Chimera (24 page)

The single-burst SATCOM transmission allowed the flight-crew to immediately adjust the heading and bring the aircraft on a northwest heading so that they were flying just along the perimeter of the supposed FDR.

The threat was significant. But it was also their daily job. Except that a shooting war was happening all around them, this ARC crew tickling the Chinese defenses in Ladakh might well have been doing their daily job.

ABOVE DAULAT BEG OLDI

DAY 2 + 1600 HRS

The rising dust clouds from continuous movement of vehicles were visible from long distances. To the troops on the ground, the sun was nothing but a brown-yellow haze in the ever darkening skies…

The view for the two Indian Jaguar pilots who streaked over the battlefield in their strike-jets was just as confused. Vehicles were moving around like ants and there were pillars of smoke and fire everywhere.

Target identification was impossible.

The only terrain features identifiable were the icy-waters of the Chip-Chap River cutting its way through the plain. And then there were the large mass of moving vehicles on north and south banks of the river. The pilots had been briefed carefully on this by the forward-air-controllers on the battlefield below.

There!

The flight-leader thought as he instantly adjusted his control-stick and aligned the aircraft towards the line of vehicles moving westwards. From this low altitude he could see the flashes of their main guns.

No question now: main battle tanks…

And they have to be Chinese. Sure as hell we don’t have any of ours left!

As he brought his aircraft thundering from the south near Saser, his wingman sidled alongside as well. Inside the cockpit the two pilots flipped the cover over the weapons release switch on the control-stick.

Within seconds their target group passed through the small diamond release zone on the HUD and both pilots pressed the release buttons, then pushed the throttle forward to afterburner and climbed up into the skies. The four cluster-bomb-units fell clean off their pylons, dispersed their deadly munitions into a spread pattern and fell clean. The rain of sub-munitions descended on the mass of Chinese ZBDs and T-99s below…

The concentrated cloud of sparks and dust raised by the impact of the munitions was interspersed with fireballs and secondary explosions as several ZBDs were destroyed.

The Indian defenses were instantly filled with shouts of joy from the besieged Indian troopers. The T-99s were made of sterner stuff and did not go up in fireballs. But their tracks lay shattered and several of them had their engine compartments penetrated by red-hot shrapnel. They were now nothing more than ticking time bombs; waiting to go off just as leaking fuel came in contact. The Chinese tank crews realized the danger and began jumping out of the turrets within view of the Indian Gorkhas to the west…

There was no mercy.

A large burst of rifle fire from more than two hundred Indian soldiers quickly claimed almost all of the Chinese tank crews within moments. As the dead bodies continued to be riddled with impacting bullets, company and platoon commanders had to manually go down the lines shouting “cease fire!” orders.

But the battle was not over yet.

Several Chinese ZBDs were still alive and kicking as the smoke and dust clouds from the cluster-munitions attack began to settle down. They began engaging the Indian infantry positions with cannon fire, sending the defenders diving and crashing for cover as the rounds again began to kick up dust around their positions. The Chinese gunners had also seen what the Gorkhas had done to their comrades just moments before.

Bitterness went both ways in the desperate battle for DBO.

Then there were more high-frequency thud noises and the fire on Indian positions from the Chinese vehicles abruptly stopped. Brigadier Adesara and his staff were sent ducking for cover as the two Indian Jaguars streaked overhead at suicidal low altitude as they recovered from their shallow strafing dive right above the trenches. As the dust settled, Adesara and his officers stumbled out of their bunker to see another three ZBDs dead in their tracks and spewing fire from their hatches. All three vehicles had large holes on their armor plating. The Jaguar cannon rounds were deadly against the thin armor skins…

And then it stopped.

As Adesara and his men watched, the few surviving ZBDs and the single T-99 remaining from the Chinese armor force began pulling back and deploying aerosol screens. 

But the Chinese were far from beaten. Any thought that Brigadier Adesara might have had to advance back to the mangled remains of his citadel defensive lines were cut short as a number of Chinese artillery proximity-fused shells detonated above his trenches, burying some of them and killing several of his men. But despite the falling gravel and rocks, Adesara smiled, for he understood: the first Chinese ground offensive to capture Daulat-beg-oldi and the Karakoram pass had been broken.

