More accurately, the wingtip hooks were attached to the arresting cables like landing hooks, which is quite an interesting feature.
Old Ha transferred two ScanEagle drones to Jihuo Defense, and the other one had already arrived over the target fishing village to take over the patrol before the first one returned.
The rotating eo950 electro-optical reconnaissance module transmits high-definition images captured by the white light channel back to the Jihuo satellite via point-to-point microwave line-of-sight transmission.
This drone, which was launched more than a decade ago, has undergone several iterations. The latest model uses a hydrogen fuel cell for power, which is quieter than the previous internal combustion engine power unit.
However, money talks, and the UAE still purchased ScanEagle Plus—RQ-21A Blackjack, costing $80 million for only 20 aircraft and 8 ground control stations.
To be honest, small tactical reconnaissance drones are quite useful, but the prices of American-made ones are blatantly outrageous, even more expensive than armed reconnaissance drones.
Fortunately, our hometown is also focusing on this niche market. The FX30/FX70 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft are designed to compete with the ScanEagle and BlackJack.
The Jihuo satellite can use second-hand ScanEagle cameras for a couple of years as a temporary measure, and soon it will be able to use brand-new domestically produced ones.
With competitors around, even the expensive Magnesium started offering discounts and clearing out its stock, frantically shipping goods before its rivals could start mass production.
The ScanEagle, which originally cost two or three million dollars a unit, is now available for just one million dollars.
When supplying goods to the Akham National Army, which they support, they don't even ask for money; the full amount is directly disbursed through the channels of foreign military sales.
Several orders combined brought the total number of ScanEagle drones currently in service with the other party to three digits.
This is second only to the amount they use themselves. If you didn't know better, you'd think the Akham National Army was some kind of formidable force!
As expected, the Akumhan battlefield was a feast for the American military and the domestic military-industrial complex.
One of them balanced the books, while the other shipped out goods, pushing their expenses to trillions.
However, it's clear to anyone with a discerning eye that this model is unsustainable, especially since their current president is a businessman, and businessmen are most sensitive to losing money.
The Middle East has investments and oil revenues, but Afghanistan has nothing. It has been the graveyard of empires since ancient times. There was no way to deal with it before, but now it's time to end it all.
This is exactly the moment that Jihuo Defense has been waiting for. The private military contracting business there has always been the exclusive domain of US-backed PMC companies, and contractors from other countries simply cannot squeeze in.
There may be no lavish feast, but there will still be plenty of leftovers.
After all, there's so much secondhand American equipment!
True to form, they don't have the capacity to take all these burdens with them.
However, how should I put it? I'd rather destroy it than leave it to you; all that's left for the villagers is a pile of scrap metal.
You can piece together a decent batch of equipment by taking things from different parts and patching them up, but there's no way to salvage equipment that's been completely destroyed.
Just because others can't do it doesn't mean Xia Yu can't. He likes this kind of equipment, where only the key components are damaged, and the repair time is only a fraction of that of the stored goods.
Even if the price of ScanEagle collapses, a used one can still be sold for 500,000 yuan. Many countries don't mind using them as consumables.
Aircraft such as the Black Hawk, Little Bird, Sea Knight (similar to the Chinook), and Hercules hold their value even better. If secondhand Soviet equipment becomes difficult to sell later, we can still use American equipment as a supplement, which is to maintain a balance.
As for how much profit it can generate, tens of billions is too exaggerated. On the surface, a turnover of two or three billion is not a problem, but Xia Yu will need several years to digest it.
With that thought in mind, he turned his attention back to the fishing village on the screen.
Ah Fuhan's collapse is a matter for the future; for now, we can only make some preparations. Xia Yu must focus on the business at hand.
After sailing to a point 30 nautical miles from the target fishing village, the Jihuo ship slowed down and stopped 15 nautical miles from the shore when it was completely dark.
We can't go any further; the ship should stop here.
With the dock door at the stern opened and the wet tanks filled with water, the Mustang hovercraft and a "submarine" beside it automatically floated to the surface.
Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that this is actually an SDV that looks very much like the US MK-8 Mod 1 wet frogman transport vessel.
If the DPV small frogman propulsion device is a motorcycle that can only carry two people, then the SDV that can transport a whole squad is like a luxury Coaster.
This SDV was not part of the Jihuo fleet, nor was it purchased by Xia Yuqian.
Yes, just borrowing it for a short time.
He watched as the SDV carrying eight combat frogmen disappeared into the sea and sped off towards its target, then returned to the deck.
The Harrier was pushed out of the hangar, with four 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bombs mounted under its wings.
