Flames And Arrows

by Jaidev Jamwal

0120 Hours

  5 November 2012

  Phalcon AWACS

  Skies over Laddakh

  The incident caused a fair amount of heart burn inside Chinese military. In spite of being stretched to the limit by Uighur and Tibetan rebels, PLA still had formidable offensive firepower at its disposal and the Mission Controller onboard Indian Phalcon AWACS was first to notice it when Chinese launched a large salvo of their much hyped DH-11 long range cruise missiles. Phalcon's radar had detected the missiles while they were still 7-8 minutes away from Leh and the crew was sending out warnings frantically.

  Mission controller aboard Indian Phalcon AWACS was shouting in to the mouthpiece, “Lima this is Eagle Eye, we have 16 confirmed DH-11 inbound right at your position. I repeat, 16 DH-11 inbound at your position. Take cover immediately."

  In what could be considered a mixed bag, All of Chinese missiles were launched from a single location. Sabotage by Tibetan rebels, while not entirely successful had still affected Chinese military significantly. In ideal conditions, Chinese would have launched a larger number of missiles from a wide encircling arc, confusing the defenders and saturating their air defense assets. But owing to shortage of missiles and safe places from where to launch, they were forced to launch all missiles from a single location. Although it made the job of tracking these missiles somewhat easier, it also meant that the air defenses in that particular corridor would be overwhelmed and at least some of the missiles would pass through unscathed.

  Although important, such thoughts were hardly occupying anyone’s mind on the besieged base. Instead, they were working furiously to meet the attack head on and save whatever they could before launching a counter attack. The base was operating at war level and all the civilian traffic had been suspended. The runway was being used exclusively by military transporters and fighter jets which were immediately airborne within a minute of the warning. The planes which could not take to air were moved to underground bunkers and rest moved as far away from the base as possible. Six more MiG 29s fully fuelled and armed joined four others which were already on CAP duty. All this while crews of air defence wing waited tensely for the Chinese missiles to come within their kill radius. Owing to its high strategic value, Leh airbase had received some serious defence upgrades consisting of multiple Akash and SPYDER SAMs placed all around as well as inside the base. It was going to be the first baptism in combat for both of the systems.

  One Akash battery placed in Chapo, nearly 110 Km forward of the base was first to acquire a lock on incoming bandits. Twelve SAMs arose majestically, almost simultaneously, to intercept first of DH-11 which were flying just 10s of metres above the mountain peaks

  Of the Twelve missiles launched at seven different cruise missiles, four found their targets while the rest missed. Some failed as they lost lock on target amongst mountains, while the rest exploded harmlessly after their target was destroyed by another missile. By the time crews could reload the launchers; remaining DH-11s were already out of their kill zone or had passed by without ever coming within range.

  Another Akash battery placed in Arganglas took out another five, but that still left out seven DH-11s which moved on to their terminal phase as they neared their designated targets. People still resident in the city now watched as seven white streaks came in from the north. Short ranged SPYDER missiles rose to intercept these and managed to knock out three before first of the cruise missiles found its target and hit the runway. The warhead consisted of runway denial explosives and damaged it enough to stop all aircraft landings and takeoffs for hours if not days. Another missile probably targeted at the helicopter wing missed its aim and crashed in to the War Memorial just a few meters north of it. Although the helicopter hangars suffered some damage, losses were not high as most of the equipment and personnel were already away from the area. Third missile was hit by the radar guided AAA fire and crashed outside the airport in a civilian populated area causing dozens of causalities. Last of the missiles escaped the entire last ditch AAA fire and hit the underground pens of MiG 29s. But the structures were made to handle exactly such kind of hits and the damage was minimal.

  Considering the amount of firepower launched to take it out, the base had escaped virtually unscathed. Only serious damage was to the runway which was put out of order for a few hours. None of the aircraft and other vital assets were damaged. Four MiG 29s which were on CAP duty earlier were starting to get a bit low on the fuel and were diverted to Srinagar.

