Operation Chŏnman

Operation Chŏnman
Part of Second Pan-Septentrion War
A B-1M of the 20th Maritime Bomber Squadron en route to the combat area.
Date 11 April 2022 Location North of Pillowlandia Result Menghean victory
Belligerents
Menghe	Entente Cordiale Template:Country data Anglia and Lechernt Template:Country data Maracaibo Sieuxerr
Commanders and leaders
Chu Tae-hwan	Arturo Benitez
Strength
1 carrier 2 destroyers 4 frigates 36 carrier-based fighters 132 land-based fighters	1 carrier 2 destroyers 2 frigates 1 corvette 24 carrier-based fighters 66 land-based fighters
Casualties and losses
18 aircraft	1 carrier 2 destroyers 2 frigates 1 corvette 28 carrier-based aircraft 8 land-based aircraft

Operation Chŏnman (Menghean: 천만 작전/千萬作戰, Chŏnman Jakjŏn, lit. "Operation Ten Million") was the codename for a Menghean air attack on the Maracaiban aircraft carrier Carnatica at the start of the Second Pan-Septentrion War. It took place on the 11th of April 2022, just a few hours after the outbreak of the war, as part of a series of coordinated Menghean attacks on EC surface formations in the South Menghe Sea.

The Menghean aircraft carrier Gukga Gyŏngje Gijŏk and her escorts contributed fighters to the battle, but most Menghean aircraft in the area attacked from airbases on land, with the 10th Fighter Regiment contributing most air cover. The 22nd Bomber Regiment, flying B-1M supersonic bombers, delivered the concentrated attack that destroyed the surface ships. The EC also relied on land-based fighters from Margarita Island to supplement the carrier's own air cover.

Though the balance of air losses slightly favored the EC, the Menghean Navy achieved its primary objective of destroying the Carnatica and all of her escorts. This strike neutralized the EC's offensive naval capability in the eastern half of the South Menghe Sea, allowing the Menghean 3rd Carrier Battle Group to focus its fighter screen westward while deploying anti-submarine escorts into the previously contested area. For the rest of the war, the Maracaiban Navy would remain confined to the coast.

Prelude

On April 7th, Maracaiban news sources reported that the aircraft carrier Carnatica was heading northwest to take part in a combined Entente exercise simulating the reinforcement of Isla Diamante. Already concerned by the buildup of other EC forces in the area, the Menghean Navy dispatched the Daedam-class submarine JWY-942 Yonggam to monitor Maracaiban ship movements in the area. Yonggam, however, did not detect the Maracaiban battle group on sonar, as her search area was focused further north, and relayed this negative report to headquarters on the 9th.

Concerned about the lack of precise information on the Maracaiban fleet, Menghe contacted Pillowlandia through diplomatic back channels, asking it to investigate the area off its north coast with patrol aircraft and pass on any intelligence data to Menghe. Pillowlandia complied with the request, but its submarines and patrol aircraft were also unable to find the Maracaiban fleet. One anonymous Pillowlandian source claimed after the war that Pillowlandia had deliberately conducted a halfhearted search in order to avoid being implicated in supporting a preemptive strike and thus drawn into the war, but others in the Pillowlandian administration have denied this account of events.

On April 10th, Menghe resorted to using its own P-1M patrol aircraft based out of Puerto Alegre and Santa Isabel to carry out a final search. At 1614 hours local time, a P-1M from the 65th Maritime Patrol Squadron located the Maracaiban carrier battle group while investigating surface radar contacts. Ignoring heated warnings over the radio, the pilot circled over the Carnatica and her escorts while two Rafale-M fighters formed up behind her. With this search, Menghe not only located the target formation, but also identified all surface ships within it. After finishing its mission, the P-1M turned northeast toward Puerto Alegre and handed off patrol duties to a second, which maintained contact with the Maracaiban radar contacts until leaving the area at 2008 hrs local time.

As Menghe had surged patrol aircraft in the prewar search, it would not be able to maintain constant contact with the target fleet overnight. During the time between 2008 hrs on the 10th and 0930 hrs on the 11th, a formation moving at 14 knots would be able to travel 187 nautical miles, leaving a search area with a diameter of 750 kilometers.

