The Tang Empire's air force not only had fourth-generation fighter jets like Yinglong and Feisha as its trump card, they were also rapidly increasing their soft power.
In terms of transport aircraft, Hercules has obviously been unable to meet the demand to some extent, so the Tang Empire is producing more advanced and powerful long-distance transport aircraft.
A jet transport aircraft! And it is a super huge transport aircraft! The famous beggar transport aircraft Il-76! It can transport more than 40 tons of supplies to a place more than 4,000 kilometers away, and it is natural to airdrop paratroopers without any pressure.
Even if the fuel consumption for the return journey is calculated, it can fly 2,000 kilometers away to drop airborne troops, and its requirements for takeoff and landing at the airport are relatively low, and its speed is faster than the Hercules.
Of course, its excellent performance is not just that, it can also be improved into various special transport aircraft, such as early warning aircraft and tankers.
Although in terms of performance, it seems to be inferior to the terrifying C-5 transport aircraft of the Lighthouse Country, it is better in comprehensiveness, versatility, and cheaper!
Although Tang Mo feels that the Kunpeng Y-20 can replace the IL-76 in the future, its adequate performance indicators and reliable technology still make it worthy of trust.
As "another secret weapon" of the Air Force, nearly 100 of these aircraft have been put into service. And the transport capacity that these 100 aircraft can provide is already quite terrifying.
In addition, in order to support cross-sea landings, the Tang Air Force is also urgently purchasing more such aircraft, and directly ordered 40 tanker aircraft during production.
As a brand-new technology that has just been born, aerial refueling is a brand-new challenge for the air force pilots of the Tang Empire.
The docking and refueling of aircraft in the air is actually a very thrilling operation. Among the various types of combat aircraft equipped by the Tang Army, only the Yinglong and Flying Shark fighter jets have this function.
Apart from this, there are only the latest improved H-6 bombers and various other models of new transport aircraft.
Being able to refuel in the air means that the aircraft's range can be increased by at least a quarter! This is simply a qualitative leap in terms of the air force's strike range.
If there are enough tankers to provide aerial refueling for Yinglong fighter jets, then these Yinglong fighter jets can operate in areas 2,000 kilometers away. This is simply unimaginable in the past.
You know, even the Tang Empire used to have to use expensive ballistic missiles to attack targets 2,000 kilometers away.
Not only is it expensive to use ballistic missiles to strike targets, the strike accuracy is actually very limited. Even Tang's missiles have an error of about 100 meters after flying two thousand kilometers, which makes it impossible to destroy accurate targets at all.
Although with the advancement of technology, satellite positioning can provide higher hit accuracy for ballistic missiles, such attacks are still expensive and extremely inefficient.
Another reason why aircraft are more economical than missiles is the suppression time. After the missile attacks, there is no threat. Even if the opponent suffers losses, it can continue its own operation and scheduling for a long time.
But aircraft are different. As long as these aircraft still have ammunition, they can continue to control the airspace and attack facilities on the ground.
Moreover, after increasing the time in the air, these aircraft do not have to drop their ammunition hastily and return home, and can choose to attack targets more calmly, thus avoiding waste.
Therefore, being able to allow aircraft to fly 2,000 kilometers away for combat operations is equivalent to reducing attack costs and improving suppression efficiency.
This is also the reason why countries with large air forces equip a large number of tankers: these are the amplifiers of the air force's strike force and are vital functional aircraft.
To equip a large number of transport aircraft with advanced performance in a short period of time, the IL-76 is obviously a good choice. It was able to produce more than 900 aircraft in the world that Tang Mo is familiar with, which speaks for itself.
Army General Feng Kezhi did not know the existence of such aircraft, nor did he know the existence of Yinglong. Therefore, in Feng Kezhi's eyes, the Air Force probably only had H-6 and Hercules transport aircraft that could almost cover the steel barrier area.
Such a weak support force obviously cannot satisfy the landing troops, and the paratroopers will also face an unfavorable battle situation due to lack of support.
That's why Feng Kezhi said that, but Xiao Yun was confident. He not only knew that the Air Force was mass-producing Yinglong and Type 76 transport aircraft, but was also mass-producing a large number of new ground-attack ammunition.
With these weapons, the Air Force is basically guaranteed to give the dwarves in the Steel Barrier a bit of a Tang Dynasty shock. The other side will regret building so many turtle shells, because those bunkers are just a bunch of decent tombs at best.
In fact, not only the Air Force, but also the Navy is making a lot of preparations for the landing. The brand-new dock landing ship is one of the many preparations, which can provide more effective support for the landing troops in various aspects.
First of all, these dock landing ships can take off a large number of armed helicopters. These armed helicopters can provide strike firepower more directly, at closer range, and more accurately.
With the support of these helicopters, the landing troops can land three-dimensionally, avoid obstacles on the shore, and directly enter the enemy's rear to fight.
Traditional defense measures obviously pose no threat to these flying landing troops. Once these Tang Army helicopter troops are put in place, the dwarves' defense line will be almost penetrated.
Sea and air cooperation, three-dimensional landing, this is a new type of tactics that has not appeared in the past. Combined with the electromagnetic and firepower advantages of the Tang Empire, the steel barriers built by the dwarves actually do not have much effect.
Although there will be losses, and although there may be many problems and troubles in actual operation, the tactics of the Datang Empire are generally an era, or even several eras ahead of the entire world. Under such circumstances, the so-called steel defense line, but
It's just a joke.
Even if the dwarves now know that the Tang Army's target is them, there is actually no way to continue to strengthen their defense line. In other words, strengthening it is useless.
Increasing the number of coastal defense troops will only increase casualties in the end. The actual effect that hundreds of thousands of troops can play may not be as good as hundreds of thousands of landmines.
Of course, the dwarves did not dare to use landmines, weapons that violated the convention, because the Tang Empire had things they were more afraid of: thermobaric bombs, napalm bombs, and white phosphorus bombs.
These gadgets are even more terrifying against tunnels and bunkers. The dwarves would not dare to use unlocked mines in exchange for the various new weapons that the Tang Empire could use.
Because the known weapons of the Tang Army have already made them very scared. If the Tang State comes up with something else, what will they do?
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I have something to do today, so the second update will be later. You can watch it tomorrow morning.
