Chapter 1131 USS Nimitz
The fourth day of the outbreak of the Iraq War.
The United States issued a statement that the airspace over Iraq belongs to the no-fly zone designated by the United States. As long as you fly over it, it is illegal and you may be shot down at any time.
This is the arrogance of the Americans. They dare to designate a country's airspace as a no-fly zone. This is an undisguised violation of a country's sovereignty.
However, the Americans declared war on Iraq and launched the Iraq War, which in itself violated Iraq's sovereignty and trampled on international norms of behavior.
At this time, 200 nautical miles away from the Iraqi coastline, the "Nimitz" aircraft carrier was taking off fighter jets.
The USS Nimitz was commissioned in 1975. It is 332.8 meters long and 40.8 meters wide, with a full load displacement of 91,500 tons, a speed of 33 knots, a cruising range of 800,000 to 1 million nautical miles, and can work for 13 to 15 years after a nuclear fuel refueling. It has 6,300 personnel, a flight deck that is 76.8 meters wide, and can carry more than 90 aircraft, with a maximum of 120 aircraft. The ship's weapons include three eight-unit Sea Sparrow missile launchers, three Phalanx six-barrel 20mm guns, and several radar, communication and navigation systems.
At this time, the runway on both sides of the bow deck of the USS Nimitz was filled with two rows of fighter planes. This can make the deck more efficient and can be pulled to the ejection position for takeoff at any time. And now, at the two catapult positions on the angled deck, two F-14 'Panda' fighters are ready for ejection and takeoff.
In the white steam, two F-14 "Panda" fighters took off one after another almost one second apart. The catapults were reset, and the second batch of two F-14 "Panda" fighters also began to launch.
This is a large aircraft carrier!
An aircraft carrier of 80,000 to 90,000 tons has a large displacement and a larger deck. There are three elevators on the side of the ship, which greatly speeds up the dispatch efficiency of carrier-based aircraft.
The advantage of a large aircraft carrier is that it can have more carrier-based aircraft and rapid dispatch efficiency.
A large aircraft carrier of 80,000 to 90,000 tons is far more efficient than the combination of two 40,000-ton aircraft carriers.
Not to mention light aircraft carriers!
The US aircraft carrier launched 16 F-14 "Panda" fighters and 16 F/A-18 fighters. After taking off, the 32 fighters flew towards Iraq.
Four Phoenix missiles, two Sparrow missiles, and two Sidewinder missiles are the normal air superiority mounts of the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter. If the maximum load is six Phoenix missiles, if they are not used in air combat, two missiles must be thrown into the sea when returning to ensure a safe landing.
The F/A-18 fighter can carry 13,700 pounds of ammunition on the outside, with a total of 9 external racks, two wingtip racks each with an AIM-9L air-to-air missile, two outer wing racks with AGM-65 air-to-ground missiles or AGM-84 anti-ship missiles, two inner wing racks with air-to-ground weapons, and two racks under the engine nacelles with Sparrow missiles.
Following the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter and the F/A-18 fighter, the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier continued to launch, and two EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft were launched, which will provide sufficient electromagnetic cover for the formation and electromagnetic suppression of Iraq.
Then four F/A-18 carrier-based aircraft were launched. In addition to two close-range Sidewinder missiles, there were six anti-radiation missiles. This type of mount is specifically designed to deal with ground-based air defense weapons.
Originally, F/A is a combat attack aircraft. As you can see from the name, the number of American aircraft, F stands for combat, and A stands for attack. But I don’t know what the US top leaders think. They are determined to use such a medium-sized aircraft to replace the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter. Although the F/A-18 fighter has multi-purpose capabilities, it is not as good as the dedicated F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter in air combat interception capabilities. The only disadvantage of the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter is that it is too expensive. It is expensive to purchase and maintain. I am afraid that this is the reason why the US Congress made a drastic decision.
According to the current US plan, the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter will be retired in 2006.
Many US F-14 ‘Panda’ fighters have been in service for thirty or forty years and are old aircraft. The United States disliked the F-14 "Panda" fighter because it was too expensive, and the U.S. Navy stopped purchasing F-14 "Panda" fighters in the 1980s.
If it weren't for the fact that the U.S. military budget was greatly reduced in those 8 years, the U.S. Navy might not have many F-14 "Panda" fighters now!
To be honest, the F-14 "Panda" fighter was rejected by the U.S. Congress and was eventually eliminated. The U.S. Navy was also very disgusted, but for the United States, the military will never interfere in politics and can only passively accept it. This Iraq War may be the last war that the U.S. Navy F-14 "Panda" fighter participated in before retiring, and the U.S. Navy also hopes that it can fight with prestige.
In fact, from the outbreak of the Iraq War to the present, the best performing fighters in the United States are the F-15 fighters of the Air Force and the F-14 "Panda" fighters of the Navy.
Professional military journals of various countries have long studied the F-14 fighter and praised it highly, believing that it has leading advantages in many aspects, such as performance, weapons and equipment, avionics systems, etc. In addition, it is highly flexible and can perform a variety of tasks, such as aerial reconnaissance, aerial attack, air combat, etc.
Although the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter jet has been withdrawn from the US Navy and Air Force, it is still considered one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world. Its maneuverability and performance are still among the most advanced fighter jets in the world.
Although the American Grumman Company further improved and upgraded the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter jet in terms of radar, avionics equipment and missile mounting capabilities in 1988, and named it F-14D ‘Super Panda’. However, the F-14D ‘Super Panda’ is not the most advanced F-14 series fighter jet in the world. The most advanced F-14 series fighter jet is the J-14 fighter jet that Shenfei copied and improved on the basis of the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter jet.
This time, the F-14 ‘Panda’ fighter jet performs the task of seizing air superiority, while the F/A-18 fighter jet performs the task of seizing air superiority and ground and ship strikes.
The combat goal of this formation is to destroy the naval fleet, ports, air defense positions and radar positions in the coastal areas of Iraq.
Originally, this combat goal should have been achieved on the first day of the war, but Iraq's air defense force was unexpectedly strong, so this combat goal has not been achieved so far.
An E-2C early warning aircraft has taken off in advance and is flying over the Persian Gulf, monitoring the situation of the Iraqi Air Force.
On the "Nimitz" aircraft carrier, there are a variety of military aircraft, including F-14 "Panda" fighters for air combat, F/A-18 and A6, A7 for attack, EA-6B "Prowler" electronic warfare aircraft for electromagnetic suppression, E-2C "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft for early warning, S-3 "Pirate" anti-submarine aircraft for anti-submarine, and a full range of types, and even tankers for accompanying refueling, etc.
Although the loss of carrier-based aircraft was not small before, the United States still called on aircraft originally used in the Afghanistan War to make up for it.
This means that, although one aircraft carrier is missing, the other carrier-based aircraft have been replenished. (End of this chapter)