Empire Conquest-Chapter 923 - 131: Full of Flaws (Part 2)

This is how the last war occurred.

From the standpoint of the Fanluo Army, the real concern is whether they can prevent the Bakistan Armored Forces deployed in the depth from reaching the front lines.

Due to the narrow, elongated territory with a wide flank facing Fanluo Country, Bakistan essentially has no depth of defense from a strategic perspective.

Bakistan’s strategic defense system highly relies on the Fanluo River and its main tributaries.

In the Second Southern Subcontinent War, Bakistan suffered a heavy blow by stationing its main Army forces in the border areas, losing the initiative in the battlefield. If it weren’t for the Bakistan Air Force fighting desperately before the Liangxia Empire reinforcements arrived, Yibao would have been captured by the Fanluo Army.

Since then, Bakistan has consistently stationed its main forces, the heavy military groups, on the west bank of the Satluj River.

However, this also brings about a problem.

Post-outbreak, it takes 3 to 5 days to deploy these armored units, and it is crucial that the bridges over the Satluj River remain intact.

If these bridges are lost, the main forces on the west bank cannot rush to aid in time.

Strategically speaking, losing the east bank areas of the Satluj River is an unacceptable failure!

The crux is that the junction where the Satluj River merges into the main stream, namely the Fanluo River, is precisely in the middle of Bakistan’s homeland!

Although the east bank of the Satluj River is largely uninhabited Thar Desert with a few towns near the river, the area near the confluence, particularly Hanbur, holds unparalleled strategic value. Once the Fanluo Army captures this town, it could split Bakistan’s homeland into two battle zones, north and south.

Reaching this step would certainly cause the Bakistan Army to be unable to attend to both ends.

It is thus evident that the goal of the Fanluo Army is to complete a strategic split post-conflict and lay the groundwork for eliminating Bakistan.

The most crucial element is the bridges over the Satluj River!

If responsibility must be pinpointed, the Fanluo Air Force is undoubtedly the chief culprit.

According to declassified materials later, before the outbreak, the Fanluo Army had received 4 sets of "Pershing 2" medium-range ballistic missile systems from Newland Republic, with a total of 32 mobile launch vehicles and 64 missiles, all equipped with terminal guidance warheads.

These missiles can be said to be extremely advanced!

To put it bluntly, the "Pershing 2" is the first ballistic missile worldwide equipped with precision strike capabilities!

However, the Newland Republic developed the "Pershing 2" not against ground targets but against the naval forces of the Liangxia Empire, more specifically its aircraft carriers.

The 2100-kilometer range allows deployment beyond the strike range of shipborne air forces.

The less than 50-meter circular error probability results in a single-missile hit rate of up to 80% against carriers over 300 meters long and 70 meters wide.

A 1000-kilogram warhead with a terminal velocity exceeding Mach 6 can inflict severe damage on super carriers.

The terminal maneuverability is enough to breakthrough today’s most advanced fleet air defense systems.

In summary, this is a weapon capable of altering the maritime warfare landscape. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Arguably, it is these missiles that facilitated Fanluo Country’s involvement in the conflict.

With these missiles, Fanluo Country, for the first time, possesses the capability to confront the Empire Navy beyond its borders and strike the Empire Navy’s fleet!

At least it seems that way.

To the ambitious Fanluo Commander, the targeting issue, namely how to locate a carrier battle group over 1000 kilometers away, clearly wasn’t a consideration.

Since the "Pershing 2" is on Newland Republic’s "prohibited sale list," neither side publicized it heavily.

For the sake of secrecy, the ships transporting these missiles entered port at night and headed to remote small ports.

Additionally, the Fanluo Army hid these missiles in underground caverns.

To ensure these missiles would work at critical moments, the Newland Army also sent hundreds of officers there under the guise of instructors.

Missiles designed to hit carriers are undoubtedly more than sufficient to target bridges.

Even if accurate hits on the bridge piers cannot be guaranteed, there is a high likelihood of blowing off the bridge deck. Using several missiles against a single bridge could also potentially destroy the piers.

During plan formulation, the Fanluo Army specifically mentioned considering the use of "Pershing 2" against strategic targets.

Regrettably, the Fanluo Air Force was overly arrogant, and the Newland instructors firmly opposed it, causing the proposal to deploy "Pershing 2" to be rejected.

The "Pershing 2" is indeed extremely valuable; only 10 sets were equipped by the Newland Army, and after assisting Fanluo Country with 4 sets, only 6 remained.

As a "trump card" weapon, it certainly shouldn’t be frivolously used.

Importantly, these missiles were all deployed in the southern region of Fanluo Country before the outbreak.

The deployment location is over 2200 kilometers away from the front line battlefield.

Just beyond its maximum range!

Thus, if the Fanluo Air Force hadn’t falsely reported battle results, by the morning of the 4th, at the latest by the afternoon, these ballistic missiles could have been utilized.

Due to the few hours of delays and the Fanluo military decision-making system’s prolonged response, it wasn’t until the afternoon of the 4th that the decision was made for the Army to use "Pershing 2" to destroy bridges over the Satluj River, requiring further hours to prepare until dawn of the 5th.

Essentially, an entire day was delayed!

With the Eastern Group’s mobilization system, even without prior warning, the Empire Air Force can send reinforcements to Bakistan within 24 hours. With preparations, such as deploying support equipment in advance, mobilization time could further reduce to under 12 hours.