  While Indian personnel in the base worked to repair the damage, others elsewhere started on their missions to inflict at least equal if not more pain to Chinese for yet another attack. Work on a counter attack had begun as soon as the warnings of incoming missiles had come in. By the time last of the Chinese missiles had been cleared out of skies, Indian missile crews were ready with their own reply. Although Chinese had a seemingly overwhelming quantitative advantage over Indians, civil war inside their two provinces and the escalating conflict with Taiwan-US and tensions with Russia had stretched their resources to the limits. Thus providing Indians with a fighting chance if they planned their moves right.

  India had already declared its willingness to go nuclear against China in face of any more provocations and thus replied back in a way that few people anywhere had ever expected.

  Within minutes of Chinese attack, Indians had launched their own Shaurya hypersonic cruise missiles. Although Chinese too had fairly robust air defense systems in form of S300 ABM, sheer scale of attack overwhelmed their defenses, helped in no less deal by the uniqueness of a hypersonic cruise missile. Of the nineteen missiles launched, thirteen found their targets. Unlike Chinese, the Indians had spread their choice of targets on multiple bases and the effects on Chinese military capability in those areas were crippling. Most of their military bases north of J&K in Tibet were hit with conventional explosive warheads, except for four which were annihilated with nuclear bunker busters. Those bases were suspected to store Chinese nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

  Chinese military assets in Aksai Chin were given special attention. Two whole Chinese Rapid Reaction Force divisions had been mobilized into the region to thwart any Indian offensive and these took the brunt of the damage. The Chinese edge in armour was more or less neutralised, first by three conventional missile strikes, then by bombing raids by Jaguars which followed minutes later.

  The disproportionate response by Indians dealt a crippling blow on Chinese ability to wage war in Laddakh-Tibet sector and they needed to move fast in order to capitalize on it. Compared to Aksai Chin, Shaksgam Valley area was lightly defended. One reason was its previous border with ally Pakistan and another was its difficult mountainous terrain. Anything needed to maintain strong defensive positions in the area was prohibitively expensive and difficult like hell. For the Indians, biggest hurdle in Shaksgam Valley was weather and terrain. On the other hand, comparatively flatter terrain of Aksai Chin was more conducive to troop movements and pitched battles both by armour as well as infantry. Both India and China had strong military presence along this border. Although Chinese had better roads and were numerically stronger, precision missile and air strikes had neutralized much of their offensive capability.

  After near complete destruction of Pakistani military, Indian armed forces were feeling confident enough to move most of their Pakistan centric defenses towards the China border, thus strengthening their position vis-a-vis Chinese. It was only 2-3 hours after the Chinese cruise missile attack that the first of Indian soldiers re-entered Indian territories illegally held by China.

  0100 Hours

  6th November 2012

  Somewhere In India

  Just like the last time, Chinese President came to the point of interest immediately, "Mr. Shivendra, I must strongly protest your army's actions in Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley. I thought that we had an agreement on not escalating the violence till we catch and punish the criminals on our side."

  DM Shivendra shot back, �
�Are you that ignorant of what your military is doing right in front of you or are you just playing with us Mr. Peng? Also, our armed forces are acting under our direct orders and our orders were to not to take any further attack lying down. Your army attacked us without any provocation near Shaksgam Valley, and then fired sixteen cruise missiles at us. You think that we'll take all that provocations lying down? I had warned you earlier against any further misadventure which you ignored."

  "That helicopter of yours was shot down by some overzealous guards when it seemed like it was going to cross over to our side. It was an honest mistake."

  DM ground his teeth in anger, “Honest mistake! Your men not only shot down the helicopter which was 10s of KMs away from territory occupied by you, but also ambushed our soldiers who went out to help the survivors. Your men were no ordinary border guards. They were well trained Special Forces operatives and were under specific instructions to sabotage and harass our military personnel. We have their dead bodies and identity papers to show for it. Don't you lie with me on this one Mr. Peng? We all know who was responsible for what."

  Seeing uncomfortable the look on other people's faces present in room, DM took a deep breath to calm himself then continued, "Even if you were not at fault there, who is going to take responsibility for firing off sixteen missiles at us ? Was that one of your investigative tactics? "

  Chinese President answered with a menace in his voice, “I don't think that you understand what is at stake here. Your country has already suffered one nuclear attack. I don't even want to imagine what a full fledged nuclear war will do to your beautiful nation."