Over the night of April 10th-11th, Admiral Chu Tae-hwan, commander of the South Sea Fleet, finalized a plan to locate and destroy the Maracaiban carrier battle group in the opening hours of the war. Fighters from the Gukga Gyŏngje Gijŏk and the 10th Fighter Regiment would contest the airspace over the area of operations, while the 12th, 33rd, and 38th Fighter Regiments would provide air cover over the approaches to the area of operations. Two MKC-767 tankers would allow the fighters of the 10th Regiment to reach the area with enough fuel to conduct air-to-air combat. At 1100 hours local time, three P-1M patrol aircraft would arrive at the boundary of the search area and search for the Maracaiban fleet, reporting its coordinates to bomber formations en route to the area. Twenty-four B-1M bombers from the 22nd Bomber Regiment would comprise the first wave, timed to arrive at 1200 local time, with sixteen Y-4HRs from the 21st Bomber Regiment in the second wave fifteen minutes later. By itself, the first wave was calculated to be capable of delivering enough anti-ship missiles to neutralize the formation and its defenses; the second wave would follow up if the first wave left any major surface ships mobile.

To maintain surprise and avoid giving away Menghe's preparations for a pre-emptive strike, the bulk of the attack force would only begin taking off after 1030 hours Menghean time (0930 hours Pillowlandian time) on April 11th. Any large-scale movement of bombers before then could reveal Menghe's intentions before then. Nevertheless, Menghe did launch two P-1M patrol aircraft, two MKC-767 tankers, one ME-767 AEW&C aircraft, and two Y-4HR bombers with reconnaissance UAV payloads in the hour before the operation, masking this deployment as a regular peacetime sortie of patrol aircraft.

Battle

At 0930 hours Pillowlandian time on April 11th, Menghe commenced hostilities against all countries in the Entente Cordiale, and the combat aircraft assigned to Operation Chŏnman began taking off from their airfields and cruising toward their patrol areas. Four DS-9MG fighters from the Gukga Gyŏngje Gijŏk's air wing began probing air defenses around the Maracaiban carrier battle group, but they remained outside the defending Rafale-M fighters' practical engagement range. Neither side fired air-to-air missiles during this phase of the battle.

Initially, Vice Admiral Arturo Benitez of the Maracaiban CVBG ordered his formation to press northwest at flank speed in order to meet up with the Sylvan CVBG and transport formation near Isla Diamante. At 0941 hours, however, Benitez received news that both the Sylvan CVBG and its assigned transport group had already sustained severe damage from anti-ship missiles. Concerned that his formation might be next, at 0945 Benitez ordered his formation to turn about and proceed back toward home waters, where they could seek land-based fighter cover. Simultaneously, the Carnatica began scrambling all combat-ready fighters, as well as a second early-warning aircraft. Sylvan and Anglian fighters based on Margarita Island began preparing a long-range air cover group consisting of four Typhoons and four Mirage 4000s, with a tanker providing mid-course refueling.

Losses

Menghean aircraft losses in Operation Chŏnman totaled 18 aircraft: six SR-8D heavy fighters, six DS-9MG and five DS-9MN carrier-based fighters, and one P-1M patrol aircraft. In air-to-air combat alone, Entente forces lost ten Rafale-M carrier-based fighters, four SEPECAT Jaguar carrier-based attack aircraft, four Typhoons, four Mirage 4000s, and two airborne early warning aircraft. An additional four Rafale-Ms, six SEPECAT Jaguars, two airborne early warning aircraft, and four helicopters were lost during the sinking of the Carnatica, including two Jaguars which were airborne during the attack and lacked sufficient fuel to return to the mainland.

Though the overall ratio of fixed-wing aircraft losses stands at 18 and 36 for Menghe and the EC respectively, this falls to 17 and 18 when comparing air-to-air kills by fourth-generation fighters alone. Menghe's Third Carrier Air Wing lost almost one-third of its fighters, leaving it with less than half as many airworthy fighters as either of the two Entente carrier battle groups to the west.