SOUTHEAST OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI

DAY 2 + 1635 HRS

The story was the same on the south banks.

Colonel Sudarshan slammed open the hatch of his battered BMP-II to see columns of rising smoke all along the northern horizon. But the Chinese were only down, not out. He brought up his binoculars to see several anti-air vehicles also moving into position behind the Chinese lines...

Sudarshan realized what had happened. The Chinese armor had been forced too far forward by the tactical fighting retreat of the defenders. The strung out Chinese vehicles had been mauled by the savage air attack mainly because their supporting anti-air vehicles had been too far behind to support.

That was a tactical mistake.

But you can bet your ass they won’t repeat that mistake again!

Sudarshan lowered his binoculars and looked around at the other dust and soot covered BMP-II parked to his right. This was the only other survivor from his original force of eight BMP-IIs from the Alpha squadron of the 10
TH
Mechanized Battalion. To his left he saw the three remaining NAMICAs from his anti-tank platoon in their prepared positions. The fourth of their pack was burning furiously half a kilometer to the north. Casualties had been high for the 10
TH
Mechanized on this day.

But they had held their ground!

With the current force levels, there was no question of counterattack until the main bulk of the 10
TH
Mechanized arrived from Shyok to Saser to DBO and was assembled into a unified and cohesive fist. With the Chinese bringing up their own reinforcements, it was now a race where the side that brought up its reinforcements faster, would win.

SKIES ABOVE REZANG-LA

DAY 2 + 2050 HRS

The silence of the night above the ridges was shattered as four waves of four Jaguar aircraft each from the No. 5 ‘
Tuskers
’ Squadron of the IAF streaked above Rezang-La and flew east, crossing the border with Tibet a few seconds later.

The Chinese soldiers on the ground fighting opposite Indians soldiers from XV Corps only heard the sounds of the jets before all sixteen Indian aircraft flashed overhead in the dark night skies and disappeared beyond the next set of ridges deep into Tibet...

OVER SOUTHEASTERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2110 HRS

“Okay.
That
marks seventeen Big-Birds deployed along this threat axis,” the EW-operator noted over the intercom.

“These Buk radars here south of the ingress route and these older LR surveillance emissions are highly familiar. We have countermeasures for those. What about the Big-Bird radars? Think we can blind them?” the ARC mission-commander asked.

“That’s the unknown in this equation. The Chinese have never really deployed these S-300s so far south before. This is just about our first look at these systems. And our own experience proves these to be highly capable. We just don’t have the EW power for even attempting a serious blackout of these systems,” the EW-operator replied.

He punched in the priorities for the emission sources in order of proximity of the known ingress route of the Jaguars.

“ECM support from SOCOM aircraft?”

“We can use them effectively if we deploy them to the south against the southern half of these systems. Even there they will be limited for use against the Buk and these three LR radars. That effectively clears an ingress path. But the S-300s will remain active as far as we can tell.”

“I know. But we have what we have. Let’s work from there. We don’t have time to spare. Work up the procedures for the Buk and LR emissions in the southern sector. I will coordinate with the SOCOM EW people so that they know their targets. Once that is done, work up a diagnostic on the S-300 emissions. We may find a weakness yet.”

OVER SOUTHERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2120 HRS

The sixteen Su-30s began spreading out from their Box-Four formations into a line abreast pattern as they entered the skies over southern Ladakh and headed northeast. The wings were clean of all ordinances except for the EW pods and a single large weapon on the centerline pylon...

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 2 + 2135 HRS

Now the air war really begins.

Feng thought as he walked into the operations center and handed his coat to his orderly. His meeting with Chen and Wencang had been long and excruciating, but productive. He had outlined to them what all had gone wrong and what all hadn’t. He also outlined his plans for force resurrection by leeching units from other MRAFs. He had also talked about his plans for wrenching control of the skies above Ladakh from the Indians.

