Chapter 72: MiG-23 Takes Off

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  "This has always been a place where heroes are born." Muhamed said: "Armor is a must-have for any knight."

  In the face of modern machine gun firepower, large-scale cavalry charges have long since disappeared, and only in Afghanistan's mountainous regions where mechanized forces cannot be deployed has it given cavalry a chance to re-exert its power.

  Although Muhammad just spoke very seriously, James also knew that Muhammad was 90% joking. This Muhammad is getting more and more incomprehensible.

  "James, what brings you to our guerrilla camp this time?" Muhammad asked James.

  "In order to better annihilate the Soviets." James said: "On our side, the United States is willing to provide some advanced weapons. In addition to Stingers and TOWs, we also have some special warheads that can be provided to you."

  Special bullet head? Hearing James' words, Muhammad stood up. At this time, Lilith had already started gesturing to those two cut-off things, preparing to make a vest.

  Muhammad took James outside to a deserted corner and said to James: "What's up?"

  "For example, after the explosion, it can release a certain special gas." James said to Muhammad: "Just one, enough to destroy a base of the Soviets."

  Upon hearing James' words, Muhhamed immediately shook his head: "No, this will cause the war to escalate to an uncontrollable situation."

  The Americans are providing conventional weapons, which is what the Afghan guerrillas need most, but to provide this special gas, actually a poisonous gas, that's something else again and it will escalate the war.

  The Americans aren't being kind either, they must have invented a new chemical weapon and want to test its power, Muhammad won't agree with this approach.

  "This is just a suggestion," James said. "Since Mr. Muhammad doesn't want to, let's pretend I didn't say it."

  James chuckled twice and didn't say anything else.

  "This batch of weapons, why didn't they bring any Stinger missiles?" Muhammad asked James. Those weapons Muhammad had all seen before, the 107 rocket launcher was the main event this time, and there were many shells, bullets, landmines, hand grenades, and rifles that weren't bad, but what Muhammad needed most was the Stinger missile.

  Last time we transported a total of ten, after several battles, there were hardly any left.

  "Through your use on the battlefield, a number of problems have been discovered." James said: "Now, those engineers at General Motors are working to improve this missile, so that it has excellent target capture capabilities and won't chase the sun again."

  Has the missile been improved so quickly? This is completely different from history. Muhammad thought in his heart, not knowing whether James' words were true or false, and it was inconvenient to refute them.

  "When will the next batch of missiles be delivered?" Muhammad asked: "Having lost the Stinger, we are having a hard time effectively striking down Soviet Hind helicopters."

  "After the snow melts, the second batch of missiles will be delivered." James said: "We are most concerned about the battle of the brave men who fought against the Soviet Union and will not delay."

  Anyway, it's now in the bitterly cold winter, battles won't be conducted on a large scale, and there aren't many opportunities to use poisonous stingers.

  Muhammad extended his right hand to James: "Thank you very much for the help of American friends, liberating Afghanistan will be a long and arduous process, no matter what difficulties we encounter, we will overcome them, we firmly believe that victory will belong to Afghanistan."

  James also extended his right hand: "We will stand firmly behind our friends and are honored to be on the same page as the Afghan people."

  Two hands clasped together, yet each with their own thoughts in mind.

  Muhammad suddenly remembered something James had just told him, which was confidential, but James hadn't avoided Lilith!

  The heavy snow has completely sealed off the mountain, no one will be out and about at this time. At this time, curling up by the fire at home is the warmest thing to do.

  On the mountain road, a team of people are walking, driving donkeys, and on the back of the donkeys, two bags are loaded with grain that Afghan villagers have been longing for.

  "Commander, you don't have to come, I can take these grains back myself." In the front of the team, two people were walking on the snowy ground, one was Lamayile and the other was Muhammad.

  It was bitterly cold, and no one wanted to come out. When the grain arrived, Lamai took a dozen or so young men from the village who had rushed over with these draft animals to transport the grain back.

  And Muhammad followed them.

  Lamai was deeply grateful, with these grains, the village no longer had to worry about how to get through this winter, and Muhamed followed along, which made him even more excited.

  At this time, Ramayil already knew the identity of Muhammad. Muhammad was not a Pashtun but an instructor from that country in the east!

  No wonder he is so good at fighting, and he is also very kind to the Tajik people, able to distribute so much grain, the Tajiks are grateful to him from the bottom of their hearts.

