Chimera

by Vivek Ahuja

  “Well?”

  “Sir, they are bringing in two more Regiments to reinforce their lines. Same as before: digging in before advancing. Pathanya’s team here,” he pointed on the pinned map with a marker, “reported twelve hours ago that they have seen evidence of precision artillery attacks against RBG forces near the Wang-Chu Bridge on the approach to Thimpu. They might even be using R-P-Vs of their own for precision targeting. Also, I think it’s a safe bet that the Brigade of the Highland Division advancing on Thimpu will hold one Battalion in reserve and the other two for the advance. There are also at least three enemy special operations teams inside our A-O.”

  Potgam folded his arms as he continued to stare at the map in front.

  “Yeah, I agree. I want those bastards found and killed before they cause any trouble. As for the Brigade north of Thimpu, all I heard from you is an enemy plan if we just decided to sit around and do nothing. And that’s not happening! What I see is an enemy commander so cautious and methodical that it leaves him vulnerable to an unorthodox foe. He has also shown us that he unable to adapt to a fast moving situation,” Potgam concluded ruthlessly.

  He paced around the room lost in his thoughts for a minute before he stopped and looked at the other operations officers waiting for him:

  “Get Pathanya on the horn and tell him to hold that bridge he’s on. We have no defenses north of Thimpu other than Pathanya’s men. Until we can get reinforcements brought into Paru, I want him to fight a delaying battle with the help of Fernandez and his precision rocket launchers. Keep delaying the reds until we are ready to take the fight back to them. I want to fight this battle on our terms, not theirs. Right now they have a larger force slowed down by its bulk. We have a fast and flexible force with superior firepower. Let’s use that to our advantage!”

  OVER SOUTHERN SIKKIM

  DAY 6 + 1800 HRS

  “Inbound bombers! Heading south from Golmud!”

  The radar operators on board the CABS AEW aircraft were quick to detect the approaching H-6s from Wugong at long-range.

  “Missile launches! Detecting stand-off ripple launches!” the operator shouted over the intercom. The mission-commander, Group-Captain Virendra Roy, ran over.

  “What do you have?” he asked while leaning over the shoulder of the operator sitting before him.

  “Thirty-six cruise-missiles from the six H-6s launched towards Baghdogra and Hashimara airbases!” the radar operator confirmed.

  The missiles were moving straight in with no deviation: expected performance from the YJ-62 type missiles.

  “Okay, who’s up?” Roy asked.

  As it turned out, a flight of two Mirage-2000s patrolling over Paru in Bhutan were the closest. The two Mirage pilots were quick to move on the threat. They were soon dumping their under-wing drop tanks into the turbulent slipstream behind them and lighting up afterburners to close on the inbound threat…

  BAGHDOGRA

  DAY 6 + 1810 HRS

  Klaxons were sounding off on the airbase as the crew of the two An-32s on the ground rushed into their cockpits to get the aircraft off the ground. Emergency start-up procedures were enacted as ground-crews cleared the support vehicles and logistical equipment supposed to be loaded on board for a flight to Paru.

  The first An-32 engine fired up, quickly followed up by another just as the control tower passed the word that it was shutting down and operational control being passed to the base-operations center, located within a large underground bunker nearby. The handful of Mig-21s on the ground that had just returned from strike operations against Chinese targets in the Chumbi valley were now being quickly moved by primer vehicles into their hardened shelters.

  North of the airbase, the Akash surface-to-air missile battery came online. Its phased-array Rajendra radar went active and began scanning the northern skies.

  OVER THIMPU

  DAY 6 + 1815 HRS

  The capital of Bhutan was in total and utter chaos.

  Civil governance had broken down completely. Residents were fleeing the city in droves and were making their way south. Pillars of smoke could be seen from areas where government documents were being burnt in piles as military vehicles sped by.

  When the supersonic booms broke over the city, it caused many of the residents below to look up at the evening sky in fear. But there was nothing to see. By the time that sonic wave had hit the city the two Indian Mirage-2000s had already streaked north, ripple firing Matra Super 530D missiles at the inbound cruise-missiles…

  “Pickled one and two! Clear release!” the lead Mirage pilot said.