  This was the last straw for DM who shot up from his chair and hissed in to the mouthpiece, “If you are blackmailing us with your nuclear toys, then you'll do well to remember the fate of your Pakistani poodles. They tried playing the same game with us and see what that brought for them. You make one stupid move and I swear that your fate will be worse than Pakis. You must be extremely naive to think that I'm making empty threats."

  All the pretense of diplomacy had vanished from the conversation.

  Seeing the move backfiring, Chinese Pres immediately changed track, “I hope you understand that we are not fighting over a personal issue here. Lives of one-thirds of the world's population are at stake here. Any hot-headed decision will be catastrophic for the whole world. "

  “Please don't lecture me on this. It became personal for me and for everybody else when we saw more than thirty thousand fellow Indians burn to death in an instant. What surprises me that you still have the gall to call and threaten us."

  Chinese President's voice assumed a conciliatory tone, "I completely understand what your country is going through, but you must understand that the attack was a conspiracy between Pakistanis and a few Chinese rogue elements. We can't let isolated incidents disrupt peace when so much is at stake."

  "I'll tell you what is at stake for you. If you don't agree to what we demand, then be ready to say good bye to your China as you know it. With Pakistan, we limited our strikes to military targets. We wouldn't be so considerate in your case. Every single city of yours in our range will be burnt to ashes. I'll personally start the massacre by firing off your two missiles that we captured from Gilgit. I had warned you of what we are capable of in our last conversation and trust me, I'll do exactly that."

  "We'll do exactly what we agreed upon in our previous conversation, as soon as you call back your soldiers from our territory."

  DM answered with a twisted smile, “I’m sorry to say it to you, but Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley don't belong to China anymore. Even as we talk, our soldiers are pushing back yours to reclaim what's rightfully ours."

  "We don't have much time to play such games. I'm requesting you to put an end to hostilities and recall your soldiers. Otherwise things will get nasty real quick."

  Ignoring the threat DM continued, "I hear Tibetans and Uighurs are giving you lots of trouble. Also, the US is right at your throat over that Taiwanese F-16 incident. I suggest you forget about Aksai Chin and Shaksgam and concentrate on rest of your trouble spots."

  "You must know that we have the capability of doing much worse with your dissidents than what you can do with ours." was the predictable reply, which most people in the room just shrugged off.

  Everyone in the room watched the verbal duel between the two leaders with bated breaths. Indian blitzkrieg in two sectors had routed the Chinese defences. In Aksai Chin, two pronged attack by Indian mountain divisions had over run most of their defensive strongholds and taken control of vital highways that Chinese had constructed. Indians had preferred bypassing Chinese forces and encircling them wherever possible instead of engaging in pitched battles. Shaksgam Valley which had only token military presence too was overrun without much trouble. Guerrilla attacks by Tibetan rebels assisted by Special Forces had disrupted Chinese supply lines and thrown most of their battle plans out of order. Even if PLA succeeded in pushing Indians back over the next few days, it'd still be a major embarrassment for much hyped Chinese military might. And as of now, PLA looked too disorganized and disoriented even to put up a decent fight.

  Indians had been bracing up for an attack further south in Arunachal Pradesh, but so far the fight had been limited to artillery duels with neither side committing to a full scale fight, which suited India just fine.

  After the successive setbacks, Chinese had realised that their own position was precarious and were looking for a way to save their face. Everybody knew that Chinese President was on phone only because he was on the verge of a very embarrassing defeat. His aggressive posturing was nothing more than false bravado and attempts of intimidation, which had no effect on Indians. Seeing all of his attempts of bullying Indian leadership in to submission, Peng changed tracks.

  "Listen Mr. Shivendra, We all realize that a war is not in our interest. We need to end the conflict before it expands and turns nastier. Nuclear weapons have already been used. So far, only military targets have been attacked but you know we have to end this before either of us is forced in to something even more destructive. We need to wind all this down"

  DM leaned back on his chair and looked around the room at the people surrounding him and spoke, "What are you offering us?”