102: Full firepower: annihilate the Central Assault Group!

“Look!”

“They’re exchanging fire!”

In the evening, an exclamation, though from whom no one knew, instantly put everyone in the entire General Command Center on edge!

Even Peng Lin, his bloodshot eyes wide, stared intently at the screen in front of him!

The Dragon Country and Mammoth Bear Empire armies had been in a standoff for so long, and now their main forces were finally about to engage in a frontal battle!

This large-scale engagement could even directly determine the outcome of the war!

On the giant electronic sand table, red and blue light points collided like thunder, intertwining!

The Dragon Country’s 79A (99A) Main Battle Tank group and the WZ-10 helicopter fleet of the Army Aviation Brigade were using a pincer attack to trap a dispersed 10,000-strong battle group from the Mammoth Bear’s Central Assault Group!

This isolated unit possessed 200 T-72B tanks, 500 BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and 500 armored personnel carriers!

They were currently forced to traverse a coniferous forest in a loose formation due to bypassing an avalanche-prone road section!

The 79A tank group, utilizing its thermal imagers, locked onto targets first, and its 125mm smoothbore cannons fired continuously from 3000 meters away!

On the sand table, the red light points representing T-72s extinguished at a rate of 15-20 per minute!

The 79A crews, however, consistently remained outside the effective range of the enemy T-72 tanks' 2A46 cannons, performing over-the-horizon precise “spot-on” hunting!

Tactical display, aerial view.

The WZ-10s flew low in two-plane formations, the snow mist kicked up by their rotors blending with the coniferous forest.

When Mi-24 “Hind” helicopters attempted to launch top-attack assaults on the 79A tanks, the WZ-10 detachments, already ambushed in the vicinity, immediately dived!

The infrared seekers of the “Tianyan” missiles firmly locked onto the Mi-24s’ engine heat sources!

One Mi-24 “Hind” attack helicopter after another was hit and “eliminated”!

The remaining crews were forced to hug the ground, attempting to use the heat signatures of ground armored vehicles to disrupt the “Tianyan” air-to-air missile lock!

But this played right into the WZ-10’s hands!

On the armed helicopters’ missile launchers, “Red Arrow-3” anti-tank missiles began to lock onto targets!

Simultaneously, 23mm chain guns swept with a rate of fire of 2000 rounds/minute, and “marker rounds” “eliminated” Mi-24 attack helicopters and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles in batches!

Facing this sudden attack, the Mammoth Bear battle group immediately began to organize its firepower for a counterattack!

With T-72 tanks continuously being “spot-on” hunted from beyond visual range, and the Mi-24 attack helicopter fleet completely suppressed...

The Mammoth Bear battle group’s 152mm self-propelled artillery quickly counterattacked!

They attempted to reverse the disadvantage on the battlefield by using heavy long-range precision bombardment to cover the 79A Main Battle Tank battle group!

However, due to the “Zoo-1” counter-battery radar being jammed by Z-9 electronic warfare helicopters, all the first wave of shells from the 152mm self-propelled artillery cluster deviated by several hundred meters!

Even if shell fragments affected the 79A tanks, they were completely unable to penetrate the heavy main battle tanks’ defensive armor, rendering them utterly useless!

And just as the 152mm self-propelled artillery cluster was preparing for its second wave of attack...

The Army Aviation Brigade’s Z-8 heavy transport helicopters had already taken the opportunity to rappel special forces and transport Lynx all-terrain assault vehicles to the flanks of the front line!

The “Red Arrow-1” anti-tank missiles they carried were continuously “fired,” eliminating the 152mm self-propelled artillery units one after another!

On the sand table, the blue arrow formation representing the heavy combined arms brigade was still rapidly maneuvering!

And the red battle group’s defensive perimeter had shrunk to less than 5 square kilometers!

Less than half an hour into the exchange of fire, the red battle group had already lost more than half its strength!

Inside the command center, military observers from various countries held their breath!

This textbook-level combined arms operation, with the 79A’s precise hunting and the WZ-10’s three-dimensional annihilation, was redefining the rules of modern land warfare!

Everyone felt immense shock!

“Facing the Dragon Country’s forces, the Mammoth Bear’s ‘steel torrent’ has exposed too many problems!”

“For a long time, the Mammoth Bear Army has adhered to the classic ‘deep operation theory,’ emphasizing concentrating forces on main axes, building a multi-echelon assault system, and relying on the numerical superiority of armored torrents for frontal breakthroughs!”

“When the Dragon Country paralyzed Mammoth Bear radars through electronic warfare and anti-radiation drones, they clearly exposed their insufficient adaptability to informationized warfare, still stuck in mechanized warfare thinking.”

“Facing the Dragon Country’s 79A tanks and WZ-10s’ beyond-visual-range operations, they have consistently lacked effective countermeasures, exposing rigid responses to asymmetric warfare...”

The Pretty Country’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs said with a solemn expression, staring at the electronic sand table with utmost seriousness.

In the bipolar struggle, the Mammoth Bear Empire, relying on its powerful military strength, had always been on the offensive!

Especially the steel torrent of its army, which made the Pretty Country and Western European nations tremble with fear!

But now, this so-called “steel torrent,” in its engagement with the Dragon Country’s heavy combined arms brigade, had all its shortcomings exposed, including insufficient informatization and an unwieldy command system!

Military observers from the Pretty Country and NATO were all excited, constantly documenting and identifying the problems exposed by the Mammoth Bear army to formulate countermeasures and strategies!

Of course, it wasn’t that the Mammoth Bear’s army wasn’t strong enough!

