laitimes

The story of the land brigade and the sea continues in one flight after another...

author:Globe.com

Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily

Sword sea sky

■ Lai Wenyong Liao Xiaobin Shi Zhipeng

The sea breeze is gentle, and the waves are singing low and shallow. A certain army brigade fighter formation of a certain army brigade of the 73rd Group Army, which had just completed high-intensity training at night at sea, slowly returned to the country in a column. All the way the navigation lights flickered, like a dragon soaring on the sea, silently guarding this sea.

In the cockpit of the formation head plane, pilot Liu Shuaitao was in good spirits, as if he had just won a triumphant battle. He turned his head and looked at the night scene outside the cabin, the far sea on the left was pitch black, and the side of the shore on the right was flickering with lights, and a strong sense of pride suddenly emerged: Isn't this the quiet scene of the years brought about by their day and night guardianship of the motherland?

The night view outside the cabin brings Liu Shuaitao back to the moment when he first met the sea 5 years ago, evoking countless memories. In the past 5 years, the weapons and equipment of the unit have been upgraded again and again, the training tasks have been completed one after another, and he and his comrades in this sea have never stopped chasing their dreams.

One

2017 was an extraordinary year for Lu Aviation Brigade and Liu Shuaitao. In that year, the brigade was officially established, and Liu Shuaitao was fortunately assigned to the brigade.

"What do you think is the relationship between land and the sea?" On the day of registration, when the instructor talked with Liu Shuaitao, he suddenly asked.

"Eight rods can't hit!" The fledgling Liu Shuaitao answered without hesitation. The instructor simply smiled softly and then told him firmly, "It's the relationship between fish and water." ”

After a while, Liu Shuaitao slowly realized the connection between this unit and the sea: the propaganda windows of the camp were all posters of flying at sea; When the old pilot chats, opening his mouth is "flying at sea"; Most of the exercises are organized at sea... The sea seems to be an integral part of this force.

Driven by curiosity, Liu Shuaitao has a stronger vision and yearning for the sea. On his notepad, there is a sentence written: "I will be a petrel, bravely and freely skimming the sea and flying." ”

Flying routes, flying formations, flying day and night... During that time, the scorching sun and the waves witnessed Liu Shuaitao's efforts. Finally, with excellent land training results, Liu Shuaitao ushered in the first sea flight training. It made him both excited and nervous. The excitement is that I finally have the opportunity to feel the excitement of sea flight, and the tension is that the sea and sky are colorful, the field of vision is limited, the reference is missing, and mistakes may occur if you are not careful.

At the command of the commander, the fighter took off smoothly. The winding coastline catches Liu Shuaitao's eyes, the passing fishing boats slowly drive on the open water, and the fan blades of the wind power station on the distant islands become clearer and clearer. His heart began to beat faster.

This was followed by a naval formation flight. Liu Shuaitao quickly established a route and joined the formation. At this time, the fleet has quickly changed into a solid "big triangle" formation, evenly spaced and consistent in height, like several sharp swords skimming the sea.

After completing a series of flight actions, Liu Shuaitao's face was full of smiles. However, Guo Longwei, a teacher who teaches with the machine, reminded: "Don't be happy too soon, the good drama is still to come." ”

Sure enough, the more difficult low-altitude flight at sea began. 200 meters, 100 meters, 80 meters... Liu Shuaitao carefully maneuvered the fighter to lower its altitude. However, as the altitude dropped and the plane's turbulence increased, Liu Shuaitao felt as if the plane was about to "drill" into the sea, and the surging waves seemed to lapped at the fuselage at any time. The palms of his grip on the joystick were sweating profusely, and he did not dare to lower his height again.

Guo Longwei reminded: "Stabilize, continue to descend the height." Liu Shuaitao took a deep breath and steered the fighter plane to descend slowly. Eventually, the fighter stabilized at a specified altitude and flew fast against the surface of the sea.

Stepping off the fighter, Liu Shuaitao's heart was still not at peace. "Looking at the sea from the fighter plane, the view is very good, right?" Guo Longwei, who was beside him, teased him and encouraged: "If you want to conquer the sea, you must first train yourself into a healthy petrel." This sentence took root deeply in Liu Shuaitao's heart.