Combating pirate strongholds disguised as fishing villages is not suitable for deploying fighter jets, but a single frogman squad is simply not enough to contain them.
The Mustangs' firepower could certainly block them, but what if women and children got on board? Should they fight or not?
Therefore, it would be better to destroy all of the enemy's means of transportation for evacuating fishing boats before the battle even begins, thus trapping these pirates in the village.
The problem is that Xia Yu didn't upgrade the avionics of the old Harrier, so the Fruit Bat could only launch second-generation Gemway missiles, which didn't have the long range of the third generation, and it didn't have the GPS guidance of the Jadm.
In addition, the thick cloud cover near the coast prevented it from providing laser guidance for precision-guided munitions.
Fortunately, they were equipped with ScanEagle, a machine weighing less than 30 kilograms that also integrated a laser designator module, which could illuminate and strike targets at close range.
This is how naval deployment works. In this operation against pirates, the Sea Harrier only served as an aerial platform for launching laser-guided bombs.
"call out"
Amidst the whistling of the air currents, the fighter jet took off from its spot and continued to climb, quickly disappearing above the thick clouds.
The frogman team that had set off earlier also arrived at the fishing village, leaving the SDV on the seabed, and the group quietly went ashore.
However, it would be impossible for an 8-man squad to make seven incursions and seven exits from a pirate stronghold of nearly a thousand people without the support of ground armored units and low-altitude attack helicopters.
"Splash splash"
After Xia Yu drove the armed AS550, he set off. The two-ton fennec fox's combat power was equivalent to that of a small antelope plus and a small bird rromax, and it was far inferior to an old female deer and a longbow cross deer.
But the Jihuo-class is not an amphibious landing ship. A dock landing ship can only fit one attack helicopter and one fighter jet, which is already quite good.
It can only be said that they were lucky to be fighting pirates. Their onshore fighting force was weak, and they had Wild Horses and unmanned combat boats to support them on the sea, which gave them a strong chance of defeating their opponents.
"Operation begins!"
Less than 5 nautical miles from the shore, Xia Yu issued the attack order via the internal public channel.
At an altitude of 10,000 meters, the fruit bats released the first three GBU-12 bombs without hesitation, and after rebalancing, waited for the next round of bombing.
Meanwhile, directly above the target fishing village, the scanning eagle's laser pointer emitted a coded laser beam, illuminating the seven or eight fishing boats moored in the harbor.
"Boom boom boom boom"
After the fuses were readjusted, the three laser-guided bombs detonated upon contact with the water. The flames and smoke instantly engulfed all the fishing boats, and the violent explosions plunged the village into a deathly silence; even the chickens and dogs stopped barking and howling.
What happened?
Has the volcano erupted?
But they don't have any volcanoes here!
Looking out the window, the fishing boats in the harbor had been reduced to a sea of fire.
"boom"
Then another explosion followed, turning the old dock where sampans and small boats were moored into a fireball.
Damn it, they're completely stuck here. As the saying goes, to get rich, build roads first. This pirate den not only has no roads, but also no electricity or running water. They rely entirely on generators and batteries for power, and the only way to contact the outside world is by water.
Now, with the combined firepower of the defense forces striking from both sides, their only means of escape are those few small sampans that have been dragged ashore.
"Could this be a fighter jet?"
Amirudin, holding an AK-47, had an expression of disbelief on his face.
He only looted a few merchant ships and killed about ten people, most of whom were just cleaning up old houses. Is it really worth all this fuss over him?
Xia Yu stated that it was impossible to catch them all without doing it this way, and that it would be one thing to engage in sea piracy, but to become a pirate is not an option.
If it weren't for the bad positioning, they would definitely have been hit by naval gunfire.
"Quickly, quickly come out and set up a counterattack position; the enemy won't dare to attack the village."
Amirudin immediately turned on the radio and called for help.
The fact that he could raise a pirate gang shows that he's not stupid. He understands that he still has options in this situation, and they can use human shields to keep the enemy out of the village.
"Knock knock"
Just as a few people set up a Ma-16 heavy machine gun (STK50MG) authorized by the county and produced in Mianyang, and before they had even finished firing a burst at the dark sea, the machine gunner was sniped by a frogman marksman who had infiltrated the village.
“They’ve entered the village, Lamodo, find them for me quickly.”
"Understood, Chief!"
While still inside the house, Lamodo turned off the lights, turned on the binocular night vision goggles fixed to his baseball cap, and poked his head out of the window to search for the frogmen.
However, the roar of propellers coming from afar interrupted his search.
"Knock knock knock"
Xia Yu fired the RH202 autocannon first, instantly destroying the heavy machine gun emplacement.
