Chimera

Khurana raised the night-vision goggles and rubbed his eyes with his gloved fingers before lowering them down again. The moonlight was reflecting off the fuselage and vertical stabilizer of the massive No. 78 Squadron Il-78 tanker cruising several hundred meters ahead. The three refueling hoses were extended into the winds. Khurana saw the refueling controller sitting in what was originally the gunner’s position in the transport version of the same aircraft. The controller’s voice was on the radio but Khurana was barely listening. His mind was going over the statistics of the battle.

The Phalcon had confirmed during their flight back south that only five Mig-29s out of the original fourteen were still in the air. The squadron commander was among the dead and that list included six other pilots. Two remaining pilots had ejected over the rocky peaks of eastern Ladakh near the border and over friendly airspace but were still missing among the windswept and snowcapped Ladakh Mountains. Morale wasn’t doing any better either…

“Claw-One, this is Eagle-Eye-One. We are unable to establish contact with Leh tower. The base took heavy enemy cruise-missile attack during the time Claw, Talon and Griffon flights were engaged in combat. Redirect to Avantipur. Leh airbase is currently inoperative. Out,” the radio squawked in Khurana’s ears as he cleanly latched on to the refueling port with two other Mig-29s. The remaining two Mig-29s were already moving towards the other Il-78 in this flight of two aircraft from Agra. As his tanks filled up, he chewed out the new information sent to him.

Leh is shut down…

Of course, those cruise-missile inbounds must have broken through while we were engaged with the Chinese Su-27s.

Damn! Damn! Damn!

And this was just the first day of the war!

What else can go wrong?

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 1 + 2200 HRS

What a disaster!

Feng leaned back in his chair and tossed the papers detailing the losses incurred from the battle on to the table.

The losses in airframes had been staggering.

Five Su-27s had made it back to friendly airspace along with two other J-10s. That amounted to a loss of thirty odd fighters in return for ten of the enemy. The entire Su-27 force under the 6TH Fighter Division had been mauled along with a gaggle of J-10s from the 44TH Fighter Division. The operation had gone wrong at all levels except one.

Well, maybe two… Feng thought as he picked up the report from the table again and read one particular section of it.

The only aspect of the plan that had worked apart from mauling the Indian Mig-29 squadron at Leh had been the simultaneous cruise-missile attacks by the H-6 bombers of the 36TH Bomber Division behind the southbound Su-27s. Leh had been utterly damaged and destroyed as far the latest satellite imagery assessment went.

But the loss of the Su-27s was an unmitigated disaster for this sector of the battlefield. With such large losses, the only component of the air-defense that would hold the Indians at bay were the ground-based S-300s.

Feng had ordered the two KJ-2000s from Korla to patrol further to the north for safety and had ordered the advance of two more batteries of S-300s to the Aksai chin. These were the only aspect of the PLAAF’s regional air defense system that had performed as predicted so far, and were keeping the Indians far to the south. Combined with the data from the KJ-2000s, the S-300s were lethal.

I guess we still have the 111TH Brigade with their J-11s but they will be needed for defending the special mission aircraft and the bombers of the 36TH and 26TH Divisions.

What we have lost is the offensive air power capability. We will need to replace the 16TH Fighter Regiment within the 6TH Fighter Division with some other unit from the mainland…

Feng thought as he walked over to the corner and poured himself some tea. It was going to be a long sleepless night for him tonight.

Well, at least I won’t be alone in that…

Feng smiled for a brief second. The disastrous air battle had widespread consequences for both him and the region. Wencang had personally called Zhigao for a direct explanation of what had happened. Chen had announced his plans to come to Kashgar to be briefed personally on exactly what had happened first thing in the morning. Needless to say, Zhigao was not particularly happy at the moment…