Bharat Rakshak

Old Threads in Military Scenarios Archive.

Part 1

Part 2

AI 102 JUST OUTSIDE IRAN AIRSPACE
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Capt rajiv bhasin reluctantly returned to his seat as time to sign off tehran centre drew near and his manadatory reporting to Mumbai centre came up.
- AI 102 contact mumbai center on 121.2 Frequency change approved drawled the voice of iranain air trafic controller.
- Frequency change approved -thanks tehran centre
- Mumbai centre -AI 102 - flight level 350 -course 140
- roger AI 102 - turn right heading 165 - climb to 40000 ft - large unidentified aircraft formation in the vicinity -expect air force escorts shortly

Captain bhasin was shocked .there was no mistaking what the controller has just told him over the open frequency - his aircraft -his passengers and life was in danger .he could feel the cold sweat dribbling down his armpit despite the very effective air conditioning . He quickly dis engaged the auto pilot and the auto throttle and put the giant aircraft on max rate climbing turn . Tfour pratt & whitey engines growled at the sudden change in powr setting but then quickly pushed the 747 in the desired altitude and course setting . As the airframe canted up by almost 15 degree those having early morning coffee slopped them all over a nasty bickering broke out inthe cabin at this sudden discomfort

But the warning came in two late evading destiny was now impossible

PAF FLIGHT OVER ARABIAN SEA - 25 KMS FROM AI 102 - 35000 FT
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The mirage III s are perhaps one of the most nubile interceptors ever made designed exclussively to challenge the mig 21 s over grass palnes of erstwhile east germany this quick course change of their querry was not a big problem . The lead mirage pilot quickly pushed the throttl forward to stops and puled on the stick gentlly -the sleek delta shaped aircraft quickly overtook the lumbering jumbo and forced it to maintain altitude and course . The other mirages in the flight group quickly fanned out all around and within a few minute the air india boeing was hemmed by six deadly flying machines in an extended box formation 5000 ft by 10000 ft across and the orions gracefully slid in between one on each side of the now doomed 747

AI -102 OVER ARABIAN SEA 0430 HRS IST
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- Indian boeing - you are now protective custody of pakistani air force -please do not try contact ground or any aircraft -we will be forced to shoot if you donot obey our command -pl acknowledge

The voice came over international guard frequency and captain bhasin could see his worst nightmare come true . He couldclearly see the ugly missiles and gun pods onthe mirages surrounding him and knew his has no option but to comply .

- this is captain bhasin of air india flight 102 from london to mumbai over international air space -pakistani commander we do not understand your request -we area civilian flight flying over internatinal water

He never completed his sentence -the mirage over him fired a short burst from the DEFA cannon barely 50 mtrs across the cockpit - the tracers made a deadly dispaly of unfair might ..

Captain bhasin was in no position to gamble not with nearly 500 innocent lives on board . he quitely levelled out the aircraft once again at 36000ft and made the nessecry course changes as advised by the pakistni flight group comander .He also pushed on the emergency hijacking transponder which would at once alert the ground control and also many other agencies around the world thru a dedicated satelite transponder the plight of their flight

INS VIKRAMADITYA
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The aerial drama did not go unnoticed . Inside the combat information centre the hijacking of a civilian wide bodied aircraft ofindian registry over international water brought fort a spate of very colourful invectives and then the anger turned to focused determination for revenge and a collective effort to save the lives of those on board .

The pakistani plan was once again quite simple if somewhat unethical. With the 747 in their midst it would be impossible for any interceptor to fire a missile at the orions and the orions would launch the harpoon attack on all the six mai n production paltforms in mumbai high north fields. They willthen exit and the mirages would take up the remaining destruction work
using their bomb load with the hostage 747 still intheir midst . Once the job is done the 747 will be shot down and the mirages exit in the ensuing confusion and rescue effortts.

But they did not factor in one aspect -the flying skill of those naval aviators mostly ex airforce with more than 3500 hrsof stick time on fulcrums -they wre thebest of the best and the mig 29ks strapped to their back was perhaps the most dangerous WVR interceptor ever made
the six barreled GSH 30 6 was a deadly force multiplier at close range . The outcome of the comming battle depended on two factors 1) political decision at delhi whether or not to cnfront the hijackers 2) skill of the fulcrum pilots to break up the multi aircraft box formation -once that is done the it would be massacre of un paralleld dimension

- python flight cleared for take
- cleared for take off -python flight - repeated wing comander fernandez as he pushed the throttl full forward and could feel the heavy aircraft shuddering as the power developed in its twin rd-33 engines and the launch restrainer held on measuring the thrust and then suddenly he was free and over the flight deck - resisted impulse to pull up the stick for a few seconds till the head up dispaly indiacated air speed of 170 knots and then he pulled hard and mad a sharp climbing bank left clearing the way for his wingman to launch .

Within 10 minutes the six flight mig 29 k was in air heading on a direct intercept course for the hijacked flight jus over the frothy waves of arabian sea . Six more took up position on the flight deck of vikramaditya

Some 400 kms to the west - somewhere in the sleepy suburbs of pune -four su-30 mkis took of in a blaze of smoke and fire . Very few times in history of lohegaon have such a launch taken place -their orders were clear -the hijacked boeing should not be allowed to divert to pakistan -at any cost
The underlying message was very clear -a tough message from the soft spoken prime minister of india - Kandahar is not going to be repeated .

maaan -- you took my breath away !!!

there is only word to describe this audacious plan - diabolical

Nice twist Shankar, keep those creative juices flowing.

Too addictive give me moreeeeeee

gotta admit you have us on the edge of seats. got to run now and buy some tandoori chicken - war always makes me hungry.

We all like jet fighters here, but that ...

Great story!

Whoa guru, that is some twist

I almost had fainted at the thought of losing 500 innocent lives. But no more. Damn good scenario Shankar. Please dont do anything to Wing Co Fernandez. Have a very good friend by that name.

Hey Singha, I gather you are located in Bangalore. Good thing. Me too located in this beautiful city. If possible drop a line at vkansagra at indiatimes dot com. Thank you.

Shankar, your best yet. Awesome!

Do you think even Pakis (as homicidal as they are) would pull a stunt like that? They might think of it as strategically brilliant, but it would raise their status from "unofficial International pariah" to "official International pariah". I mean, this would be an overtly state directed terrorist act, if there ever was one. Even the regular Paki apologists at foggy bottom will not dare defend them after this one.

I am sure pakistan would try something like that when they are out of options. Anyway, excellent scenario. Would love to see the AI flight saved by our Migs and MKIs. But we never know..Its a war.

Don't be so sure. The foggies and their leftist allies in India will find some way to explain away Pakistan's guilt.

As for world opinion, since it is only 500 mostly Indian lives at stake, the world would not care. Canada acquitted the bombers of Pan Am flight full of Indians, and the 'world' is least bothered to punish the killers of Rupin Katyal.

Shankar's scenario is plausible. The Pakis are quite likely to commit such unlawful acts because they know they will get away with it.

