Chapter 239: Ready to Go, Just Waiting for You

Is a stealth drone like the RQ220 ‘Observer’ rare?

Of course not. Whether in the Federation or the Empire, the technology of this thing is no longer a secret. Any slightly larger drone manufacturer can manufacture it.

But why didn’t the companies think of bringing two to use?

Are they stupid and don’t know that this thing is useful?

In Amber’s opinion, they are of course stupid.

But it doesn’t mean that these private military companies and defense contractors who make a living by ‘fighting’ don’t know the advantages of stealth drones.

The main reason they didn’t think of bringing two is that they were still confused by the ‘security war’.

For them, in previous combat missions, ordinary high-altitude and long-endurance drones were completely sufficient for monitoring the mission area.

No matter how powerful the mob is, they have all kinds of individual weapons, anti-armor weapons, and even simple electromagnetic guns. They appear and disappear in street fighting, giving everyone a headache.

But they can’t poke down a drone at an altitude of 20,000 meters.

Since nothing can threaten high-altitude long-endurance drones, this thing is enough.

Although the industrial manufacturing capabilities of mankind have developed to this day, even the price of stealth drones has been lowered long ago, and it is not too much to say that they are cheap.

But the problem is that ordinary high-altitude long-endurance drones have also become cheaper, and the price is only one-tenth of stealth drones.

Since the effects of using the two types of drones are the same for these private military companies and defense contractors, they will definitely choose the cheaper one without thinking.

After all, they fight for profits.

The stealth drone incident is just a microcosm of the current development of human military theory and military technology, and there are many similar things.

Moreover, whether it is the Federation or the Empire, many operations are surprisingly consistent.

For example, the tactical air forces stationed on various planets were massively withdrawn, and only some attack aircraft responsible for ground support were retained to attack those rebels and insurgents who lacked air defense weapons.

Another example is that the thermonuclear weapons deployed on the ground were almost completely reduced, whether it was silos or TIE vehicles, they were basically cut cleanly.

The reason is very simple. The whole planet is under control. I don't know who I am deterring by keeping these "big treasures".

And if there is an enemy attack, those immovable "wind turbines" are pure targets for orbital attack ships, and the survivability of TIE vehicles is not as great as imagined, and they can be easily countered.

Based on the above reasons, including but not limited to, the Federation and the Empire, and even the distant commercial alliances, have shown a relatively deformed development trend in combat units other than the naval fleet.

Especially after the popularization of directed energy weapons, many tactics and methods have changed.

At least in the "wars" encountered by the Federation and the Empire in the past few decades, facing the so-called rebels, mobs and insurgents with average equipment, average morale and even more average combat qualities.

Often, only the HCP in the synthetic forces is needed to launch a charge in groups, and then use heavy particle cannons to destroy those units that may pose a threat.

These enemies, which are almost composed of pure infantry + a small number of armored units, will basically have their morale collapsed.

The troops that follow up are generally doing some work of cleaning the battlefield and collecting prisoners.

Moreover, compared with these enemies who dare to confront the regular army head-on, the ground forces of both the Federation and the Empire are more afraid of the enemies hiding in the city and mixed with civilians.

This kind of battle that is similar to the "security war" will have a great impact on the morale and technical and tactical level of the troops if it lasts a little longer.

After the liaison officers left happily, Amber continued to pull his combat staff to study the reconnaissance intelligence sorted out in the past few days.

Among these staff, there are mobile infantry who killed with him from Robert IV, people selected from the original Yaoguang Defense personnel, and finally a few tall and strong Roma.

Their common feature is that in addition to being familiar with basic ground combat like others, their brains are relatively more flexible, and they understand the macro-level combat command faster.

Especially those who worked in Yaoguang Defense before, their original positions were tactical staff.

So in addition to assisting Amber in tactical planning, they also have to take time to make up for others.

Especially those Roma people.

After all, these human combat units in the Atlas private military company basically have service experience, and they have been exposed to tactical command to some extent.

But the Roma people are different.

Before coming to Atlas, these fur balls may have more thoughts on food, bartending, singing and dancing, various etiquette, elf culture, totem poles, and reproduction.

So for them, tactical command is really starting from scratch.

Even the Roma people who followed Amber were selected from nearly 2,000 people, and they were the ones with "relatively good brains".

But when learning tactical command, the progress was still far behind others.

However, what made Amber feel gratified was that these fur balls were still more interested in "marching and fighting".

