by Vivek Ahuja
That bombardment did not go unnoticed on the thermal scopes of the Nishant’s optical systems. Sudarshan watched in silence as the distant rumblings coming from the east confirmed what he was seeing on the battlefield laptop in front of him…
“Damn! My view just flared-out, sir!” Kulkarni’s gunner said as he reeled back from the sights.
They had just witnessed the impact of the rockets on the horizon in front of their advancing line of tanks. The thermal scopes sorted out the white fireballs and adjusted coloration to bring the view back under control in a few seconds.
Kulkarni keyed his comms:
“Steel-central, this is Rhino-One! B-D-A inconclusive at our end. Too much interference! Can you confirm? Over”
“Roger, Rhino-One. Enemy infantry taking heavy fire and is suppressed. Two Z-B-Ds on fire and one T-99 crew abandoning vehicle. Stand by!”
“Roger!” Kulkarni said without looking away from his sights.
“Rhino-One, flight of four Jaguars on station with precision weapons. Redirecting to point-victory for armor suppression tasking. Ensure friendly armor thermal I-D transmitters are active. Confirm last! Over.”
“Rhino copies all! Thermal I-D beacons active. Line of ten Arjun tanks forward of L-O-D. Do not engage this force! That’s us. All armor units north of this line are viable targets! Over.” Kulkarni said, and shared a look with his gunner.
It was a scary thought thinking about a laser-guided-bomb headed down amidst the smoke and dust above them. One mistake and friendly tanks could easily be hit. They were now bypassing the last known advance lines of the 10TH Mechanized from the previous day. Beyond was open terrain all the way to the objective. There was no hiding it now…
ABOVE THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL
EAST OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 0550 HRS
“Weapons un-caged!” the pilot said as he checked his instruments and pulled back on the stick.
These Jaguar pilots had been to this battlefield countless times in the days before. They had aged quite a bit under the strain of continuous combat sorties. Combat losses for the Indian Jaguar force had been high given the very deadly nature of their tasks. But those loss rates had dissipated to a very small value in the last two days as the PLA and the PLAAF air-defense had been rolled back or eliminated by heavy suppression missions flown by these pilots. They could now afford to fly higher now and engage from safe distances, out of the combat envelope of the short-range surface-to-air missiles and unguided weapons.
They could not go too far to the north though with a single surviving S-300 battery still active near the PLA supply nodes, but the Ladakh frontline was clear. This localized air superiority was visible to the pilots of the four twin-seat Jaguars.
As the pilot waited for his WSO to spin up the weapons and begin target acquisition from the laser-designation pod, a flight of three Mig-29s from No. 28 Squadron on offensive-counter-air tasking cruised a couple thousand feet above them, guided with airborne intelligence from the No. 50 Squadron Phalcon further to the south.
These Jaguars had taken off from their forward deployment base at Srinagar AFB and had been waiting for their turn to deploy over the battlefield. Having tanked from a waiting Il-78 over Srinagar, the flight of four had now entered the battlefield…
“Designator active! I have acquisition. Friendly units have lit up their thermal I-D markers!” the WSO said from the rear seat as the pilot scanned the skies. He could see the ineffective lines of tracers being fired by the Chinese forces below him. None of which could reach them at this altitude.
“Thank god for small mercies, eh?” the pilot noted dryly.
There had already been blue-on-blue attacks in this war. In the most egregious case, not twelve hours ago, a Jaguar from the Tuskers had lit up a couple of friendly BMP-IIs at the Pangong-Tso shores amidst a chaotic running firefight between Indian and Chinese light-armor units. These things happened, but it didn’t make it any more acceptable.
“Roger that, sir,” the WSO said. “Okay, I have an enemy tank in its revetment north of our guys. Suggest we go for a drop!”
“Roger. Drop on your go,” the pilot replied.
The WSO switched on the targeting laser and had a positive reflection from the metallic turret of the T-99 below.
“Target is lit! Drop in three, two, one. Dropped!”
