Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Cain Marko
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Cain Marko »

Fair enough Vivek sir, war is not exactly two plus two, this brings it out nicely. Also takes away the Clancyish onesided feel. One little point though in reference to a previous post where you mention the short range of the fulcrum. I believe this is no longer the issue with the upgraded birds, the fatbacks are as longlegged as can be hoped for -.range on internal fuel @1800 - 2000km, which puts it in mirage, viper class iirc. Also would the use of the IRST offer the baaz any advantage in a such a wvr scenario?
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by srai »

Bala Vignesh wrote:Sraiji,
Don't reckon such tactics need to be applied when you are the top dog in the skies and are on the offensive, imvho. Plus when you are doing a offensive fighter sweep such tactics are going to be of little help as you want a concentrated force to punch through whatever the enemy attempts to put in front of you.
Through Indian AEW, the 8 MiG-29s knew that there were only two F-16s plus an enemy AEW. In that scenario described when all 8 MiGs committed to action at the same time it played into the hands of the two F-16s and all 8 MiGs were forced make evasive maneuvers against four incoming AMRAAMs; thus losing numerical advantage. If the numbers were more even, then yes go all in, but if you have such a huge 4-1 numerical advantage then use it wisely and don't overcommit. For one, couple of MiGs could potentially have had the opportunity to go after the PAF AEW if they hadn't all commited.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by anand_sankar »

The test of Mr Ahuja's scenario is going to be this... The munnas across the border are not mugs.

There is going to be one BIG retaliatory air or missile strike on a major Indian military installation, mostly in J&K or Punjab. I am looking forward to how the author plays it and see how it shapes the scenario :)
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by parshuram »

Can't wait for more Vivek Saar , Holi doze is awaited .... Anxiously waiting for Pakistani Army to get involved . I know it would be long wait but will come Al-Khalid Vs Arjun ...
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Manish_Sharma »

Vivek as you used TDs of LCH in 'Chimera', is it possible that you introduce a formation of 6 Tejas vs f-16(52), armed with Astras & Python 5?
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by raj.devan »

In acrual timeline, isn't the Tejas supposed to already be inducted by 2017? I think that in an alternate timeline where India fights a massive war with China in 2014, there would be a bigger push to get Tejas and our other military projects operational.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by RajD »

vivek_ahuja wrote:
RajD wrote:But still, sir, 8 R77s for 2 bandits and not even one confirmed KO at BVR, the second one downed in WVR knife fight. As against only four AMRAAMs one confirmed KO, and the second one is escorted out of the theater by another bird. So, in all 3 birds rendered inoperational. How would you consider the efficacy of these missiles? how would reflect on it?
I should mention that there are a multitude of factors that are non-linear in air-combat scenarios. It is not an argument for 8 missiles / 2 targets == factor of safety x kills . It is as much about time to contact and engagement zones. Each missile behaves differently. The R-77 is different from an AMRAAM. And unlike WVR engagements, (where if you have 4 IR missiles homing on you, you are pretty much screwed) BVR engagements are more iffy. Depending on what the terrain on the side of the defenders is, there will be different levels of cover available to the two sides. Also note that the Pakistanis have their AEW up as well. So any moves your Migs make, can be countered by the F-16s in an unexpected way, unraveling the overall plans. When both sides are moving at Mach 0.9 and closing with AEWs up on both sides, it is very hard to flank the enemy.
Got your point, sir, but have a strong feeling though, that you might have considered to bring to light later on, that the missile rounds are/ have turned duds due to sheer unkempt storage conditions, negligence, oversight regarding expiry date, short cuts/ non adherence to QC procedures, low morale/disenchantment of the personnel with cocky/ politicized or 'yes sir' type top ranking officers, reflecting on the dismal state of affairs in the services brought about by the spineless, pusillanimous leadership ruling over at that time. A sure fire recipe to have turned everything to ashes for the Phoenix to rise from.
p.s. - Never mind corruption covering supply of outright duds by the supplier.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by jamwal »

Most likely Vivek has visualised or written a draft atleast 4-5 posts of this scenario already. If he includes your suggestions and they are different from his vision, it'll only delay his posting here. :mrgreen:
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by merlin »

I know its easier said than done myself but I find that the Indian flavour is missing here somehow. Except for the Indian names, it still feels like an American narration.

All fun though. More power to your pen. Keyboard.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Yagnasri »

Nothing on a Holi day???
vivek_ahuja
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

I know its easier said than done myself but I find that the Indian flavour is missing here somehow. Except for the Indian names, it still feels like an American narration.
Because it doesn't have the typical dhoti-shivering response of SDRE Indian government and military? Is it because Indian actions are too TFTA for them to feel SDRE? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

But on a serious note, I have struggled with this issue for years. Ever since I started writing Chimera (though it was without its name at the time!), I had to decide what to do about the "Indian flavor" as you call it. Karan M has pointed out the same as well as others. But it is much harder to implement than you might think. The average desi people I know speak a lot differently than proper English. They speak the so-called "Hinglish" and many aspects of the day-to-day military conversations have heavy use of the same. Add to that the fact that when we speak with someone from our native region within India, we usually speak in the local language. And so forth.

All of this adds that Indian flavor that you are talking about.

The problem from the author standpoint is that its extremely hard to replicate the same on a platform that is understandable and easy to read in a fast paced format. To try any such thing would basically mean that it will appear more Indian to some folks and completely unreadable to others. Its this difficulty that has yet to be passed IMVHO. Personally, I have not been able to replicate it on paper.

So my compromise was that I will tell the scenario story, describe the scenes in a format I know many folks can read, even if it loses that Indian flavor a bit. The point being that I expect the reader to understand that some conversations would happen between characters etc in local languages but in print it will be in English. I am not sure if this argument makes any sense.

As Tom Clancy noted once: "Keep it simple. Just tell the damn story!"

So it is here.
Last edited by vivek_ahuja on 18 Mar 2014 09:58, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

JUST SOUTH OF THE LINE OF CONTROL
23RD MARCH + 0200 HRS


The three Pinaka launcher trucks swerved off the road, one behind the other, on to the patch of even terrain nearby. Once off the road, the two vehicles in the back of the convoy drove off on either side of the lead vehicle so that they were all in abreast formation when they jerked to a stop. The crews of all three vehicles noticed that the ground shook beneath their feet as flashes of explosions rocked the ground they had just been on to the east. The dust cloud from their previous launch point was now rising into the black sky above…

But that was what the Pinaka multi-rocket launchers were designed for. Much like their bigger Brahmos brethren in the Indian artillery, the Pinaka launchers were autonomous. They could fire and move to a new location to deny the enemy a chance to counter-bombard them. In the age of weapons-locating radars, such autonomy and precision meant the difference between life and death. And indeed it had already proven lethal to a lot of men tonight as both sides rolled fire into each other’s tube artillery positions in the mountains. Unlike the all-terrain trucks on which the Pinaka system was mounted, the long-range tube artillery systems of the Indian and Pakistani armies were not nearly as mobile. And over the years both sides had meticulously marked out each other’s guns to painful detail. At the moment, the two sides were thrashing each other out. And a lot of the gun crews were having to make their escape from counter-battery fire by the seat-of-their pants.