  In front of him he could see the white contrails of his two missiles heading north, veering slightly to the west.

  “Copy! Clear release!” the second pilot also confirmed, sending his two missiles on their way as well.

  A hundred kilometers to the south, the CABS AEW aircraft had also confirmed clear release of four missiles against the thirty-six inbound YJ-62 missiles. With another four missiles on board the two charging Mirages, a total of eight were available. Even if all eight hit their targets, twenty-eight missiles would get through.

  Because the YJ-62s were heading straight to their targets, oblivious to the intercepting missiles, all four 530D missiles slammed into their targets, splashing four of the Chinese missiles out of the sky. As two orange fireballs announced the detonation of the warheads over the mountains, thirty-two missiles streaked by and continued heading south…

  “Two, they are too close for another head on, attempt! Let’s roll in behind for a chase-solution!” the lead Mirage pilot ordered.

  He flipped his aircraft to the right, and pulled down and to the west, attempting to roll in behind subsonic cruise-missiles. His wingman did the same. By the time the maneuver was completed, the YJ-62s had streaked past and cleared Thimpu and were one-hundred kilometers from Baghdogra.

  On board the AEW aircraft, the onboard mission-commander was directing more aircraft to the battle. Most of the Indian presence over the Chumbi valley had been Hashimara based Mig-27s and Bisons from Baghdogra. Both these types relegated to the ground attack role in support of operation Chimera. The No. 7 “Battle-Axes” Squadron had been providing the required air-cover over Sikkim and Bhutan with their Mirage-2000s.

  But there were just not enough fighters in the IAF to defeat such a large standoff attack against a single target. And so the AEW controllers were caught in a tough situation. If they let these two Mirages from No. 7 Squadron expend all of their missiles against the YJ-62s and let the remainder be taken care of by the Siliguri Akash SAM battery, it would leave Bhutanese airspace undefended for a while before other aircraft from the Battle-Axes squadron could take position.

  If on the other hand, they held back the two Mirage pilots from expending their weaponry and return to station over Paru, the Akash battery might not be able to intercept all of the inbound missiles. If that happened and Baghdogra took a hit, it would cripple local air operations severely. The mission-commander on board the AEW made his decision:

  “Sharpshooter-One, take as many out as you can!”

  “Roger! Sharpshooter is rolling in. Out!” the flight-leader confirmed.

  By now the two Mirage pilots had the yellow engine exhaust of the YJ-62s on the horizon in front of them, heading into India…

  Not while I am still here!

  The flight leader thought as he depressed the launch button and felt the jerk as another missile fell off his pylons, fired its rocket motor and appeared from underneath the HUD, its exhaust quickly converting into white trails which spread over the cockpit glass and moved above it. The second missile did the same a moment later. His wingman followed suit. A few seconds later the familiar bleeping noise in the cockpit turned to an undertone screech indicating that the missiles had acquired.

  Four small orange-yellow explosions erupted.

  “Splash-One! Splash-Two!” he said. Twenty-eight missiles left…

  “We are out of weapons, boss! Guns?” the wi
ngman’s voice came through on the comms. The flight-leader smiled underneath his breathing apparatus.

  “Roger that! Let’s roll!” he ordered instantly and punched afterburner to gain on the fast moving missiles. They were burning fuel rapidly but they knew they could always tank up after from an orbiting Il-78 after.

  The two aircraft dived into the attack and lined up an YJ-62 each. It only took small bursts of fire to destroy the delicate missiles and send them crashing into the ground below or blow up their warheads in a jarring fireball that rocked the attacking fighter behind it. A few minutes of combat later, the two pilots had claimed another seven missiles, bringing the total inbounds down to twenty-one…

  “Eagle-Eye-Four, we are out of ammo and the fuel lights are lit up over here! Where’s the nearest tanker?” the “Battle-Axes” leader said as did the calculations on fuel and both fighters pulled out of afterburners and climbed for higher altitude. On board the AEW, Roy heard the request and lowered his comms mouthpiece as he faced one of the controllers nearby:

  “Tell me we have a tanker in the air near Sharpshooter flight!”