Ya I think if it comes to it. Pakistan can very well do it. You can always say later that it was a big mistake and the jet was mistaken as an indian fighter and shot down from beyond visual range.

I have question. What if this formation comes towards our carrier. Can our warships fire SAM's selectively . Instead of going towards such a big plane with a huge radar signature can they be just fired at the sorrounding targets.

I am sure they can be fired but I am reminded of the Korean airliner that was mistakenly shot down by the Soviet airforce.

Shankar, you're getting better all the time.

If I was a Paki playing such a high stakes game, I'd send a 6 plane flight of F-16s to intercept the 747 and escort it. The Mirage IIIs will intercept the formation firmly south of Gwadar and proceed with the attack while F-16s provide top cover with AMRAAMs. Remember most PAF assets have moved west. Why stop at 12 fighters, and not have more. How about a small nuke mounted on the harpoons? It will be released over international waters, far from population and criticism from western powers.

Now wouldn't that be an interesting problem for Wing Cor Fernandez to solve.

Colonel (r) Nair stared out of his window at the newly constructed National Security Council Secretariat building. The building was completely ordinary looking, some would even say it was out of style. It would ideally have been completed a few years ago, and housed most of the key adminstrative divisions in the newly formed NSC but as with everything else in India - the bureaucratic wrangling had ensured that the building took time to construct and when it was constructed more wrangling by NSC departments over who is to have what room ensured that the building was largely unoccupied. For once the infighting worked to some benifit, when an LeT cell drove a truck bomb up to the door and detonated it - few personnel connected with NSC ops were actually hurt. Subsequently good sense prevailed and the NSC's setup was spread out over several different buildings, but a small adminstrative unit - the "department of adminstration and accounts" eventually occupied the building along with a few retired officers who grew tired of working out of their houses. By and by - the building came to be known as the "retirement home" and happily ignored by the rest of the bureaucracy and the press in New Delhi - even the Pakistanis stopped driving by it every morning and the chaiwallah kept a long list of complaints about unpaid tea bills.

Colonel (r) Nair had a somewhat unusual career, he was a star in his batch at the NDA but then for some reason after a stint with the 15 Grenadiers at some place in Arunachal, Lt. Ajit Nair had been seconded to "another agency". He returned some years later, but by then the promotion cycle had set against him and by the time he made colonel, he realized that he was done with the Army. In the early 1990s he transfered to "another service" and then he managed to take VRS soon after. After retirment he took up a position as a manager in private security company. In his spare time he would write opinion editorials in major magazines about his area of interest, Pakistan. Not that anyone paid attention, but still it gave much needed exercise to the old writing hand. No one quite knew what Col. Nair did in his spare time, the consensus among his friends was that he had a mistress, after all Ambika, his wife was known to drive most sane folks up the wall. Ambika would tell anyone that was willing to hear her that Ajit was never home - which left most people wondering how a bald and plainly unattractive guy like Ajit could still get some at his age.

Col. (r) Nair ofcourse couldn't be bothered to think about any of this, he had a lot on his mind. His old friend the Chief had called him for tea a few months back at Kashmir House, and introduced him to a Lt. Gen. called Avadesh. Nair seemed to recall Avadesh from somewhere in the USI circle, and was a bit worried about how Avadesh would react to what he had say - but quite surprisingly Avadesh had been very quiet through out. The tea session had lasted for about six hours, and then things went on for quite a long time after that. Avadesh had dragged him the next day to see a few more of the boys at DMO and from there the discussions had gone on for the better part of the day. From there the karavan had moved to ARTRAC and weeks had gone by in a windowless room.

Ajit now snapped his fingers one by one. The questions had been the same, all relating to work he had done at the agency that everyone called the "relatives and associates wing". (Avadesh had been quite direct... "Aaye tere jaat waale ke saath jo kaam kiya tha na.. uske baare mein bol.. " - an unnecessary reference to Ajit's uncle who had hired him for the job as a young Lt several decades ago) . Ofcourse when he did all that work no one paid attention to it, but now everyone and their grandmothers wanted to dust off the files. The military was interested in determining the centers of gravity for an attack - they knew the ways to get there - all they wanted was a model of Pakistan - something that could be used to illuminate for the commanders the exact locations of key military and political nodes. Ofcourse Ajit's work some twenty years ago had been a theoretical study with Pakistan as a case but now all that had changed.

Ajit knew that the rich anglophone Pakistani elite, fed full on the trickle down benifits of a roaring trade in narcotics had built up huge cash reserves in places outside Pakistan. He also knew that most of these folks would jump ship and run if the possibility of an Indian invasion ever became a reality. Ajit also knew that per an old social contract of Pakistan, the "Pak-centric" Islamists were expected to die in the place of the english speaking elite if ever war came to Pakistan. This would have been just fine pre-sept 11 but now the trust between the Jihadis and the RAPE (as some people on a thoroughly disreputable internet forum called them) had been damaged. The Islamists would be reluctant to become cannon fodder for the RAPE's domination fantasies and the sheer sight of a sufficiently large Indian military formation would rapidly create fissures in Pakistani society. The RAPE could be reasonably expected to head for the airports and the Islamists to their armories. Such would be sense of imminent doom among all concerned that many would make severe errors of judgement. It would be up to the various field commanders to exploit such things to amplify the fissiparous tendencies in Pakistan.

In 1971 an ambitious general by the name of Niazi had localized his forces to cities and built up areas of East Pakistan. He had failed to grasp that by themselves the cities were meaningless and that anyone who dominated the countryside could easily cut off his forces. Perhaps Niazi was being conventional or perhaps more correctly as Ajit had surmised in a study several years ago, Niazi was suffering from tunnel vision - he was keen to protect areas where he knew Pakistanis were a sizable presence. So would the RAPE army repeat his mistake? one could be forgiven for thinking so. The way the RAPE army acted, most of the defence lines were situated in such a way that the RAPE areas of Lahore, Karachi etc... were heavily defended. The Pakistani presidents land near Multan would probably have a battalion of troops defending it, but would such courtesy be extended to Maulana Masood Azhar's family property near Bahawalpur? If the IAF managed to sever a major artery - say the bridge at Sukkar, who would get the food rations? the regulars or the Jihadis? would there be food fights? who would get first dibs on the water supplies? Not only had the bulk of the Pakistan Army never really drilled the defence of Pakistan itself - they had never had joint deployment exercises with large Jihadi formations. What little experience there was - was limited to the formations in Kashmir and most of it revolved around infiltrating across the LoC and the bulk of the army still regarded the Jihadis as non-combat support staff and regular soldiers would everything possible to remind a Jihadi of the difference in stature between them. The situation was not unlike that of the Soviet Army in the first few months of the Nazi invasion. Ofcourse Stalin had quickly rectified this deficiency by shooting several officers from the traditional military class but the Soviets had still suffered 20 Million casualties in a few years of war.

