257: Chapter 357 Such a blow is simply unbearable.

The aircraft carrier strike group commander had no choice but to order the various warships to rush to rescue the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier, to avoid the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier exploding and causing even more severe consequences.

At this moment, the incoming drones from the Anti-Judea Coalition had either been shot down or had already crashed into the aircraft carriers; there were no more incoming drones.

However, no one knew whether the Anti-Judea Coalition would continue to launch more drones to attack.

The aircraft carrier strike group commander had to, on one hand, accelerate the withdrawal speed, letting the slower transport ships depart first, and on the other hand, leave behind a few warships to rescue the personnel of the attacked vessels and tow away the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier.

As for launching carrier-based aircraft from the "USS David" aircraft carrier to retaliate, the aircraft carrier strike group commander no longer had any such thoughts.

Now, these two aircraft carriers had lost enough carrier-based aircraft that they simply had no capability to retaliate. Even after returning, they would still need major repairs and had lost their combat capability in the short term.

This escort mission was not only uncompleted—with only 20,000 USA troops delivered to the Israel battlefield—but they also lost two frigates, and one aircraft carrier and one destroyer needed to return for major repairs, or could even be considered completely written off. A large number of carrier-based aircraft were also lost during this escort mission.

It could be said that this was a failure in every sense of the word. The aircraft carrier strike group commander felt extremely helpless about this; he had not expected the Anti-Judea Coalition to currently possess such strong strength, capable of directly clashing head-on with the USA military.

The Anti-Judea Coalition did not know that they had already rendered the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier combat-ineffective, but they were clear that it was already impossible for this aircraft carrier to continue executing combat missions.

After all, the final images transmitted back showed the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier with scenes of explosions and fires everywhere, the flight deck completely destroyed, and the island bridge collapsed. Even without knowing the situation inside the aircraft carrier, one could surmise that just repairing these surface facilities would take a very long time.

As for whether to continue sending more "Tianlong Series UAV" to attack the USA aircraft carrier strike group, after some discussion, they decided to cancel such combat missions.

After all, the Anti-Judea Coalition had already lost 200 "Tianlong Series UAV"; did they really want to continue losing another 200 "Tianlong Series UAV"?

Even though the Anti-Judea Coalition had purchased 4,000 "Tianlong Series UAV", after such a long period of attrition, they had already lost more than half. Having lost another 200 drones this time, they no longer had the confidence to waste "Tianlong Series UAV".

Unless the Anti-Judea Coalition could purchase another batch of "Tianlong Series UAV", but expecting the Persian Gulf Regional Cooperation Organization to continue paying with large amounts of oil and natural gas for such procurement was also not very realistic.

Therefore, the Anti-Judea Coalition simply watched as the USA aircraft carrier strike group left the waters of Israel, and did not even attack the warships that were rescuing the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier.

This also allowed the aircraft carrier strike group commander to breathe a sigh of relief; otherwise, if the Anti-Judea Coalition had sent more drones to attack, it would have been very difficult to decide whether to continue the rescue or not.

If they rescued, more warships would be attacked, potentially leading to even greater losses. If they didn't rescue, could they really just watch the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier be sunk? That would be an even greater blow to the USA.

This situation was just right; the aircraft carrier strike group commander didn't have to worry about any unexpected incidents and could safely tow the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier back to the shipyard. As for whether to spend a huge amount of money on repairs or simply build a new aircraft carrier, that was not for him to decide.

General Philip, after the USA combat aircraft involved in the battle returned, immediately had the airbases in Italy, Turkey, and other countries tally the losses.

After the tally, General Philip's heart went cold. A total of 300 sorties of various combat aircraft had been deployed, but in the end, only a little over half returned; the remaining aircraft had either been shot down on the spot or crashed due to various malfunctions.

And among the many aircraft that did return, quite a few had varying degrees of damage and required repairs. The number of aircraft that returned completely intact was not particularly high.

It could be said that this escort mission, with aircraft taking off from airbases in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and others, was basically a failure. After all, despite such heavy losses, they had failed to deliver the 50,000 troops the USA had mobilized to the Israel battlefield.

Furthermore, according to the analysis of USA reconnaissance satellites, the destruction of the Anti-Judea Coalition's air defense missile positions this time did not meet expectations; many air defense missile positions could still be used, and they had not created any major loopholes in the Anti-Judea Coalition's air defense network.

Later, it was even heard that the Anti-Judea Coalition had launched air defense missiles to attack the aircraft carrier strike group, and had used a large number of drones to conduct a comprehensive siege on the "USS Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier, rendering this aircraft carrier completely combat-ineffective and turning it into an aircraft carrier on the verge of being written off.

Such a blow was simply unacceptable to General Philip. Having deployed so many combat aircraft from the European-based Air Force, not only did they fail to achieve their goal, but they also incurred such huge losses; he didn't even know how the United States Department of Defense would punish him.

General Philip even regretted committing so many combat aircraft to the Israel battlefield; if he had only dispatched a small number of aircraft to control the risk, his position would not have been affected.

He felt a bit envious of General Maitang's favorable situation; although there was a military standoff with various countries in the Persian Gulf region, there was no actual combat, and no losses were incurred. Moreover, he had completed the mission assigned to him by the United States Department of Defense; his situation was simply too good.

Conversely, in this command issued by the United States Department of Defense, he not only caused huge losses but also had to retreat from the Israel battlefield in disgrace. Without even thinking, he knew the United States Department of Defense would definitely not consider the orders they issued to be unreasonable, but would instead conclude that General Philip lacked the capability to serve as the commander of the European Command.

General Philip had no other choice now; he could only take it one step at a time. He immediately ordered the various airbases to prepare for the maintenance and upkeep of the returning combat aircraft, while simultaneously comforting the pilots and coordinating with various countries to find ways to rescue those pilots who had not perished.

Now, he could only do a good job with the aftermath and wait for orders from the United States Department of Defense. As for whether it would be a good outcome or a bad one, General Philip could only bite the bullet and accept it.

Airbases in Italy, Turkey, and other countries immediately launched a series of operations to try and recover some losses, salvaging those combat aircraft as much as possible so as not to affect the operation of the entire airbase.