  “Roger!” the controller replied, conferring with his screen. “Bareilly outbound tanker bird approaching A-O. Sharpshooter has priority.”

  “Good!” Roy said with a thoughtful nod before turning back towards the other operators: “Inform that SAM battery near Siliguri that our boys have disengaged! Tell them to take their shots now!”

  NORTHEAST OF SILIGURI

  INDIA

  DAY 6 + 1830 HRS

  “Sharpshooter is clear! IFF diagnostic is complete! Target scatter-pattern identified! Take the shots!” the battery commander ordered

  From the plains east of Siliguri, four Akash surface-to-air missile launchers swiveled to the proper azimuth. With the phased array radar controlling four of them at a time, each truck mounted launcher fired one Akash missile. The four white smoke trails left the vehicles with a rumble and a slap-bang noise announced the activation of the ramjet engines on board the missiles. Four other missiles followed suit as the phased-array radar moved through the list of targets and allocated one missile to each. It could handle dozens of targets and was only limited by the number of missiles on hand…

  With such non-maneuvering targets, it might as well have been a training exercise. Each successive Akash slammed into its target and the threat picture reduced. Within minutes, twelve interceptions had brought the number of surviving YJ-62s down to nine. At this time the battery was out of ready-to-fire missiles and had to reload. Control now passed to the parked 9K31 Strela point-defense systems that began launching their infrared missiles from just outside the airbase perimeter at Baghdogra. Several vehicles were parked around the airbase and launched more missiles than there were targets for them. Coupled with zero maneuvers from the YJ-62s, the engagements were sharp and quick. All nine missiles inbound over Baghdogra were terminated before they could reach it. The last two missiles exploded just beyond the runway, spreading red-hot shrapnel all over, but otherwise did no damage.

  OVER EASTERN TIBET

  DAY 6 + 1850 HRS

  The two Chinese Su-30s pulled away silently and menacingly from their last refueling operation before entering combat. Eight J-10s from the 44TH Fighter Division passed below them. Four of these J-10s were armed for air-to-air operations and another three were armed for strike missions. The last J-10 was filling the role of EW support against Indian radars following the loss of their Tu-154M to Indian fighters three days earlier. The ten PLAAF fighters headed south to capitalize on the temporary gap in the Indian aerial coverage over Bhutan…

  OVER SOUTHERN SIKKIM

  DAY 6 + 1855 HRS

  “Inbounds! Multiple inbound tracks! Counting ten fighters!”

  The radar operator shouted over the intercom just as Roy confirmed the successful intercept of the last Chinese cruise-missiles over Baghdogra. He let out a silent curse and ran over.

  “Give it to me!”

  “Eight J-10s and two Su-30s flying top cover! Heading down Bhutan straight for Paru!”

  Oh shit! Roy thought.

  “Who’s up at our end?”

  “Nothing useful!” the operator replied emphatically, checking the airborne roster. “Seven Mig-27s from Hashimara. Five An-32s, two returning from Paru three that had just scrambled from Baghdogra. One Mi-26 offloading at Paru, several Mi-17s around Sikkim, Bhutan and Baghdogra. Sharpshooter Flight refueling from the MARS bird from Bareilly, and they are out of weapons! The nearest Battle-Axes Mirages are still a good distance away!”

  The mission-commander knew what had happened.

  What the hell have I done?

  But there was no time for recriminations now. Just then the operator checked the screen again, as one more flight logged in:

  “Four Mig-21s from Baghdogra, call-sign Bull-rider, are available!”

  “Get Bull-rider to engage and interdict the Chinese strike force,” Roy ordered instantly. “Tell everybody to bug the hell out! Especially those transports and helicopters! Tell that Mi-26 crew at Paru to stay on the ground and not attempt to fly out. Request priority assistance from Eagle-Eye-Three to the east and see if they can lend us some Su-30s to deal with this. And get the Battle-Axes to punch afterburners and head straight in! Those Mig-21 pilots are not going to survive this fight without help!”

  As his crew got down to work, Roy stood straighter and watched the events unfolding in front of his eyes…

  SKIES OVER BHUTAN

  DAY 6 + 1900 HRS

  “Release one! And two!”