Avadesh had liked the phrase "investing in Pakistani cities" - he said it made him feel like a "f*cking banker" but "atleast it beats the old dash-to-the-Indus nonsense... ".... continuing... "WTF am I to do with the Indus? p*ss into it? make tea out of it?". Predictably Avadesh's eloquence had come to the attention of the Jaatwaalas and Ajit was quickly railroaded to an office in the new building ... "just so that you have a proper place to work..." said the secretary in charge of the NSCS - at which point Ajit rolled his eyes. It was as if nothing had changed since Mauryan times. Ajit wasn't expecting a parade to greet him every morning but they had been kind enough to provide him coffee and tea "on demand".... and that meant atleast this thankless job had some benifits. This chai has too much milk in it thought Ajit... maybe it will go well biscuits?.. perhaps.. he muttered as he reached for the britannia marie pack.

harshS thanks for the corrections.

Sunil,

One nitpick. There was no VRS scheme for army officers in 1995. There is still no VRS scheme for army officers, or for that matter anyone in the government. In 1995, the first VRSs for the corporate sector was rolling out. By VRS I imply paying someone more money than they would otherwise have got to leave their jobs--as was done for nationalized banks in 2000.

One more nitpick. Timelines. The NSCS building was 6 years late and then a few years later than that it was abandoned. The scenario is set in 2008. The NSCS was formed in 1999, when Brajesh Mishra became NSA. On regular schedule, the building would have been ready by 2002 or 3--6 years lates means 2008 or 9, and then some more years of abandonment and dispersal.

Better to say that the building took six years to build rather than the expected three--after all for the NSCS and with Brajesh Mishra and his successor NSAs pushing, it coulnd't be so late--even for the CPWD.

true nightmare

somebody stop me!

i am all thrust up right now scenarioing about OBL in a coup with some members of the TSP mil and taking over the reins of power in puree land.

mush and tush on a lamp post in islamagood.

gawd!

Mig 29 FLIGHT GROUP -PYTHON FLIGHT
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Even for wing comander fernandez ,it was not a routine flight . Flying just 75 ft over rolling waves some which were more than 15 ft high took all the skill and concentration he possessed . He was not a stunt pilot and never took part in air shows but this day there was no option left. He planned to take his flight group at wave top height past the mirage formation at more than 50 kms to north and then turn around and attack them from behind with only weapon system that can be selectively used his Gasha -30-6 cannon and al his team mates will do the same . Once the mirages are taken out -the orions will be dead meat but first the mirages need to be neutralised and that need to be done quickly and very very efficeantly -ther was no margin of error .

The whole idea was the pakistani Mirage III s should not even know they are there for that they had to evade their look down shoot down radar at its max range and then climb up the mirages radar blind angle which is from below and behind ,closing up onthier tail and then make the kill.Any warning will only make sure one of the mirages shooting out the hostage aircraft and pre emptive launch of those harpoons at the nearby Mumbai high oilfields seriously affecting the ongoing war efforts.

The flight was rough rather very rough ,with the strengthening of early morning land breeze and minor turbulances over the wave surface keeping position in such tight formation was some what difficult -added to that two of his team mates have recently converted to mig 29 k from sea harrier and they were never exposed to this kind of ultra low level strike type interception mission and fernandez had to keep a close watch over them all the time -watchingthey donot get too close to each other or loose situational awarenees mesmerised by the rooling wave front

Rest of his team he didnot worry about -all his friends from lohegaon days
then relocation at Udhampur during kargol crisis -they had conversion training to mig 29k in russia together - knew each others families and their strengths and ofcourse weakness too .

Unknown to general public -while on an escorting a jet airways flight from jammu to srinagar - Fernandez than only a flt lt spotted 2 PAF falcons approaching the mirage 2000 formation on a precision strike mission over point 4875 . His reaction was pure reflex -as he armed the twin r-73 s on the approaching falcons and ------
Back to base he was given a full dressing down (for the sake of records)
for defying the rules of engagement of not crossing LOC and quickly transfered out of reach to russia for advaced training on naval variant and he did log more than 500 hrs flying with his russian counterparts over the frozen glacial landscape of siberia .

Fernandezs experience with russian pilots was very very rewarding . He appreciated their constraints mainly financial in those early days of privatisation also he found in them a sense of intense pride in their country and its achievments routinely played downby the western media and also by some indian news papers singing american tunes . He shared room with a teammates familiy and never felt he is in a far away land . Only when he used to look out of the windows and at the end less expanse of blinding white snow and glacial lakes and rivers he would know this is not his home land. But he also learned about great russain achievments -about the fuly automated space shuttle Buran which had to be shelved after just one flight due tobreak up of soviet union, he flew as passenger in the deadly Tu-160 super sonic bombers way ahead og anything west has ever made exceptmay be B-2, he learned that the concept of stealth was discovered by arussian physician ,he also saw the first plasma stealth equipped su-37 Berkut or golden eaglr, one day he went and saw the worlds largest booster Energia , he learned about worlds fastest submarine akula meaning shark in russia and also about the largest submarine ever built the typhoon .
He also saw how people of such a great nation suffered during the transition to market economy -about russian mafia and extensive corruption in high places but what he never saw was any sign of arrogance
His limited understanding of russian language was a problem sometimes but always brushed away with a hearty russian laugh and some times a strong bear hug -the russian bear was really a lovable bear he summarised .

He looked on the radar dispaly acting as repeater from the ka-31 patrolling somewhere to the north and saw only 4 minutes to target aquistion it is then they will turn and start their climb upwards towarsd the mirages tail and another one and half minutes will decide the fate of the barttle.

Good story so far..

A small nitpick as it developes. Orions can be used in AEW profile if flying high enough to do the role... RAAF uses them in this role. Having 4 of them, surely one of them would be monitoring the oceanspace and the others airspace. The radar on mirage's are pretty useless for surface scanning as the beams are pretty small and tight, so unless they are doing co-operative predetermined scanning, its not too much of a worry or atleast is less of a worry than the orions. Orion(s) would have also noticed KA-31 peeking at the flight profile for a while now, since they have excellent emission monitoring systems onboard as one of their main job profiles is elint. For Ka-31 to be transmitting to the mig-29, it would need to be processed on ship (talwar/vikramaditya) and then resent to mig-29 through some means (not sure how). So if the packees are using all the technology they have, its highly likely, they have a good hold on the situation.

Admin Note: Gus Pls do not post raw urls that are very long, use the provided url button. Else it forces the screen with to super wide, and one has to scroll left - right for the whole page. Have mercy.
-Arun_S Admin hat on}

Link



Added Later: Arun, noted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

PAF FLIGHT 6 MINUTES TO MISILE LAUNCH 0500 hrs IST
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Everything was going well so far thought the pakistani flight group commander - the indian response was as expected timid and indecisive . He could see the bars type emmssion on almost extreme periphery of his screen some where near the indian coast line .Though he thought the four flankers can be deadly for his little flight group but then those indians never had the political will to make fight of it . He thought about the hijacking of indian airlines flight quite a few years back -those indians even allowed the hijacked aircraft to take off from amritsar and then negotiated the release of its passengers .He was sure the same thing will be repeated this time also -IAF will not get the clearence to engage when 500 civilian lives were at stake and if his intel was correct it includes a pretty high profile minister and his family . He became certain the sukhois over the horizon will just stay as they are an impressive wall paper

He looked back on his formation once again . The 747 was surronded onall four side by the lumberiing orions at a sepration of 750 ft on each side so he cannot escape even if he wants to and in the outer layer his six mirage III s were arranged in an extended box formation four on four side and one in front and behind. Any BVR missile launch was out of question and so would be a heat seeker strike sinec the large pratt and whitney engine of 747 offer a better thermal target to the r-73 s than anything else .
Only he needed six more minutes of this restrained slow speed flight till the orions launch their long range harpoons and then once they have cleared out he and his friends can have a field day bombing the oil wells while the much touted sukhois look on impotently . He was sure on return he will get the shaan-e-pakistan award from the president and promotion in rank to go with it . It was a good dream .

