Thunder and lightning intertwined, and the rainstorm was like a curtain.
In this deep sea where almost no commercial ships had set foot in, the Humpback Whale maintained a straight speed of 130 knots like an arrow leaving the bow.
According to the electronic nautical chart, 150 nautical miles ahead was the Miyako Strait between Ryukyu Island and Miyako Island.
The Miyako Strait was about 150 nautical miles wide, and hundreds of nautical miles were international waterways for civilian ships to pass through. However, no ships were willing to go through the middle of the deep sea waterway. Most of them passed close to the lighthouses and navigation stations on both sides of the island.
This provided convenience for the Humpback Whale. Ye Qing was ready to pass through the Miyako Strait from the middle, adjust the course by 15 degrees, and head towards the final destination near Ōli Island.
The total voyage was 500 nautical miles, and the return trip took about seven and a half hours, enough for the Humpback Whale to test.
When the Humpback Whale returned to the Dragon Creek Beach, Zhongyun had just ushered in a new dawn.
…
The rainstorm covered hundreds of nautical miles. In the distant sky above the Miyako Strait, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.
At 11 PM local time, the Coast Security Agency's security headquarters in the Miyako Strait was conducting routine night patrol work.
The Coast Security Agency set up 11 maritime areas, and the one responsible for the Miyako Strait was at the top of the 11 areas in terms of staffing and number of patrol ships. Because the Miyako Strait was a very important waterway, whether it was for them or for Hua Xia.
In the past few years, Japan had been emphasizing the non-militarization of the Miyako Strait, trying to prevent any warships or military aircraft other than the United States from passing through the strait.
Therefore, patrols couldn't be little, especially at night.
The latest PL class [Hayakawa Patrol Ship] issued by the Security Agency was patrolling from south to north along the widest part of the Miyako Strait.
The PL class was a thousand-ton patrol ship. This type of ship had the most advanced technology and the shortest installation time. It especially strengthened the ship's ability to search and identify ships.
The Hayakawa Patrol Ship was the eighth of the nine planned ships, and it was launched less than two years ago.
When the Hayakawa Patrol Ship patrolled one-third of the route and was about to approach the central strait.
Captain Yōyama Miyamoto, who was in the command room, suddenly received a report from the radar operator. It said that at seven o 'clock in front of them, nine nautical miles away from the ship, there was a large unmarked ship moving quickly toward the middle of the strait.
An unmarked ship was an illegal ship that turned off its GPS positioning and did not report its travel route to the national navigation station in the sea area, deliberately concealing itself.
Due to the curvature of the Earth, no matter how advanced the shipboard radar was, the detection radius of the ship would not exceed 40 kilometers. Therefore, in the vast sea, not all ships liked to abide by the law, and not all legal ships were willing to let themselves be in a state of being located.
Of course, the AWACS was not limited by the curvature of the Earth.
However, the AWACS was more valuable than gold, and only a few countries in the world had them. Japan had dozens of early warning aircraft purchased from the United States. How could they bear to let them patrol the sea?
"An unknown international ship?" Captain Yōyama Miyamoto glanced at the electronic chart and frowned. "Calculate the longitude, latitude, and ship speed."
The radar operator sitting on the opposite side quickly reported the detailed data.
This was an illegal ship with the radar characteristics of a civilian ship. The ship should be between 3,000 to 5,000 tons, with a speed of 27 knots …
"The cargo ship is less than 27 knots. It seems to be a large illegal fishing ship. This speed is most likely their maximum speed, indicating that their destination is not far away. " Captain Yōyama Miyamoto was a little angry. "Only the fishing resources in the Ogasawara Island are the richest. These damn fishermen dare to fish during the prohibited fishing period."
"Lock on the radar and adjust to the maximum speed to catch up with them. After two nautical miles, warn them through the public radio channel. If they don't stop, fire warning shots."
In the darkness of the night, the patrol ship Hayakawa soon spewed out black smoke from its flue. The sea surface radar on the top of the island was at full power and rotated quickly like a wheel.
The Hayakawa Patrol Ship's maximum speed was 33 knots. It only took one and a half hours to catch up with a fishing ship that was traveling at 27 knots.
Once caught up, the huge fine would make all the members of the Hayakawa Patrol Ship laugh until they bent over.
In the radar control room, on the light green radar screen, there was already a triangle mark firmly locked on to the illegal ship. It was constantly correcting the latest parameters at 0.5 seconds intervals. This was a cat-and-mouse chase. There had never been an illegal fishing ship that could escape from the Hayakawa Patrol Ship's lock-on.
"Beep!"
At this moment, the radar console suddenly sounded a notification that a new target had entered the scanning radius.
At the same time, the radar computer automatically gave the distance of 22 nautical miles between the two. At this time, within a radius of 22 nautical miles around the Hayakawa Patrol Ship, there was only the illegal fishing ship and the unknown new target that had just entered the field of vision.
