Chimera

“Indeed! An absolute lunatic. He might have killed some of his own people in there. Not a good sign of FAC coordination.”

The EO operator switched the view from visual to thermal. Now the screen showed the black and white live-feed video. The screen was showing the struggle of the TI data computer to resolve and correct for the fluctuations in light as white color fireballs raced into the sky and then turned black again in seconds.

Three hundred kilometers away and ten thousand feet above them, a Heron unmanned aircraft was silently flying over south-eastern Tibet with its eyes pointed downwards as part of a covert intelligence gathering mission. Part of this mission tasking involved collecting intelligence on PLA dispositions that would later end up in the hands of Lieutenant-Colonel Gephel and his team on the ground below. It was no mistake that they were over the same terrain where Gephel and his team had been expected to meet up with local Tibetan informants before the PLA battalions had ruined that party. So now the high endurance aircraft was orbiting over the village of Shiquanhe, observing from above what Gephel and his team had seen firsthand. But while the latter were now escaping to the north on foot, the Heron crew at Leh was recording on their cameras the devastating J-10 strike against the village outskirts that had left dozens of buildings destroyed or on fire.

The skies were getting crowded and they had just received word from their contacts within Military Intelligence that Chinese airborne radars had been detected on their way south towards the border. With a powerful Chinese airborne radar aircraft entering the skies, and enemy fighters approaching, it was time to leave.

The Heron pilot inside the trailer at Leh now pushed the joystick slightly to the right while his eyes remained fixed to the HUD display in front of him. On this display he was essentially seeing what the Heron was seeing. The Heron was quick to respond to the remote pilot commands and it banked to the right before initiating a southern turn. The view on the remote pilot’s optics confirmed the same.

As the Heron initiated its escape, two hundred kilometers to the north four Chinese Su-27s tore through the skies on their way south…

AIRSPACE OVER SOUTHWESTERN TIBET

TIBET

MAY 15, 2028 HRS

Ten thousand feet above the snow clad mountains of Tibet, and three hundred and fifty kilometers away from its Indian counterpart, a ‘red’ IL-76 based AWACS, the KJ-2000, tore through the cold rarefied air on its way south. Its dorsal mounted airborne radar was fully active, and inside the aircraft fifteen PLAAF officers awaited the first contacts to appear on their screens. It didn’t take long. The lone J-10 near the border with India was soon picked up on active systems, though the passive ones suggested that there were Indian aircraft also in the skies further south, most notably the Phalcon AWACS. The small airframe of the escaping Heron UAV was not picked up at this range, however. The Chinese commander on board rubbed his eyes as he walked over to the lead radar officer. Contact was imminent now…

AIRSPACE OVER LADAKH

INDIA

MAY 15, 2030 HRS

The three Indian Mig-29 Fulcrum fighters under the command of Squadron-Leader Khurana were flying just over the peaks as they dashed to the southeast to barricade the lone Chinese J-10 just over the border. Rough geographical features and the curving nature of the horizon prevented their detection by enemy radar. But that was about to change. They were approaching the border now, and it was time to show themselves to the other side…

“Okay boys, time to look sharp. Weapons tight. Follow me in,” Khurana spoke to the other two pilots over the radio before gently pulling back on the control stick. The aircraft nosed up and lifted effortlessly into the higher air, and almost immediately the threat picture lit up.

The on-board Radar-Warning-Receiver or RWR bleeped an audio warning into the ears of the three pilots as the emissions from the Chinese AWACS saturated the skies. Khurana looked instinctively to his left to see the threat far to the north, but of course the skies were as dark as ever with only stars above and the rocky peaks below.

He knew this was deceptive. There were Su-27s out there somewhere, potentially flanking his flight of three. But his job was to keep his eyes peeled for the single J-10 doing mud-moving work in the hills to the east and leave the Su-27 threat for the Indian Su-30MKIs also sharing the skies with him over Ladakh.

As for that J-10, the Phalcon had lost contact when the Chinese pilot had gone low within the hills. But he would be poking his nose out of the hills after completing his strike and it was Khurana’s job to ensure that this happened on the Chinese side and not on the Indian one…

AIRSPACE OVER SOUTHWESTERN TIBET

TIBET

MAY 15, 2032 HRS