The aircraft gained a few dozen feet of altitude as soon as the heavy weapon fell off its pylons. The pilot looked to his left and right and saw other aircraft releasing weapons as well. Three laser-guided-bombs were on the way down with split-second delays and fourth one with a ten second delay…
“Steady on the marker!” the pilot cautioned.
“I have it! Steady and holding. Impact in three…two…one...”
The thermal view flared white following by an inverted black cone of mud and soot that flew upwards from the impact point.
Three targeted tanks were destroyed.
There was no explosion from the fourth bomb, which malfunctioned.
“Boom!” the WSO exclaimed. The pilot chuckled.
“Roger that. Damage assessment?”
“Boss, I probably dropped it through the tank commander’s hatch!”
“Point taken!” the pilot said. “Okay, find me a new target. We still have one more hanging.”
“Copy. Beginning acquisition…”
“Eagle-Eye-One here. We have another inbound flight of J-10s on possible offensive tasking heading in from the northeast. Suggest all ground-tasked missions to abort and egress immediately. All D-C-A missions will advance to contact. Eagle-Eye-One has the ball. Out.”
The brief message from the Phalcon mission commander was enough to cause the Jaguar pilots to start sweating. They saw the three Mig-29s above them dropping their external fuel-tanks and lighting up afterburners as they accelerated into combat somewhere to the east.
It was becoming dangerous out here for bomb-laden Jaguars…
“You heard the radar boys, buddy. Find me a target or we are bugging the hell out of here in thirty seconds. I am not waiting around to see whether the Fulcrum drivers win their fight or not!” the pilot said urgently.
“Hold on, boss! I can find a target here. Our boys down there need us to take out as many targets as we can before their assault. Give me fifteen seconds over here and I will find you a commie tank!” the WSO replied.
“Roger. Fifteen seconds. Make it count!” the pilot said. He spotted three small flashes of light near the departing Mig-29s to the east. The lights were from the Mig-29s firing their air-to-air missiles. He saw the Fulcrums breaking formation and dropping flares…
RHINO FORCE POSITIONS
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 0620 HRS
The floor of the tank shuddered under the shockwave from the laser-guided-bombs exploding amidst the Chinese defenses. Kulkarni smiled as he watched the show from his turret optics. He keyed his comms:
“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements: we are weapons free! Let them have it! Engage all moving targets!”
Six of the ten Arjun tanks in the line had acquired targets already. Those tanks lit up as their main guns fired and each tank went into autonomous killing mode while on the move. This terrain was not meant for anything larger than small unit maneuvers, which meant that it was a slugfest. Whichever target presented itself to any tank under Kulkarni’s command would be engaged, destroyed or trampled over under the mass of the Arjun tank.
Chinese forces facing Kulkarni were already reeling from the incessant artillery and precision high-altitude air-strikes. The PLA Division commander had been screaming for air-cover and Lieutenant-General Chen at Kashgar had surged forward several flights of J-10s to run interference and cause the Indian aircraft to abort their strikes. On the ground, Colonel Sudarshan’s plan called for no lull to deny the enemy time to regain their composure.
Blitzkrieg at its finest.
The PLA soldiers on the two hills bracketing the valle
y had taken heavy losses. Their positions were still covered in smoke. Those that had not been killed outright were reeling from the pressure waves that had rippled through their bodies in seconds, literally burying dozens in their bunkers and trenches.
Between their two hills lay their armor units defending the left flank of their MSR from the Aksai Chin. This was point-victory for the 43RD Armored Regiment, the 4TH Mechanized and the 9TH Punjab battalions of the Indian army in DBO. The PLA Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the western hill watched from his NVG systems a line of ten Arjun tanks rolling down the valley, their turrets rotating left and right as they engaged what remained of his positions.
His first response was to call his armored force commander, but that thought passed when he saw pillars of fire amidst the dozen or so T-99s available to him. The ZBDs were doing no better. Several of them were moving past the burning chassis of the vehicles ahead of them to get a clear line of sight and engage the Indian tanks.