And interest is precisely the best teacher.

So he often saw these hairballs who were transferred to the headquarters, and in their spare time, they took some Roma "specialties" to consult other staff officers.

It was precisely because of the simple character of these "hairballs" that other combat staff officers in the headquarters also took good care of them.

Especially Amber, who would always ask these Roma questions first.

"This is the general deployment of the enemy based on the "observers" approaching and investigating in the past few days."

Amber put out an electronic sand table on the holographic projection platform, which roughly marked the distribution of the imperial remnants, the inferred screen direction, and the areas that the stealth drones had not entered.

"Everyone, take a good look and speak in order later. Well, start with Hogg and Gewushi."

The two Roma people who were called by Amber were like students who were called by the teacher in class. They trembled with nervousness, and then immediately began to quickly browse on the electronic sand table.

From time to time, they would zoom in on some of the highlighted areas.

The advantage of the electronic sand table is that it covers all scales and levels of combat maps in one picture.

When Hogg and Gewushi zoomed in on a small town, they could see ‘many arrows’, ‘many ovals’, ‘various small flags’, and ‘various strange abbreviations’.

This is the AI ​​of the command terminal, which automatically generates a draft of the battalion-level tactical plan based on the existing information.

After staring at the sand table for a while, the ‘wolf-headed man’ named Hogg scratched his head and spoke first:

“Boss, according to the current reconnaissance situation, the Imperial Army should have completed the defense deployment in the three cities and surrounding areas in the direction of the coalition’s attack.

Judging from their posture, they should want to fight us head-on, so they have assembled all five brigade-level combat teams.”

As Hogg spoke, he operated on the electronic sand table, marking out the ‘key points’ that had been reconnaissanceed in the past few days, and adding relevant pictures.

For example, the wheel tracks of heavy troops marching in the wild.

The sudden increase of fortifications built with foam metal and quick-drying cement around the city.

There are also some small-scale troop assembly points and self-propelled artillery preset positions that have not been hidden in time.

A lot of this information was not discovered by the combat staff, but by the command and decision-making support AI.

After being "buffed" by Lilith, the command and decision-making support AI on the Atlas side is no longer a veteran of ten years, but a veteran of hundreds of battles.

So it can identify those details that are easily overlooked in optical pictures and radar imaging at a faster speed than other AIs.

"I guess that the Imperial Army's material reserves should be close to the red line, otherwise they can just break up and play "hide and seek" with us to delay time."

"There is another possibility that they want to defeat us with one punch"

Amber said in a very calm tone that made the combat staff shudder.

These staff followed Amber and had learned a lot about the situation of the Imperial Regular Army, and they were also very clear about the real situation of the coalition forces.

So they soon realized that this situation seemed to be possible.

But Amber did not continue this topic, but looked at another Roma next to Hogg.

"Gruum, what do you think?"

"Boss, I think the coalition must be cautious."

Gruum scaled the electronic sand table to the original scale, and then continued:

"At present, 70% of our deployment of the five brigade-level combat teams of the Empire is speculation, especially the infantry brigade-level combat team behind them.

Because it is in the city, there are too many interferences, so the reconnaissance effect is not good. We only speculate based on the gathering of some infantry units near the city.

For the specific situation, I think it may still require infiltration and reconnaissance from the ground before it can be more credible."

Gruum paused, and then set several lines to 'highlight'.

"But one thing is certain: there are several high-grade roads between these three cities that are sufficient for heavy troops to use, and the terrain inside this huge 'basin' is relatively simple.

So this battle area is relatively convenient for the opponent, whether it is for tactical maneuvers or retreating after being under pressure.

In addition, the existence of the three cities requires extremely high accuracy in orbital strikes. Based on my observation of the combat personnel of other companies, I am very worried about whether they can provide high-precision strike guidance on the front line.

In this case, if the opponent's commander is also particularly good at mobile defense, it may not be good news for us."

After Gewushi finished speaking, other combat staff also expressed their opinions one after another, and they were relatively consistent in the general direction.

That is, if the Imperial Army really puts on a "death fight" posture here, then the coalition forces may really hit the south wall.

The next morning, the combat order from the coalition command center was passed down, requiring the troops of each company to start maneuvering according to the plan.

The coalition will launch an attack in the early morning two days later, and Atlas' combat troops will be deployed on the right wing to be responsible for feinting.