The orion pilot on make shift ELINT duty was a bit confused .The performance of his radar was definitely not upto mark what with so many aircraft surrounding his aircraft on all sides but still he tried changing the range selector and the scan speed but could not get a definitive picture . Ofcourse he could make out the large indian carrier and the four sukhois whohave taken up patrol postion just over the off shore oil fields . Only once he though he saw some fast moving blips 5 or6 crossing on the at more than 60 kms away but then could not aquire them again against sea clutter . So he focussed his attention on the far away sukhois and reported their position on the interplane frequency to flight group comander .

FLIGHT GROUP RHINO -SU 30 MKI X 4 - 0501 HRS
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- Looks like they have not spotted the vikram fligth group passing by said sq leader ranjan bakshi from his perched up xo seat on the lead su-30 mki
- roger that bakshi ,guess it is safe for them to launch attack now ,intoned squadron leader varmal as he took the flanker in one more figure eight turn over the Mumbai high -bakshi can you alert the navy flight group evrything is ok so far
-roger that -Bakshi dutifully opened up the high speed encrypted data link to Vikramaditya and within a few seconds the clearence to launch was with flight group python now poised for the final strike

PAF FLIGHT 0502 HRS - 4 MINUTES TO MISSILE LAUNCH
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-Sir we are getting some encrypted transmission from the sukhois and the carrier -looks like some kind of coomand signal very short with high encryptation level -reported the orion first officer on elint duty -request permission to break formation and investigate
- roger that orion 2 reduce speed by 50 knots and initiate ocean surfa ce scan -report if anything out of the ordinary

PYTHON FLIGHT GROUP -MIG 29 K X 6 X0503 HRS
---------------------------------------------
the six fulcrums turned around on reciept of clear to launch encrypted signal from the sukhoi via carrier -selected their individual target and switched ontheir radar simultaneously arming the multi barrel guns and pushed the throttlles all the way forward past the stops to max afterburner settings

The effect was electric -the twin RD 33 engines growled in anger at this sudden change in fuel flow , a tail of flame almost 18 ft long erupted from the migs as raw jet fuel was sprinkled on the hot exhaust gases and power output went upto 185% normal rocketing the migs vertically upwards at an incredible rate of nearly 50000 ft /min .Their targets have maintained 35000 ft so long and at this closure rate it will be less than a minute to target

Wing commander Fernandez flicked open the protective cover over his firing button as he fought off the g effects and steered his superb aerdynamic flying machine at the lead mirage s tail pipe and -he expected it to break off any moment and kept his hand firm but gentle on the stick as the mirage grew on his sight -still flying straight and level and then the shoot command came up on the HUD ,fernandez waited for a few more seconds and then barely 500 ft from the lead mirage he gently squeezed the red button .

The six barreled gasha is a deadly and highly accurate air to air gun with a firing rate of more than 6000 rounds per minute essentially designed for air to ground operation but when used aginst an aerial target like a mirage the effect is pure magic . The 30 mm expoding shells struck the soft underbelly ,the tail pipe and the radome in one continious line and opened up the airframe like a tin can before the ill fated mirage III exploded in a bright orange fireball .
In one precision strike Fernandez has broken the command link -now it it would be one against one where the fulcrums always held the trump .
The process was repeated all over the mirage flight group .The migs climbed up and struck like a great white shark going in for a seal kill .The mirage pilots had no chance they tried to climb and outurn the attacking migs ,they tried to dive and evade they tried to get close to their shield the 747 -nothing worked -one by one one they were plucked out of the sky and coverted to a fireball to be discarded into the ocean .
One Mig was hit by a brave mirage pilot with the DEFA cannon even as he himself was inflames -it tore of his flaps and jammed up his undercarriage
A carrier landing would be impossible for him so out of the battle he limped back towards Pune where he could be safely recovered .

The orion fligth was suddenly without top cover ,in midst of 5 mig-29s in close proximity and four su-30 mkis not very far away . They turned in unison on the target oil field and launched the first harpoon at the production paltform

The fulcrums looped back and now engaed the orions with their gasha
It was a massacre like oesprays over a sardine pack .the big
aircrafts took lot of hits before slowly diving to their watery death . Two other harpoons were launched before the sky over arabian sea was clear once again

In all 3 harpoon s were in air diving to a ski skimming mode all reaching out for the same target -the main productionpaltform of Mumbai high north.

RHINO FLIGHT GROUP SU-30 MKI X 4
-------------------------------------------
- Rhino flight - python -all mirages splashed - 3 harpoons launched -request neutarlise -low on fuel
-roger that pyhton - we will take over -thanks

With that the two of the sukhois broke formation and dived after the fast dissapearing harpoons lined up on the subsonic sea skimmers and shot them out of sky as a matter of no consequence .

In the whole engagement not a single missile was fired . The life of 500 passengers on board was never put to risk . All the risk was shared by the navy fulcrum pilots who landed back on the extended fight deck of INS Vikramaditya and went to sleep .

wowwwwwwwwwwwww



we need to give an escort 4 the 747...hooooraaay

I hope that 150 rounds carried per MiG was enough for all the gun carnage....

And how were the Harpoons hit? Guns? Hmmm.....

AND THE MORNING AFTER
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-AIR INDIA announces the arriavl fo flight 102 from London 15 minuts behind schedule . Ther was no media and no hysterical relatives anywhere simply because none of thos waiting ath the arrival hall had any idea about htose explossive 10 minutes over arabian sea .
That was about to change . Within 1 hrs of the visibly shaken passengers comming out of the customs the story of a massive air battle broke into the worlds news headline -starting with sauve and very cool Trishnu sen of NDTV
with file clips of Vikramaditya ,mig 29k and the su-30 mkis along with a host hastily prepared maps and and animations . Tworld was ablaze with this gross violation of normal conduct of war and the reactions started pouring in .This battle will decide the fate of ongoing conflict inmore ways than one

The crew chief on board Vikramaditya was surprised to see the ammo belts all more less empty -more than 600 rounds have been fired at an average of 60 per hostile aircarft - he shuddered at the memoru of those in the recieveing end . Two of the fulcrums were seriously damaged one with undercarriage and flap shot up and had to be diverted to lohegao for barrier assisted landing the other could land on the deck of carrier but with hydraulic fluid splashing all over . Once the recover was complete it took almost 2 hrs to clean up the flight deck and and the next cap was launched .