By comparison, the Pinaka crews were in the very lap of luxury. Sitting inside a protected cabin and having the ability to control most operations via automation, they were extremely quick and highly precise over long ranges and, as Pakistani artillery crews had found to their frustration, extremely hard to pin down…

In these mountains, the range of the Pinaka system was enhanced by reduced density-altitude conditions such that a nominal range of fifty kilometers was achievable. And as such, the three Pinaka batteries in this sector were laying waste to Pakistani fixed artillery positions, command and control centers and logistics. Each new target was handed down by the operational army’s artillery combat command system called ACCCS. This system networked with the airborne sensors in the form of unmanned drones and manned stand-off sensor systems to find target locations, which were then passed along with other strike information down to the individual Pinaka autonomous groups. The system had worked well during the war with China and had since been enhanced using the wartime lessons. And like that war with China, most of the Pinaka crews were spending time taking out the opposing artillery forces during these initial stages.

But these three vehicles were an exception for the moment.

The vehicles shuddered as the launch tubes emptied on all three vehicles with the large warhead rockets leaping off their tubes in ripple fire mode. The vehicles were instantly backlit with the orange-yellow glow of the rocket exhaust before disappearing under their smoke. All three vehicles were engulfed in the back-blast of the rocket exhausts within seconds. As the last of the rockets leapt of the tubes and flashed across thy sky to the north, the lead vehicle rumbled to life and reappeared from within the dust and smoke. It was followed by the other two vehicles as they reformed into a convoy and swerved back on to the road that would take them further west. Two kilometers down, they would meet up with their rearming vehicles and drop the spent tubes and pick up new ones. By the time the Pakistani radars back-calculated their now-deserted launch position and responded in kind, the three vehicles would already be rolling further down the highway, delivering death at every turn…
Last edited by vivek_ahuja on 18 Mar 2014 09:46, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

THE LINE OF CONTROL
23RD MARCH + 0205 HRS


Every long-range strike needs damage assessment to determine its fruitfulness. On the line of control, this was often provided by the eyes of the friendly infantry hunkered down in their bunkers suffering enemy bombardment. When possible, the eyes were not in front of the targets but above it: inside airborne drones or manned aircraft orbiting high above the danger areas.
This one was somewhere in between.

Kaboom!” Jagat noted with a wicked smile as they watched the shared FLIR feed from Leopard-one, hovering further up the ridgeline. The TV view was silent, but they heard the sounds soon enough as the shockwaves rolled down to them. Even above the vibrations of the hovering helicopter under his control, Jagat could swear that he could sense the shockwave as it passed them by.
Shit!” The radio squawked. Jagat recognized the voice of the crew on Leopard-two, assisting Leopard-one on the ridgeline.
“You okay, -two?” Leopard-one crew chimed in, voice laced with concern.
“All green, -one. Um…the smoke just ate up my visibility, though. Have to readjust position. Standby.”
“Don’t stray too far, -two.”
“Wilco.”

Jagat ignored the chatter between the two air-force crews, focusing instead on the steady feed from Leopard-one while the other LCH maneuvered to a better vantage point. The black and white infrared TV showed them what the FLIR sensor on the LCH hovering half kilometer ahead was seeing to the north. Such sharing of sensors between cockpits was a result of sensor fusion enhancements to the LCH and Dhruv helicopter fleets in the aftermath of the China war. And as such it was extremely useful for special heliborne operations. The LCH being a gunship was much thinner, smaller, more agile and well designed for an observation platform for friendly artillery units. Up in these mountains where most helicopters struggled to hover or climb gently, the LCH had the horsepower and light-weight composites to allow it to climb at excessive rates to avoid enemy detection or fire. It’s thin-frontal cross section and composites cover made it impossible to detect on radar amongst the rocky terrain behind it. And it’s pixilated, digital camo made it very difficult to detect on IR scanners. If one of these birds-of-prey happened to be looking at you when you spotted it visually, chances were that you were already dead…

“What do you see, -two?” Leopard-one’s voice chimed in again.
“Strike highly effective, one. I see one, maybe two, bunker positions still untouched, though.”
Jagat shared a look at his co-pilot: “Is Leopard-two sharing his feed?” The co-pilot nodded and changed the knob setting to a different position. The display shifted from Leopard-one to –two and showed the FLIR zoomed in on what looked like an inactive Pakistani bunker on the LOC. It was hard to make out whether it was still occupied or not just by looking at the infrared views. That was the problem: the rockets had lit up the entire southern side of the Pakistani controlled ridgeline. Everything was showing up on thermals! But they had to fly past it into Pakistani territory, so it couldn’t be ignored…

“Is it operational, -two?”
“Can’t say, -one.”
“We can’t take the risk,” Jagat finally joined the conversation. “Take it out! And make it quick! We are burning precious fuel here!”
“Wilco, Panther-actual,” the radio squawked again, this time with some background interference. “Leopard-two, you have the ball. One nag should do the trick. Aim for the bunker entrance.”
“Roger!”

Jagat saw the view angle of the bunker seen on the FLIR of Leopard-two move to the right as the helicopter maneuvered into a proper position. A couple seconds later the view shuddered slightly and Jagat jerked his head up to see a speck of rocket exhaust go up from the otherwise complete dark visibility to his northeast. The radio chimed in for everybody’s benefit:
“Missile away,” the calm voice noted. “Impact now…now…now!”

The silent display showed the Nag anti-tank missile as it slammed into one of the open slit-entrances of the bunker. The explosive warhead detonated in a flash of white-black on the screen and enveloped all of the interior. Flames leapt out of the supposed firing positions within the bunker a split second before the roof flew off underneath an inverted cloud of concrete and dust. The crackling explosion echoed through the valley two seconds later…

“Good kill, Leopard-two,” Jagat said as the FLIR view backed out of zoom. “Leopard-actual, are clear for ingress?”
“Roger, Panther.” Leopard-three and –four will cover our rear and suppress what we missed. I suggest we go.”
Jagat looked to his copilot and nodded as he lowered his night-vision goggles and brought the helicopter out of hover with a slight groan. The other two Dhruvs did the same.
“Leopard-one, I have you at my eleven position at one kilometer,” Jagat noted as he saw the rotating blades and dark silhouette of the LCH near the top of the ridgeline against the greenish sky of his optics. The last thing he needed now was a mid-air collision…
“Leopard copies all. We will keep our distance, Panther.”

