Dominate South Asia

The MiG-25 was accelerating and had already reached Mach 3. Now, it had to use the fastest speed to get out of the airspace over Pakistan and return to the safety of India.

Even if the engine was burned, Verma would not hesitate. After all, his life was the most important.

Of course, he was just in case. After all, he had flown half a circle in the sky of Pakistan, and the Pakistani Air Force had not seen him do anything.

Moreover, the MiG-25 was equipped with a radar warning receiver. When the opponent locked on to it, it would use continuous radar waves to illuminate it, and the radar warning receiver would sound an alarm. So far, although it was constantly illuminated by the radar on the ground, it had never been locked.

"Missile launch." Jackson said in the rear cabin of the Tomcat fighter: "Come on, baby."

There was a tremor under the belly of the aircraft, and the Phoenix missile weighing more than 400 kilograms fell from the rack. Almost at the same time, the engine at the tail ignited, emitting thick smoke.

In this era, hypersonic missile ramjet engines have not yet appeared. The AIM-54 Phoenix missile is completely realized by a high-thrust rocket engine. In order to achieve a theoretical range of 150 kilometers, it has reached a bullet diameter of 380 mm. 380 mm is almost the same size as the steering wheel of an ordinary car. Therefore, when the Tomcat fighter is equipped with a Phoenix missile, it can be clearly seen on the belly.

At this time, the rocket engine pushes the missile to quickly leave the bottom of the fighter and fly forward, while starting to climb rapidly.

Even if a high-thrust engine is used, it is still very difficult to achieve a range of more than 100 kilometers. The Hughes Company in the United States has thought of many ways. For example, the initial flight stage of the Phoenix missile is to climb to an altitude of 24,000 meters! The higher the altitude, the thinner the air and the smaller the flight resistance, so that the maximum range can be achieved with the most energy-saving flight path, and its modified AIM-54C has reached 30,000 meters.

"Now, switch to continuous tracking mode." Jackson said as he began to flip the switch in front.

When the missile was launched just now, the radar warning receiver of the MiG-25 did not make any sound, because Jackson locked the target in a tracking and scanning mode. The powerful AWG-9 radar was designed to have multi-target attack capabilities. In extreme cases, it is required to attack six targets at the same time. Therefore, the AWG-9 radar has the ability to lock the target and launch in the tracking and scanning mode. In this case, there is no need for continuous radar illumination, and the opponent's radar warning receiver will not be triggered.

At the same time, this is also because the Phoenix missile was inertially guided in the early stage, and received target data in semi-active radar guidance mode.

In order to better shoot at the target, since it was a single target anyway, Jackson switched to continuous tracking mode. The wideband circular flat slot array antenna in front of the nose gathered more electromagnetic waves and flew to the MiG-25 fighter in front. At the same time, the reflected radar waves were transmitted to the DSQ-26 radar at the front of the Phoenix missile. At this time, the missile radar only had the ability to receive, in a passive semi-active mode.

After switching to continuous tracking mode, the radar beam increased. Suddenly, the radar warning receiver of the MiG-25 found that the radar waves irradiated were not right and began to warn the pilot.

"Beep, beep, beep." There were intermittent warning sounds in the headset, and Verma was startled. Damn, he was targeted!

However, he had no countermeasures now. He had already flown to an altitude of 24,000 meters and had also accelerated to the maximum speed of Mach 3.

Fly, keep flying! Verma looked at the navigation equipment and knew that he would soon be able to fly into India. The other party must be chasing and attacking. Even if he locked on, the missile would not fly as fast as his own plane!

He could only fly in a straight line, and every maneuver would lose precious speed.

"Okay, come on." Jackson continued to stare at the 25.4 cm diameter cathode ray tube tactical information display in front of him. The trajectory of the target on it was so straight that even the target plane did not fly so smoothly when shooting.

The Phoenix missile rushed to an altitude of 24,000 meters and flew smoothly. Although the target reached Mach 3, the maximum speed of the Phoenix missile at high altitude exceeded Mach 5!

When the launch began, the distance between the two sides was rapidly expanding, and now, when sprinting at the maximum speed at high altitude, the distance between the Phoenix missile and the target began to shrink rapidly again.

Finally, it was detected that the target was only 20 kilometers away from itself. The radar at the front of the Phoenix missile began to turn on, and the continuous radar signal was irradiated on the target.

"Beep..." The alarm in Verma's earphones became a long beep. This was the most dangerous situation.