Two

Kong Xianghui, a pilot who has been driving helicopters for 20 years, did not expect to have a perfect "encounter" with a naval warship.

Two years ago, the superior organized a maritime assault exercise, and Kong Xianghui piloted a fighter plane to attack the sea target. When attacking the first two targets, Kong Xianghui completed the task well. However, in preparing to attack the third target, he made a mistake.

Originally, the pilot group set the third target in the open sea, and due to the flight distance, the fighters could fly over to make a surprise attack, but returning to the ship became a big problem.

"If you can't go to the place you want to go, it's like being tied up in a war." The boundless sea has become the biggest obstacle to Kong Xianghui's training.

Kong Xianghui proposed to carry out coordinated training with a certain naval unit to explore the combat mode of land aviation helicopters on naval warships to carry out tasks.

After a period of planning and preparation, the sea landing training was launched as scheduled. Between the sea and the sky, Kong Xianghui took the lead in flying a helicopter to the sea where the battleship was located.

At this moment, from a height of hundreds of meters, the battleship is like a small leaf in the sea, with the ups and downs of the waves, faintly appearing from time to time.

500 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters... After receiving the landing instruction, Kong Xianghui piloted the plane to establish a route, aimed at the deck to descend the altitude and slowed down the flight, decisively grasped the relatively stable moment of the deck, quickly lowered the pitch lever, a beautiful three-point landing, and landed the war eagle steadily on the deck of the battleship.

The swirling rotors create huge swirls of air on the surface of the sea, and the splashing sea water falls on the deck, colorful in the sunlight.

In the days that followed, Kong Xianghui and his comrades-in-arms carried out training in such subjects as coordinated airborne operations, attacking maritime targets, and maritime search and rescue, which could not only fight farther away, but also greatly enrich the form of maritime warfare.

The sea is full of unknowns and uncertainties, and can create all possibilities. On this sea, officers and men have persevered in searching for and chasing dreams, creating one miracle after another.

Wang Xiaohu, the third-class sergeant major, is a tiger with a bear's waist, as his name suggests. Engaged in aircraft maintenance work for 18 years, his proudest experience is to achieve "hot refueling and reloading on helicopter ships".

That year, Wang Xiaohu participated in a helicopter assault combat exercise. After the fighter returned from the first round of strikes, Wang Xiaohu took the usual "cold refueling" method to replenish the fuel to the helicopter, first shutting down the car to cool down, refueling, and then driving to warm up and take off, a process that took nearly half an hour. As a result, it is conceivable that when the fighters attacked again, the "enemy" had already reinforced in large quantities.

Afterwards, Wang Xiaohu joined the brigade's research team, carried out experiments day and night, and finally explored the formation of a "helicopter hot refueling and reloading" support method to realize the refueling and reloading of helicopters without blackouts. Later, they successfully moved the "helicopter hot refueling reload" to the deck of the warship for implementation.

"You can land on the ship." Not long ago, the ship-plane coordination exercise was held again, several fighters landed on the deck and did not turn off the car, the iron wings still circled rapidly, and the roar of the motor resounded throughout the sea and the sky. Wang Xiaohu led the officers and men to quickly refuel and reload the bombs while the engine was not stopped, the time for the fighters to complete the support was greatly shortened compared with the original, and the efficiency of the second dispatch was greatly improved.

Watching the fighter planes take off rapidly, the brigade leader gave Wang Xiaohu a thumbs up: "The land aviation people just want to have this kind of strength to overcome difficulties." ”

Three

The story of the land aviation brigade and the sea continues in one flight after another.

On that day, the rising sun rose slowly from the horizon, and the waves lapped at the rocks on the shore, and the waves splashed.

Search, lock, launch... In the roar, pilot Li Lei decisively pressed the launch button, and a missile spat out a tongue of fire and accurately hit the floating target on the surface of the sea. Suddenly, the sea was choppy and quickly engulfed by the sea.

Stepping out of the cockpit, Li Lei thought that this was another "full hall". However, the assessment team told him that the assessment results were invalid. Li Lei looked for the assessment team with a puzzled face to "ask for an explanation."

