February 7, CE71, around 10:20 standard time
Earth Alliance 8th Fleet advance fleet flagship, Montgomery bridge
Colonel Koopman was able to be selected as the advance fleet commander by Commodore 8th Fleet Halberton, who is known as the "wise general". In addition to being an old subordinate of His Excellency Halberton, it is also because Colonel Koopman has two brushes in his hands;
Or to put it conversely, it is precisely because Colonel Koopman has two brushes in his hands that he can become the trusted subordinate of Brigadier General Halberton, the famous "clean figure in the army" of Atlantic Federation Army.
Specifically, today, when the war has lasted for a full year, how to defeat ZAFT in frontal combat is still the core issue of the entire Earth Alliance army.
Of course, one of the solutions proposed by Brigadier General Halberton is that 'Earth Alliance also needs to have his own mobile suit'.
This plan, in which all the political resources and connections of Brigadier General Halberton were invested, now seems to have been proven to be completely correct and achieved great success.
Colonel Koopman's main research is 'how to use existing equipment to confront ZAFT', which is a more simple topic.
As long as you study this topic a little bit, it is not difficult to come up with the key point that the core of the problem is 'how to deal with ZAFT's mobile suit';
But how to solve this key point has stumped many Earth Alliance middle and senior officers.
On this topic, 'Smart General' Halberton also has a plan, which is a box array.
Several large-scale battles since the beginning of the war have proven that this plan is indeed effective, although it is only slightly more effective than all other plans-but it is enough to become the source of his title of "Wise General".
As a close and old subordinate of Brigadier General Halberton, it is obviously not surprising that Colonel Koopman chose to use the box formation, first targeting it under specific circumstances, and then overturning or improving it based on actual combat results;
Moreover, his idea of improvement itself was naturally communicated with Brigadier General Halberton, and was also recognized by Brigadier General Halberton.
Therefore, when this advance fleet mission seemed likely to meet the 'specific circumstances' selected by Colonel Koopman, it was only natural that Colonel Koopman was eventually selected as the commander of the advance fleet by Commodore Halberton;
As expected, although the process had some twists and turns, in the end the battle we were facing actually almost perfectly satisfied the specific situation considered by Colonel Koopman.
Colonel Koopman's idea is actually very simple. Compared with the weapons and equipment of the Earth Alliance, the weapons and equipment of ZAFT actually have no significant advantages in terms of pure offense and defense;
The core reason for the previous unsatisfactory battle losses was that the weapons of the Earth Alliance were unable to cope with the combat and tactical mobility of the ZAFT mobile suit that far exceeded our own.
So in order to solve this problem, the simplest and most simple way of thinking is to "strengthen the stronghold and fight stupidly", forcing the opponent to give up maneuvering and exchange the money yourself.
So the specialized plan of Colonel Koopman is as follows:
As long as the formation is further tightened based on the box formation, and the mobile armor Moebius is used as a defensive counterattack force rather than a mobile interception force;
By relying on Drake-class Frigate to form a "city wall + shooter", and Nelson-class Battleship to act as a "turret + command tower", Moebius can avoid comparing mobility with mobile suits, and instead rely on warships to simply compete in firepower;
In this way, the numerical advantage of the Earth Alliance can be maximized, so that a combat squadron can theoretically fight against a single ship of ZAFT fully loaded with mobile suits.
Although the exchange ratio still suffers, if both parties can exchange the coins according to this exchange ratio, Earth Alliance will still win.
Now, it's time to verify whether Colonel Koopman's 'paper talk' is correct.
The first is the mutual projection of firepower between battleships in the first stage.
As expected by Colonel Koopman, although the cheap Drake-class Frigate has been criticized for its lack of long-range firepower for a long time;
However, under the protection of Drake-class Frigate as a "human shield", the semi-static firepower projection of Montgomery as a battleship is better than the Laurasia-class frigate, which has roughly the same firepower projection capability but has to continuously maneuver under the firepower projection of Montgomery. Although the ZAFT is also called a frigate, it is essentially a multi-functional ship. It is not a problem.
Although the best expectation of Colonel Koopman was to exchange the Drake-class Frigate for the Laurasia-class frigate before the mobile suit sortie, as expected, it did not happen.
However, judging from the results, it is clear that the advance fleet did not suffer at least in this first stage.
Then, the next step is the crucial second stage-that is, the stage of dealing with mobile suits.
"Mobile suits are launched from enemy ships!
CGUE 1, D Equipment Ginn 2, unknown model 3!"
Sure enough, as the distance between the warships on both sides narrowed, ZAFT's Laurasia-class frigate attacked the mobile suits on board as a matter of course;
But what Colonel Koopman didn't expect was that in addition to CGUE, which was already difficult to deal with, there was also an unknown model that appeared for the first time.
Seeing that the arrival of the new aircraft model had somewhat affected the morale on the bridge, Colonel Koopman gave orders loudly.
"Don't panic! Expand the cross fire defense network according to the established plan!
The team directly under Moebius is ready to attack!
As soon as the 'G' series was captured, ZAFT put the new model into the front line, obviously panicking!"
Captain Koopman not only gave clear instructions, but also hinted that ZAFT was "in urgent need of medical treatment", which significantly stabilized the morale of the crew members.
More importantly, the progress of the battle outside is just like the situation in the new tactical drill before this mission:
Although the CGUE piloted by the enemy's ace broke through the outer near-defense fire network, it did not achieve any results other than diversionary firepower under the turns of the Moebius team relying on the inner near-defense fire network;
The two bulky D Equipment Ginn are in a dilemma outside the peripheral firepower network. They can neither advance further nor launch anti-ship missiles on the spot that will definitely be intercepted. Even if they are not careful, they may be damaged by their own firepower.
As for the three new aircraft, one is doing something in the distance, and the other two are still approaching;
And if you look closely, except for the new equipment that you have never seen before on the machine body, there is not much difference between the machine body itself and Ginn.
It seems that just as Colonel Koopman said, these new aircraft are just the stress reaction of ZAFT, and are nothing more than a slightly more powerful CGUE.
Just as the situation was temporarily stabilized, even the two new aircraft that had newly arrived at the front line were only entangled in the outer near-fire defense network;
Suddenly, two beam weapons that matched the battleship's main gun were fired from the new aircraft behind it, and went straight to the Drake-class Frigate in the upper left corner of the own box array!
With two obvious explosions, the Drake-class Frigate obviously lost control and crashed into the box array with thick smoke;
And this blow also became the clarion call for the enemy's mobile suit assault:
The CGUE began to use all its strength to contain the Drake-class Frigate in the lower right corner of the box array;
Two D Equipment Ginn and two new models pounced on the Drake-class Frigate in the upper right corner and lower left corner of the box array in tacit understanding, and the situation suddenly became dangerous.