0.5 seconds later, the radar corrected the information and the distance was still 22 nautical miles.
At the same time, the radar operator reported the new target's location to the command center and asked them to contact the nearby navigation station to assist in checking if there were any registered ships in that position that would pass by this area.
Very few ships would choose to sail in the central area of the Miyako Strait because north was the endless North Pacific Ocean. Since the Hayakawa Patrol Ship was patrolling at night, of course, it would choose a sea area where there were few ships and specifically catch those ships that were unwilling to take the normal route.
The navigation station was an electronic office. On a huge electronic nautical chart, the tracks of all the registered ships were all listed. Therefore, in less than ten seconds, the other party gave a reply that there were no registered ships in the target area.
Well, it was another illegal ship.
While the radar operator set the target as a locked target, he thought happily. Judging from the position of the target, this ship was heading in their direction. Then, when they caught up with the illegal fishing ship, they could turn around and catch the other one.
The time between locking on to the target and the radar giving the detailed information was less than one second.
The radar operator was ready to report to the captain, but in the next moment, he heard a shrill alarm from the radar console.
"Warning ~"
"Warning ~"
"Unidentified ultra-low-altitude flying object detected."
The radar operator looked at the warning on the screen with some confusion.
Dozens of seconds ago, the unidentified ship had just entered the radar detection range. The two were 22 nautical miles apart.
Now, the radar computer gave detailed data. The radar reflection characteristics of the unidentified target could not be identified as a civilian or military ship. It was not even a ship at all.
Speed …
Speed: 130 knots, 66 m/s.
At this time, the operator remembered in panic that the Hayakawa was the most advanced patrol ship in the Security Department. The ship was equipped with the OPS-28D surface radar, directly copied from the Atago frigate. Not only could it search and identify ships on the sea, but it also had the ability to identify ultra-low-altitude aircraft, which was the ability to skim the sea and anti-ship missiles.
An object with a speed of 130 knots and a speed of 66 meters per second, what else could it be other than a flying object?
Everyone in the command center stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at the radar operator.
"Damn it, what's the situation?" The Hayakawa patrol ship was a small ship, and the electronic equipment control system was concentrated in one cabin. Captain Yōyama Miyamoto ran to the radar console that kept on sounding the alarm. His expression was very ugly. He really thought that the patrol ship had encountered an unknown enemy.
"This …" The radar operator was shocked and doubtful. At this moment, he saw the information given by the radar about the flying object. Although there was no match in the database, the computer gave a vague judgment that the object was more than 5,000 tons.
"Could it be … this is a ship?" The radar operator muttered to himself. But in the next second, when the radar updated the data, the unknown object suddenly disappeared.
"Ah?" The operator and the captain rubbed their eyes. The original two tracking targets had become one. The illegal fishing ship was still in the list, but the target at the edge seemed to have never appeared.
After the alarm disappeared, the silence in the command center lasted for a full half a minute.
The radar had updated the data 60 times, but the target that the radar couldn't identify had never appeared.
The target couldn't have disappeared in an instant, and no ship could reach a speed of 130 knots.
It was even more impossible for an aircraft to be that large, unless it was an alien spaceship.
"Captain, maybe … the radar malfunctioned." The radar operator subconsciously tapped the device.
"I … Captain, if you're worried, you can contact the headquarters and ask them to send a helicopter to search."
Captain Yōyama Miyamoto frowned. He was more inclined to believe that the radar had misreported. This situation was not very common, but it was not uncommon. Last year, a patrol ship in the rear island of Japan made the biggest joke of a radar misreport.
The rear island area was close to the Thousand Islands, which was particularly close to Russia. During a patrol, the local patrol ship's sea-facing radar suddenly scanned an unknown circular object with a diameter of 800 meters, hovering at a very low altitude.
At that time, the radar operator was far less calm than his subordinate. The guy quickly grabbed the emergency phone and reported to the headquarters that a UFO had arrived in Japan's waters.
In the end, two fighter jets were scrambled to take off, and the fuel was almost used up, but the ghost was not found.
If it weren't for someone inadvertently looking at the surveillance footage of the patrol ship, this incident might have become an unsolvable mystery.
What was the result?
The result was that the wind and waves reached level six. A piece of tin foil used for baking bread in the patrol ship's kitchen was somehow blown over the radar by the wind. The good electromagnetic reflection of the tin foil caused the radar to misjudge the size of the object. In the end, the rookie operator reported it as a UFO.
Of course, Captain Yōyama Miyamoto couldn't let his patrol ship have such a ridiculous joke, but the radar detection time was as long as ten seconds. After weighing the pros and cons in his heart, he grabbed the radio phone.
"This is the patrol ship Hayakawa. We found a case of abnormal situation in the target during the patrol. We can't determine the target. After receiving the abnormal target location, please conduct a helicopter search operation. "
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