After all, it had always been the Mammoth Bear Empire Army’s “steel torrent” that had pressured them in Western Europe!

The fundamental reason was still that the Dragon Country’s heavy combined arms brigade and army aviation brigade, along with their combined arms units and weaponry, were simply too powerful!

Even many countries directly facing the Mammoth Bear Empire’s military pressure couldn’t help but want to import the Dragon Country’s advanced weapons and equipment!

As for the military observers from many countries in the Middle East, South America, and Africa, they were even more completely dumbfounded at this moment!

For a time, they were even somewhat confused as to which was the world superpower, the Dragon Country or the Mammoth Bear Empire!

How could the “Red” Mammoth Bear forces be unilaterally “slaughtered” by the “Blue” Dragon Country forces on the electronic sand table!

“Support them!”

Mammoth Bear Defense Minister General Ivanovitch directly broke down in the face of such a one-sided battle!

He was so agitated that he even knocked his coffee cup to the floor!

Just as the White House’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs analyzed, the Mammoth Bear Army had always emphasized concentrating forces on main axes and building a multi-echelon assault system!

Now, once this assault system was dispersed and broken due to terrain, all the shortcomings of the army’s armored steel torrent were exposed!

Whether it was the defeat on the Afghan battlefield or being seized by opportunity by the Dragon Country in this confrontation exercise, it was the same situation!

Even General Ivanovitch, as the Defense Minister, had the idea of reforming the armored torrent combat system!

But these issues would have to wait until after the confrontation exercise to be resolved!

Currently, the main objective of their Mammoth Bear army was still to quickly annihilate the Dragon Country’s “Blue Force” and win the live-fire confrontation exercise!

One battle group being ambushed and surrounded was nothing to the entire Central Assault Group!

Since the Dragon Country’s forces had already revealed their position, the rest of the Central Assault Group could quickly converge and “annihilate” all of the Dragon Country’s forces!

And in fact, Lieutenant General Andrei, the commander of the Mammoth Bear Central Assault Group, thought the same way!

After receiving news that one of his armored battle groups was engaging the “Blue Force” main heavy combined arms brigade and army aviation brigade, he quickly ordered the assembly of tank clusters from various battle groups to provide rapid support!

They absolutely had to use this rare opportunity to surround and completely annihilate the “Blue Force” main forces here!

This way, the “Red Force” could directly win the live-fire confrontation!

Even without the cooperation of the Northern Army Group!

“The armored forces of the Central Assault Group’s other battle groups are rushing to support!”

“The ‘Blue Force’ units are about to be surrounded here by the tank and armored cluster!”

The Polish military observer calmly looked at Peng Lin and deliberately raised his voice.

After his reminder, the originally somewhat dispirited Warsaw Pact military observers once again turned their gaze forward.

On the giant electronic sand table, red light points surged like boiling molten steel!

More than a dozen battle groups of the Central Assault Group simultaneously turned, T-72 tank groups tore through the coniferous forest, and the roar of diesel engines shook down pine branches and icicles!

BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles followed closely, steel tracks crushing frozen earth, rapidly moving across the snowfield to provide support!

They abandoned logistical units and other heavy firepower, using only armored forces, trailing dust, to seize encirclement positions!

In the radio, encrypted commands crisscrossed densely, as thousands of steel torrents rushed towards the blue arrow formation in a pincer movement!

Watching this scene, the military observers in the command center simultaneously looked at Peng Lin.

The Dragon Country’s forces should be beyond salvation this time, right?

After all, the heavy combined arms brigade and the army aviation brigade had already actively entered the Central Assault Group’s encirclement!

At this stage of the war, for some reason, military observers from various countries silently breathed a sigh of relief!

Because the combat power displayed by the Dragon Country’s forces was simply too formidable!

If they continued to fight like this, how would the armies of other countries survive?

But Peng Lin, seeing so many people focused on him, couldn’t help but show a slight smile.

“The ‘Red Force’s’ Central Assault Group is about to be completely wiped out!”

Peng Lin said softly.

And just after his voice fell...

Suddenly, orange light spots representing blue force firepower exploded like a rainstorm on the red force’s marching route on the electronic sand table!

155mm self-propelled howitzer groups and Wei Shi rocket artillery fired simultaneously!

And all these shells and rockets were equipped with top-attack submunitions!

When the tank and armored battle groups of the “Red Force” Central Assault Group left the protection of air defense units, they instantly became sitting ducks!

On the Siberian wasteland, T-72 tanks and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles emitted white smoke, judged “destroyed” and “eliminated” by the exercise’s general directorate!

The six-round salvo of Wei Shi rocket artillery, carrying “top-attack submunition” warheads, could scatter hundreds to thousands of submunitions at once, completely covering an area!

And after one salvo, due to its modular design, the Wei Shi rocket artillery could quickly re-equip its launch modules, organizing the next round of firepower coverage within minutes!

On the sand table, red light points extinguished at a rate of over ten per second!

The armored tank units that had been roaring and rushing to support in the coniferous forest all scattered under the firepower saturation!

In just seven short minutes, several fully-manned tank battalions disappeared from the sand table!

The damage to other armored units was countless!

And even more terrifyingly, several combined arms battalions of the Fierce Warrior Combined Arms Brigade had, at some unknown point, been air-dropped by Z-8 heavy transport helicopters behind the various battle groups!

Additionally, the WZ-10 formation also rushed to the scene!

Without the protection of tanks and armored vehicles, these heavy artillery units and air defense logistics units were simply live targets!

The Central Assault Group suffered a complete rout across the entire front!