Originally, the assessment team found through surveillance video that when Li Lei drove the plane into the attack position for the first time, he did not choose to attack the target immediately, but quit the adjustment and re-entered before launching the missile to hit the target.

Time back half an hour ago. After Li Lei piloted the fighter plane to the target area, he quickly searched for the location of the target. Just as he was about to attack, a blinding ray of sunlight refracted through sea level into the cabin. Considering that poor line of sight would affect the accuracy of shooting, Li Lei temporarily withdrew from the attack. After a brief adjustment, he re-established the attack route and launched a second attack.

"The enemy will not stand where we are and let us fight twice, and there is never a chance of 'no return' on the battlefield." The assessment team's claims are not unfounded. During a live-fire drill last year, due to the bad weather at that time, a fighter plane entered an unfinished attack for the first time, and when it was adjusted and then prepared to carry out an attack, it was locked and "destroyed" by the "enemy'" anti-aircraft fire.

"I wanted to quit because the shooting conditions became worse, exposing the problem of insufficient shooting ability of pilots in complex environments." In the final analysis, it is still the weak awareness of actual combat and the lack of practical combat concepts, and they have fallen into the inertial thinking of 'shooting only under the best shooting conditions'. The brigade leader pointed out the crux of the problem.

The lights are not turned on, the reason is not clear. A reasonable and well-founded explanation made Li Lei blush and straightened the question mark in everyone's heart.

A few days later, Li Lei once again flew a plane to attack the "enemy" target, completing the search and attack on the target at one time, but the shooting performance decreased slightly compared with the past. Li Lei said: "The difficulty of shooting has increased a lot! Although my grades were not as good as before, the strings of the war in my mind were tightened even tighter. ”

The sea is still that sea, but the thinking and mode of fighting wars among officers and men have quietly changed.

Soon after, the sea ushered in a "new partner" - drones.

On the vast sea, Wang Zhengtao flew a war eagle and flew past the target sea. High-altitude photography, photoelectric detection, radar surveillance... At the same time, the drone quickly reconnoitred the location of the "enemy" ship and transmitted dozens of pieces of information back to the helicopter in real time.

Search, lock, attack... Under the precise guidance of the UAV, Wang Zhengtao quickly occupied the attack position, decisively pressed the launch button, and accurately destroyed the sea target.

Stepping off the fighter, Wang Zhengtao sighed that the search and guidance task originally undertaken by the helicopter was now "stripped" to the unmanned aerial vehicle to complete, which is equivalent to equipping the war eagle with a pair of "eyes", which greatly shortens the reaction time of the reconnaissance and fire units and improves the accuracy of the strike damage.

Four

In 2021, the brigade was commended by the Central Military Commission as a "model unit for all-armament warfare". On the day when the honorary plaque was retrieved, the officers and men of the whole brigade cheered enthusiastically and took photos with the honorary plaque one after another. On the surface of the sea, the roar of the waves seemed to celebrate this glorious moment for them.

The joy had not yet dissipated from his face, and the air defense siren sounded again. A multi-service joint exercise was once again launched in this area.

The wind and waves are high. Several drones flew into the blue sky; Pilots flew low-altitude sea skimming; The amphibious armored assault group sailed out of the amphibious landing ship and launched an attack on the shore beach line; Several transport helicopters full of special operators quietly approached the deep area under the cover of fire...

In the evening, pilots Zhao Qinghua and Liu Yuecheng, who walked off the training ground, walked on the beach, and the sunset reflected their cheeks.

Between the sea and the sky, there are several helicopters circling in the air; Above the sea, chariots and ships reflected a magnificent cloud of fire.

Looking at this sea area that has been conquered for many years, Liu Yuecheng sighed: "We train here every day, but we don't have time to appreciate it, the sea is so beautiful!" ”

Zhao Qinghua often looked at the sea and the sky in meditation after training. Enjoying the oncoming sea breeze, he replied meaningfully: "Its beauty is manifested in tranquility and peace." What we have to do is to do everything in our power to protect it! ”

The waves crash on the shore, and the big waves sweep the sand. Zhao Qinghua knew in his heart that this blue sea was the battlefield where he pursued a strong army to win the battle.

The story of the land brigade and the sea continues in one flight after another...