  Muhammad did not just go to the village of Ramla, mainly to see the strong young men there. If there were qualified soldiers, he would take them into his own team.

  In the fight, they formed a deep friendship, and ethnic prejudices would naturally dissipate. The fusion of these ethnic groups in Afghanistan will eventually coalesce into a whole, which is the only way to achieve stability and strength for Afghanistan.

  "It's nothing in winter, I just come out and take a walk around, it's like sightseeing," Muhammad said.

  The surrounding area is covered with thick snow, and in the ancient East, there is a proverb called "auspicious snow predicts a bumper harvest year". Is this heavy snowfall now a sign that next year will be a good harvest?

  Bagram

  A fighter-bomber taxied from the apron to the runway, with a long fuselage and wide tail wings. At the root of the main wing, special equipment can be seen, which is an aircraft with variable swept wings that can change the angle of attack.

  In the Soviet military's equipment sequence, there is only one type of aircraft with variable sweep wings, which is the MiG-23. The aircraft on the runway at this time is the MiG-23BN, a fighter-bomber developed from the MiG-23, mainly used for bombing missions.

  The variable swept wing is a product of this era, the angle of sweepback of the wing affects the performance of the aircraft, small angle of sweepback is conducive to low-altitude turning, large angle of sweepback is conducive to rapid dash, so if the angle of sweepback can be changed, this fighter should be perfect.

  The Soviets built the MiG-23, and the Americans built the F-14. In reality, there is a gap between theory and practice. The change in sweep angle requires additional devices, increasing weight and complexity, which offsets this advantage.

  The aircraft is now fully loaded, with four conspicuous bombs slung under the wings, each bearing a distinctive black skull emblem.

  A ground crewman waved a small flag, guiding the fighter-bomber as it slowly taxied onto the main runway, aligned with the runway, and the pilot pressed down on the two rudder pedals.

  Pressing one side alone is a turn in mid-air, while pressing both rudders at the same time is a brake.

  "When he had finished, the nose of the plane paused for a moment before moving forward. He said calmly: 'Bagram, Black Bear requests takeoff.'"

  The voice came through the wireless and was heard in the tower. Belgrade looked at Kurikov, who nodded expressionlessly.

  Belgrade then knew that there was no room for reversal in this matter, and the teacher had made up his mind.

  "Cleared for takeoff, proceed with bombing as planned." The tower's echo came through the headphones.

  The black bear's two feet loosened, its left hand gently increased the throttle, and the huge combat bomber, with flames spewing out of its tail, accelerated rapidly.

  The horizon on both sides was flashing by quickly, the black bear didn't look at the instrument panel in front of him, and he felt that the speed had already reached takeoff speed. He gently pulled the control stick back, and the MiG-23BN took off into the air.

  Just after takeoff, he began to turn towards the eastern airspace, then adjusted the rear sweep angle of the wing to forty-seven degrees, preparing to enter high-altitude cruise.

  Compared with F-14's computer-controlled automatic variable sweep angle, the MiG-23's is still very primitive and requires manual adjustment by the pilot.

  The black bear flew while using the corner of his eye to glance at the images tied to his knee, which were taken by satellites in the sky. The places circled on the images were the targets he was going to bomb this time - several Afghan villages! The people in these villages were all supporters of the Afghan guerrillas, and attacking them would be a punishment for the Afghan guerrillas!

  The skies above Afghanistan already belonged to the Soviets. Black Bear had no psychological burden from this bombing, and he even started humming a little tune.

  He didn't know that on the ground, several people who knew the inside story were all anxious.

  Using chemical weapons! Once the news leaks out, how much trouble will it bring to the Soviet Union? Belgrade knew that this was not something he could afford, nor could his superiors. Although those chemical weapons had been transported and stored in this base, actually using them would require the big shots in Moscow to nod their heads.

  Is the parachute faulty? This reason is too far-fetched. After this plane took off, Belgrade finally couldn't calm down and wanted to bypass his superiors to report directly to the top!

  After the fighter took off, Kurikov left the tower and would be notified when the plane returned.

  Belgrade stepped in front of the satellite communication machine and said to the communications officer: "Channel 3, get me Moscow."

  The winter sky in Afghanistan is very clear and you can see the blue sky. Flying in this weather makes people feel happy.

  It wasn't long before the black bear flew into the target airspace, and he began entering the final preparation stage for his attack.

  Everywhere are continuous mountain ranges, only by finding landmarks determined in advance can we prepare to find the target and prevent misfires.