Damn, what weapons does Pakistan have! While cursing, Verma began to pull his control stick backwards, and the tailplane rotated, quickly and lightly pried up the nose of the MiG-25 fighter, and the MiG-25 fighter continued to fly high.

Due to the wide tail, this type of fighter has a slow response at low and medium altitudes, and even excessive steering torque, but at high altitudes, it is very light and agile.

The active radar seeker of the Phoenix missile immediately found that the target was continuing to rise, so the onboard computer controlled the wings and the huge Phoenix missile followed.

It was only limited to 24,000 meters by the program setting. In fact, it could climb higher. Moreover, when it entered the active guidance process, it almost meant that the target could not escape from its field of vision. When the MiG-25 is at high speed, the overload that the fuselage can withstand is very small, and it is impossible to make large maneuvers. In this case, the Phoenix missile with a 17G overload capacity can keep up with any action of the MiG-25.

Relying on the speed of Mach 5, it is rapidly approaching the MiG-25 fighter in front, as if the two sides are competing in a climbing competition.

Unfortunately, everything is in vain. When it climbed to an altitude of 26,000 meters, the Phoenix missile caught up with the MiG-25 fighter.

"Boom!" When it was still dozens of meters away from the MiG-25, the Phoenix missile had entered the final attack stage. Its head stored a 60-kilogram connecting rod warhead. As the warhead exploded, the connecting rods expanded and untied around in a spoke-like manner, and countless connecting rods flew into the tail of the MiG-25.

Although the MiG-25 was made of stainless steel, the skin was still very thin, and the high-speed moving warhead brought huge kinetic energy. These connecting rods tore the tail of the MiG-25 and smashed it into pieces.

Verma looked at the red lights flashing on the instrument in front of him, and both engines stopped working at the same time. The MiG-25 began to fall down like a huge stone.

At this time, it had already flown into Indian airspace.

Verma was unfortunate. The MiG-25R had been equipped with the Indian Air Force for more than a year. It finally completed the training mission and began combat readiness. However, it was shot down during its first cross-border reconnaissance. At the same time, he was lucky. The MiG-25R did not explode in mid-air, and it flew into Indian territory, so he had enough time to escape.

The fire flashed, and the ejection seat flew out of the cockpit. Verma successfully ejected and escaped. Watching the MiG-25 fall from a distance, Verma felt very uncomfortable.

"Okay, prepare to hit." In the rear cabin, Jackson said to Rick in the front cabin: "Turn left immediately and prepare to return to the base."

"Understood." Rick skillfully pressed the slope, pulled the control stick, and stepped on the rudder at the same time. The world was spinning, and suddenly, Jackson had an urge to vomit again.

Jackson was very proud of being an elite among Grumman's test pilots, even though he was only a radar operator in the rear cabin. If he vomited because of the flight, he would become a joke when he returned to Grumman. Therefore, he tried his best to control his discomfort, all because he didn't have a G suit.

"Fly steadily, don't do a high-G maneuver." Jackson couldn't help shouting, "Damn it, you don't wear a G suit, try to pull an G."

"I'm sorry." Rick said, "Jackson, we shot down the MiG-25 this time, and you are the first credit."

Rick didn't take credit. The launch of the long-range Phoenix missile was mainly the role of the radar operator in the rear cabin. He only needed to fly steadily to the interception position.

Although Rick even took out a pistol just before takeoff, now that he shot down the MiG-25, thinking of the company's reward, Jackson has put Rick's excessive behavior behind his mind. After all, Rick is a young man and easily impulsive.

Jackson had generously forgiven Rick. The return flight was very pleasant. He looked at the blue sky and white clouds and felt that Pakistan was also beautiful.

"Beep, beep." At this moment, the 12.7 cm detailed digital display in front suddenly flashed a signal.

"Oops, our unfired missile is out of control." Jackson said.

Jackson was a little worried because the missile was not fired just now, but just now, his attention was mainly on the guidance of another missile.

The guidance data has been imported into the missile's computer, the missile has been activated, and the launch command has been entered, but the missile has not responded. At this time, the missile has become a bomb and will bite the Tomcat back at any time.

"Drop it immediately." Rick said.

Six Phoenix missiles, four on the belly and two at the root of the wing, are the most powerful mounting method of the Tomcat fighter, but it affects the landing of the Tomcat fighter. Therefore, when mounted in this way, the Tomcat fighter either chooses to fly back to the land airport or throw the two missiles into the sea. Compared to other fighters, the Tomcat has an additional control method for dropping missiles.

"Understood." Jackson immediately pressed the switch.