Jagat saw the LCH rise from its pop-up position and pitch down as it disappeared on the other side of the ridge. A few seconds later the three Panther choppers were also doing the same. Jagat felt the weightlessness as the helicopter crested the top of the ridgeline and dived on the other side. They were now directly facing the Pakistani positions on the other ridgeline to the north. But these were now dead. Smoke was bellowing in thick plumes from the bunker complex that Leopard-two had hit with a nag missile. Other positions had dust clouds hovering above them as the seven Indian helicopters flew past…

The radio chimed in Jagat’s ears: “We got runners on the ground here! Engaging!”

A second later a flash of explosions ripped apart a cluster of trees to Jagat’s left, causing him to jerk and see the trees burning furiously as Leopard-three fired several unguided rockets into them and banked away. Jagat thought he saw several Pakistani soldiers running back to the west, away from the ingress path of the Indian helicopters. Leopard-three’s gunner kept them occupied with bursts of cannon fire, to which they responded with inaccurate small arms fire. Jagat saw the tracers heading into the sky in completely wrong directions.
“Looks like they are thoroughly confused!” Jagat’s co-pilot noted as the crested the ridge past the Pakistani frontlines. Jagat nodded.

“But it won’t last,” he said finally as dived past the ridges and into occupied Kashmir. “We hit them with superior firepower and a larger force. They are still in shock at the hole we hammered past their positions. Once they figure that out, we will run into organized and heavy resistance. Let’s just hope we can get out before that happens.” He looked at the moving map display and the old-fashioned paper maps fitted into the translucent cover pocket on his thigh. “What’s our E-T-A to the DZ-Yankee?
“Um…approximately ten minutes.”
“Good. Spread the word to our operators in the back,” Jagat said and then realized that he had not heard any chatter from any of the four air-force LCH crews or his other two Panther crews.
Good…he thought. Panther and Leopard were now running radio silent being professionals to the core, didn’t need to be reminded of it. Jagat could see only the faint outlines of the two LCHs to his front, two kilometers down the valley and he had to assume that the others behind him were keeping eyes on and maintaining distance as well. As they flew into the valleys of occupied Kashmir on their way to Deosai, Jagat looked to the side and saw only the ghostly black silhouettes of the mountains against the greenish skies above as they whipped past him…

“Drop zone in the next valley at two-o-clock, three kilometers,” his co-pilot noted, breaking the silence in the cockpit. Jagat glanced at his co-pilot and then shook his head, breaking his thoughts. He then transmitted the only VHF comms from the seven helicopters to be picked up by the orbiting unmanned drone over Deosai:

“Panther is entering A-O. Out.”
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by sudhan »

Alright!!! Time to enter the AO and deliver some habenero up paki musharaffs... :mrgreen:

Need our next fix soon, saar :)
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by nits »

Vivek Sir - a week+ and no Post :cry: we mango people need it more frequently sir
vivek_ahuja
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Vivek Sir - a week+ and no Post :cry: we mango people need it more frequently sir
Apologies. Day job keeping me busy.

Here's a large post to compensate! 8)

-Vivek
Last edited by vivek_ahuja on 28 Mar 2014 08:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

DEOSAI
OCCUPIED KASHMIR
23RD MARCH + 0225 HRS


The splattering of sparks on the ridgeline caused Muzammil and his lieutenants to look up just as the Jaguar strike aircraft streaked out of the valley in a blur. The thunderclap from the explosion ripped past Muzammil and his men and left the trees swaying under its force…

“What was that?!” One of the senior lieutenants exclaimed in Pashtu. Muzammil realized he had never got used to the language of his afghan veterans despite the years they had been with his outfit. He shook his head as the other afghan mujahedeen in his group spoke excitedly with each other just as secondary explosions lit up the sky from the former Pakistani army ammo dump. Tracers were still flying into the sky as the rumble of aircraft echoed through the valleys long after the actual aircraft had left.

Shut up!” Muzammil thundered, bringing silence within the excited men around him. “Go see to your men!”
“The Indians have taken over the skies!” Muzammil’s aide noted as he made sense of the dozens of back and forth conversations happening over his small radio. “We cannot get our men to move on the roads to the border!”

Muzammil frowned. This was the day they had planned for years. Open jihad in Kashmir alongside his colleagues in the Pak army. And yet the infidels had seized the initiative and were laying waste to all logistics behind the Pakistani frontline positions on the LOC. Indian artillery rockets were pummeling the Pakistani positions by shooting and moving before they could be subjected to counter fire. And the Indians had decimated the Pakistani aircraft stationed in the Kashmir mountains in a staggering escalation of events that neither Muzammil nor Rawalpindi had anticipated. The net result was that they were choking the movement of the thousands of gathered jihadis out of Deosai and other areas.

“If only we could get to the front lines in force, we could overwhelm the kaffirs!” Muzammil muttered under his breath as he unrolled the paper map on the hood of the Toyota parked by the roadside. He unshouldered his Kalashnikov and put it on the hood as well while his commanders gathered around him. He looked at them before speaking: “We must find a way to move forward, despite the cursed enemy aircraft and artillery! We will disperse and move on foot if we have to. They cannot catch us when we are off the roads.”

“It worked in Afghanistan and it will work here,” his former Afghan commander noted. Muzammil liked this man who had led his cadres alongside the Pashtuns when they had overwhelmed Kabul’s forces along the eastern Afghan border two years ago. The man had sacrificed the life of many, but had also delivered is objectives. And Muzammil had seen for himself the massacre of those Afghan soldiers who had the misfortune to be taken alive by the Pashtuns. It had made Muzammil shudder. And that was saying something, considering the blood on his hands. Muzammil had long since decided to listen to this man for military advice.

“How long before the men can move through the forests to the Indian positions?” Muzammil said and both men peered at the maps given to them by the Pakistani army. It showed all Indian positions and strengths along the border. Such information had been gathered in detail by the military intelligence services of the army and handed to Muzammil and his commanders to allow them to launch surprise attacks against isolated or weak Indian positions and overwhelm them, allowing the Pak army to move forward.

Muzammil’s afghan commander stared intently at the map and then nodded as he stroked his beard. He then faced Muzammil: “I anticipate two days for all our…”

The splatter of blood on his face caught Muzammil by surprise and he shuddered from it, utterly shocked, as the body of his afghan commander slumped to the ground, splattering his brain nearby.


***


Captain Kamidalla lowered his multi-caliber rifle from shoulder level and peered intently through the night optics to make sure the target package was alive and kicking before activating comms just as the cacophony of rifle fire picked up all around them:
“Pathfinder-two here. The chicken are riled up but the rooster is still up and about!”