But most importantly, his command line to Chen and Wencang had been cleared with the dismissal and subsequent arrest of Zhigao. Wencang had returned back to Beijing just an hour ago. Chen had established his office here until the objectives of the air-war were met or at least until he understood the capabilities of the Indians in this sector that was holding the PLAAF at bay.   

On that issue, Chen had taken swift and decisive rectifications. He had asked Wencang to authorize the release of the 32
ND
Fighter Division to his control to replace units from the 6
TH
Fighter Division and Wencang had made it happen. With that, Chen had ordered the commander of the 95
TH
Air Regiment and its gaggle of J-11B fighters to move to bases in Urumqi, Korla and Kashgar while the 6
TH
Fighter Division withdrew its decimated Flanker units to Lianyunang airbase in Jinan MRAF. He had also made Feng in charge of the air defense units in the Aksai Chin region. The 44
TH
Fighter Division had also been relegated back to the Lhasa region to fight alongside the 33
RD
Fighter Division now that it had lost its detachment of J-10s at Kashgar. Having units from various Divisions was a major coordination problem, as Feng had discovered during past operations. Had the ten J-10s from the 44
TH
Fighter Division joined the fight alongside the Su-27s from the 6
TH
Fighter Division, could the results have been better than they were?

There was no way to know.

But Chen and Wencang
had
been impressed with Feng’s idea of tagging along the H-6M cruise-missile carriers behind the Su-27s. It had delivered results. The missiles launched from those bombers had swept past the dogfighting fighters over Ladakh and struck Leh with full force, rendering it inoperative for at least two days. The state-run NCNA media had gotten fully behind that and used it to cover up the loss of Lhasa airbase that morning to the Indian Brahmos strikes.

An eye for an eye… 

Feng looked at his wristwatch which he preferred over the large wall clocks in the operations center. Old habits.

He realized that within hours the 32
ND
Fighter Division would start reinforcing this sector and bring his Su-27/J-11 fleet to fully-ops status. Within a day the 32
ND
Fighter Division would be fully ready to take the fight to the Indians.

Under my command this time!

Until then, we have to hold them at bay, away from my S-300s...

A Major walked over to Feng and handed him the latest updates. The five pages in his hand spoke of unconnected incidents.

One report from a PLA Division commander near southern Ladakh spoke of an Indian Jaguar squadron having penetrated the skies and currently over Tibet somewhere.

Another spoke of Indian electronic-warfare aircraft probing the S-300 defensive lines. But the Jaguars had penetrated far to the south and had headed northeast,
away
from the Aksai Chin, while the EW aircraft was still over northern Ladakh.

The operations officer had classed these events as unconnected.

Feng wasn’t so sure. He paused and went over the reports again. The idea was to look at this from the Indian standpoint and find the connection. The obvious answer was that the incidents were connected. But with the limited information in his hands, the connection was hard to find. The obvious connection was not so obvious.

The Indians are up to something.

But what?

OVER SOUTH-WESTERN TIBET

DAY 2 + 2140 HRS

“Approaching waypoint five!” The weapon-systems-operator replied over the radio from the back seat. Group-Captain Parekh looked away from his HUD to see the moonlight reflect off the waters of the Pangong-tso inside southwestern Tibet. All sixteen deep-penetration-strike Jaguars of the Tuskers Squadron streaked at low altitudes above the lake.

Parekh looked back through his HUD as his hands guided the high-speed, low-flying jet that was the Jaguar.

“Blue-section peel on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark!”

Four of the sixteen jaguars now flipped to their sides and pulled away, heading southeast. Verma looked through his helmet mounted NVGs to see the section of four aircraft streaking away as black specks against the greenish-white night sky.

“Firefly-One to Firefly-Blue. Give them hell! Out!”

OVER SOUTHEASTERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2142 HRS

The EW-Operator on board the ARC Gulfstream-III aircraft looked at his watch before bringing up his intercom mouthpiece:

“Okay, people. Time to go. Light up the skies!”

The crew of six experienced EW operators now went into a frenzy of activity as they flipped switches that brought active electronic-warfare systems online. The aircraft was now actively emitting jamming signals as the onboard crew attempted to black out the Chinese radars throughout the Aksai Chin...

