The Last Suspicious Signal

The sky above the open sea was pitch black.

Two twin-engine, two-seat heavy fighter jets with flashing red and green navigation lights are continuously approaching our territorial waters in a two-plane formation at level flight.

More than 100 kilometers behind them, a carrier-based early warning aircraft was circling at combat altitude, continuously providing early warning and target guidance to the two-aircraft formation ahead.

The carrier-based early warning aircraft detected the approaching J-7E (serial number 07) and J-7D (serial number 21) at high speed and immediately notified the forward formation of the situation.

The commander in charge of this operation, codenamed "Catch the Shadows," realized the time was ripe and immediately issued the order.

"Operation begins! Repeat, operation begins!"

The two-aircraft formation ahead immediately turned around.

This change was immediately detected by our Yuanling radar station and quickly reported to the East Command.

By the time the Eastern Commander informed Li Lu of the situation, Li Lu arrived at the designated airspace, but the target had already disappeared—they had long since turned east and broken away.

Guided by the East Commander, Li Lu and Xue Shuang chased the target for dozens of kilometers in the direction it had fled, confirming that the target was indeed heading east back, and that the sea area in that direction was the location of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier.

The commander ordered Li Lu and Xue Shuang to return to base.

Having driven at afterburner all the way here, given the range of the J-7 fighter jet, the combat mission would have essentially ended here.

Just below Li Lu and his team's return flight path, a twin-engine, four-seat fighter jet was approaching at an extremely low altitude of fifty meters.

This twin-engine, four-seat fighter jet is completely different in appearance from the previous two-aircraft formation. Moreover, this twin-engine, four-seat fighter jet only carries two air-to-air missiles, and a thing that looks like a square auxiliary fuel tank is hanging on the heavy pylon under the fuselage.

The aircraft has a very large nose and a rather slender tail, making its shape highly recognizable.

Ground-based radar has difficulty detecting aircraft flying at this altitude.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang successfully returned to base and landed. After parking the plane at a non-combat duty parking position, they returned to the flight duty room, wrote their combat log, and prepared to hand over to the next shift of comrades.

There are countless similar air situations. Sometimes they will get entangled or standoff. Sometimes they will turn away on their own after seeing our aircraft take off.

Tonight's situation seems no different from yesterday's.

At the Yuanling Radar Station, the only sound in the control room is the irregular "beep-beep" of the equipment, and the staff on duty are strictly guarding their posts.

Fang Dong stared at the radar screen, watching the two targets gradually disappear into the distance to the east.

He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to stretch his shoulders a little when a bright spot suddenly appeared on the radar screen. As the radar antenna rotated, the detection signal scanned the target again!

"Suspicious targets, one at a time! Heading 110 degrees! Distance 370 kilometers..."

Fang Dong's loud report broke the silence; however, no sooner had he finished speaking than a suspicious signal appeared on the radar screen!

It's a piece!

Can't even count!

Fang Dong instinctively shouted, "Report! A large number of targets have been spotted!"

"Report immediately, highest level of alert!" the duty officer instructed immediately.

The situation was quickly relayed to the East Command.

The duty officer at the East Command became highly alert and immediately issued emergency orders to the troops under his jurisdiction in accordance with the contingency plan, while also reporting to his superiors.

Hundreds of suspicious signals were identified by radar as aircraft signals, which is the highest level of aerial hostile situation!

Almost simultaneously, all flight combat units, including the 9th Air Regiment, sounded the first-level retreat signal.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang were handing over to the next shift when the emergency turnaround alarm suddenly sounded. They reacted immediately, grabbed their flight caps, and rushed out to their aircraft.

The entire Guanqiao depot was filled with piercing, urgent alarms, and everyone, regardless of where they were or what they were doing, immediately went to their respective posts.

The various teams at the station sped up as if a power booster switch had been flipped.

The aircraft on duty first taxied out of its parking position and quickly taxied towards the takeoff position on the runway.

When Li Lu arrived at his aircraft's parking position, the maintenance personnel had just finished refueling and were now conducting further maintenance.

After the alarm sounded, they immediately switched from routine maintenance to field maintenance and completed the work in the shortest possible time.

After Li Lu got into the cockpit and connected to the radio, he immediately reported to the control tower, "The tunnel is ready; we can slide out!"

The air traffic controller was in a real bind. Only two aircraft were on duty, and it would take time for the others to be moved to first-level alert. Meanwhile, the orders from the East Command clearly stated that there were hundreds of targets to deal with!

Upon hearing Li Lu's report, the tower controller said without hesitation, "The tunnel is cleared! Prepare for takeoff!"

"Tower! Two points ready, requesting taxiing!" Xue Shuang reported immediately afterward.

The control tower operator breathed a slight sigh of relief and replied, "Two aircraft can slide out! You and Dongguai will form a two-aircraft formation!"

"clear!"

The two J-7 fighter jets, with their engines still warm from landing, took off again for combat.

Enemy situation is the order.

We must reach the designated airspace in the shortest possible time to intercept the suddenly appearing suspicious targets.

After Li Lu and Xue Shuang took off again, Guanqiao Air Base launched 24 aircraft in 12 batches in succession. When there weren't enough J-7s, J-6s were used to make up for it. All the aircraft that could fly were sent out, and the entire fleet was deployed!

On his way to the designated airspace, Li Lu received a report of enemy activity, with hundreds of suspicious targets appearing.

His first reaction was disbelief.

Our long-range air defense early warning radar is no joke. How did the enemy manage to get hundreds of aircraft to a position more than 300 kilometers away from the coastline?

The target signals detected by the Yuanling radar station show that these more than 100 radar signals appeared in the airspace layer between 4,000 and 6,000 meters, forming a densely packed large formation of aircraft.

Since the Gulf War, large formations of dozens or even hundreds of aircraft have become increasingly rare. Modern air forces, which mainly use third-generation aircraft, typically do not have more than twenty aircraft in a single formation during combat, and they are widely distributed.

This is determined by the performance of third-generation fighter jets. With airborne radar having a detection range of tens or hundreds of kilometers, a densely packed large formation of aircraft not only duplicates combat resources but also easily causes misjudgment and friendly fire.

Li Lu and Xue Shuang flew in a two-plane formation, accelerating all the way to the airspace where more than a dozen radar signals appeared. However, in the pitch-black night sky, not a single navigation light could be seen.

"East Commander, Dongguai is calling. My formation has reached the designated airspace. Our bearings overlap with the first batch of target signals, but I cannot see any suspicious aircraft. Requesting target guidance!" Li Lu contacted East Commander.

The East Command had already sensed something was wrong. The position of the No. 07 twin-aircraft formation did indeed overlap with the position of the first batch of suspicious target signals, which were in a circling state.

Logically speaking, Li Lu and Xue Shuang should have been able to see the navigation lights of these targets.

The commander of the eastern command could only reply based on the intelligence detected by radar: "The target is at your location, search again!"

"clear."

Li Lu had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

The airspace was very calm, and it didn't look like there were a large number of aircraft.

He and Xue Shuang conducted a visual search, and then Dong Zhi guided them to the latest airspace where the target signal appeared, but they still found nothing.

At this point, more and more people felt that something was wrong.