Kamidalla peered through the optics of his rifle again and took aim. He could see Muzammil’s men firing in all directions around their parked Toyotas. They had no inkling of who or what had engaged them and from where. Three of their commanders were now laying in a pool of blood and Muzammil had taken cover behind the open door of his vehicle, not knowing that he was in full sights of Kamidalla two hundred meters away in the trees…

Kamidalla put his index finger on the trigger of his rifle whilst putting the red dot on the head of Muzammil, clearly shaking and shivering. Inside his green-black night-view, Kamidalla could see dark, black stains on the man’s face as well as the military jacket he was wearing. Blood stains.

“What’s the status of the rooster?” Pathanya’s calm voice came through on Kamidalla’s inter-team comms. Kamidalla lowered his rifle and looking at the vehicles taking fire from the rest of Pathfinder team.

“Shaking but alive.”
“Good,” Pathanya noted. “Let him keep shivering for the next few minutes. Keep your eyes on him, -two. And keep us informed if makes a break for it. Will advise when we are good to go. Out.”
“Wilco.”

Pathanya and two of the other Pathfinder men moved past the bushes, three hundred meters to the west, one arm holding their rifles at shoulder level and the other hand used to move the odd branches and scrubs out of the way. They took deliberate steps to prevent any sudden movements. Despite that caution, they moved gradually to the east. From his night-vision optics, Pathanya could see the two mud huts directly in front of him. These were silhouetted black against the flashes of white from the rifle fire that Muzammil’s men were firing to the south of the road just beyond the huts. Save for Kamidalla, whose sole job was to keep his eyes glued on Muzammil, the remaining eight Pathfinder team members were keeping a solid base of fire on the dozen pickup trucks and larger five-tonner trucks which made up Muzammil’s command group.

It was a basic whack-the-bush strategy designed to channel a surprised and scared enemy in a direction productive to the attackers. Kamidalla being the crack shot on the team had delivered that initial shock and had the desired effect on Muzammil, just as Basu’s men had predicted it would. The main Pathfinder force was now directing accurate rifle fire against the LeT security troops from the south of the east-west road south of the mud huts…

“Panther, this is Pathfinder,” Pathanya spoke into his comms mouthpiece as he stepped past the stepping rocks on a shallow, icy fjord. He saw his two men on either side, a dozen meters away.

“Panther reads you five-by-five, Pathfinder.” Jagat responded as though running a peacetime operation. His calm under pressure at a time when Pathanya could literally hear his own heart pumping in his chest was utterly remarkable and worthy of the man’s reputation. It allowed Pathanya to ease up. Confidence under fire was contagious.

“Panther, Pathfinder is in play and under fire. Eyes on target package acquired in convoy behind first vehicle. Do not touch that area. Light up the back vehicles!”
“Roger. Panther is detaching leopard to play merry hell! Out!”

Pathanya tightened his rifle into his shoulder closer and switched comms: “Pathfinder-one here. Watch your backs and make sure the viz beacons are active. Leopard is entering the fight!”
Their first inkling of the combat helicopters of Leopard flight entering the battle was when three fireballs rose into the sky and sent three trucks at the back end of the convoy flying in pieces in all directions. Pathanya instantly knelled along with his two other men as the orange-yellow flames of the convoy rendered a hellish glow on the valley followed soon after by the strikes of more unguided rockets further south of the road. Pathanya heard the rumble of the helicopters as they streaked overhead. Tracers raced after the fast helicopters as the survivors of Muzammil’s security troops struggled to meet the new and sudden threat in the skies above them. It was a nightmarish sight to behold even for battle-hardened soldiers such as Pathanya. For someone like Muzammil, more used to ordering people to their deaths in battle rather than enduring the same, it was just too much…

“Rooster is moving! Making a run for it!” Kamidalla’s urgent voice came through on the comms. Pathanya was almost about to chime in asking for directions but Kamidalla beat him to the punch: “
“Northwest! Northwest! Northwest! Go! Go! Go!
Pathanya jerked his head to the see the silhouette of a man run past the orange-black glow of the mud huts into the woods to their east. He immediately got up and splashed past the fjord and into the woods as fast as he could, breaking branches and slipping over the icy stones along the way. He made quick progress on his evasive enemy. Kamidalla’s voice chimed in again: “Target moving west now! Heading towards you!”

Pathanya saw the confused Muzammil run towards him, not knowing he was being pursued. He finally saw Pathanya and his two men a dozen meters away and stood in shock. Pathanya saw him raise his AK-47 just in time to hit the dirt:
Down!

Muzammil let the three men have it at full blast, firing the ready clip from the hip. The bullets went on a wide arc trajectory and slapped into the trees and branches all around Pathanya and his men, showering them with broken branches and snow. But the frenzied fire and the rough terrain meant that no accuracy could be attained by Muzammil. In a few seconds his rifle clicked on empty chambers. He looked at the rifle in surprise and instead of reloading, threw it on the snow and began running further up the slope.

Pathanya got up on his feet and ran after him. He had noticed that he was alone at the moment as one of his men had taken a bullet in his leg and was down where he lay. The other team member was no-where to be seen…

You are not getting away, you ba$tard!

Pathanya ran up the hill, sweating as he did so. He heard the whiz of bullets flying past his head and crouched behind a tree trunk to see another of Muzammil’s men clambering up the hill in his salwar-kameez, firing a G-3 rifle as he struggled through the snow.

Your boss isn’t expendable. But you are!

He brought up his MCIWS rifle to shoulder level and fired a three-round burst. The bearded jihadi fell face down into the snow with his hands stretched and his back pooling with blood.

“You are going to miss him! Go! Go!” Kamidalla’s voice shouted in Pathanya’s ears.

Pathanya let out a breath and forced himself up again to see Muzammil further up the slope. But it was clear to Pathanya that the man was not nearly in the kind of fit shape required to outrun the Indian Para-SF soldiers on a slippery countryside at night. He made quick progress on him until he was almost behind the man. Muzammil knew what was in store and tried to turn, but slipped in the process. As he lay on his back, he saw the sweating face of Pathanya walk up to him.

By now Muzammil was a wretched, miserable man, not worthy of Pathanya’s honor. Pathanya pointed the barrel of his rifle to the man’s temple: “You son of a bitch! Do you know how many people are dead because of you? Do you?

Muzammil realized that he was going to be taken alive. This allowed him to recover some of his composure. “Not enough! We will kill you all before this war is complete, as Allah is my witness!”
Pathanya growled and reversed his rifle and let Muzammil have it in the chest with his rifle butt. Muzammil shrieked like he had been gutted and splattered blood from his mouth on to the snow as he rolled on his stomach.

