Chimera

Sudarshan realized what had happened. The Chinese armor had been forced too far forward by the tactical fighting retreat of the defenders. The strung out Chinese vehicles had been mauled by the savage air attack mainly because their supporting anti-air vehicles had been too far behind to support.

That was a tactical mistake.

But you can bet your ass they won’t repeat that mistake again!

Sudarshan lowered his binoculars and looked around at the other dust and soot covered BMP-II parked to his right. This was the only other survivor from his original force of eight BMP-IIs from the Alpha squadron of the 10TH Mechanized Battalion. To his left he saw the three remaining NAMICAs from his anti-tank platoon in their prepared positions. The fourth of their pack was burning furiously half a kilometer to the north. Casualties had been high for the 10TH Mechanized on this day.

But they had held their ground!

With the current force levels, there was no question of counterattack until the main bulk of the 10TH Mechanized arrived from Shyok to Saser to DBO and was assembled into a unified and cohesive fist. With the Chinese bringing up their own reinforcements, it was now a race where the side that brought up its reinforcements faster, would win.

SKIES ABOVE REZANG-LA

DAY 2 + 2050 HRS

The silence of the night above the ridges was shattered as four waves of four Jaguar aircraft each from the No. 5 ‘Tuskers’ Squadron of the IAF streaked above Rezang-La and flew east, crossing the border with Tibet a few seconds later.

The Chinese soldiers on the ground fighting opposite Indians soldiers from XV Corps only heard the sounds of the jets before all sixteen Indian aircraft flashed overhead in the dark night skies and disappeared beyond the next set of ridges deep into Tibet…

OVER SOUTHEASTERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2110 HRS

“Okay. That marks seventeen Big-Birds deployed along this threat axis,” the EW-operator noted over the intercom.

“These Buk radars here south of the ingress route and these older LR surveillance emissions are highly familiar. We have countermeasures for those. What about the Big-Bird radars? Think we can blind them?” the ARC mission-commander asked.

“That’s the unknown in this equation. The Chinese have never really deployed these S-300s so far south before. This is just about our first look at these systems. And our own experience proves these to be highly capable. We just don’t have the EW power for even attempting a serious blackout of these systems,” the EW-operator replied.

He punched in the priorities for the emission sources in order of proximity of the known ingress route of the Jaguars.

“ECM support from SOCOM aircraft?”

“We can use them effectively if we deploy them to the south against the southern half of these systems. Even there they will be limited for use against the Buk and these three LR radars. That effectively clears an ingress path. But the S-300s will remain active as far as we can tell.”

“I know. But we have what we have. Let’s work from there. We don’t have time to spare. Work up the procedures for the Buk and LR emissions in the southern sector. I will coordinate with the SOCOM EW people so that they know their targets. Once that is done, work up a diagnostic on the S-300 emissions. We may find a weakness yet.”

OVER SOUTHERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 2120 HRS

The sixteen Su-30s began spreading out from their Box-Four formations into a line abreast pattern as they entered the skies over southern Ladakh and headed northeast. The wings were clean of all ordinances except for the EW pods and a single large weapon on the centerline pylon…

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 2 + 2135 HRS

Now the air war really begins.

Feng thought as he walked into the operations center and handed his coat to his orderly. His meeting with Chen and Wencang had been long and excruciating, but productive. He had outlined to them what all had gone wrong and what all hadn’t. He also outlined his plans for force resurrection by leeching units from other MRAFs. He had also talked about his plans for wrenching control of the skies above Ladakh from the Indians.

But most importantly, his command line to Chen and Wencang had been cleared with the dismissal and subsequent arrest of Zhigao. Wencang had returned back to Beijing just an hour ago. Chen had established his office here until the objectives of the air-war were met or at least until he understood the capabilities of the Indians in this sector that was holding the PLAAF at bay.