Chimera

The leading Brahmos missile shattered to pieces as it was hit by two of the intercepting Chinese missiles. With a much larger number of intercepting missiles, the Chinese battery commanders weren’t taking any chances.

Intercepting the Brahmos was always a dicey question. Even so, three more Brahmos missiles were knocked out in quick explosions just moments from their targets.

Unfortunately for the Indian side, once again they were falling short as their missiles fought through a swarm of intercepting Chinese missiles. Operating at the extreme range of their operational radius, there was little hope of the Brahmos doing any elaborate maneuvers before impact. The intercepting missiles on the other hand, operating a short distance downrange of the launch point, couldn’t care less for range. They were executing drastic maneuvers as their foes attempted to use speed to escape from under them.

Many of the Chinese missiles lost out as a result of this. There was no time to respond given the high speeds of the Brahmos missiles. And by the time some 48N6E2 missiles dived in, their targets were already behind them. Out of the sixteen Brahmos missiles, ten finally made it through to their targets. Across the Aksai Chin, Chinese battery crews braced for impact on their radars and the ensuing loss of signal.

But it didn’t happen.

The missile vectors changed as the ten Brahmos missiles flew past all active radars and instead dived into the launchers of the rearmost S-300 battery whose job it was to cover the other batteries when they were in their reload mode during intensive operations.

The ground shook as the first of ten Brahmos missiles slammed into one of the six S-300 launchers. The resulting fireball lit up the horizon for the Chinese convoys moving nearby. The ground reverberated again as the other five launchers were also blown to smithereens with their ready-to-fire missiles still in the canisters. The one active radar for that battery was also destroyed when the shredded vehicle was thrown up dozens of feet into the air. It fell on the rocks of Ladakh in several pieces a few moments later. The shockwaves rippled out from the battery location and spread for hundreds of yards in all directions behind a wall of gravel carried by it…

In the five minutes it took from the launch of the Brahmos missiles by the Su-30s to the burning debris of the launchers scattering into the rocks of the Aksai Chin, a window of opportunity had opened up. There were now no S-300s with loaded missiles ready to fire until they were reloaded. Back on board the Phalcon, Verma sent out the word.

They now had precious few minutes before this window of opportunity closed again…

OVER THE AKSAI CHIN

DAY 2 + 2222 HRS

“Eagle-Eye-One to Firefly elements! Weapons-free! Take them out!”

“Roger! Firefly rolling in!”

Parekh’s eyes never left the heads-up-display. They were moving just a few hundred feet above the rocks and gravel of the plains below. All of this had been planned beforehand. But all the planning in the world could not make this a safe flight even if the Chinese decided to stand by and do nothing.

Which they wouldn’t!

The twelve Jaguars were operating in groups of four. Now they began spreading out and going after individual targets.

Parekh finally showed some emotion as the aircraft cleared the last set of ridges and entered what was essentially a vast flat terrain. He could make out the long snake-like convoy of trucks moving along the Chinese highway that cut through here.

Each one of those trucks was loaded with PLA men and supplies…

The sight in front of the Tuskers pilots was one that all Jaguar squadron pilots in the IAF wished for. But their current targets were not those vulnerable convoys but rather the small speck of vehicles spread out on the plains around the highway: the S-300 batteries.

The active launchers with vertical canisters could be made out from above by their L-shaped silhouettes against the moonlit, rocky terrain. Parekh was relieved to see that none of the vehicles were L-shaped. As planned, Almost all were reloading. But one launcher was elevating its canisters…

Parekh flipped his control-stick and dived in.

The sky was filling up with tracers and exploding shells from the point-defense anti-air guns all around the plains. Most of this stuff was manually operated. But there were radar-directed guns in there as well. And those could prove deadly. The ARC crew on board the Gulfstream-III near the LAC was playing hell with the Buk gun-radars in electronic space. All the elements of this plan were falling in place.

Parekh smiled ruthlessly behind his oxygen mask.