“Pathfinder, this is Panther!” The comms squawked. “Do you have the package or not?”

Pathanya took a few seconds to catch his breath as he turned to see his other team member helping the third man limp over to Pathanya’s position. To the south, he could see the raging fires from the back end of the truck convoy and the three LCHs of Leopard flight streaking through the valley looking for targets.

“Roger!” He said finally over his huffing and puffing. “Package is secure and alive! I say again, package is secure! Panther, get us out of here!”
“Panther to Leopard. You heard Pathfinder. We don’t need you holding back anything anymore. Kill any and all ba$tards left alive!

Pathanya heard the crews of Leopard respond by firing salvos of unguided fin-stabilized rockets into all of the remaining trucks in the convoy on the road. Most of the vehicles burst to pieces under the impacts, sending shards flying in all directions…

“Pathfinder, collate your units and establish perimeter! Hold and secure. We are coming to you! Out.”
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Prem »

Finish it but put few cut on the ******** to squeeze the Harami blood.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by rsingh »

Just to keep the thread on first page.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by member_28539 »

Dear Vivek Sir,

Firstly, i want to congratulate you on an excellent piece of work "CHIMERA". I purchased it thru POTHI (about 2 months back) & got delivery in less than a week.

I have been a long time lurker at the BR & got hook'd to your scenario's about 2 years back. Your Scenario's are very vivid & at the same time contain this strange sense of reliability that maybe is an attribution to your excellent writing style.

More power to you!

Regards,
Joshi_Sa
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vila »

Did the porkis kidnap Vivek sir to take revenge :D
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by rajrishi »

Vivek Sir,

When is the next instalment???? Yeah Dil Maange Mooooorrrrreeeeeeee :)
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by viktor »

Vivek saab, aur mat tadpaiye. Aapko BRF ki kasam.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

DEOSAI
OCCUPIED KASHMIR
23RD MARCH + 0255 HRS


Jagat turned to see the bushes outside and saw the loadmasters of the three Dhruv helicopters running back to their individual helicopters. He turned to his co-pilot and nodded. Moments later the three helicopters were spooling up their main rotors. Jagat turned to the back to see is loadmaster clambering aboard after stowing his rifle.
“All clear out there?” Jagat asked with a sarcastic smile.
“All clear, sir. No enemy to be seen.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way.” Jagat turned back to his controls and lowered his helmet night-optics and locked it into position. The hellish green-scape replaced his bluish-black moonlit view of the Himalayas. He looked around the control panel and then tightened his grip on the controls.

He keyed his comms: “Panther to all elements, we are dusting off!”
“-Two copies.”
“-Three copies all.”
“Leopard copies all. Watching for your ingress to primary D-Z. Will advise on threat vectors.”

Good…Jagat thought. They would need Leopard to help orient to the terrain and friendly and enemy dispositions. The area of operations was just beyond the valley that Panther was sitting in. As such, it was out of direct line of sight. They had heard all the explosions and seen the orange-yellow glow silhouetting the mountains that made up their valley. They had even seen random tracers flying upwards from time to time. But the actual position of Pathfinder and Leopard was a dynamic entity. Inside the Dhruv cockpit, Jagat and his pilots could not see the video output from the Searcher-II drones that Ansari and Gephel had access to. So Jagat would rely on the infrared strobes deployed by Pathfinder to mark the pickup point. Security would be provided by Leopard’s gunships…

The Dhruv leapt off the grassy area and climbed out of the valley in a sharp pitch angle preferred by Jagat. His other two crews did the same. The agility of the Dhruv and LCH helicopters under these conditions was unprecedented. Compared to the Mi-17s operated by the Pakistani and Indian forces alike for high altitude mountain operations, these two birds were like sports cars compared to a lorry. Sure, the latter had more brute power, but at high altitude it bled off. The Dhruv was the king of the hill out here.

Less than a minute after dust-off, Jagat was already climbing past the hills that masked his view of the target valley. Instantly he and his crews had to readjust their night-optics sensitivity to account for the blazing fires raging all around. The LCH gunships were roving the battle-space looking for any remaining targets…

“Oh shit!” Jagat’s co-pilot exclaimed at the nightmarish scene. Jagat lowered the pitch of his helicopter and brought it to near hover. He then keyed his comms:
“Panther here. We are going to need some visual reference here on Pathfinder’s location. Are your I-R beacons flashing? Over.”
“Uh…roger, Panther.” Pathanya responded after a few seconds.
“Well, I have no visual. Too much thermal interference here from the fires.”

“Leopard here, Panther. Do you see the burning convoy on the east-west road?” Jagat looked up to see the blazing fires from the dozen pickup trucks and lorries on the road.
“Roger. We see it.”
“Do you see the hilltop north of it?”
“I have it, Leopard. Panther is inbound.” Jagat responded and then pushed the throttle and cyclic to bring the helicopter into forward flight towards the silhouetted hilltop north of him. “Give me a sitrep on the D-Z!”

“Secure and holding for now, Panther.” Pathanya chimed in. “But we have an inbound convoy of Pakistani troops heading down the road from the west according to Cougar-Two.”
“Roger, Pathfinder. Standby for pickup.”

Jagat and his co-pilot watched to the side of their cockpit glass as they overflew the burning trucks spewing smoke. Then passed the two mud houses followed by the alpine trees all the way to the hilltop where they saw a dozen or so heavily armed men on the ground spread over a circle around the clearing. Jagat adjusted the cyclic and turned the orientation of the helicopter to face south before lowering collective. He was now hovering a dozen feet above the clearing. He could now clearly see Pathanya standing on the ground next to another man wearing a ammo-jacket above his salwar-kameez laying on the ground hand-cuffed and duct-tape over his mouth. Jagat smiled just as the helicopter touched down and sent a slurry of snow and broken braches moving radially away from the helicopter.

Pathanya grabbed Muzammil by his neck and got the man to his feet before shoving him towards the helicopter. Behind him another of the Pathfinder team member helped his limping comrade towards the helicopter. Jagat saw Pathanya walk past the cockpit and returned the young man’s salute. The commotion behind caused Jagat and his co-pilot to turn back and see Pathanya shoving Muzammil to a seat towards the back of the helicopter before helping his wounded man aboard. He then moved to the cockpit and smiled as he spoke:

“One high-value-individual at your disposal, sir!”

“Well done, Major.” Jagat responded genuinely. “Get your men aboard the rest of the helicopters. I…”
“Leopard here! We are detecting one Mi-17 approaching the valley from the northeast! Not friendly! I say again, not friendly!
Jagat immediately turned to his left to try and see the incoming Pakistani helicopter. He could see the black speck on his night optics against the greenish light of the night sky behind. He also saw two LCHs in the valley south of him passing the D-Z to the northeast to intercept…

“Panther here! Leopard, you are weapons free! Take that ba$tard down before he ruins the day for us!”
“Wilco Panther. Leopard is engaging!”

