Super Invincible Battleship

69  Chapter 54: Sky Battle

The drone's first air combat resulted in the destruction of an F-16 fighter of the US Army, marking a successful debut and bolstering Yan Fei's confidence.

Carl's F-16 fighter was 6 kilometers away from the drone when he discovered the missile and began to accelerate to escape. Although his fighter's flight speed did not reach the maximum of 2.5 Mach, it was only slightly slower than the AIM-92 missile's 2.2 Mach. The AIM-92 missile could not catch up with the F-16 fighter in a short time, and the F-16 quickly moved beyond a distance of 10 kilometers.

The maximum attack range of the drone's AIM-92 air-to-air missile was only 10 kilometers. Therefore, once the F-16 flew out of the maximum attack range, the AIM-92 air-to-air missile chasing the F-16 fighter self-destructed in midair.

From the sudden appearance of Yan Fei's drone avatar, to the surprise attack on the two F-16 fighters, to the downing of one F-16 fighter and the escape of the other F-16 fighter, it all happened within a minute or two. The American army watching from the ground was immediately stunned. They never expected their own drones to attack their fighters. Had the drones been infected with a virus, unable to distinguish friend from foe? Would they start attacking themselves?

Under Yan Fei's control, the drone swiftly took out an enemy plane and scared off another, achieving a significant victory. Taking advantage of the shock amongst the various forces, Yan Fei raised the drone's altitude and flew towards the Chinook transport helicopter hovering above the blonde woman's head. The three Chinook helicopters were circling at low altitude and were scared out of their wits when they noticed the drone approaching, ready to speed away. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Yan Fei launched two more air-to-air missiles, locking onto two of the Chinook helicopters. Although the Chinooks had the advantage of strong transport capability, their essence was still that of transport helicopters with no combat power, unable to dodge the drone's missile attack. Suddenly, two sparks lit up in the night sky as two Chinook helicopters were hit by missiles and exploded, with no chance for the pilots inside to escape.

The remaining Chinook helicopter fled early. As soon as things went south, it took off at full speed, leaving the battlefield behind. Yan Fei watched the Chinook helicopter escape but did not pursue or continue the attack. Instead, he began to hover over the American army's position.

The F-16 fighter that had fled was still in shock, but Carl felt relieved when he saw the drone launch four missiles. As a US Army pilot, he was intimately familiar with the data of various fighter jets worldwide, especially the US Army's Predator drone. He was well aware that the Predator drone could only carry four missiles. Aside from the missiles, the Predator had no other weapons. The drone did not pursue the fleeing Chinook because it had exhausted its ammunition and could no longer attack, like a tiger without teeth.

It was this deep-rooted belief that led the pilot named Carl to fly back in his F-16 fighter. Being scared away earlier by the drone had been embarrassing. Traditionally, in aerial conflicts between manned fighter jets and drones, drones were always on the losing side, with no precedent of a drone downing a manned fighter. And yet, his friend Jerry's fighter had just been taken down by this drone, Jerry didn't even have a chance to eject and survive, while he himself had been terrified into fleeing far away, losing face completely.

Now that he realized the drone had run out of ammunition, Carl aggressively returned in his F-16, intent on attacking the drone with missiles. Not only was this to avenge his friend, but also to cover up his own incompetence, to avoid becoming a laughingstock among his peers. As for potentially injuring any friendly forces, Carl, who was eager for revenge, was no longer considering it.

Yan Fei let the last helicopter go without attacking to create the illusion that he was out of missiles, luring the fleeing F-16 to fly back on its own. He couldn't catch the F-16 himself since he was slower, and even the missiles could not reach the F-16's top speed. Therefore, once the F-16 got away, he was powerless against it.

If the F-16 did not flee and instead lingered in the distance, meddling in Yan Fei's subsequent actions, it would have been a significant problem. Thus, he devised a strategy, deliberately leaving vulnerabilities to entice the F-16 into a trap.

Indeed, the F-16 fell for it. It recklessly flew back, closing to within 2 kilometers of the drone, before launching an air-to-air missile at the drone. The drone, as if stunned, made no evasive maneuvers; instead, its wing-mounted weapons rack moved, and two more air-to-air missiles launched towards the F-16.

Carl was shocked to see the drone launch missiles; he was unaware that it still had any left. He quickly turned around, eager to leave the dangerous area. He had come close to the drone for a precise attack, not expecting to put himself in jeopardy.