Pakistan lost the international air transport organisation membership the same day.

US govt ivoked a blanket ban on all military spares including those for falcons and orions and the president refused to meet the pakistani ambassador when he requested for an appointment to explain the situation

Indian ministry of defense used the opertunity to order for a full squadron of Mig 29k MKI to replace the " battle attrition" without going thru the formalities of cabinet approval . The new squadron will be land based at have the exclussive responsibilty of protecting the offshore oilfields . They would be under operational command of the navy.

Robenexport would sell more than 100 fulcrums in various upgrades to malyasia , singapore and Srilanka in the year following .

UK stopped all commercial fligts to and fro pakistan .

Strangely Iran joined the band wagon and closed its airspace to all pakistani air trafic . The land based natural gas pipeline project was put on hold and the oceanic route once again explored.

Behind closed door ,indian defense miniter made a quick visit to kremlin .Ther was a long discussion - no one would ever know what transpired but 15 days there after large cargo liners flying the russain flag started anchoring at nava sheva .They carried on board large crates and boxes looking surprising similar to the size that would be needed for S-400 system but then it was just aclosed box .

It looked like india was getting ready for anything

15 Days there is a full fledged war on, right, I guess a week of hostilites have already passed? It would be decided in that time any way. Pakistan war reserves cant last that long, with the level of battle attrition they have already probably suffered. You have been banging on them hard havent you .

Nope I dont think we will have the luxury of a month long war in reality.

Shankar -- you have raised the bar higher & higher each time and still managed to beat the lofty expectations...

This is one hell of a scenario.. truly one of the best..

Tom Clancy feels like a novice..

hats-off to you!!!

ah the joys of pto...so let slip the hounds of war.

10PM, west Khasi Hills...

Rain squalls and high winds based on a pre-monsoon depression in the bay of bengal were sweeping north up the thickly wooded valleys and wet terraced rice paddies of the Khasi hills.... dripping wet vegetation, low dense clouds, the sound of gurgling water from a hundred rivulets hidden among the vegetation.

Here and there isolated villages eked out a living off the hostile topography, their people used to gravest hardship for the simplest of things, yet having a simple faith in a Govt they seldom saw - unloved, unsung in the remote reaches of the empire...sneered at by their luckier cousins in wealthier parts of the country, under constant pressure from streams of BD settlers fleeing the greater poverty and chaos of the Meghna flood plains to the south.

Tonight was just like any other night, of huddling around the cooking pot keeping the flame alive against the howling wind and rain outside, children snuggled up to their parents, rice and scraps of port meat were laddled out at dinner. clear strong rice wine (lao-pani) served to wash down the peasant food.

Very few if any noticed the column of six Dhruv and Mi17 helicopters flying in single file, lights out and very fast just over the forest canopy overhead. The wind and rain muffled their passage well. It was not a picnic for their pilots' sweating fearfully through their NVGs, monitoring their instruments , expecting at any moment a unmapped power line or ridge to snag them permanently...

In the cargo hold men from various JTFs sat quietly , lost in their own thoughts. nobody had anything to say. A few fingered their gear nervously. Most looked forward to this mission, they had some issues to settle....two men in the convoy had lost their own brothers. A place called Hedayatpur that wasnt marked on any western tourist map.

12km from the international border, while five of the helicopters paused momentarily near a clearing in the forest, one of the Dhruvs laid down carefully on a well camouflaged helipad now lighted by a bunch of light sticks by dark amorphous figures standing nearby.

A short bull-like man walked briskly up , loaded with 40lb backpack almost fully packed with small arms ammo and grenades ...the rest of his six man team in trooping behind him.

Major Doley reached down from the Dhruv to lend a hand up. "Sir, I am Doley, we have not met".

"I have heard good things of you Brinde. They say you requested to be on this?"

"Yes sir" doleys voice was soft in the semi darkness, the wide set eyes blank and cold, the face impassive as always.

"I can understand, but dont lose control" - Major Chauhan settled down, glanced briefly to see his men were set and tapped the pilots seat.

"I always try Sir". doley's large paw unconsciously fingered the handle of his dao again...seeking comfort and security in troubled times....

The Dhruv rejoined the convoy and they set off again, crossing the international border and immediately starting the descent down the foothills towards the unseen plains below.

in the darkenend holds, men clipped in the first loaded mags into their Tavors, fine tuned the large night scopes and checked their watches. FN-FAL LMGs and Galil sniper rifles were also readied by a select few. One very large built man with half the hold to himself opened a long bag and pulled out a beltfed gun of unknown parentage that looked right out of the predator movie.

------------------

12 Midnight , ULFA-NLFT Camp#12 in foothills.

Camp#12 was one of the largest camps run by the ULFA. Started in 1994 under ISI sponsorship it had quickly blossomed into the logistical and training node of the outfit for western assam. A initial investment of 1 crore BD taka routed through slush accounts in thailand, dubai and dhaka had taken care of clearing the land (canopy was left intact for cover), establishing kitches, dormitories, exercise and arms training ranges, a public meeting ground, granaries, radio hut, fuel storage,a jeepable track to nearest village road and finally a ladies dorm added in 1999 when the ULFA managed to implement the idea of girls joing the outfit.
The camp's main role was ofcourse to house and train recruits and act as a staging post for experienced members resting between trips to assam to create terror. it was ideally located to reach into western assam and then into bhutan. NLFT had expressed a 'desire' to share all this institutional expertise and learn from their more experienced peers, ULFA had been reluctant initially, some of its leaders being uncomfortable with the NLFTs religious agenda but finally under pressure from the ISI sponsoring committee they caved in and the NLFT walked in. The camp expanded, a hospital for ill and injured members came up soon. The able bodied manpower soon dug themselves a small canal from the nearby padmai rivulet to ease the task of taking their morning bath and washing their clothes. 4 feet deep, this 300m long canal passed right next to the camp and rejoined the padmai downstream..it was always full of clear, fresh water.

perimeter security was tight and section of 14 people armed with AK47, powerful torches and walkie talkies always patrolled the perimeter, another 4 occupied two watchtowers at both ends of the camp offering clear fields of fire on the possible threat axis. their MMGs were always loaded and ready for action. The radio hut was manned 24x7 to talk with other camps, Dhaka, thailand and a score of other hideouts. the high power set was a donation from PA surplus stock with all markings carefully removed with acid.

Tonight had been good. A jeep loaded with goodies from Dhaka like chocolates, goat meat, magazines, latest ***** vcds (very popular with the younger lot), medicines (always short on these), new clothes, two months salary , high quality packed combat rations had arrived just as dark fell. An hour later , a senior leader from dhaka had escorted a BD army official in civilian dress. Talk around the camp quickly led to his identity spreading like a brush fire among the excited inmates. This was *the* Col maruf mortaza who had repelled the indian attack at hedayatpur with heavy and proven casualties to the indians, who had mutilated the corpses to set an example,.....people practically fell over themselves to talk to him, ask him to repeat over and over his numerous exploits around the campfire, the man had been in this business for 21 years and as a budding young terrorist was told in his first classroom session - in this line of work you learnt by working side by side with the best, by absorbing their wisdom gained from many a hard situation, you either learnt or you died and there wasnt a book to teach you anything. A wall of memory with the names of fallen comrades in the parade ground served as a constant and grim reminder of the fearful toll extracted by the hated indian colonialists.

