisor, hurried over and reported the situation to Liu Xiangzhen. "The enemy planes are flying in a tight formation, spaced only a few dozen meters apart, at an altitude of less than three thousand meters. We deduce they are ’97 ship attacks’."

Liu Xiangzhen just nodded, indicating he heard.

If they were fighters, they generally wouldn’t adopt such a tight formation; they would usually be split into pairs or trios to form a small group, and the groups would maintain some distance from each other, with a certain difference in altitude to ensure mutual support if they encountered enemy planes.

In addition, the flying altitude of fighters is generally not lower than five thousand meters. Flying high allows for a wider field of view, and during air combat, the side with the altitude advantage tends to win.

However, more than one group of ’97 ship attacks’ were coming.

Soon, the "Nanjiang" sent a new report: radar had detected several smaller groups of enemy planes, three of which were at high altitudes.

However, it was impossible to determine the nature of the enemy planes.

Those flying at high altitudes could be fighters or dive bombers.

If they could measure the speed of the enemy planes, a judgment could be made. The Navy had also made similar requests to the Jinlin Radio Research Institute to develop a radar capable of measuring speed. Unfortunately, the development of the new radar had not yet started, let alone any sense of when it might be completed.

Without needing Liu Xiangzhen’s instructions, the staff responsible for air defense had already made adjustments.

It was somewhat complicated; first, they needed to receive intelligence from the "Nanjiang," then mark it on the sea chart. Afterward, they conducted a comprehensive analysis and judgment of the overall battle situation. During this time, the staff responsible for air defense synthesized this information to make a judgment before finally ordering an adjustment to the air defense deployment.

The whole process would take a few minutes.

That’s why Bai Zhizhan proposed that the Fast Battleship act as the air defense command ship, freeing the carrier from the cumbersome task of air defense operations. According to Bai Zhizhan, whenever necessary, a special air defense command post would be set up aboard the radar-equipped Fast Battleship. During air defense operations, all Battleships in the fleet had to follow the command and rely on the Fast Battleship as the core force for air defense.

Of course, this was merely wishful thinking.

But, a delay of a few minutes was certainly much better than being completely in the dark.

The most significant value was actually in allowing the Commander to have a more comprehensive understanding of the battlefield situation, thus enabling timely and appropriate deployment.

Simply put, it was using the steel where it mattered most.

For example, when intercepting Bombers and Attack Aircraft without fighter escorts, it wasn’t necessary to dispatch too many Fighters; it was enough to force the Bombers to drop their bombs and the torpedo bombers to drop their torpedoes. Without bombs and torpedoes, even if they reached the carrier’s airspace, they could only stare blankly. If the incoming planes were determined to be fighters, there might even be no need to bother, as no type of ship-borne fighter could carry large bombs for bombing missions. Only when it was confirmed that the enemy Bombers and torpedo bombers were protected by fighters did the air defense Fighters need to go all out.

Of course, the key was time.

Increasing the distance at which enemy planes were detected from less than twenty kilometers by eyesight to one hundred kilometers meant at least an additional twenty minutes for air interception. Even increasing the distance to sixty kilometers, the extra forty kilometers would afford the fleet an additional ten minutes of interception time.

In air defense operations, even five minutes was incredibly precious.

Take dive bombers, for instance, from the acceleration sprint to dropping bombs, it all happens in just a few minutes.

The battle hadn’t started yet — to be precise, it hadn’t started in front of Liu Xiangzhen — yet the value of radar had already shown itself. All those detected enemy Plane Groups were intercepted, and after interception, the Bombers and torpedo bombers dropped their bombs and torpedoes, abandoning their assault.

But, radar wasn’t omnipotent!