The missiles launched by both sides were soaring through the air, with the F-16's missile locking onto the drone, about to hit it. Faced with the missile attack from the approaching F-16, Yan Fei neither panicked nor dodged, because the drone's quantum radar had already locked onto the incoming missile and calculated its flight trajectory. Then, under the precise control of the auxiliary brain, the Vulcan gun at the nose of the drone began firing cannon rounds. A burst of gunfire flashed from the nose, and a long stream of cannon rounds shot out, causing a violent explosion in the air. A spark suddenly appeared; the incoming missile had been hit and exploded by the drone's cannon fire.

Though Carl was fleeing at full speed in his F-16, he was continuously monitoring the attack of his missile. Discovering that the missile he had launched had been hit by the drone's cannon and exploded, he was utterly shocked. In his memory, there had never been an instance of an aircraft's cannon destroying an incoming missile. If a cannon was so powerful, what was the point of missiles? Moreover, this was a Predator drone; wasn't it supposed to have only four missiles as weapons? Since when did it have a 30-millimeter cannon mounted on its nose?

Yan Fei successfully dealt with the incoming missile. Meanwhile, the drone's quantum radar locked firmly onto the F-16, with the two AIM-92 missiles in close pursuit. However, the F-16 was dodging with its speed advantage. Then, the tail flames appeared once more under the drone's wings, launching another AIM-92, which began to block the fleeing F-16's flight path.

Carl was shocked; he never expected the drone to fire another missile. Just how many missiles did this drone have? Was this TM thing even a drone anymore? Its firepower was even fiercer than his F-16! And while he was still in shock, the drone shook once more and launched another AIM-92 missile.

Under the control of the Auxiliary Brain, the four AIM-92 missiles, guided by the Quantum Radar, broke through the decoy flares released by the F-16 fighter, trapping the F-16 and leaving it with no way to escape. With no other options, Carl chose to eject. Barely had his body ejected from the fighter's cockpit when the F-16 was hit by the drone's missile and exploded violently.

This unprecedented aerial battle was thrilling beyond measure, and victory had been decided in just a few minutes. The results were unexpected: a seemingly weak "Predator Drone" had annihilated two US Army F-16 fighters, and along with them, two Chinook transport helicopters met their end.

The fleeing Chinook transport helicopter, seeing the last F-16 fighter shot down, sped up and made a run for it. With the F-16s no longer a threat, the drone didn't hold back its strength. It turned and accelerated in pursuit, its body shaking as it launched another missile.

The missile quickly caught up to the Chinook transport helicopter and shot it down. The biggest difference between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft is that pilots simply have no chance to eject and escape. Thus, the pilots inside the helicopter perished with their Chinook, crashing to the ground in a fiery ball.

With that, both of the US Army's deployed F-16 fighters and three Chinook transport helicopters had been utterly destroyed by Yan Fei's drone.

This outcome left the blonde woman and the US Army soldiers on the ground dumbfounded, and even Carl, still drifting in the air by his parachute, couldn't believe it. Their combat strength was extremely formidable; it was no exaggeration to say that their aerial force could have obliterated the entire air force of a small African country, yet they were all wiped out by the peculiar-looking drone.

And while Carl was still in disbelief, the drone turned and flew straight towards him. A chilling premonition rose in his heart, and then he noticed a glint on the drone's nose, a volley of cannon rounds flying out, tearing his body to shreds. He died instantaneously. Then, Carl's mangled corpse fell into the dense forest below, hanging from the lush trees, becoming nourishment for the animals of the primitive forest.

After the drone decisively took out the parachuting pilot, Carl, it prepared to attack the US Army troops below, but then it spotted a flash of light amidst the trees. A Stinger surface-to-air missile suddenly soared into the sky, heading straight for it.

The US Army forces below, having witnessed the drone's ferocity, quickly launched the Stinger surface-to-air missile they carried to shoot down the drone in the air.

What the US military soldiers didn't expect, however, was that the drone, upon detecting the incoming Stinger missile, didn't seem to take it too seriously. It simply adjusted its angle and fired another missile, switching to a Hellfire anti-tank missile this time, targeting the Stinger missile launch site below.

The Stinger missile flying towards the drone was under constant surveillance by the Quantum Radar. The Auxiliary Brain accurately calculated its trajectory, then the nose of the drone lit up as it began firing the naval cannon to intercept. The US Army soldiers below saw a flash in the sky followed by a violent explosion. After the blast, the Stinger missile was gone without a trace, and the drone remained unscathed.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Hellfire anti-tank missile fired by the drone scored a direct hit on the Stinger missile launch site. A massive explosion occurred, killing several nearby US Army soldiers.

Then the drone dipped its nose and dived towards the ground. Its Vulcan Gun firing rapidly, the ground became an inferno. The US Army soldiers near the Stinger missile launch site didn't even have time to react before they were completely eliminated by the drone's naval cannon.

With that one dive attack, the drone had killed more than a dozen US Army soldiers.

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