The plane in charge of carrying out the order was the Growler electronic warfare aircraft. It was currently the most advanced warplane in the world. Its trump card was being able to disrupt all communications the size of a city. It could also cause flying missiles to deviate from their paths and even paralyse an entire military communications unit. Using it against four manless drones was overkill.
However, the information transmitted from the Growler to the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton made everyone’s jaws drop. The four Jing Ke drones were completely immune to the Growler’s electronic baiting!
Completely invisible and immune to electronic attacks. These two abilities were enough for the Jing Ke drones to demand a respectable position amongst the warplanes!
The air within the bridge of the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton was silent and tense. The officer and his crew were used to the concept of America leading the world. They did not know any other country with military power strong enough to be a match for America. However, four ugly drones were all it took to render their Growler helpless, and worse, their Seventh Fleet and spy satellites could not even detect the drones!
Within the live stream from the Growler, the four Jing Ke drones suddenly ascended while still flying towards the Seventh Fleet. To the drones and their master behind-the-scenes, the six Hornets were nothing but air.
It was an insult!
“d.a.m.n it!” Wils.h.i.+re yelled furiously, “Hornets, attack! Destroy them!”
On the screen, the six Hornets also ascended. One of them fired a Sidewinder air missile.
It was an infrared guidance missile.
The drone that was locked on by the Sidewinder missile suddenly flew towards the missile. The other three dove towards the ocean at an alarming speed.
Boom! The Jing Ke drone that was originally locked on by the missile exploded upon impact. The shockwave spread out in all directions, smas.h.i.+ng into the Hornet that fired the missile. In a second, it turned into a fireball!
Not just this Hornet, the rest of the Hornets suffered varying levels of damage. The pilot from Hornet that sustained the most damage activated emergency ejection protocol!
The three Jing Ke drones left suddenly ascended after flying low then turned around. It looked as if they had been startled and now wanted to return home. One of the Hornets still capable of battle chased it down but the three drones suddenly accelerated to fly as fast as missiles.
Everything looked like a show written out by a screenwriter.
Now the opponent had lost one drone but the Seventh Fleet lost two Hornets. The rest of the four all sustained different levels of damage. This was supposed to be an easy fight, yet America was going to walk away with a swollen face.
Plus these were actually in international waters. The Seventh Fleet was in the wrong. The four drones had the right to fly over this area. The Seventh Fleet were the ones who fired first.
Within the bridge of the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton.
Wils.h.i.+re’s face darkened. “What the h.e.l.l happened! Four drones! Yet the Growler could not intercept them! And two Hornets were destroyed, the other four damaged!”
“There’s something wrong with that drone!” said Taylors. “No, there’s something wrong with all four drones. It looked like our missile caused the explosion upon impact but I suspect it self-destructed!”
“What has that got to do with anything?” said Wils.h.i.+re. “We’ve completely embarra.s.sed ourselves in this encounter!”
“I don’t understand why the three drones would turn back.” Taylor’s gaze was filled with confusion, he was deep in thought.
“I don’t care what tricks they are trying to pull. They were just a few drones. We will send our F35 warplanes and Hornets to bomb the Filipino military island, then Dagua. Our Growler and Global Hawk must proceed with the Tamer Project. The goal is China’s Dagua Island military base!”
“Sir, are you still going to attack Dagua Island?”
“Yes, I suspect the three drones will land at Dagua Island’s military base. If we’re lucky enough, we’ll take them down too,” said Wils.h.i.+re.
“Change to the satellite image of the first ambush team,” said Taylors.
Obeying his command, the crew showed the stream of two F35 warcraft and four Hornets flying on the large screen. The six American aircraft flew silently towards the Filipino island in the darkness of the night sky like silent ghosts.
Wils.h.i.+re’s voice was cold. “I don’t care if the four drones were controlled by the Chinese military or Xia Lei. They shall feel the wrath of the Seventh Fleet! We must show them what we are made of!”
“I think the latter is more likely,” said Taylors. “Xia Lei is a must-kill candidate on the American government’s blacklist. He has already threatened the American military power as well as position on the international stage. If he is the one controlling the drones, we might have a chance to kill him.”
“Get all our planes to head towards Dagua Island,” said Wils.h.i.+re with a low voice.
Xia Lei was likely to be on Dagua Island. That was enough to make all the planes on the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton to lift off. All the explosives on all the planes were already enough to flatten the entire Dagua Island!
This manic air raid was all because of the possibility of Xia Lei being on the island. This showed how determined the Americans were to destroy Xia Lei!
One by one, warplanes lifted off from the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton and flew towards Malacca.
Meanwhile.
On the Filipino island.
Xia Lei looked at the fleet of warplanes on the radar screen. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly. “Really? You guessed I was on Dagua Island just because of my drones? You even sent all your planes after me? Do you want to kill me that badly?”
He typed on the keyboard and a new image popped up on the screen. Six flying objects were heading in his direction at top speed. The spy satellite showed that they were two F35 and four Hornets in a battle formation.
“Alright, I’ll play with you then.” Xia Lei moved his laptop over and got to work.
The computer showed a complicated interface to man the drones. It controlled all the drones Xia Lei brought over this time, including the Phantom Drone he hadn’t used yet.
At the bridge of the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton.
The commander pilot’s voice came from the communication device. “The Tamer has arrived, please advise if we should fire. “
Wils.h.i.+re spoke into the device, “Fire!”
Just as he spoke, a large object appeared on the giant screen. It had emerged from among the clouds like a flash of silver lightning straight at the Seventh Fleet’s battle planes!
“That’s...” came a gasp from the pilot on the radio. “That’s a drone!”
Gasps could be heard on the bridge of the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton.
“It looks like an F22!”
‘But is it a drone?”
“What’s hanging underneath the plane?”
“My goodness, it looks like the Chinese Eagle Claw anti-s.h.i.+p missile!”
“That’s impossible. Even warplanes cannot carry anti-s.h.i.+p missiles, how could a drone do it?!”
“Our radars still aren’t responding! Is it invisible too? If that is the case, when the drone fires the missile at us, we’ll become fish food!”
The bridge erupted in conversation. Emotions ran high as they discussed this drone.
“Destroy it!” roared Wils.h.i.+re into the communication device.
An F35 warplane fired an AIM120C air missile.
When the missile was about to hit the drone, the drone suddenly lurched and dodged the missile in.
There was a sharp inhale within the bridge. No one expected such a large drone to be so agile! It was as if its ma.s.sive size meant nothing!
The missile, which missed its target, flew off into the distance and never returned. Under regular circ.u.mstances, after locking on a target, it would boomerang around to chase its target. Yet, it was now hurling off into the distance!
“Our missile couldn’t lock on its target!” Taylors thought of something and yelled furiously, “The previous drone wasn’t hit by our missile, it just pretended to collide with our missile and self-destructed at the most suitable moment!”
Since the radars could not pick up on it, then all the electronic warfare aircraft’s attacks were rendered useless. How could their missiles lock on Thunder Horse’s drones now? The brutal truth was now out in the open. Perhaps no missile will be able to lock on the Jing Ke drones!
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
Another F35 warplane and two Hornets fired their own air missiles at almost the same time. The F35 shot an AIM120C missile while the Hornets fired an infrared-guided Sidewinder.
The ma.s.sive, silver drone suddenly descended quickly and all three missiles flew straight ahead without turning back. Both types of missiles failed to lock on! They were just like stones fired from a child’s slingshot!
The world’s most advanced warplanes and missiles now looked like rubbish.
It was completely silent within the bridge of the USS George Was.h.i.+ngton. In the one-minute long encounter, the American military’s pride and power had burst like a bubble.