Chimera (60 page)

On board the Chinese aircraft, the Lieutenant-Colonel piloting the aircraft was now lowering his altitude as much as he dared. His hands had become sweaty under the gloves.

His co-pilot, another Lieutenant-Colonel, was pressing his radio headset speaker closer to his mouth with his left hand while pushing himself to look around the sides of the cockpit glass. He was in direct contact with the flight-leader of the nine J-11s from the 19
TH
Fighter Division that were now converging on their position.

The incoming fighters were variously armed, as they had just arrived in theater and had not even been properly briefed about combat operations in the AO. But now they were getting a firsthand look at the desperate situation of the air-war over Tibet…

On the ground at Korla, the commander of the 26
TH
Air Division was ordered by Chen to launch the sole KJ-200 turboprop AEW aircraft from Korla so that the incoming eleven J-11s from Urumqi were not flying blind into a deadly combat zone.

A few minutes later the radar operations crew of this aircraft were scrambling towards their parked aircraft while the pilots initiated emergency engine startup. The crews were tired after having just returned from rotation and had not been expecting to be in the air until the KJ-2000 crew had returned after a few hours, with whom they were on twelve-hour patrol rotations.

As the first propeller started spinning on the ground and the pilots began switching on their helmet-mounted low-light goggles, five J-7s from Korla were also rolling out one behind the other towards the runway. The airbase was now declared under threat. And the base personnel were hardly prepared for it.

Very deep inside China, Korla was not expected to ever have to face such a threat. And so there was confusion on the ground as officers and men of the 26
TH
Air Division attempted to figure out what to do about their precious equipment and aircraft strewn about on an open tarmac…

Back over the skies above the desert, the five supersonic Indian Su-30s had closed enough with the lumbering KJ-2000 aircraft that they now fired off one R-77 per aircraft.

The RWR on board the Chinese aircraft lit up immediately and the Lieutenant-Colonel banked the aircraft to the side and attempted to dive; not easy for an aircraft the size of the Il-76. Unlike the Phalcon and its uprated engines, the Chinese Il-76 based AWACS was underpowered. And so there was little power to spare for these desperate maneuvers.

The Lieutenant-Colonel ordered his co-pilot to release all chaff and flare stores on board and went live over the radio shouting that his aircraft had been
engaged
by enemy fighters.

But his time had run out.

The first R-77 slammed into the port wing just between the two engines and the jarring explosion ripped through the wing, shredding the fuselage below. The Lieutenant-Colonel and his flight crew were thrown forward in their seats as the explosion whipped the massive aircraft across the sky. By the time he came through a second later, all warning lights and alarms were screeching inside the cockpit as his co-pilot attempted to pull the aircraft from its shallow dive.

He looked back and saw the flight engineer on the flight deck in a pool of blood from some shrapnel round. The fuselage had decompressed in the explosion. The aircraft shuddered again, this time the second R-77 had hit the aft side of the T-shaped horizontal stabilizer and the top section of that now fell away from the aircraft. He turned forward as his co-pilot screamed in horror. He had enough time only to see the rapidly approaching ground before it ripped through the cockpit…

As their prey disappeared from the radar view, the five Indian Su-30 pilots instantly banked in five different directions, dropped chaff all over the skies and streaked south. One-hundred-fifty kilometers behind them, the nine J-11s from Urumqi and the five J-7s from Korla were closing fast.

But there was no time to stay around and engage the Chinese fighters. All Indian Su-30s over the Taklimakan desert would soon be running low on fuel and weapons and the skies around them were literally filling up with PLAAF fighters. Sixteen J-7s were now airborne from Kashgar from the 17
TH
Air Regiment there. Enemy fighters were closing in from all directions on the compass around the Indian intruders…

As the five Indian Su-30s screeched over where they had entangled with the Chinese J-11s, they were joined by the surviving force of Su-30s. Su-30s had been lost to the Chinese air-to-air missiles and another had been damaged. The damaged aircraft had not stuck around. It had been dispatched south with another Su-30 as escort. The remaining force of twelve Su-30s formed up over Hotien and headed south.

The Phalcon crew confirmed that the Chinese airborne radar coverage was now down over most of western Tibet, barring the single KJ-200 whose long wavelength signatures had just become visible over the horizon. It was as yet too far away to be a contributor to the next phase of operation Pivot-Strike…        

OVER SHYOK

LADAKH

DAY 8 + 2300 HRS

The eight Jaguars from No. 5 ‘Tuskers’ Squadron dove for the deck just above the peaks as they headed north towards the Karakoram Mountains. These eight aircraft represented the entire squadron force left now after so many days of continuous operations.

As they headed over DBO, they could see the battlefield below littered with hundreds of burnt out and still burning armored vehicles from both sides. They took some intermittent undirected gunfire from the ground. The Tuskers pilots could make out the intensive tank engagement taking place below between Arjun tanks and a dozen Chinese T-99s coming into the sector from Qara-Tagh La. Fireballs were rising into the sky as vehicles exploded while the Jaguars darted across the skies above them.  

Yet again the Tuskers were doing what they did best.

They crossed over the Karakoram peaks and the two groups of four aircraft each banked in unison to the west, passing between the Shaksgam valley to their south and the Togras-Kangri peaks to the north. They were technically within the range of the airborne radar coverage of the PAF Karakoram Eagle aircraft over Gilgit, but flying below the peaks allowed them to evade detection.

From where they were, they could now see the snowcapped K2 peak to the south as a massive black silhouette jutting into the greenish night sky.