Damn it, it's a helicopter.
Amirudin began to regret why he hadn't saved those tens of thousands of dollars by not buying air defense equipment...
"No, anti-tank missiles can also shoot down helicopters."
A brilliant idea flashed into his mind, and he came up with a practical solution.
It can't be a missile like the Javelin that fires and forgets; it must be a second-generation wire-controlled missile so that it can hit hovering or low-speed flying helicopters.
As he ran towards the warehouse, Amirudin paused. If he missed the first shot, wouldn't he become an easy target for the enemy?
"Quick, Lamodo, take out this helicopter with anti-tank missiles."
He bought a total of 3 old Tao launchers and 9 spare rounds. The one on the armed oil tanker was blown up by the machine gun.
The remaining two bodies are with him and with his cousin's son, who is also his confidant, Ramodo.
That kid's clever, let him try first!
He learned how to use night vision goggles and anti-tank missiles by relying on the instruction manual and his own exploration. Little La was indeed clever, but he, as the leader, was still the most cunning.
"Yes, Chief!"
Without much thought, Lamodo obeyed his uncle's orders, pulled out an old ceramic launcher from under the bed, and opened the cabinet to take out a spare bullet and load it.
The armored oil tanker has a TOW 2, but who knows if these pirates also have a Stinger!
Xia Yu, skilled and daring, launched his attack with the awareness that the enemy possessed portable anti-aircraft missiles.
Even at a distance of more than ten nautical miles, the anti-aircraft guns on the Jihuo could not help him intercept the missile, but his gaze unconsciously drifted to the JARI-USV multi-purpose unmanned combat vessel on the screen.
Its cannon is limited by radar and cannot intercept, but it can be equipped with two TY-90 missiles integrated on a remote-controlled turret!
call out
A bright light appeared in the darkness as Lamodo fired the old Tao missile. With an initial velocity of 65 m/s, the missile trailed a long optical fiber and accelerated towards the helicopter in the night sky under his control.
165m/s!
265m/s!
Just as the speed climbed to over 200 and continued to break through the speed of sound:
"call out"
A glimmer of light rose from the sea.
Mach 1!
Mach 2!
When Lao Tao reached a top speed of 360m/s, the TY-90 also successfully broke through to twice the speed of sound, and successfully intercepted the opponent in the airspace less than 1 kilometer in front of Xia Yu.
"boom"
The proximity fuse directly detonated the continuous rod warhead, instantly shredding Lao Tao in half.
"boom"
The two explosions almost overlapped, and the flames illuminated half the sky.
So they really can't bring themselves to buy portable anti-aircraft missiles?
Looking at the explosion directly in front of him, Xia Yu also locked onto the window from which the missile was launched.
An air defense missile successfully intercepted an anti-tank missile that was trying to shoot down a helicopter. It sounds magical, but you can think of a wire-controlled anti-tank missile as an enhanced FPV drone with a noticeable heat source.
Because the missile's flight attitude needs to be manually adjusted to successfully hit the target, second-generation anti-tank missiles are generally not very fast.
It's only natural that they were shot down by an anti-aircraft missile that starts at Mach 2; it's just that such confrontation scenarios are relatively rare.
So, it's only polite to reciprocate. In this sweltering Southeast Asian weather, they sent him a bottle of hot water to cool him down, so we should show these pirates the hospitality of the "Xia-surname Huang clan".
The helicopter adjusted its attitude, and the nose of the helicopter was slightly pointed at the window.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh"
After being loaded onto the ship, the AS550's missile racks were specially replaced with seven-cell M260 rocket pods, and at that moment, it fired seven Hydra-70 rockets in one go.
"Boom boom boom"
Amidst the deafening explosion, Xia Yu sent the small house flying into the sky.
The HOT-3 is too directional; it's not as good as unguided rockets. American-made rockets are much more deceptive.
Yes, Jihuo Defense only uses Soviet-made unguided rockets; they don't even have this thing.
The flash of the explosion illuminated Amirudin's face a hundred meters away. He was stunned; a missile could actually be intercepted by another missile.
And his cousin died such a tragic death!
Hit by so many rockets, he probably wouldn't even have a complete corpse left.
He couldn't win, he simply couldn't win. Amirudin kicked over the launcher next to him, abandoned the money in the safe, grabbed his gun, and ran into the dense forest behind the village.
When it comes to business that could lead to execution, you always need to leave yourself a way out.
On the other side of the beach, beyond the mountain, lies a speedboat that can be used to escape at any time, helping him flee to a deserted island 50 nautical miles away.
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