Mercenary's War

The self-propelled artillery has been delivered, but the missiles have not yet arrived. Both Gao Yang and Polovich felt that it was too risky because the two batches of missiles were of the same model and delivered just two days apart, with chassis numbers and missile batch numbers being so similar, the risk of exposure was too great.

Therefore, under the pressure of the Iranians, Polovich sent the self-propelled artillery first. As for the missiles, Satan’s manpower was only sufficient to operate two sets at the moment, more would be of no use.

The Iranians never had their hands on the first batch of missiles. When Satan decided to fire them, it would be impossible to compare the two batches of missiles, and only then would Polovich deliver the new missiles.

With the self-propelled artillery in hand, under the anticipation of the Houthis Armed Forces, and urged by the Iranians, Gao Yang did not delay. On the very night he received the artillery, he conducted a test run to confirm everything was in order, and set out for Aden the following night.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council Allied Forces had absolute air superiority, and the convoy of self-propelled artillery and missiles was too large, making daytime travel impossible. It was too dangerous to march openly during the day. As for night operations, although it was still not possible to avoid high-tech reconnaissance, it was ultimately much safer than during the day.

Therefore, whether marching or fighting, operating only at night became a rule that must be followed in the upcoming schedule. This rule would not be broken lightly unless necessary or in case of major emergencies.

Within the control zone of the Houthis Armed Forces, there was no need to worry much about safety during the march. However, once beyond their control zone, Satan’s relatively large team not only had to become nocturnal creatures but also had to act like elusive nocturnal ones.

If it were another place, leading a large convoy with almost no anti-air capability, under the condition of the enemy holding absolute air superiority, to play guerrilla warfare everywhere, Gao Yang would never do it, he wanted to live a bit longer.

But in Yemen, Gao Yang dared to, and this was not contradictory, because it depended on who his opponent was.

On paper, Saudi Arabia’s air force was very strong, with advanced fighter jets and fighter-bombers, but its air force construction was extremely unbalanced, with many strong attack aircraft but very few reconnaissance and control aircraft.

The combat effectiveness of an air force is not only about the type and number of aircraft; more importantly, it is about the system and training!

The state of Saudi Arabia’s air force is like a very strong man whose limbs are super strong, but he’s severely nearsighted, with severe hearing loss. This is only the hardware deficiency. As for the software deficiencies, although not as intuitive, they are even more critical.

Having weapons in hand, one must first know how to use them. Primitive people with stones and bows can exert power, but give a primitive person a nuclear bomb, and it wouldn’t be as useful as a stone.

The problem with Saudi Arabia’s air force is the low level of training, and the pilots’ skills are lousy, even worse than Pakistan’s. From top to bottom, the military construction strategy and tactical abilities are too outdated, saying they are at the level of the 1980s might even be overestimating them.

Saudi Arabia’s air force underestimates the role of reconnaissance and early warning aircraft. These types of planes are already few, and more critically, even with the few they have, they’re hardly used, making this problem unsolvable.

As for the air forces of other Gulf Cooperation Council countries in Aden, they can be completely ignored. While Saudi Arabia’s air force, though imbalanced and tactically outdated, at least has a strong presence of fighter jets that can be intimidating. Other Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ air forces, not only have weaker capabilities on paper than Saudi Arabia but also have no more sophisticated operational thinking and tactics.

The enemy has reconnaissance planes but never sends them up, or if they do, it’s just perfunctory. Facing an opponent who is strong-bodied but blind and deaf, what does Gao Yang have to fear?

Of course, strategically belittling the enemy, tactically paying attention to the enemy is the basic quality of a commander. Regardless of what Saudi Arabia can achieve, Gao Yang must respond as if Saudi Arabia’s air force could perform at its best. Otherwise, as seen before, Satan’s artillery nearly got wiped out, so Gao Yang will ensure there’s no chance for coincidences for the enemy.

Even if fate strikes hard and the enemy’s fighters or attack aircraft discover them by chance, it must not result in total annihilation. Even if there are losses, they must be controlled to a minimum.

Marching by night, you must prepare at least two easily hidden locations in advance of every departure, and the troops must be deployed dispersedly.

With these numerous limitations and principles, Satan’s convoy moves at a very slow pace, mainly because the convoy is too large. Even with attempts to disperse to minimize targets during marching, it’s still too large. Each march requires finding reliable and safe hiding spots, which is troublesome. The shortest time, they moved only over forty kilometers in a day before having to hide themselves, with the time spent lifting and resetting camouflage longer than the time spent marching.

Only when approaching the vicinity of Aden, conserving only the combat units ready for maneuver, while the logistical and support convoy finds places to hide, could the convoy size be minimized to the greatest extent.

Playing guerrilla with self-propelled artillery and ballistic missiles, such a thing has never happened before, because armies with such weapons don’t need guerrilla tactics. Therefore, the forces under Gao Yang’s command will certainly create a whole new mode of operation.

In any other part of the world, playing guerrilla with self-propelled artillery and ballistic missiles under the enemy’s absolute air superiority, without protection from infantry and armor forces, is nearly impossible. The reason is simple: in places like Africa, there aren’t suitable targets for artillery and missiles, and in places with a certain level of modern combat capability, it would be suicidal.

There are no good tactics, nor bad tactics, only suitable or unsuitable tactics.

The battlefield in Yemen has large, dense, fixed, high-value targets where missiles with not particularly high precision can achieve the best results. In Afghanistan and Somalia, would the targets be worth the cost of a missile?

It is only in Yemen, with Gao Yang’s extremely unique, unprecedented and rare non-typical side, confronting opponents like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, that the possibility of playing guerrilla with ballistic missiles could emerge.

Gao Yang was determined to have a good start. The urgent task was to score a stunning result with the missiles, making the Iranians feel their support was valuable, making the Houthis Armed Forces feel they couldn’t do without Satan, and most importantly, making Saudi Arabia feel hurt and afraid, then obediently accepting more substantial contracts.

As they drew closer to Aden, with all four members of the Black Demon already infiltrating Aden ahead of time and starting to send back valuable intelligence, Gao Yang finally set the first strike target as they neared Aden.

To launch two missiles at the Gulf Cooperation Council Allied Forces’ airbase in Aden, that was Gao Yang’s first-phase objective.