OVER DEMCHOK IN SOUTHERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2144 HRS

The long convoy of Chinese trucks and several armored vehicles were rolling steadily on the road towards the battlefields further west. This sector, once bogged in desperate firefights between the PLA and the Tibetan rebels over the last year, had seen a vast influx of PLA units that had crushed the Tibetan resistance. Now these forces were angling to bring their firepower to bear on the Indian XV Corps units fighting them tooth and nail for Ladakh.

Three crucial mountain passes in the region at Chang, Jara and Charding to the north, east and south of Demchok had all been under Chinese control since 1962. They provided a south-to-north approach that could allow them to roll up the Indian defenses at Rezang-La and then Chushul up north.

As such, the side that controlled these regions could affect the outcome of the ground war in southern Ladakh. For the Indians, this meant capturing these passes or preventing the Chinese from using them.

The PLA convoy was moving in total darkness with all headlights switched off and only the moonlight above guiding the way forward on the road. Over the rumble and vibrations of so many truck and armor vehicle engines, the fast approaching noise of incoming jets behind them at low altitude went unnoticed until the aircraft were literally overhead… 

The first flashes of light erupted when a dozen supply trucks disappeared into a large orange-yellow napalm fireball. A single Jaguar aircraft streaked overhead. The secondary explosions rocked the mountains as ammunition supplies exploded amongst many of the vehicles. The convoy immediately stopped as PLA soldiers abandoned their vehicles and ran, leaving the engines still running as more aircraft noises filled the skies.

The second Jaguar streaked above the ridges from the north and approached the line of five Type-99 tanks parked on the road. The tank-crews were already jumping out of the vehicles. The Jaguar streaked overhead and released two cluster-bomb-units over the five tanks. In two seconds the munitions struck the top armor plating of the tanks and the ground nearby.

Explosions rocked the valley and a dust cloud enveloped the smoke columns. By the time the dust settled, all that remained were five pillars of fire from what had been brand new Type-99 series tanks.

The last two Jaguars were now rolling into attack as the first two aircraft raced skywards and banked away. By this time the PLA anti-air guns had overcome the suddenness of the attack and started filling the skies with lines of tracers and exploding shells.

The night sky was no longer serene and it was getting dangerous for the Indian pilots. Disregarding the danger, the third Jaguar pilot lit up another twenty odd trucks with sequential dropping of his napalm bombs before banking away with blazing afterburners. In his wake followed a line of exploding anti-air artillery shells, but did not touch the aircraft.

The fourth pilot determined the location of the anti-aircraft guns from the base of the lines of tracers racing into the sky and flew over two such positions. He released cluster-munitions over both targets. The cloud of sparks and shrapnel ripped through the exposed gunners and their equipment, abruptly silencing the stream of tracer fire from both locations.

By now the first two Jaguars were on their second approach into the sector with empty pylons but with full gun ammo. Licks of flame erupted through five more trucks as the large cannon shells punched through their cargo and engine compartments. At this range, the cannon rounds punched large holes even on the dirt and gravel of the road and sent dust clouds rising around the five burning trucks…

Two whitish smoke trails left the ground behind the banking Jaguars and followed into the streams of flares and chaff released by both aircraft. The Chinese had recovered and were now engaging the Indian aircraft with more dangerous weaponry than unguided anti-air gunfire. The shoulder-launched anti-air missiles could be deadly.

The surprise element was now no more.

So it was time to leave. There was no second pass for the last two Jaguars and the entire formation of four left Tibetan airspace west of Demchok.

On the ground east of the Jara pass, they left behind dozens of smoke pillars reaching into the night sky as fires raged on the supply road. The message sent out by the PLA General commanding the Division in that sector to the PLAAF headquarters in Kashgar was not pleasant in its tone or content.

But it did trigger a different kind of response.

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 2 + 2155 HRS

Feng abruptly stood up from his chair when he finished reading the message. Chen looked up in surprise. 

“What happened?” Chen asked.

“Indian aircraft have destroyed a PLA convoy in southern Ladakh and escaped without loss!”