The Suez Canal is a waterway at sea level, which runs through the Suez Isthmus in Egypt. The canal starts from the Port of Said on the Mediterranean coast in the north and ends at the Suez Bay in the Red Sea in the south. It is more than 160 kilometers long, more than 60 meters wide and 8 meters deep. Since there is no lock, ships can pass freely.

Although the United Kingdom has not yet officially declared war on China on behalf of the multinational alliance, its combat readiness has been underway. The multinational coalition composed of more than a dozen countries has begun to land in North Africa through the Mediterranean. They first assembled in Egypt, and then went to Central Africa, East Africa, and even the Arabian Peninsula according to combat deployment. The vanguard troops have advanced to the Egyptian border.

After analyzing the reconnaissance photos, it was confirmed that the troops in the Suez Canal area are also increasing, and the accommodation tents are densely packed, and military supplies are piled up like mountains. Tanks, artillery and other weapons are clustered in groups in the east and west. On the surface, they look really powerful. But if they are bombed from the air, these things will instantly turn into ashes!

But Kang Fan was not interested in the coalition's ground targets that were easily hit. He was interested in the coalition's navy.

The Port of Simmonstown is located in the southwestern end of the British South African Federation. It goes west to the Cape of Good Hope and east to the Indian Ocean. It was originally a Dutch naval base. It was later occupied by the United Kingdom in 1795 and used as an important naval base for the British army. It has been used to this day. The Europeans traveled through the Indian Ocean to Asia, two north and south. The northern route is the route from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean. The main transfer station is the British Malta Island in the Mediterranean Sea; the southern route is the route from the Atlantic Ocean through the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean. The main transfer station is the Port of Simmonstown in the British South African Federation.

Malta Island and Simmonstown are both old military bases used by the Royal Navy for a hundred years. Malta Island is the advance base for Britain to control northern Africa and advance into Asia. Simmonstown is the advance base for Britain to control southern Africa and advance into Asia. More than 300 years before the opening of the Suez Canal, which was jointly opened by France and Egypt in 1869, the southern route was the only maritime route for Europeans to travel to Asia through the Indian Ocean. After the opening of the Suez Canal, a shorter, more convenient and safer northern route replaced the main location of the southern route.

After the UK unilaterally closed the Suez Canal against China, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs only condemned its practice of seriously damaging China's interests and being clearly hostile, and did not show a strong intention to regain the right of way. Although the National Defense Forces have been paying attention to the situation in the Massawa base and the Suez Canal area, and the aerial reconnaissance of the Suez Canal area is also underway, it can only be seen as a defensive measure forced to take due to the repeated increase in the coalition forces in the Suez Canal area.

However, the Massawa base of the National Defense Force is like a sharp blade hanging on the northern route. It can cut off the access of the coalition forces into the Indian Ocean at any time, which has always made the coalition forces frightened. In order to avoid excessively stimulating the National Defense Force garrison at the Massawa base, after blocking the Suez Canal, their military ships have never entered the Red Sea again. Moreover, the current Suez Canal can only pass through ships with a draft of 7.5 meters. The main battleships of the coalition forces, such as the "Queen Elizabeth" class of the British Royal Navy, have a full load displacement of more than 33,000 tons, and have a draft of more than 9 meters. They cannot pass through the Suez Canal at all, and can only circumvent the Cape of Good Hope.

Therefore, the southern route, which is both safe and large in traffic, has become the main maritime route for the coalition to connect with military bases in the Indian Ocean, as well as the British Indian mainland, West Asia, etc., and the Port of Simmonstown, an important transit point for entering the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean, has become important again.

The National Defense Forces' Xihua Island base on the Indian Ocean has just been put into use, and its defense deployment needs to be further consolidated. There is only one aircraft carrier battle group. With the support of onshore-based aviation, submarine troops and near-shore, light surface combat ships, defending the offshore seas of Myanmar and the northeastern Indian Ocean on the Malacca Strait can only be said to be barely enough. If you want to fight the coalition navy on the entire Indian Ocean, which is many times larger than the Red Sea, you will be unable to do so. Therefore, for the coalition, this direction is the most suitable direction of attack. The fact is that the coalition forces are prepared so.

From January 1922 to the present, Simmonstown Port has successively gathered a large number of warships, fighter jets, materials and personnel from the coalition forces. Relying on this place, the military strength of the coalition forces on the British Digo Garcia Island, an important military base in the central Indian Ocean, has also been enhanced, thus allowing the British garrisons in the British Indian continent and other regions of the North Indian Ocean to receive strong support. Once the war breaks out, the British garrisons of the British mainland can join forces with the Digo Garcia Island coalition forces to easily cut off the connection between the Massawa base and Xihua Island in the Indian Ocean from the north and south directions, and isolated the Massawa base. In that case, the Massawa base will be in danger!

Although the Simmonstown Port Area is not large and there are not many ships stationed, the Fals Bay where it is located is very large, which is a natural shelter. Most of the ships of the coalition navy are concentrated here. After more than half a year of preparation, one-third of the coalition navy's forces have gradually gathered here. Therefore, the submarine forces of the National Defense Forces Navy have not relaxed their surveillance here. Many submarines have successfully penetrated into the waters around the Fals Bay after many arduous voyages, and the Simmonstown Military Port.

The Bay of Ers and surrounding waters conducted detailed reconnaissance, allowing the National Defense Force to master extremely valuable information. Therefore, Kang Fan decided to give the coalition navy here a one-stop shot, concentrate superior forces, take the initiative, and earn a contribution to one battle to fight a naval annihilation battle that can fundamentally reverse the comparison of the naval strength between the two sides, push his maritime blockade to the coast of South Africa, and block the coalition's maritime passage into the Indian Ocean - this is the "dragon strike" combat plan envisioned by Kang Fan.

