Chimera

Khurana nodded in agreement. The interception commander on board the Phalcon was going to exercise control during this engagement. That being said, it did not take away any flexibility from the fighter-leaders such as Khurana. When the situation was ripe or if things went out of control, he was free to take unilateral command of his Mig-29 pilots.

“Claw-One to all elements, realign bearing two-one-five. Look sharp! This is the real deal. Out,” Khurana said over his radio and looked to each side to see his pilots following him unhesitatingly.

If they were to engage the Chinese fighters head on, they could not afford to overfly the Chinese kill-zones over the Aksai Chin. So the idea was for them to fly south for thirty odd kilometers and then wait there until the last possible moment before heading on a reciprocal bearing towards the Chinese. This way they could lure the Chinese away from their ground based air-defense bubble and into Indian kill-zones instead.

Khurana’s flight of four Mig-29s was the western tip within the No. 28 Squadron group over Ladakh. They were realigning to face the Chinese. But in such congested skies, they were now presenting their open right flanks to the Pakistani F-16s. Khurana quietly looked to the right after having initiated his helmet mounted sights.

And sure enough, the off-bore-sight target-acquisition-system immediately reacquired the two F-16s on his four position. There was now no denying the fact that the skies were getting really crowded…

OVER LADAKH

DAY 1 + 1920 HRS

Now… now… now!

“This is Claw-One to all Claw elements: bring the birds about!”

Khurana and his flight pulled the control stick to the left and then backwards to conduct a loose formation turn. This brought them back out on a reciprocal bearing towards the Chinese Su-27s approaching the Aksai Chin.

On cue, dozens of green squares lit up on his HUD. He and the rest of No. 28 Squadron flicked the weapons option to long-range R-77s and the on-board radars went into acquisition mode.

Time ticked by as Khurana waited for the lead most Su-27s to enter the extreme engagement range of his missiles…

The audio tone changed just as lock-on was achieved and a green diamond box positioned itself inside the earlier green square to indicate the target lock on the leading Chinese Su-27. Khurana flipped open the launch button on the control stick as he waited for the squadron leader in Talon flight, the main No. 28 Squadron force alongside Claw flight, to give the go.

That command arrived a few seconds later:

“Talon-Leader to all Talon and Claw elements. Engage! Engage!”

Khurana pushed the launch button and felt the aircraft get lighter as the missile fell away. Then the motor ignited and lit up the underside of the aircraft before climbing away, its exhaust motor lit up like a flare inside the greenish view of Khurana’s helmet mounted night-vision goggles. He then released another R-77 and it fell from the opposite side of the aircraft. Then there were other such flares heading out from the loose formation of Mig-29s around him. Khurana was tracking the outbound missiles visually like a line of white dots receding away from him. His two missiles were tracking and heading towards their targets shown on his HUD by two small green rectangles…

The Chinese were just as quick to reciprocate. Thirty Chinese R-77 missiles headed towards the Indians and crossed paths with the twenty eight Indian R-77s.

The game of chicken begins…

The screeching audio warning tone lit up in the cockpits of the Indian Mig-29s as the inbound threats were detected. But no one broke formation. They couldn’t. Not if there was to be any hope of their missiles hitting a Su-27 at such long-range. This was a game of nerves.

With both sets of fighters now less than a hundred kilometers away and closing in on each other at a rate more than one-thousand kilometers per hour, the time to visual contact was less than three minutes. For the missiles streaking at high supersonic speeds, the much higher closure rate meant impact in seconds…

Come on, leader. Time for us to break loose over here!

Khurana’s hands sweated inside his gloves as the Chinese missiles closed in on Claw and Talon flights. Ever the alert warrior, the Squadron CO was on the radio in sync with Khurana’s own thoughts:

“Talon-Leader to Talon and Claw elements: Evasive maneuvers! Break! Break! Break!”

Khurana and his flight immediately dived for cover just as Chinese R-77 exhausts were spotted at the extreme visible range. The only safety lay within the mountains of Ladakh below. Khurana pushed the throttle all the way forward and clicked it into afterburner. This dumped a lot more fuel into the turbine exhausts of the engines and thrust the aircraft forward with a large jerk. Khurana checked his HUD fuel indicators and then put it out of his mind.