The two groups of Jaguars now turned north, leaving the K2 and other nearby peaks to their rear.

Out here, they were totally alone. Their whole survival plan depended on other friendly forces in similar position deep inside Chinese airspace drawing the PLAAF fighters away from where they were supposed to be. And that required a serious distraction.

The Desert-Tigers Su-30s had just delivered that distraction…

And sure enough the J-7s from Kashgar were heading into combat with the egressing Su-30s. That had cleared the way for the Tuskers to breach Chinese defenses.

It was now very clear to the pilots that they were leaving the Himalayas behind them to the south and entering relatively flatter terrain. The strike force went lower in altitude in order to maintain cover. Their target was now two-hundred kilometers away…

By now the ingress of the Indian Jaguars was done and the J-7s from the 17
TH
Air Regiment at Kashgar had been pulled away.

Bhosale decided it was time to kill them.

As the orders came through from Udhampur to the Phalcon and then on to the squadron commander of the Desert-Tigers, the twelve Su-30s heading south broke formation, flipped and pulled on a reverse vector towards the incoming sixteen J-7s.

But the Chinese pilots were also expecting a bitter fight and did not shy away from the charging Su-30s. Both sides released most of their available load of radar guided missiles in the first volley. With missiles crisscrossing each other in all directions, all twenty-seven fighters dived in all directions, releasing chaff and flares as they did.

The calm overcast night sky over the Aksai Chin was now littered with flares falling like raindrops and a spider web of missile exhaust trails…

Three hundred kilometers northwest of this gigantic air battle, the Tuskers squadron Jaguars reached their final waypoint and noted no enemy fighters bearing down on them over their target.

The aircraft broke formation and increased speed as they thundered over Kashgar downtown at near-supersonic speeds. Kashgar is not a small town. It has a big urbanized area and as the Indian fighters streaked overhead, tens of thousands of Chinese citizens came running out of their houses to see what was happening. Many reached their roofs just in time to see the airport at Kashgar getting hit…

The first wave of Jaguars headed straight from the south and thundered over the terminal buildings and the tarmac, littered with equipment and ground personnel from the 17
TH
Air Regiment.

Personnel on the tarmac were scurrying about trying to clear the fueling vehicles and trucks being used to move weapons around. All of these were caught in the open when they saw the first four Jaguars streak over their heads completely unannounced.

When the first CBU-105s broke pattern overhead, it was far too late…

The entire main tarmac riddled with explosions as the sensor-fused weapons dove into each and every truck, fuel-bowser and exposed piece of equipment around the tarmac. The terminal building shattered under the shockwaves and collapsed under the force of the explosions in a massive dust cloud that rose hundreds of feet into the air, easily visible from all part of city.

The second force of Jaguars approached from the west and went over the runway in a west-east axis, dropping numerous anti-runway weapons that struck with precision, riddling the runway at multiple locations with deep craters. The first wave of Jaguars returned from the north and this time released their remaining load of CBU-105s over the buried fuel-farm south-east of the airfield, resulting in a devastating explosion that rose into the sky like a mushroom cloud of flame and black smoke.

The city of Kashgar filled with panic as the large burning mushroom cloud rose for the sky…

Feng looked above at the concrete roof of the bunker as the walls vibrated and small mounds of concrete dust fell clear from the newly constructed walls. He frowned. His fingers rolled into a fist and his knuckles became white with anger.

A thunder rushed through the command center and the lights flickered. He picked up the phone but noted that his lines were dead. He looked at Major Li who ran over and checked the lines to confirm it was indeed dead. As Li began shouting orders to some personnel nearby, Chen walked back in. 

“What the
devil
is going on, Feng?” Chen shouted above the thunder.

“Indian Jaguars have just hit the airbase! We are sustaining heavy damage top side and have lost all comms here. Li is investigating,” Feng said dispassionately as yet another shockwave rolled through.

“How did they get
through?!
Where are the fighters from the 17
TH
Regiment?” Chen shouted above the noise. Feng grunted in response.

“They got engaged by a fleet of Indian Su-30s and are engaged over the Aksai Chin,” he said after a couple of seconds.

“And the 19
TH
Air Division Forces from Urumqi?” Chen asked.

“Heading into combat around Hotien,” Feng replied. “A KJ-200 from Korla is in the air now and attempting to establish airborne command and control, but it won’t be as good as the KJ-2000 battle management system was.” 

“What about the other three KJ-2000s in the 26
TH
Division? Where are they deployed?” Chen continued.

“Two are being used in rotation to cover the Lhasa front and one more is present over Chongqing. We could pull the one over Chongqing and deploy it to Korla to replace the loss…” Feng suggested.

“I agree!” Chen nodded. “Replace it at Chongqing with one of the KJ-200s from the 76
TH
ACCR detachment at Lanzhou. Realistically speaking, we
just
lost Kashgar
and
the 17
TH
Air Regiment. We are now using our strategic reserves for the airborne radar aircraft, leaving nothing to cover the eastern coasts in case the Americans or the Japanese try something. Not good, Feng. Salvage what you can from this mess. I think it’s time Beijing found out about our situation out here.”

THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 8 + 2345 HRS

Colonel Misra opened the door leading to the terrace of the Dechencholing palace and was instantly met with a wall of freezing air and winds howling past.

The two paratroopers manning the observation-post turned back to see Misra walking up to them and then returned to observing using their tripod mounted optics. Misra could barely make out anything of Thimpu in the darkness until he strapped on his night-vision goggles and activated them. The slight hum noise on activation and Thimpu instantly appeared, awash in green.