Dinner, campfiring and drinks over, the Colonel and senior leaders retired to the command hut for night long meetings. the juniors dispersed, most of them to the TV hall where a generator powered TV set served as their prime link to outside world. today however the main attraction was the fresh lot of dvds.

It promised to be a long night.

As the colonels 4x4 had passed a thicket of bamboo groves at the point where the camp road met the village road, nobody had noticed a pair of figures in ghillie suits lying motionless in the shadows, focussed binoculars had caught the Colonel in the front seat and shortly thereafter the call had gone on the satcom terminal.

The helicopters were coming.....

11:30PM Bagdogra

A solitary AN-32G took off quietly from the runway and disappeared into the low cloud cover. A heavily modified AN32 with russian and israeli assistance, it sported two engines of higher thrust and a full set of blind and night havigation instruments. poking out of an orifice on the left fuselage wall was a 3-barrel GSH-30 cannon with 5000 rds of ammo beltfed from 3 huge drums that sweating technicians had rolled into the hold earlier and locked into place. towards the rear, a twin 0.50cal HMG setup was fitted atop just fwd of the rear ramp, again pointing to the
rear, one on each side. A co-ax AGL was paired up with the HMGs. boxes of belted ammo around 10000 in all were stacked hip deep inside. While the weapons operator seated behind the pilot had a LLTV/IR pod atop the cannon and a fancy stabilitization and target designation MFD, the HMGs were totally manual and operators had a single large kevlar glass window each and HHTI equipped spotters paired to try and locate targets.

the basic tactic was to orbit the target counter clockwise to bring the GSH to bear and the gunner did the rest. the tail gunners were left to their own devices with minimal adult supervision. brainchild of retd Col Ray it had been tested secretly in the upper reaches of pir panjal away from media and NGO glare - always ready to suck up to the 'militants' .... the results as mentioned earlier were utterly horrifying for the targets. A vomiting gurkha Liet and his men had tried for 5 mins to piece together the fragments of 5 terrorists but had given up and gone home quickly. due to the 'sensitive' nature of the issue and the need not to cross self-imposed 'redlines' (in public) the AN32G was the nearest thing to a B2 in the indian armed forces. it hung out in isolated bases like charbatia and weapons were retracted when not on mission duty - for the casual observer who didnt know a Arjun from a Abrams it was just "another green military plane".

It was gunner Kulendu pathak's first mission. just back from a stint in israel on the weapons targeting system, he still remembered with fondness his friendly israeli trainers but esp that pretty brunette 'sabra'
Lt. esther schnyder....she had promised to look him up when she left the service next year and went for decompression trip to the Manali region.

he hoped to make it back alive. there were things to live for....

[to be contd]

Back in the late 70's and the early 80's when MiG was testing the Gsh-30 on the Fulcrum, they found it to be so accurate and effective that it only took two shells to obliterate an aerial target. I don't have a link but read it in AFM or Air International several years ago.

Singha - Did you mean AC-130?

The events of that night would abide as a controversy among Indian defense chatterati for the next five decades, at least. Lt Gen Saha maintained that his insistence on preparing a firm base for IBG 606 and 2 Corps was what saved the day, and he had plenty of opportunity to make that point during his convalescence from the “heart attack” he suffered (at Gen Jaiswal’s pointed insistence, it should be added) that night. Others inconveniently sniped that if he had let 2 Corps through instead of wasting two precious days dicking around Point Bravo, then Kharga would have been deployed and ready to meet the counter. In either case, it was just the kind of inconsequential after the event muck raking that is the staple for those who purport to be defense experts in India.

The counter-attack came late in the second night after the breakthrough, when some IBG 606 units had already crossed Point Charlie. The first attack was at a crossing on Point Bravo, led by the mongrel Badr group of irregulars and regular armour under command of Gen Fahim Ahktar’s 34 Infantry Division. The attack was soon followed up by full blooded infantry assaults by 7 Infantry Division, Pakistan’s last reserve from the west, which had hastily been diverted from the Lahore-Sialkot theatre to plug the breakthrough farther south. It had taken 7 Infantry Division units two days to assemble because of incessant IAF and IA arty interdiction raids, but they had finally massed enough men to make the first move of the counter. As Gen Saha was to vehemently maintain later on, the bridgehead reeled under the onslaught but held on by a precarious thread. But the effect was that the planned induction of 2 Corps (Kharga) had been set back indefinitely, and that all logistics supplies to IBG 606 ceased. That was just the first prong of the counterattack. The F18Is hovering protectively over Abhimanyu’s IBG picked up a far more potent threat – columns of Pakistani 2 Corps formations, led by T84s of 6 Armoured Division, were snaking out of their dispersal areas around Multan, and were headed straight as an arrow for Point Bravo along the Multan-Lahore Highway and its subsidiary feeder roads.

The call went out to Gen Kaul’s field HQ early in the morning, as he was going about marshalling his forces for a complicated pivot maneuver – Abhimanyu, you have been cut off. Report immediately to GOCinC SW Command for an urgent conference.

The Avadhesh that met the hastily flown in Abhimanyu was very different from the one Saha routinely encountered. Gone was the vitriolic, profane bluster; replaced by a serene, Budha-like equanimity that would have surprised anyone not familiar with the person. The reason, however, was not far below the surface: the brawler had gotten his wish. There would be an ugly, no holds barred fight for the Ravi-Sutlej Doab, the retirement community of the Pakistani military elite. Avadhesh would get emulate his heroes (secret, lest anyone accuse him of intellectual pretensions): Gen Sherman of the Union Army that blazed a path of destruction across the American South; Field Marshal Cherniakhovsky of the Soviet Third Belorussian Front that pillaged East Prussia.