But to no avail.
The Arjun tanks outgunned and outperformed the optics on any of the PLA vehicle types. They were picking out and eliminating any vehicle that managed to pull past the wrecks around them even before the crew of that vehicle could see who was shooting at them.
Several Chinese T-99s did manage to fire their main guns once the Arjun tanks got closer, but the vastly superior armor of the Indian tanks prevented losses. One Arjun tank did come to a stop after being hit. Its turret blow-off panels flew off under an explosion and directed the impact energy away from the crew compartment. Three crewmembers of that tank piled out of the turret as its engine caught fire.
In return, other Arjun tanks simultaneously fired at the two remaining Chinese T-99s and sent fireballs flying underneath their turrets, destroying each tank in catastrophic explosions. There were no survivors in either tank. No such chance existed.
As the horrified Chinese commander realized what was happening, he picked up the radio and changed unit frequencies to forward a warning order to the rear-echelon units and his reserve ZBD force.
This latter force began to mobilize seconds later. But it was too late. The nine Arjun tanks were bypassing the destroyed lines of the PLA armor regiment and entering the rear area occupied by convoys of trucks other light-skinned vehicles. As each tank began firing streams of tracer rounds into the soft skinned vehicles and ammo-filled trucks, the Chinese soldiers abandoned their trucks and began running in all directions.
Some attempted to fire rocket-propelled-grenades at the advancing Arjun tanks, but the latter shrugged off the attacks on its Kanchan composite-armor plating. In turn, they responded by cutting down the offenders with bursts of co-axial machinegun fire.
As Rhino force reached the other side of the valley, they were surrounded by dozens of burning trucks and other vehicles. The Chinese logistical train feeding the ground offensive against DBO had been destroyed.
“Rhino-One to steel-central: objective achieved! Point-victory has been taken. Enemy divisional rear area has been destroyed and the main supply route has been cut!”
THIMPU
BHUTAN
DAY 7 + 1030 HRS
The streets could not have been more deserted if god himself had wanted it. The aftermath of a panicked evacuation of Thimpu’s residents was everywhere. The northern outskirts of Thimpu were a ghost town.
Captain Pathanya observed this as his team emerged from the bushes and carefully walked on the muddy roads between the houses. There were bound to be people still here, he reasoned. And sure enough, around the corner of the street, there were residents still trying to get their belongings together from the upper floors of their house as the nine Indian soldiers walked around the corner.
Pathanya’s men had their faces covered with soot and dirt. Three of them limped as they walked from injuries sustained during the battle for Wang-Chu earlier in the morning. Pathanya’s uniform and equipment were still stained with blood from before.
They had delayed as much as they could, but the officers of the Chinese Highland Division were no fools. After initial setbacks they had suffered at Pathanya’s hands, they had figured out the weakness of the Indian positions in Bhutan. They understood that the attacks by the PLAAF on Paru airfield had crippled Indian force-reconstitution capabilities in western Bhutan.
They understood also that there were only a couple of good main-supply-routes into Bhutan from the Indian border. Their drive on Thimpu had the desired effect of sending the local populace in panic and clogged the approaches to Bhutan from the south. To their unexpected pleasure, they had been assisted greatly in the uncontrolled media coverage from Thimpu by the media networks. So they had marshaled their brigade, spread out the forward units to avoid mass casualties from attacks by Fernandez’s rocket-artillery unit near Paru and now were less than a dozen kilometers from the northern outskirts of Thimpu.
Right on my heels!
Pathanya thought as he and his eight men limped back into the Bhutanese capital. He had been ordered by Potgam to pull back to Thimpu where he was trying to bring in reinforcements and hold the city. The Chinese could not be allowed at take the capital of Bhutan, or it would be a stunning victory for them in the eyes of the Bhutanese populace and utter defeat for Indian control over the small Himalayan state. It would also be a propaganda coup second to none.
Potgam and Pathanya both understood this.