The "Dragon Strike" combat action plan uses aircraft carrier battle groups and submarines to conduct long-range raids on Fars Bay, preferably a hidden sneak attack. If it is exposed, a strong attack will be attacked. In order to give the coalition navy the greatest possible strike, the six aircraft carrier battle groups put into service in the Defense Forces Navy must all participate in this operation.

Britain is still the most powerful empire in the world and still refuses to withdraw its power from Asia. Since Britain has closed the door to Europe to China, then China should also close the door to Asia to Britain. Therefore, if China wants to achieve this goal, it must first completely expel European power from Asia.

Asia originally belongs to the Asian people, and China is currently the leader of the Asian people. How can it allow Europeans to continue to enslave the Asian people? Contemporary China is rising strongly and is realizing national rejuvenation. It requires a much larger space for survival and development than the old-fashioned Britain. In other words, even if the UK does not fight, China will fight, unless the UK gives up Asia for China. The reason is simple: one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

But China will not enter Europe for the time being. First, the time is not ripe, second, there is no absolute confidence in winning, third, there is no need. While doing its own well, it is still the only strategic goal to eliminate the remaining European colonial forces in Asia and achieve strong control over Asia is still the only strategic goal in the near future. Since Europeans still want to stay in Asia and have clarified their intention to enter Asia again, then it is impossible not to fight.

Attack is the best defense. As long as it appears, Kang Fan will seize the fleeting combat opportunity. The large-scale assembly of the coalition forces in Fars Bay is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to annihilate the enemy. How could Kang Fan let it go? As for the consequences caused by this, we can only wait for it to be faced later.

The Xihua Island Naval Base is usually only stationed in the USS Beining aircraft carrier battle group. Later, the USS Shanxi aircraft carrier battle group was also transferred here. The last remaining "China" class aircraft carrier "Heilongjiang" has been stationed on Taiwan Island, and jointly defends the Pacific direction with the newly-in-service "China-A" class aircraft carrier "Zhili" and "Shandong". Although the subsequent three "China-A" class aircraft carriers "Xinjiang", "Tibet" and "Guangdong" have been built, they have not yet formed their substantial combat effectiveness. Only "Xinjiang" is closest to the actual deployment state.

Therefore, the aircraft carrier battle group participating in the "Dragon Strike" operation can only be composed of the "Beining", "Shanxi", "Heilongjiang", "Zhili", "Shandong" and "Xinjiang" - this is the largest force that the National Defense Force Navy can currently invest in combat.

Furthermore, for the National Defense Forces, the one that can pose a real threat to it is the coalition's navy.

The coalition fleet consisting of the Royal Navy, French Navy, and other European navies are extremely strong, representing the highest level of the contemporary world navies. If they are willing, they can form multiple joint fleets at the same time to enter the oceans of the world from multiple directions to attack any target they want to attack.

The National Defense Forces currently have more than 20 ships and more than 20 carrier-based aircraft carrier battle groups in the Indian Ocean direction, including the two aircraft carriers, and more than 200 carrier-based aircraft. Although the combat power is strong, it can only ensure the annihilation of one coalition fleet at a time. The maximum combat radius of the "Penlei" carrier-based aircraft is nearly 500 nautical miles, which means that it can strike enemy ships in the sea area with the aircraft carrier as the center and a radius of 500 nautical miles. The two aircraft carriers combined have a larger strike range.

Despite this, the Indian Ocean in the south and central and southern Indian Ocean is nearly 40 million square kilometers, so it is impossible to control the entire one. Although the sea and air surveillance range of the "Sea Eagle-B" is much larger than the control range of the mixed fleet, the aircraft carrier battle group must rely on the aircraft carrier battle group to complete the strike mission. In this way, if multiple coalition fleets want to prevent attacks from multiple directions from the Central and South Indian Ocean, the two aircraft carrier battle groups of the National Defense Forces must be divided into battles.

The main battleships of the coalition, such as battleships and battlecruisers, have thick protective armor and complete anti-torpedo designs. On average, each coalition battleship often needs to hit 10 or even more 500-kilograms of armor-piercing bombs or "harpoon" torpedoes before they can be sunk. Considering the bomb drop rate of the "Ben Lei" attack aircraft, the number of attacks at one time, and the number of effective attacks, the 80 to 120 "Ben Lei" carried by a "Zhonghua" or "Zhonghua-A" aircraft carrier is actually not very strong.

When the single aircraft carrier battle group of the National Defense Forces faces the superior coalition fleet, carrier-based aircraft cannot give the coalition fleet a heavy blow to prevent the coalition army from advancing at one time. They can only fight and retreat until they have no choice but to retreat. In the end, they can only engage in a cruel and unpredictable close-range naval gun duel with powerful naval gun fire!

Therefore, in order to avoid this situation as much as possible, the National Defense Forces can only concentrate their forces, and with the support of their strong naval and air reconnaissance system, they maneuver widely and run hard to defeat multiple coalition fleets.

However, the vast Indian Ocean provides a vast maneuverable space for the coalition fleet, and they will eventually have the opportunity to escape the attacks of the Defense Force aircraft carrier battle group and approach the Chinese coast. Therefore, the Defense Force must launch combat operations before the multinational alliance declares war on China, and catch the coalition forces by surprise and strive to change the balance of power.
Chapter completed!