Jagat saw the tracers from the chin-gun turrets of the two LCHs as they laced through the sky towards the evading Mi-17. The crew of that helicopter had obviously been taken by surprise. Certainly they were not aware of Indian gunships prowling the valley…

Jagat saw the small flash and then heard the crumbling noise as the Pakistani helicopter went down into the silhouetted mountains trailing a small smoke column. The two LCHs broke off and began to bank to the south. Jagat turned to his co-pilot and Pathanya:

“We just lost the element of surprise. That Pakistani crew will have relayed our presence to their command. We are now out of time. Get your men aboard ASAP. We are leaving!”

Pathanya nodded and jumped out of the helicopter to organize his men. Jagat heard several more Pathfinder soldiers clambering aboard and then got a thumbs up from Pathanya outside. He nodded and the Dhruv leapt off the hilltop, making way for the next Dhruv to land and pick up the rest of the Pathfinder force.

A minute later the last Dhruv left the hilltop and headed south. The four LCHs also broke off their marauding and headed south, covering Panther’s back. Jagat saw the dying fires of the trucks in the valley and took a deep breath as they passed the mountains to the south, finally obscuring their view. He then turned to see the soot and grime covered faces of the Pathfinder soldiers in his cabin. And finally he saw the fear filled eyes of Muzammil, unsure of what his future was. The man who had organized the strike on Mumbai…

Jagat keyed his comms to Ansari: “Panther and Leopard are clear and returning to base.”
“Do you have the package?” Jagat heard Ansari’s voice.

Jagat let out a deep breath and responded: “We have it.”
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Sidhant »

Vivek Ahuja ji, please post your scenarios regularly yaar.

While we wait for Modi sarkaar :-)
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

SKIES NORTH OF SRINAGAR
23RD MARCH + 0300 HRS


There was one last thing that was left to be done. Verma looked at the digital clock on the side panels in front of him and crossed his arms. The lead radar systems officer turned to see Verma, who nodded silently. The young officer then went to work:
“Hawk-eye to Sword leader. You are cleared to splash Skardu! Execute when ready.”

The response came in a few seconds later, trailing radio static: “Roger. Sword is executing.”

Verma took a deep breath at that. The Pakistani F-16s blocked on the ground at Skardu were one of the most advanced aircraft in the PAF arsenal. And for now they were at the Indian mercy while their airbase runway was recovering from the kinetic strikes of the Brahmos missiles. Verma and Bhosale had agreed long ago that this force could not be allowed to survive the night. The idea was to try and end the cause of war tonight. But if that failed, it would be much safer for the friendly forces if these twelve aircraft were turned to scrap metal…

It was a long fifteen minutes of pacing inside the cabin of the cramped AEW aircraft before the leader of the group of Mirage-2000s chimed in:
“Sword leader here. We confirm seven buried bandits inside their shelters. Direct hits from multiple precision munitions. Two more unconfirmed. Hell of a party you have going here, Hawk-eye. Sword out!”

Verma raised an eyebrow at that last compliment and smiled to himself. He straightened his back. It was time to pull his thinly strung forces back to tighter control over Indian territory. The Pakistani air force would not pursue. They couldn’t. The shock delivered to them tonight would take several hours to heal.

And maybe then they will come to their senses…Verma thought.

“Pull back all forces that are not currently engaging the enemy.”
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

CHAPTER 3

NEW-DELHI
23RD MARCH + 0930 HRS


“Do you know what they have done?” Bafna said sharply as he walked into Ravoof’s office.
“Who?” Ravoof said as he looked up from the desk and waved for his orderly to close the door that Bafna had burst open. Bafna saw the gesture and waited until the door had been closed and they were alone before responding:
“The service chiefs!”

Ravoof removed his reading glasses and leaned back in his chair. He stared into Bafna’s eyes and saw…what? Anger? Certainly. Fear as well?
“You are over-reacting,” Ravoof said finally. “They did exactly what we asked them to do. If the Pakistanis are riled up about it, it is exactly because of the pain we delivered to them, is it not?”

Bafna moved to the nearby television screen and took the remote to flip it on. The channel showed the latest news streaming in about the military operations in Kashmir.
“Have you seen this?” Bafna said as he increased the volume on one of the channels. Ravoof took a deep breath as the CNN crew from Islamabad talked about Pakistani government accusations that India had declared war by striking airbases and military targets all along the line of control in Kashmir…
Ravoof turned to Bafna: “So what…”
“Wait. Hear the next bit.”

Ravoof sighed and then turned to the screen again. The reporter was then talking about the death of a senior LeT leader and his major commanders inside Deosai as well as the destruction of more than fifteen PAF combat aircraft in the skies above Kashmir. Reports of Indian helicopter gunships operating over occupied Kashmir and loss of hundreds of lives all along the line of control. Ravoof exhaled again when the reporter started talking about massive Pakistani military mobilization as the country prepared to retaliate in response to the Indian provocations. Bafna switched the television off just at that point and tossed the control on to the couch before facing Ravoof:

“They exceeded the mandate that we set out for them! And as a result, we are going to war!”

“Nonsense!” Ravoof snapped. “We may very well be going to war but it is not because of our military operations. The terrorists that struck Mumbai operated on their soil. They were being provided arms and ammunition by the Pakistani government operatives and military personnel. We had nothing to do with it. We did not want to decimate their military forces inside occupied Kashmir, but they are the ones who decided to use these forces to protect the militant training facilities located there, effectively providing them shelter while Muzammil and his men moved freely declaring jihad against us. That man and his commanders are now dead. We did that! That was the mandate we gave our military. And in that they were successful! Don’t you dare try to pin this war, if it happens, on them!”

Bafna shook his head. “I see I have wasted my time coming here.”

“And what did you expect my response was going to be when you decided to come here?” Ravoof said as he leaned forward. “Did you expect an accomplice to partake in your misguided anger? I am sorry, my friend. But I have long since forgotten the political maneuverings required for survival in this party of ours. But I still retain enough mental faculty to decide in my country’s favor when it is needed. In that, you will not find any support here.”

Bafna sighed and walked over to the door of the office, then turned around:
“Do you think Islamabad will listen to reason and understand that we had to strike these terrorist locations after what happened to Mumbai?”

“Islamabad?” Ravoof noted and shook his head. “I think you meant Rawalpindi. And the answer is no. They knew exactly what they were ramping up when they decided to arm the jihadis with nuclear weapons. This is all a chain of events that is inevitable. Perhaps their expectation was that we would not respond. When we threatened to do it, it upset their plans and they decided to ramp up their forces in Kashmir to deter us.”