The problem was what reinforcements could be brought in? And how?
While Potgam was attempting to figure that larger question, Pathanya had his own problems at the nasty, tactical end of things. He had been ordered to move to the Dechencholing Palace in Thimpu. It was the main operating point for the government of Bhutan right now. He was to figure out the exact civilian situation from the local officials there and ascertain the availability of RBA units to help defend the city.
The disintegration of the RBA during the initial assaults by the Chinese forces in northern Bhutan had not left many units to play with. Most that remained were closer to police and paramilitary units. And even their availability was currently unknown. Many had deserted and left along with their families to the south after the king and his family had been evacuated two days ago. The Bhutanese monarchy was a tight knit group, but remove the one binding thread and the whole group could unwind…
The remaining civilians in the northern outskirts were scrambling at the sight of Pathanya’s men, not knowing whose side they were on. Others recognized them as Indians but also realized from their condition that the Chinese were not far behind.
Pathanya saw housewives grab their kids and run while truck drivers left their vehicles with the engines still revving. Vikram, coming up behind Pathanya had his rifle at shoulder level and aimed at any sudden threat that might appear from the windows in the deserted streets. He brought it up on a reflexive move and pointed it towards a second floor window only to see a man in his mid-thirties close the shutters in anticipation of the upcoming battle. The streets became silent in front of the small group of Indians.
“Damn. What do you think they know that we don’t?” Vikram said as he lowered his rifle away from that window.
“That the Chinese are coming. They couldn’t have missed hearing the ever-increasing gunfire and arty noise we were dropping on the Chinese all the way south from winchester-charlie,” Ravi replied and chimed off.
“Keep the chatter down!” Pathanya ordered. “Vik, bring out your IMFS and set up on top of this house here.”
Pathanya pointed to the same house that Vikram had pointed his rifle to a few moments ago. It was the tallest such house around and had a good line-of-sight to the north from its flat roof. Better yet, the roof had side walls made of concrete unlike other houses around.
“Take two and set up an O-P here,” Pathanya continued. “I want you to be my eyes and ears.”
He turned to Ravi further down the line. The team members had taken positions along the edge of the road and were on their knees covering possible ambush sectors wi
th their rifles. Pathanya pointed two fingers to his eyes and then swept them across the street. The soldiers nodded in turn. He then keyed his comms again:
“Ravi, you and the rest of the boys are with me. I want to advance on the palace and see what’s going on. Vik, I want you and your O-P team to stay here as long as you can. When the position becomes untenable, make your way back to the palace. This is not a strategic position for holding this city, so don’t let yourselves be cornered trying to hold it. I want no heroic last stands for these four plaster walls. Play hell and fall back. We will meet you at the palace. That will be our primary combat position. Understood?”
“Roger that boss!” Vikram replied with a nod.
“Good. Okay, rest of you: let’s pull out. Ravi, take point,” Pathanya ordered and his team went into action.
Vikram pointed to two of the men and the three of them lowered their rifles, removed explosives and a handful of mines they had left from their backpacks and ran across the street to start setting them up. Vikram ran to the entrance door of the house and knocked on it politely. The same middle-aged man he had seen earlier showed up, nervous and sweating to see heavily armed soldiers knocking on his door. He spoke broken Hindi so Vikram pointed out the need for him and his family to vacate the house right then and there.
The man was hesitant but there was no time so Vikram and another soldier from his team pushed the man aside and entered. They found the man’s wife and kids inside, shouting at the intrusion. Vikram grabbed what looked like a bag from the man’s living room and ordered him to put stuff in and get out while there was still time. Finally the man relented and began telling his wife and kids to start moving the essential items into the bags. Pathanya was on the other side of the road during this commotion. As he saw the civilian man and his family rush out of the house with their handful of belongings, he smiled and keyed the comms:
“Everything okay in there, Vik?”
“Yeah boss. All clear here. I guess the old man needed a more forceful argument as to why his presence here was detrimental to his and his family’s health.”
