Chimera

The scarce availability of assets meant that the people at the Aerospace Command had been able to maintain a constant vigil only on select high priority targets. Some of these included PLA units and PLAAF airbases in Tibet. But almost exclusively, the targets of focus had included Chinese missile bases and deployed batteries that were capable of lobbing cruise-missiles and ballistic-missiles at Indian targets. The ballistic-missile arsenal, conventional and nuclear exclusively was under the control of the Chinese 2ND Artillery Corps. Their only Ground-Launched-Cruise-Missile, or GLCM, unit was the 821 Brigade. It was deployed in Tibet as of right now. This was not unexpected. The 821 Brigade was the premier unit operating the CJ-10 “Long-Sword” long-range GLCMs. With a massive two-thousand kilometer range, the Long-Sword missiles could be launched from deep inside Tibet and reach most targets in northern India. It was a real and definitive threat. And the 821 Brigade had deployed about fifteen WS 2400 8x8 Transporter Erector Launcher or TEL vehicles along with over seventy five CJ-10s in northern Tibet over the last month. These units were spread out and highly guarded on the ground against Tibetan rebels by large contingents of PLA forces.

With over half of their GLCM force deployed in Tibet, the 821 Brigade had left their remaining force distributed along the Taiwanese and Korean facing coasts. Such a large force deployed specifically against India was obviously meant to be a threat. And there was a question among the Indian side on whether these missiles had been tasked exclusively for the strategic nuclear role alongside other ballistic-missile brigades or whether they carried conventional warheads.

To make matters worse, there was no Indian counter-force weapon with which New-Delhi could respond. The Indian counterpart to the already deployed Long-Sword missiles was the “Nirbhay” cruise-missile. Unfortunately, it was just now entering the first production run after having finished its development and testing phases. This meant that the Nirbhay was not available to the Indian missile forces, which were currently dependent on the highly lethal, but short-legged “Brahmos” supersonic cruise-missiles. With a range around three-hundred kilometers, it was strictly a tactical weapon relative to the Chinese Long-Sword missiles. It was available, however, in air, sea and ground launched versions, unlike the Chinese counterpart. And when launched from a suitably modified Su-30MKI, the missile could reach deep inside Tibet.

The Chinese also possessed a tactical counterpart to the Brahmos missile. In the past month they had deployed in southern Tibet a large number of YJ-62 subsonic cruise-missiles along with requisite number of launcher vehicles. Indian intelligence had also confirmed the presence of these missiles at Wugong airbase near the Qingling Mountains in central China. This was where a significant number of their H-6 long-range bombers, copies of the Russian Tu-16 Badger, were based. But with ranges under three-hundred kilometers, relatively poor navigation and slow speeds, the YJ-62 missiles were easier to shoot down and its launchers easier to target and eliminate. But it added numbers to the Chinese inventory of Tibet based cruise-missiles.

The Tibet Theater wasn’t the only area of responsibility for the Indian Aerospace Command. The Indian Navy wanted high resolution images of the PLAN shipyards as well. But this was lower in terms of priority compared to the missile units in Tibet. Simply put, even if a Chinese naval force left port and headed for the Indian Ocean, it would still require days before they would get there. On the other hand, the missiles aimed at India from Tibet and central China could hit targets within minutes, and so they demanded regular attention.

Which the Aerospace Command gave them unflinchingly. As the Indian Cartosat satellite, on loan from the ISRO, approached northern Tibet, its optics focused on the pre-specified targets in the region…

“Okay. Here we go,”

The Air-Force Group-Captain in charge of operations at this ungodly hour said to his boss, Air-Vice-Marshal Malhotra. Malhotra was commander of the IASC in Bangalore and reported directly to the Indian Air-Force Air-Headquarters in New-Delhi.

Standing with Malhotra was an Army Colonel, the liaison with the Strategic Forces Command or SFC. Both men were up and awake at this time because RAW HUMINT had confirmed increased levels of activity in 2ND Artillery Corps areas in northern Tibet in the last twenty four hours. They were now watching the large screen in front of them as it showed a geographical reference-grid overlay on the grayish-white infrared view of the satellite in near real-time…