Chimera

As their prey disappeared from the radar view, the five Indian Su-30 pilots instantly banked in five different directions, dropped chaff all over the skies and streaked south. One-hundred-fifty kilometers behind them, the nine J-11s from Urumqi and the five J-7s from Korla were closing fast.

But there was no time to stay around and engage the Chinese fighters. All Indian Su-30s over the Taklimakan desert would soon be running low on fuel and weapons and the skies around them were literally filling up with PLAAF fighters. Sixteen J-7s were now airborne from Kashgar from the 17TH Air Regiment there. Enemy fighters were closing in from all directions on the compass around the Indian intruders…

As the five Indian Su-30s screeched over where they had entangled with the Chinese J-11s, they were joined by the surviving force of Su-30s. Su-30s had been lost to the Chinese air-to-air missiles and another had been damaged. The damaged aircraft had not stuck around. It had been dispatched south with another Su-30 as escort. The remaining force of twelve Su-30s formed up over Hotien and headed south.

The Phalcon crew confirmed that the Chinese airborne radar coverage was now down over most of western Tibet, barring the single KJ-200 whose long wavelength signatures had just become visible over the horizon. It was as yet too far away to be a contributor to the next phase of operation Pivot-Strike…

OVER SHYOK

LADAKH

DAY 8 + 2300 HRS

The eight Jaguars from No. 5 ‘Tuskers’ Squadron dove for the deck just above the peaks as they headed north towards the Karakoram Mountains. These eight aircraft represented the entire squadron force left now after so many days of continuous operations.

As they headed over DBO, they could see the battlefield below littered with hundreds of burnt out and still burning armored vehicles from both sides. They took some intermittent undirected gunfire from the ground. The Tuskers pilots could make out the intensive tank engagement taking place below between Arjun tanks and a dozen Chinese T-99s coming into the sector from Qara-Tagh La. Fireballs were rising into the sky as vehicles exploded while the Jaguars darted across the skies above them.

Yet again the Tuskers were doing what they did best.

They crossed over the Karakoram peaks and the two groups of four aircraft each banked in unison to the west, passing between the Shaksgam valley to their south and the Togras-Kangri peaks to the north. They were technically within the range of the airborne radar coverage of the PAF Karakoram Eagle aircraft over Gilgit, but flying below the peaks allowed them to evade detection.

From where they were, they could now see the snowcapped K2 peak to the south as a massive black silhouette jutting into the greenish night sky.

The two groups of Jaguars now turned north, leaving the K2 and other nearby peaks to their rear.

Out here, they were totally alone. Their whole survival plan depended on other friendly forces in similar position deep inside Chinese airspace drawing the PLAAF fighters away from where they were supposed to be. And that required a serious distraction.

The Desert-Tigers Su-30s had just delivered that distraction…

And sure enough the J-7s from Kashgar were heading into combat with the egressing Su-30s. That had cleared the way for the Tuskers to breach Chinese defenses.

It was now very clear to the pilots that they were leaving the Himalayas behind them to the south and entering relatively flatter terrain. The strike force went lower in altitude in order to maintain cover. Their target was now two-hundred kilometers away…

* * *

By now the ingress of the Indian Jaguars was done and the J-7s from the 17TH Air Regiment at Kashgar had been pulled away.

Bhosale decided it was time to kill them.

As the orders came through from Udhampur to the Phalcon and then on to the squadron commander of the Desert-Tigers, the twelve Su-30s heading south broke formation, flipped and pulled on a reverse vector towards the incoming sixteen J-7s.

But the Chinese pilots were also expecting a bitter fight and did not shy away from the charging Su-30s. Both sides released most of their available load of radar guided missiles in the first volley. With missiles crisscrossing each other in all directions, all twenty-seven fighters dived in all directions, releasing chaff and flares as they did.

The calm overcast night sky over the Aksai Chin was now littered with flares falling like raindrops and a spider web of missile exhaust trails…

* * *

Three hundred kilometers northwest of this gigantic air battle, the Tuskers squadron Jaguars reached their final waypoint and noted no enemy fighters bearing down on them over their target.