“And we struck anyway,” Bafna said with a slight smile.
“We did.” Ravoof said, in consideration. “We had to.”

“So what’s next?” Bafna asked.

“They won’t back down, my friend. No matter what we say or do. It is a matter of ego to them. They have been challenged and their prestige targets have been destroyed in occupied Kashmir. The LeT commanders are dead and their men will demand vengeance. If the Pak army backs down now, they will find that they will lose their heads to the sharp swords of their own jihadis.”

“There is nothing we can do to stop it?”

“If there is anything to be learnt from the past seven decades, it is that the Pak army must be defeated on the battlefield in order for it to listen to reason. Don’t expect diplomacy to work with Generals with bruised egos. The young officers in their army who were humiliated in 1971 instigated the 1999 war. Those humiliated in that war are now in charge of this one. That’s how it goes in Rawalpindi.”

Bafna exhaled in frustration and looked out the windows: “What a bunch of morons.”
“Indeed.”
“What about Muzammil and his commanders?” Bafna said as he faced Ravoof again.
“What about him?” Ravoof said, careful with his choice of words now.
“How did we know where he and his commanders were? How did we kill them?”

“That is entirely out of my domain, Bafna. I am not a military expert. Perhaps the service chiefs or Basu can fill us in.” Bafna nodded at that.
“Yes, I think that would be best. Incredibly precise operation, that!”

Ravoof smiled. After all, the man was correct. It had indeed been a precise operation…

Bafna pounded his fist on the wooden desk: “Damn it all. We are going to war. If not today, then next week. There is no way to tide this over without one. God help us all.”
“That’s ironic considering the battle cry of our enemies!” Ravoof noted. Bafna let out a faint smile and walked out the door, closing it behind him as he did so. Ravoof sat in silence collecting his thoughts on the next phase of his work now that the strikes had taken place. He had to anticipate Islamabad’s political moves on the world stage and counteract them to India’s advantage. Perhaps find a way to scare the Pakistanis into back away from war?

Perhaps.

He also made a mental note to try and find out from Basu about what exactly had happened to Muzammil…
Last edited by vivek_ahuja on 06 Apr 2014 20:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

LEH AIRBASE
LADAKH
23RD MARCH + 1010 HRS


“Is that him?” Basu asked. Ansari nodded with a smile.
“That’s our ba$tard.”

The two men watched as a group of Paras jumped down from the rear of the army truck and helped a man in salwar-kameez get off. The man was handcuffed and had a cover around his head to prevent him from seeing where he was. Pathanya saw the two senior men standing next to the lowered cargo ramp of the C-130J and walked over.

“Excellent work, Major.” Ansari said as he returned the man’s salute.
“How did it go, Major?” Basu asked out of curiosity.
“As well as could be expected, sir.” Pathanya said calmly. “We took one casualty with a bullet wound to the leg. He will recover. And we laid waste to a lot of senior staff of the LeT. So I would say it was a good night.”

“Indeed!” Basu said with slight amusement. Pathanya turned to see Muzammil being bundled into the back of the transport aircraft and then turned to Ansari:
“What’s going to happen to him?”

“He,” Ansari said neutrally, “is going to tell us exactly where he got that nuclear warhead which they used to strike Mumbai with.”

Pathanya understood what that meant. This man had been assumed dead by the Pakistanis as well as by his remaining comrades. Nobody knew he was still alive and Indian hands. Once he realized that, there would be no incentive for him to holdback what he knew, if only to extend his own life. He was not a prisoner of war. Neither was he a criminal now. So what was he? Nobody. Just an anonymous body of intelligence for the RAW and Military Intelligence. And considering how many of the operatives of RAW and MI had lost personally in Mumbai at the hands of this man…

“Sir, what are my orders?” Pathanya asked Ansari.
“Pathfinder is still with us for the moment, Major.” Ansari said as they watched the cargo ramp door being elevated on the hydraulic shafts. “Depending on what that ba$tard reveals, we may have other targets to go after inside Pakistan.”

“’May’, Colonel?” Basu noted. “Not ‘may’. We ‘will’. This isn’t over.”
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by hpatel »

Thanks for today's posts, Vivek
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by viktor »

vivek_ahuja wrote:
“’May’, Colonel?” Basu noted. “Not ‘may’. We ‘will’. This isn’t over.”
Ye hui na baat. Awesome Vivekji. Eagerly waiting for next chapters.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by asbchakri »

vivek_ahuja wrote:Image

SKIES NORTH OF SRINAGAR
23RD MARCH + 0300 HRS


It was a long fifteen minutes of pacing inside the cabin of the cramped AEW aircraft before the leader of the group of Mirage-2000s chimed in:
“Sword leader here. We confirm seven buried bandits inside their shelters. Direct hits from multiple precision munitions. Two more unconfirmed. Hell of a party you have going here, Hawk-eye. Sword out!”
Hi Vivek, in all your scenarios you have explained how the attack was carried on in detail, we loved those detailed information. It helped understand how these attacks are planned and executed and of course it lets us visualize how these porkis burned :twisted: . Please do not remove those details. I apologies if i have said something wrong.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

asbchakri wrote:Hi Vivek, in all your scenarios you have explained how the attack was carried on in detail, we loved those detailed information. It helped understand how these attacks are planned and executed and of course it lets us visualize how these porkis burned :twisted: . Please do not remove those details.
Different point of view, saar. There are enough scenes in the story that are presented in uber-detail, are there not? But I also wanted to show the position of those men and women whose job it is to communicate, but not get to see, their own orders in play. To get a pulse of what they go through.

Feedback is always welcome. Pliss to be open onlee.

-Vivek
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Mihir.D »

waiting for the update , Vivek. Also waiting for the next book. Any tentative date of release?
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Mihir,

The idea was for me to release the book in time for some upcoming book festivals in September so that it has a maximum publicity that can be arranged. So I was going to push the final edited copy into publication around August end.

Fenix will go into publication around June so that it will be available around three months before Cerberus.

-Vivek
Last edited by vivek_ahuja on 16 Apr 2014 18:48, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Image

THE THAR DESERT
RAJASTHAN
23RD MARCH + 1500 HRS


Lt-Colonel Kulkarni rubbed his eyes to remove the sand that had blown in. It seemed to happen almost like clockwork now. But what surprised him the most was not the conditions of the blistering desert he had just rolled into, but rather the way his body was struggling to acclimatize, considering he had been here for years in his childhood. Of course, having spent his last three years in the mountainous regions of Ladakh had changed his acclimatization. He found himself much more readily suited for winter conditions now than the summer.

