Although the original plan was to launch a counterattack after the completion of the Southern Celestial Gate project, due to the prolonged development and construction cycle of the large aerospace strategic carrier platform, when European countries, as well as Lucia and Flame Country, were ready for a counterattack, the construction progress of the Luan Bird large aerospace strategic carrier platform was still not even halfway completed.

After three years of testing and development, the theoretical foundation for the large aerospace strategic carrier platform, as well as various tests and designs, had been completed.

Throughout the entire research and development process, 3D printing technology played an important role.

This technology made building the test prototype much easier, significantly shortening the construction period, allowing the entire research and design process to be condensed into three years, and immediately starting the construction of this super aircraft once design and development were completed.

Equivalent to at least four aircraft carriers, creating such a massive structure was beyond everyone's imagination in terms of difficulty.

Leaving aside other factors, just having a factory that could accommodate this colossal structure was itself considered a super project.

Without considering dismantling the factory, after the construction of the Luan Bird large aerospace strategic carrier platform was completed, there was still the issue of how it would leave the factory.

Thus, besides having enough space to accommodate a colossus over six hundred meters wide and more than two hundred meters long, the factory also needed a super gateway at least seven hundred meters wide, comparable to a large-span suspension bridge.

Building such a factory using conventional methods would be a challenging task for both designers and construction units.

However, there are always more solutions than problems. After some trials and research, the factory rose from the ground and was successfully completed.

If building a seven-hundred-meter wide door was not realistic, then a more practical design would be explored.

Therefore, the design team crafted the entire factory as a top-open structure, allowing the Luan Bird large aerospace strategic carrier platform, upon completion, to not exit the factory by moving along the ground but to directly ascend and leave from the retractable factory roof.

This undoubtedly greatly resolved the construction difficulties of the factory, and after preservation, such a gigantic factory could still be used as the hangar and maintenance facility for the Luan Bird.

After all, building such a large factory was not easy, and tearing it down would be too wasteful, while the Luan Bird itself needed a hangar and maintenance venue, making its preservation a wise choice.

With the aid of 3D printing technology, the factory's construction was fast, and as the factory's construction commenced, the Luan Bird's construction began simultaneously.

By the time the factory was fully completed, some fundamental components of the Luan Bird had also been manufactured.

These components, compared to the immense size of the Luan Bird, were not small at all, with some completed components being no smaller than a large civil passenger aircraft.

As for the crucial wing framework, a skeleton over three hundred meters long requires a great deal of time to complete even with integrated 3D printing equipment and requires specialized premises, causing the construction progress of the Luan Bird not to be swift.

Based on the expected construction schedule, it would take about another year to complete the basic construction of the entire Luan Bird, followed by approximately another year for outfitting, and finally, crew training and coordination would roughly require one to two years.

The Luan Bird large aerospace strategic carrier platform would thus realistically take at least three to five more years to deploy in actual combat.

However, the European side couldn't wait any longer.

During the three years while the Luan Bird was being constructed and European countries were preparing for counterattacks, European countries attempted several small scale counteracts.

Three years were enough to allow European countries to complete the re-equipment of all their armies, and they even purchased some small land ships and mobile bases from the Flame Country, significantly boosting the army's combat power.

With the enhanced military forces, they attempted counterattacks in regions where previous defense lines were breached, leaving indented areas, trying to straighten and push the lines back to their original positions.

These counterattacks achieved certain successes; although not every counterattack reached the expected operational goals, even with such gradually advancing offensives, the Europeans regained considerable territory, slowly flattening the previously jagged dog-eaten defense line into a straight line.

They successfully reclaimed most of the previously fallen areas on the entire defense line and even created some salients.

This gave the Europeans great confidence, leading them to even start formulating detailed counteroffensive plans that might lead one to mistakenly think they were preparing for a world war.

The Flame Country, on its side, also attempted some assaults, moving from the already established Middle East Region defense line to attack the nearby Cyprus Island in the Aleppo Region.

Due to weaker offensive efforts from the aliens in this direction, the joint forces made up of Flame Country and Middle Eastern troops smoothly captured Cyprus Island and established a solid base on it.

Though alien creatures were formidable, once humans could effectively inflict damage and owned shields to withstand attacks, their threat level to humanity considerably decreased.

The Flame Country's successful attack this time evidently explained the situation.

With improvements in human military technology, alien creatures can only rely on numbers to counteract human offensives.

This greatly encouraged various countries to initiate counterattacks, determined to completely eradicate alien creatures from the Blue Planet, while also causing European nations to become somewhat unwilling to continue waiting.

Having already waited three years, another three years of waiting would deplete morale and public sentiment.

Lucia and Flame Country understood this situation well. After evaluating the current human capabilities, although they disagreed with immediately launching large-scale counterattacks, they did not oppose initiating small-scale counterattacks in certain local areas first.

For instance, reclaiming the region of the Love Sea and Apennine Peninsula.

Previously, these two areas fell quickly to alien invasions due to rising sea levels and the geographical location of being surrounded by sea on three sides respectively.

The European countries were previously hard-pressed with mere defense; hence, they could do little considering the fall of these two areas.

But now, with the power of counterattacks, European nations certainly want to reclaim lost territories.

Especially the Apennine Peninsula, located in the central Mediterranean, could divide the entire Mediterranean into two parts if reclaimed, thereby splitting alien creature forces into two, making it possible to annihilate them in distinct regions.

This strategy was swiftly approved, with European countries beginning to rally troops, and Lucia dispatched their forces towards the Anatolian Peninsula, ready to join the Flame Country's military there and launch an attack on the Love Sea area.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com