  The Wing-Commander “Bull-rider” Tikkar commanding the four Mig-21 Bisons felt his aircraft shudder and become lighter around him as two R-77 missiles streaked from under the aircraft and pulled up into the darkening skies, their exhaust trails disappearing into the gray clouds. Six other missiles from the rest of his flight followed suit.

  The screeching RWR alarm inside the cockpit reminded Tikkar and his pilots that the skies were far from friendly. Enemy missiles were also in the air as the two Chinese Su-30s had released a salvo of four missiles in quick succession…

  Bull-rider flight had just released all of their available R-77s on the two inbound Su-30s. Tikkar was far more comfortable taking on the eight J-10Bs in a “merge” engagement where the agile Bisons could out-turn and out-burn them. The same did not apply to the much more formidable Su-30s.

  The Chinese Su-30 pilots were betting on a second round of BVR after evading the first round of Indian missiles. So they were preserving some rounds. Tikkar knew there would be no second round: range and terrain prevented it. Experience counted in these matters. The two Chinese pilots had made their first tactical error…

  “Turn and burn, people! Break! Break!” Tikkar commanded.

  He instantly pushed throttle all the way into afterburner, immediately feeling the sudden jerk of acceleration.

  Fuel is good. All green!

  He flipped the aircraft to the side, pulled back on the stick and saw the snowcapped Himalayas below fill his view. The RWR was screeching now.

  The Mig-21 is agile like a sports car. But pulling out after a tight inner flip-turn after cutting afterburner strained the airframe and the response was sluggish. The aircraft dived below the peaks. Standard tactics.

  All eight Indian R-77 shots were now in terminal phase and on their own now that they had lost the radar guidance from the launch aircraft. Presumably the Chinese pilots had done the same.

  If not, well…

  Tikkar noticed that he was over Paru…

  The Joint-Force-Bhutan troops were getting a firsthand look at the battle taking place in the skies above. The first two Mig-21s screeched through the valley at low-altitude and full afterburner. Three enemy missiles streaked over the peaks from the northern leading exhaust trails line a line across the sky. The first R-77 slashed past the two Indian aircraft, having completely lost all contact with its target.

  The remaining two missiles snapped down on acquisi
tion and slashed across the flight-path of the two Indian pilots. One of the two missiles detonated in front of the rear Mig-21 in the pair…

  The ensuing fireball and shockwave encompassed the doomed aircraft as it passed through it. When it exited the cloud a split-second later, it disintegrated into several pieces. The fuselage flipped over and snapped into several pieces and the onboard fuel ignited, sending smoky pillars of debris earthward just beyond the Paru airport perimeter.

  “Oh god! Bull-rider-two is down! I say again, Bull-rider-two is down east of Paru airfield!” the other pilot’s voice broke over the comms, strained from the shock. But the bad news kept on piling.

  “Bull-rider-four is down!”

  “Eagle-Eye-Three, I need a sitrep, now!” Tikkar demanded.

  On board the AEW aircraft, the mission commander ran his hands over his forehead upon hearing the news. And the battle had just begun…

  “Bull-rider-Actual, we show one S-U-Two-Seven is down! The other is somewhere in the weeds north of Thimpu! Three Juliet-tens are spreading into BVR pattern over northern Bhutan, waiting for you!”

  “Roger! Bull-rider-Three, confirm copy of last!” Tikkar ordered while taking his aircraft north by cutting through the valleys.

  “Bull-rider-Three copies all! Pop-up I-R shots?”

  “Affirmative! Stick to the valley floors! I do not have visual on you, so we are doing this individually. Good I-R contrast against the cold skies from down below! Keep an eye out for that other Sierra-Uniform bird to our north. Don’t mix it up with him! Out!” Tikkar shouted, and flipped his selection to the infrared guided R-60 missiles, of which he had two.

  The J-10Bs had spread into a loose line-abreast formation just as they cleared into northern Bhutan. Now they were scanning south for the two evading Mig-21s. They had already detected the emissions from the CABS AEW to the south, which they knew to be directing the Indian defenses, but it was too far away.