Chimera

When the war had started two weeks ago, one of the major questions in the minds of the operators at the Indian Aerospace Command in Bangalore was the threat posed to Indian satellites by Chinese Anti-Satellite or ASAT weapons. These KT-xx series missiles were modified older-model DF-21 ballistic-missiles designed to hit satellites directly, referred to as kinetic-strike. But Chinese ASAT capabilities were as enigmatic as they were doubtful. A lot of their research and development into this genre of weapons was based around American and Soviet technologies. But even so, they still did not have the true ASAT capabilities. The KT-xx systems required very accurate information of the target satellite’s orbit and flyover schedules. As such, if the enemy kept changing these regularly and erratically, there was little that these weapons could do to intercept them successfully.

But on the Indian side, satellite coverage over mainland China and Tibet was essential for wartime operations and intelligence gathering on Chinese intentions. They had to be used.

The few Indian civilian satellites that had remote-sensing capabilities had been loaned from ISRO to the Aerospace Command. The latter currently operated only the RISAT-2 radar-imaging-satellite and had partial control over RISAT-1 along with ISRO when the war had started. Since then, ISRO had loaned its CARTOSAT series satellites to expand operational capabilities.

During the last two weeks, these satellites had been orbiting continually over mainland China and were always under threat of ASAT attacks. But a stroke of luck had benefitted the Indian side which Malhotra had understood very early on. Because there were few satellites on hand and far larger areas to cover in Tibet, China, the Himalayan mountains and the Indian Ocean, satellite tasking varied hour-to-hour, day-to-day. And so orbits shifted daily to accommodate these missions. And that had denied the Chinese ASAT systems the orbit stability they needed.

Of course, that had changed as the momentum of conventional war had changed hands from China to India and the threat of nuclear-tipped ballistic-missiles increased. Now the focus of these satellites and the Aerospace Command had reduced to smaller and smaller regions around the 2ND Artillery Corps units deployed in northern Tibet.

And that had made their RISAT orbits predictable and regular…

Malhotra crossed his arms and turned to see the Group-Captain as he put down the phone with the ISRO satellite-operations center.

“They took it out, didn’t they?” he asked.

“Sounds like it, sir. Looks like we just got the first wartime demonstration of Chinese ASAT capabilities!”

“Better tell the chaps at the SFC that we just lost our coverage over the Chinese DF-21s in northern Tibet until we can re-task RISAT-1 from the Lhasa front.” Malhotra ordered and the Group-Captain nodded and picked up the phone again.

Of course, that means that we won’t have continuous coverage on the PLA 15TH Corps in southern Tibet… Malhotra realized.

There just weren’t enough Indian military satellites to go around. And it was no more apparent today than ever before. The loss of even one satellite was enough to tear a big hole within the Indian coverage of the Chinese ballistic-missile sites in northern Tibet…

OVER CENTRAL TIBET

DAY 15 + 0500 HRS

For all the chaos it created in Bangalore, the loss of the radar-imaging satellite did not cripple Indian coverage over the Chinese ballistic-missile sites as much as General Liu and his officers had anticipated.

The loss of battlefield control by the PLAAF had a lot of far-reaching cascading effects, some of which were lost on the Chinese due to careful Indian planning. And so while the ASAT attack had shocked the Indian Aerospace Command and crippled a section of their capability, it did not affect the Indian SFC as it might have done if the PLAAF still had control over the Tibetan skies…

For the past few days the long-range, long-endurance Herons of the IAF had been flying lonely, isolated missions over central Tibet in support of the SFC. They were filling coverage gaps and helping maintain a minimal level visual contact on the enemy.