Abhimanyu, you are in a bit of a fix. Do you want to do a rearguard and eliminate the threat to your rear areas? Sir, that will cause us to loose all of our momentum. We could probably restart a westwards thrust after meeting this challenge, but by that time their 2 Corps will have arrived and it will be a long hard slog in the DCB areas. Let me suggest a slightly modified version of my offensive to meet them head on. This will keep us on track for our objectives. But I cannot promise you any logistics or reinforcements for at least a day, while the threat to Bravo is vacated, Gen Jaiswal responded. Sir, I have enough fuel and ammo to last me one engagement, if it happens in the next 10 hours or so. And IAF will be happy to help out. It’s a very risky plan, Abhimanyu. We all know what happened to your namesake who did not turn back. I am prepared to take the challenge, sir. My formation is under mortal threat either way, and getting hit on our rearguard is far less appealing that going in with guns blazing. Avadhesh’s gaze bored in to Abhimanuy’s eyes, trying to gauge his worth. If the suggestion had come from anyone else, Avadhesh would have had to turn it down as a move of suicidal desperation. But Abhimanyu was different – he was the new Army, part of a generation that had been so sneeringly dismissed by old British hands as being the one scraped from the bottom of the barrel; one that reeked of rural and middle class India; that spoke and acted crudely; that disregarded olde chivalry for a street fighter’s hustle. This God-forsaken generation was one that had seen nothing but strife since their day of commissioning – men like Abhimanyu and Shivi had fought and deployed without respite in Punjab, NE, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Rajasthan. They had bled in Pri Panjal and gasped for air in Siachen; they had swatted mosquitoes in Mizoram; they had sweltered in the Rajasthan heat through Parakram; they had waded through floods in Orrissa and through debris in Bhuj; they had grubbed shamelessly for decent weapons and snowmobiles for their jawans while their oh so British predecessors played petty games of one-upmanship with babus in Raksha Mantralaya. This was the generation torn by Blue Star and honed by countless conflicts in Kashmir and beyond. This was the finely honed talwar of the modern Indian army, and it was now unsheathed in anger against the one party that contributed most in its development – the Pakistani ruling elite. Avadhesh was part of this generation too, and he had an instinctive trust for the likes of Abhimanyu that he lacked in slicker old school personalities like Saha.

Okay Abhimanyu. I am placing 6 IAB and 34 IIB under your command. You can order them to be your rearguard while you move away from Bravo. I will get Parth Tripathi’s Kharga to smash their way to you as soon as possible.

Thank you, sir. Jai Hind!

The engagement that went down in history as the Battle of Sahiwal was about to be joined.

From the Jane's book on the Fulcrum

He would never be mistaken for being anything other than what he was – tall, endowed with a natural athlete’s proportions and a clean-cut Grecian profile, erect as only a soldier’s soldier can be… and he was not just a pretty face, either. The crisp, flawless Sandhurst accent was well known to CNN and BBC audiences as it clearly and articulately debunked hokum Indian theories. There was intellectual heft too; his series of articles out of Leavenworth were regarded as being foundational to Pakistan Army’s new doctrine of countering Indian advances… they were quoted extensively by doting South Asia analysts and fretful IDSA experts alike. Finally, there was pedigree. Scion of a proud dynasty of warriors tracing their lineage all the way to Taimur the Lame’s generals, son to former Punjab Governor, husband of a Qatari princess, doyen of scores of high brow embassy dinners (call me Sher, sweets)… truly, there are some that are born to glide along and shine in Allah’s munificence while other grub around their purposeless lives. This messy inconvenience would soon be behind him, and then the America approved ascent to Chief of Army Staff and (future?) Presidency would continue from this temporary detour as GOC 2 Corps…

BANG! CRACK! The clay disc shattered at the unerring shot; Lt Gen Ehsan Obaid lowered his shotgun and turned with a cocked eyebrow to the sweating Col Humayun Agha. Sir, the columns are racing eastwards as ordered. A calm, level gaze; an encouraging nod. The Indians are still hanging on to the bridgehead, but all major movements westwards have been halted. A cool, crisp smile. Yes, Agha. That was to be expected. These Indians should have known what was coming, you know. My analysis laid it all out – we are a small, embattled nation, and some loss of territory had to be expected. But we know our stuff, son. Those buggers are overextended now, and our pincers will catch them with their dhotis down! A quiet chuckle at that – years ago, as a brash Colonel, he would have permitted himself a hearty laugh at the Indians’ predicament, but with age came a certain mellowness and worldliness. The folly of these baniyas!

But we don’t know where their break-through force is, Sir. What if they mount attacks on our 2 Corps columns? Agha, Agha, Agha. (Yes, one has to be patient and avuncular with these emotional types.) I know a thing or two about cauldrons – didn’t you read my analysis of Stalingrad when you were at Quetta? See, professionals focus on logistics instead of theatrical amature brainstorms. The Indians have their logis severed right now. If they mess around, they will run out of fuel, and then what good will their T90s be? If (a restrained roll of eyes here) they decide to move westwards, they will be moving AWAY from their logistics bases, son. We have their nuts in our hands. They have to go charging back to their bridgehead, to retrieve their balls from fire! NOW – that command to a waiting orderly; swoosh crack bang – another clay dish met what those langots called nirvana. Sir, should we be sending out parties to pinpoint the break-thorough force for destruction? The clear eyes of the Shaheen turned their penetrating gaze back to the motley Colonel. Have you ever been on a houbara hunt son? Timing is everything! You have to let the houbara become aware of its predicament – that’s when it panics and makes a run. When it does, NOW! BANG! CRACK! Another disc shattered, and the hunter turned a meaningful glance at the lowly Colonel.

But the Colonel persisted. That was the problem with these striving types who tried so hard to impress – Agha was from a lowly Chinioti business background, and got this posting only as a reward after a grueling stint at Kotli. Sir, our columns can move faster if we ask them to move off the roads and through the farms in the area. It will be harder to attack them also! The kindly avuncular look evaporated at this, replaced with something hard and ugly. Then the shadow seemed to pass, though the eyes remained distant. No son. This is no time to get our vehicles bogged down. We stick to the roads. Why don’t you get my detachment ready? We won’t be taking the helicopter right now – I want to be close to my boys as they move to the front! Yes Sir. Shall I tell them to be prepared for your move in an hour? After my shooting session and lunch, son. Let’s wait for the roads to clear a bit, shall we? What an oaf. Hasn’t he read about Sir Francis Drake not interrupting his game while the Armada swept in?

With that dismissal, Colonel Agha scurried off with his fresh orders. Gen Obaid permitted himself a scowl at the retreating back – what an eager beaver! Asks too many questions! And dense too. Anyway. Time enough to deal with his ACR after I finish dealing with that son of a shopkeeper from across the border. ISI tells me his father sold saris! Hah! This baniya thinks he can conquer Pakistan! NOW! BANG! CRACK!

YIP: Watch your language. I had to edit your last para.

Dileep and Rich,

Thank you, my doubts answered.

B2 is the most secretive asset of usaf. nobody has a real grip on what its mission avionics are. lots of classified stuff. NATO a/c werent even allowed to fly in same corridor as B2 during kosovo. In functionality ofcourse the An32G 's peer is the AC130, though the latter is far more powerful and well equipped.

Lt Gen Abhimanyu Kaul’s plan unfolded, even as the deadly columns of Pakistani 2 Corps continued to race eastwards.

The bunched pivoting units began to uncoil into a line of battle. These 606 IAB units were about 15 kilometers from their original objective, the Okara – Sahiwal highway, and they now raced the advancing Pakistani columns to their new objectives. On the north and east, the two brigades from 18 RAPIDS became the right hinge, stretching themselves out in a protective northwest to southeast flank facing Okara. On the left, 149 Infantry Brigade, till now faithfully trailing 15 IAB, spread out on a roughly northwest to southeast axis facing Pakpattan, and anchored itself in the Northwest on the Pakpattan-Sahiwal road. The two brigades detached from 10 Corps, 6 IAB and 34 IIB, formed the rear guard, with some 6 IAB tank regiments being attached to 14 IAB. At the cutting edge of the formation, 14 IAB deployed itself in a rough line aligned south west to north east with the two ends directed towards the highways converging on Sahiwal. And nestled in the middle were the precious artillery brigades and signals units. The thin arrowhead had become an avenging Parshu that now swung viciously towards its unsuspecting prey.

