The Second Target Drone

In the clouds above the base.

"Three-Yellow Chicken, an aerial contact has appeared two hundred kilometers away on bearing zero-one-five. Proceed to investigate immediately!"

"Roger! Three-Yellow Chicken copies!"

There was no actual aerial contact. The target drone for live-fire training had taken off.

Opportunities for live-fire training didn't come every day. The cost of a target drone and a missile was easily enough to buy an ordinary car, so permission had to be requested.

It was only possible because Dragon Country's economy had grown rapidly over the past two years. In the past, there had been only a few such opportunities in an entire year!

Li Zhi rapidly approached the target airspace. His onboard radar had yet to detect anything unusual; an aircraft's radar was certainly no match for a ground-based phased-array radar.

Since this was combat training, the ground radar was not sharing its data link with the fighter. Searching for a relatively small target was no easy task.

Suddenly, a red dot appeared on the radar screen. Since it was an unauthorized target, the radar marked it in red.

Li Zhi flipped open the protective cover over the button on his control stick, ready to attack at any moment.

"Three-Yellow Chicken has spotted the target. Requesting permission to engage!"

Li Zhi requested permission to attack from the base.

He wasn't idle while waiting for permission. The fighter's fire-control radar had already begun illuminating the target, and the onboard computer was gathering attack data to ensure an accurate hit.

"Three-Yellow Chicken, you are cleared to engage. Choose your own moment to attack!"

Lock complete!

Just as the base authorized Li Zhi to attack, the fire-control radar finished gathering the attack parameters.

Whoosh!

Li Zhi pressed the missile launch button on the control stick. In less than a second, the fighter transmitted the target's characteristics and parameters to the missile's control unit. The missile then left the fighter and raced toward its target.

After all, this drone was only a target. It wasn't intelligent enough to evade a missile, nor did it carry infrared decoy flares to jam one.

Boom!

After a few seconds in flight, the missile struck the target drone accurately, turning into a ball of fire in the sky.

Target lost!

The base's ground radar also lost the target drone's radar signal. Aircraft at high altitude could hardly evade detection by the ground-based radar array.

This was live-fire attack training, after all, and the base was paying close attention.

With the target drone destroyed, Li Zhi thought he had completed his mission. Just as he was preparing to return to base, however, he happened to notice something unusual below.

There seemed to be another drone down there!

Li Zhi had excellent eyesight, and he was confident he couldn't have seen it wrong.

Radar detected a target by sending out radar waves that struck it and bounced back.

If the target itself could absorb radar waves, or if there was a larger reflector nearby, the radar wouldn't be able to detect it.

The ground beneath him was not only the largest reflector, but could also absorb radar waves to a considerable extent. That was why the other craft didn't appear on his fighter's radar screen.

Two target drones. Interesting!

Li Zhi thought the base had arranged it. Having one out in the open and the other hidden was indeed very deceptive. If he hadn't spotted it by chance, he would have embarrassed himself this time!

Li Zhi lowered his altitude. Using the ground as cover, the target had not only kept him from detecting it, but also prevented his fire-control radar from locking onto it.

The area for a hundred or two hundred kilometers around was uninhabited mountain country. With no threat from man-made structures, Li Zhi could bring his fighter down very low.

As the fighter continued to descend, it soon dropped below the minimum altitude the ground radar could monitor.

Target lost!

The base naturally lost track of Li Zhi as well, and it couldn't reach him by radio either.

Of course, that didn't mean there was no way to contact Li Zhi. If the Tianshu Satellite System were activated, they could communicate with him in real time and monitor his position.

But the control tower didn't do so, because any operation through the Tianshu System would be relayed to the very top in real time and could well draw the attention of the chiefs!

Judging from the fighter's previous attitude, Li Zhi had deliberately brought it down. Nothing unexpected had happened, so everyone could only wait patiently.

Even so, the matter still had to be reported. A fighter disappearing from the radar screen was a fairly important development, after all.

"Did that kid make contact before he disappeared? Did he say why?"

Xu Feng had been in an office next to the tower control room. As soon as he learned what had happened, he came to the control room and asked about the situation.

"No! There was nothing unusual, either!"

"Looks like that kid isn't going to be one to spare me any worry!"

Xu Feng wasn't too worried, though. He had considerable faith in Li Zhi's skills.

Li Zhi had no idea what was happening at the base. He had already found the other "target drone."

This "target drone" was flying so low that Li Zhi couldn't lock a missile onto it.

Dropping an aerial bomb would have been a good method. The drone was flying so low that the debris thrown up by the explosion could bring it down.

But that method was out of the question too. It was autumn, and the dead leaves in the forest below were all flammable. Years of accumulation had left a substantial amount.

If Li Zhi dropped a bomb, he would very likely set the entire forest alight. If that happened, he would have made a huge mistake!

That left Li Zhi with only one option: the autocannon.

He couldn't rely on radar-assisted targeting with the autocannon. He could only aim with his own eyes.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Li Zhi tried firing a burst. He needed to adjust his attack position based on the trajectory of the autocannon rounds; hitting the target on the first try was impossible.

About one in every five autocannon rounds was a tracer, whose main purpose was to show the trajectory.

Ordinary bullets didn't create streams of fire in the air when fired. Pilots could see the bullets' paths because of the tracers.

After correcting his aim, Li Zhi was just about to attack when he saw the distant drone begin evasive maneuvers.

Someone's controlling it!

Xu Feng hadn't told him about this. Drones used as targets were generally very "dumb" and only flew according to programs built into their chips. Drones capable of irregular evasive maneuvers like this were almost always operated by someone.

They want to have some fun with me?

Li Zhi still didn't question whether the drone was supposed to be there. It was too much of a coincidence: the base had only arranged for one target drone, but Li Zhi didn't know that.

He thought the base had arranged for two!