But that couldn’t be helped now. He was being given a refresher course by the Thar desert which, even in March, felt as though it was somehow closer to the sun than the rest of the planet it belonged to. Kulkarni had arrived here a week ago and was still struggling to breathe when the afternoon heat began to boil everything around them. Touching the metal of the main-battle-tanks under his command after about two in the afternoon was hazardous unless wearing protective thermal gloves. Of course, in the freezing plains of Daulat-Beg-Oldi, it had been the same with the freezing cold…

Kulkarni looked up as the three Gypsy vehicle convoy rolled up to his grouping of tents. He saw his commanding officer and other senior staff sitting in the vehicles. Brigadier Sudarshan smiled as he walked off the parked vehicle and headed for the shade of the tents. He shook Kulkarni’s hand and saw the reddish eyes of the younger man.

“The sand getting to you?” He said and laughed.
“No complaints, sir.” Kulkarni replied with a straight face.
“Don’t lie to me,” Sudarshan said, half-amused. “You are younger to me and all that, but I know how this works. I have been dealing with the same all week!”

Kulkarni smiled and waved the officers inside the tent. Sudarshan walked in followed by his staff officers and surveyed the Spartan interiors of what constituted Kulkarni’s command center out here. The swaying cloth of the tent held down by stumps outside as well as the howl of the desert winds. The tent was filled with banks of radios and battlefield computers, powered by generators outside. A single map table created from an overturned wood carton filled the rest of the space. Several younger officers in Kulkarni’s command were seated inside. Sudarshan turned to Kulkarni:

“Spartan as they come, eh?”

Kulkarni finally closed the cover of the tents after making sure the security guards outside were on the perimeter, armed with their protective glasses and rifles. He smiled to Sudarshan: “Only temporary, sir. My command center is not here, but inside my tanks.”

“So,” Sudarshan said as he nodded to his aide to open the maps on the wooden carton. “We have the ops sorted out for you and your boys.”

“Northern sector?”
Sudarshan shook his head in dismissal: “Negative. We are staying here.”

Kulkarni did his best to keep a straight face, but wasn’t successful at it. Sudarshan had known his eager tank commander long enough to catch that subtle gesture…
“I know the feeling. But the main offensive will be launched by the T-90 combat groups in the Punjab. Not my recommendation, mind you…for whatever it is worth!”

“Considering what happened in Ladakh…” Kulkarni said and then bit off his sentence. It was not his place to say anything more. Besides, he hardly needed to. Sudarshan was there, wasn’t he? The man had lost more men in combat operations against the Chinese than Kulkarni had in his whole command. Entire mechanized battalions had been lost in the massive battles for the frozen plains of DBO. The entire sector was still littered with burnt-out hulks of hundreds of Indian and Chinese vehicles.

But what had been the deciding factor in those battles had been the arrival of the advanced Arjun tanks of the 43RD Armored Regiment. The original T-72 force in the sector had been lost in the first day of combat against the masses of Chinese T-99 tanks and other armored personnel carriers. The Arjun tanks out-gunned and out-matched anything the Chinese had. This thin line of tanks under Kulkarni’s command alongside the Gurkha and Sikh infantry forces in the sector had allowed India to hold on to that territory despite two weeks of hard combat.

As overall commander of the armored and mechanized forces in the sector, Sudarshan had been Kulkarni’s operational commander during the war. In the years hence, he had moved on to other commands. But he had not lost sight of Kulkarni and had taken him under his wing. So when Sudarshan had been brought to the plains of Punjab and Rajasthan to coordinate offensive planning, he had brought Kulkarni with him…

Sudarshan sighed.

“It’s not that easy to convince mindsets, Kulkarni. The senior brass wants the T-90s to lead the charge this time around. Based on what I gather, the Arjun tank’s achievements in Ladakh has deeply embarrassed the senior armor brass. Sorry to say this, but your achievements are being dismissed as a outlier to the overall armor doctrine. So the small Arjun force in Ladakh will stay where it is. The rest of your tanks will stay in the desert. The brass is massing the T-90s for the charge to Lahore.”

“Beg pardon, sir,” Kulkarni said neutrally, “but what the hell am I supposed to tell my boys about what we are to do in the war? Are our capabilities to be wasted attacking isolated groups of Pak armor and outposts?”

Sudarshan motioned Kulkarni to the map spread out on the wooden carton by his aide. He took a second to orient himself on the map and then pointed to their current location in the desert:
“We are here,” he jabbed a finger on the map. “Twenty-five kilometers east of the border. Further west, we have this strategic highway the Pakis call N-5. Heading northeast to southwest, it passes through Sukkur to the south and Rahim-Yar-Khan to the north before merging into other highways heading to Multan. You will lead the cavalry charge to the N-5.”

Kulkarni nodded in consideration. The locations mentioned were deep inside Pakistani territory and were no place for light armor forces. The Arjun tanks under his command, however, could take care of themselves out there.

“Enemy strength, sir?”

“Hard to say for now,” Sudarshan said and took a deep breath. “Definitely units from the Pak army II Corps at Multan. They may even bring in support from the XXX Corps forces further northeast if the situation becomes dire.”

“So we will meet their 1st Armored Division in combat?” Kulkarni noted with a wicked smile. “Good. Who are we taking from our side?”

“Who are we taking?” Sudarshan repeated and then laughed. “Everybody! Kulkarni, we are taking every tank we can muster between the 43RD and the 75TH in the dash to the N-5!”
Kulkarni nodded in agreement. The enemy’s forces south of Multan were formidable. Discounting the tanks left as part of the Ladakh armor task force and accounting for the oversized regiment roster, the total number of Arjun tanks tagged for this effort was slightly greater than one hundred…

“Of course,” Sudarshan mused, “…this is all assuming that a war does happen. We think it might. Then again, it may not. Keep your forces ready, Kulkarni.”

“Yes, sir!”
nash
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by nash »

Cold Start.... 8)
Mukesh.Kumar
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

Revenge, is a dish, best served cold :D
member_26730
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by member_26730 »

waiting..................................... :roll:
member_28305
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Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by member_28305 »

Hi Vivek,

Im in UAE, and i want to purchase the "chimera". what options do I have?
Kindly let me know.
Thanks..
Mukesh.Kumar
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Posts: 1244
Joined: 06 Dec 2009 14:09

Re: Possible Indian Military Scenarios - XIII

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

Hi Sibyt, this part of the world it's really difficult to get the book. I ordered from Amazon U.S.. Paid more for airfreight than the book, and had to wait close to a month for delivery. Best get someone from India to purchase and send to you.

P.S. Wonder how many BRFites in this part o the world? Is it possible to have a mini jirga in DXB?
P.P.S. Vivek-garu, awaiting next helping of the dish best served cold.
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