Chimera

It was made up of five major surface ships, including two formidable Type-052C Air-Defense Destroyers and three Sovremenny class Guided-Missile Destroyers. Then there were the auxiliary and support ships in the group, adding to a total of about twelve ships. Their Varyag aircraft-carrier was not in the group and had not left port: the Chinese had not yet developed operational capability in their carrier air-wings.

Surakshan could understand that, given his own naval aviation past. One just doesn’t raise an effective naval air-wing for a carrier battle-group by buying a carrier and some planes. It takes time, training and experience. The Chinese naval commanders were not going to commit something that could not add value to a fight, and which, at its worst, could become a liability on the other surface warriors in the fleet.

Not to mention a very high value target and very visible loss of face in case that thing went down to the bottom of the ocean…

Surakshan smiled. The Chinese fleet commander was not stupid. He had probably requested leaving the carrier behind. The rest of his ships were heavy-hitters and worthy to commit into battle. Besides, the PLAN had trained on these vessels for many years and was confident.

We shall damn well see, won’t we?

Surakshan threw back the color-enhanced satellite imagery of the Chinese ships from a few hours ago…

His main problem was that he would have to deal with this threat before he could deal with his primary objective of shutting down the Chinese merchant shipping. Time was of the essence. He could not afford to take forever to deal with the Chinese fleet. The war was escalating on the mainland and the sooner he could apply some pressure on the arteries with a naval blockade, the better.

It was quite obvious that for the Chinese to attempt any naval engagements with his fleet, they would have to bypass Malacca and thereby make a long roundabout trip to get here. In doing so, they were also effectively cut off from land based air-support. And their subs were busy fighting with Indian naval ASW forces in the Malacca Strait.

Surakshan’s fleet was fighting with their back towards home waters and extensive support. He had land-based air-support from both the islands as well as long-range air-support by P-8I and older Tu-142M maritime patrol aircraft.

The only thing he did not have was effective airborne radar coverage. The lone No. 50 Squadron of the IAF was already spread very thin over the Himalayas fighting the PLAAF fighters and missiles. It was thin enough that large gaps existed in the airborne coverage even on that front, not counting the border with Pakistan. There were no airborne-radar aircraft to spare for the navy given such acute shortage of aircraft.

So the navy had to depend on its force of Ka-31 AEW helicopters to provide airborne control for the Vikramaditya’s air-group as well as mid-course cueing for its anti-ship missiles. Not ideal on that front by any means. But it was something.

Surakshan had his fleet of twenty warships split into a carrier support group and a destroyer group screening ahead about fifty kilometers south. This latter group consisted of two Delhi-class guided-missile destroyers: the INS Delhi and INS Mysore. Also in the group were the Rajput-class ships INS Rana and INS Ranjit and the P-17 stealth warships Shivalik, Satpura and Sayhadri. He had held back the INS Ranvir as a personal shotgun for his carrier group while INS Mumbai was the Flagship of the X-Ray group. INS Deepak and Jyoti were also steaming with the carrier.

Several hundred kilometers south, a single P-8I aircraft was flying south to meet up and maintain constant long-range contact with the Chinese surface group just outside the range of the 052C warships.

Surakshan wondered what the Chinese ISR capabilities were. He knew they had Ka-31 AEW helicopters just like his own. He also knew they were using satellites just like he was. But while he could maintain round-the-clock eyes on their ships using the P-8s and the Tu-142s, they had no such capabilities. And Surakshan knew the disadvantages of satellite based fleet monitoring because he was dealing with those as well. With just satellite intelligence available to the Chinese fleet commander, there was no way from them to know exactly where the Indian ships were until they made some sort of direct sensor contact, leaving their knowledge outdated by at least an hour to two, if not more.

Perhaps an advantage lay there?

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 8 + 1200 HRS

“How do we close this gap?” Chen asked, referring to the destruction of the two S-300 batteries near Shigatse and Lhasa by Indian ALCMs.