It used to be that the first sign of an advancing army were vultures. In this modern Armageddon, the sky over the advancing Pakistani columns filled with carrion birds of a different kind –high flying Herons and the diminutive Nishants. And above them, regally surveying all that they ruled, flew mighty Su 30 MKIs and the F 18Is.

The first shots were not fired by the deadly birds of prey. As the 606 IBG tanks and BMPs slowed to a deliberate advance, the two arty brigades, conspicuously silent till now, opened up with long range salvos. Krasnopol shells bored in with deadly accuracy on lead elements and reduced them to shattered, smoldering hulks. The Pakistani units, crowded on roads and unprepared for battle, began to pile up in one monstrous 70 kilometer traffic jam. As more and more shells pumped in, the columns soon became a confused, panicky melee. And then, the hammer of gods, the Glory of the Glorious, took charge. Mi25 gunships slashed in, their cannons ripping open armour like cheap tin cans. MiG 27s and Jaguars, wings loaded with deadly cluster munitions, screamed in at treetop height to deliver their deadly cargo. Wing Commander Shirish Tulpule had tried to enliven many a boring practice sortie, imagining that the civilian traffic plying outside Kalaikunda were military convoys. Now his imagination had become vivid reality: a huge convoy writhed and twisted as he pressed the trigger and his guns tore into the creature.

The Pakistanis broke and ran. That only made things worse. Vehicles rammed each other, tanks ran over puny jeeps. Chaos piled on chaos, confusion was worst confounded. Some units, in blind desperation, broke eastwards through the farmland. Straight into the jaws of T90s and Nag missiles, so artfully lined up by Shivinder Singh Randhawa.

The Lahore - Multan Highway which connected Okara and Sahiwal had been upgraded to an expressway with World Bank loans, and was the proud showcase of Gen Khan’s progressive policies. Now, it became the highway of death for his proudest military possession. The vaunted Pakistani 2 Corps, the Zarb-e-Momin, lay shattered and bleeding on a cratered and charred road to hell. As the pale sun kissed the western horizon, a huge cloud obscured its weak rays – this was no bucolic Godhuli (“Cattle Dust”), but dust raised by a thousand stampeding vehicles and hundreds of sooty funeral pyres of broken, useless hulks.

But Shivi’s battle was not done yet. He had no need for makeup now – his face blackened with sunburn, cordite, dust and sweat, his body beyond exhaustion. He knew that a critical night lay ahead of him – his units had lost their most potent shield, mobility. Straggling infantry units from the decimated Pakistani corps would try to mount raids on his lines now. Gen Kaul had already sought and obtained airborne reinforcements from a jubilant Avadhesh; a battalion of MLI, fresh and raring to go, now joined and hardened Shivi’s dug in tanks and BMPs. News was that Kharga had restabilised Point Bravo, and was now pouring out in an angry and unstoppable torrent of guns and steel. With it would come more ammo, more fuel, fresh bodies. But till then, Shivi hustled from trench to trench, stiffening backs and raising droopy heads with his mere presence. Tales of his spectacular dash, of his slaughtering of the cream of 6 Armoured Division were already spreading like wildfire. Shivi could see the respect in the eyes of the hard bitten Ganpats, and the incoming MLI officers and men sprang to action with extra vim and precision. Just then, Shivi saw a familiar face being carried back on a stretcher, and jumped down from his CP vehicle to offer an encouraging word.

Afterwards, no one knew if it was one shot or two or three. The IBG tactical net, buzzing with a dozen purposeful conversations, fell silent except for the steady, bitter stream of Punjabi profanities from Subedar Ratan Singh and the uncontrollable sobs of Nayak Roshan Lal. Surgeon Major Matthew Lobo, performer of a hundred life-saving miracles, fumbled impotently with the first aid kit and tried to stench the spreading pool of blood. The T90 turret turned and bellowed its berserk rage at flitting shadows. Officers and jawans of 14 IAB, proud brave warriors all, slumped in numb horror.

The young, dashing hero who had led a fabled charge through line after enemy line lay mortally wounded, on the lush plains of the eternal Land of Five Rivers. Shivinder Singh Randhawa’s long, forlorn journey from Blue Star had come to an end. Duryodhan had been attacked in his lair. His crown prince Lakshman was dead. And so was Abhimanyu.

The helicopters one by one set down in quiet sandy riverbank and disgorged their green clad cargo. They didnt linger but immediately flew off back into the radar cover of the foothills. They wouldnt be needed for the recovery unless a real emergency erupted. within two hours, five of them landed back at guwahati. Two sat on the ground 6kms inside meghalaya at a spot not unlike the jungle clearing major chauhan was first seen.

the 48 men formed into two units of 24 each and set off up the shoulder of a ridge that separated the landing zone from the camp. time ran short, a moon was expected through clearing clouds by 3am and they had a bare 2 hrs 15 mins to get the job done.

They didnt meet anyone in the drizzling rain and forest mist on the approach, a couple of startled wild deer quickly scattered into deeper cover on seeing the dark shapes approach.

by the by, the two columns reached a spot about 30m above the level of the camp and 1km away, HHTIs easily picking up the campfires, generator powered lights and the blobs of isolated people moving around against the cool forest background. the sound of the big diesel generator was as yet inaudible, millions of insects going about their business dominated the scene.

Doley let his troop of 24 nearer to the target, using thick reeds along the padmai rivulet for cover, then finally getting down into the canal , bending down to just keep their noses above water and carefully feet by feet creeping up from the west.

Col chauhan's group of 24 circled around the south, struggling through a difficult thicket of bamboo and wild vines to form a line of 'beaters' arranged in sparse fashion along the southern periphery of the camp. they carefully went to ground around 200m from the patrol line and waited.

to the north the rivulet & canal formed a natural boundary and the east had only the jeep road as a means of movement, thick lines of medang bamboo as thick as a womans thigh hemmed in that line of movement.

Doley finally sighted the first couple of sentries and motioned quietly to the silent crocodiles behind him. waiting until the sentries went off on their route, they slithered ashore and commenced a silent advance thru the reeds towards the camps perimeter.

At a certain point, two men detached themselves and walked off with long sniper rifles , climbing a tree to get a bead on one of the watchtowers.

Doley could feel a certain tightness in his hands as time went on the chance of discovery, of a stray camp dog sniffing the wrong smell increased...just a little more...looking at his watch..he took a final look thru a borrowed HHTI to look for signs of minefields or booby traps on the route they planned to take...nothing..that didnt prove anything.

Finally he packed up the TI and said into his lapel mike "go".

Would you please always provide link to the archived thread every time you Archive these kinds of threads?

I cant find the damn Map to follow this juicy entrapment. Can some pls find that map and put on this thread?