Possible Indian Military Scenarios - Part VII

niran
BRF Oldie
Posts: 5535
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 16:01

maps

Post by niran »

Gentlemen here is a map. this one is CIA archive map. hope it satisfies all generals present.


http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_e ... der_88.jpg
d_berwal
BRFite
Posts: 513
Joined: 08 Dec 2006 14:08
Location: Jhonesburg

Graet Work

Post by d_berwal »

Great work Vivek...

From 0815hrs time to 2 ALH flights to 1700 Hrs 'closing of RED Eye' approx 9hrs of ur scenario is really addictive and very well written....

Lot of ppl have not realized that he has just written 9hrs of story....

AWESOME stuff ...Keep it up.
d_berwal
BRFite
Posts: 513
Joined: 08 Dec 2006 14:08
Location: Jhonesburg

Graet Work

Post by d_berwal »

Great work Vivek...

From 0815hrs thrusday time to 2 ALH flights to 1700 Hrs thrusday 'closing of RED Eye' approx 9hrs of ur scenario is really addictive and very well written....

Lot of ppl have not realized that he has just written 9hrs of story....

AWESOME stuff ...Keep it up.
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

4. China has a missile base in Tibet: Dolma
04 September 2003

The Tribune, India

Ambala, September 3 - China has built a missile base
in Tibet which poses a major threat to India, Ms Dolma
Gyari, Deputy Speaker, Tibetan Parliament in Exile,
said here today.

Talking to mediapersons before delivering a talk on
"Indo-China relations and Tibetan identity" at SD
College, cantonment Ms Dolma Gayri said long-range
missiles had been positioned in Tibet which can target
entire India.

"There are DFO missiles with a range of 4800 km at
Chedan Besan. These missiles can hit any part of
India. The CSSO missiles have a range of 12,800 km
which can hit the entire Asia and parts of Europe," he
said. Besides the missile bases, China has set up a
big nuclear academy in Tibet. It is referred as the
ninth academy.
MINISTRY OF DEFENSE -BEJING -PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA


The aged minister of of defense looked at the faxed situation reports from regional commander detailing the escalating conflict on Indian border .He was not yet worried but knew a suitable response is required before the situation went out of control and China looses face with her neighbours .He slowly picked up the direct encrypted land line connection to the premier and had an hour long conversation.Then he called in his young
military assistant and dictaed a short note for immediate transmission to missile group commander Tibet area .

3 hrs later six surface to surface missiles rose up from the unmarked valley in Tibet and arched over towards indian mainland .

Exactly 9 minutes later the first two exploded 50 mtrs over the atmospheric distillation column of indian oil refinery Digboi .The secondary explossions were far more intense than the primary as one after another the milion ltr gasoline and kerosene tanks ruptured and caught fire by the intense heat throwing up mini mushroom clouds all over the picturesque oil township . The fire tendres rushed in but was in no position to control the devastating fire which soon engulfed the entire refinery complex 9the oldest in the country)

The third and fourth came in a minute later over the oil fields of duliajan and the oil india refinery complex located exactly 25 kms to south east of Digboi and here the missiles were fused for ground burst hitting the main crude pump complex in the outskirts of the town ,ripping open the distribution manifold and starting a massive slow burning fire which spread to the nearby hospital complex

The last two missiles came in over the military air base of chabua loacted again 34 kms north of digboi and obliterated the rows of an-32s getting loaded up with supplies for the forward positions .Total of 10 cubs were totally burnt out and two more were severely damaged and would be later written off

In the span of 30 minutes entire oil refining capacity of north east was out of reckoning and the army would feel the pinch in another day or so.

The air transport hub was shifted to dibrugarh and consequently all civilian flights were immediately cancelled .

For the second time in history the people of assam were feeling the sting of dragons tail
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

So a conflict in Myanmar has now become a out and out war with Chinese missile strikes, in 9 hours?

At this rate of escalation we will have nukes being traded in next 9!! This scenario is certainly coming to close rather soon.

I have some thought w.r.t. to the current scenario:

1) Too much escalation by Chinese too soon; I mean if the Chinese want to hit India with missiles and a Strike on Delhi has failed before, why not try and hit Delhi again with a Salvo to overwhelm the ABM measures? Also why stop only with secondary targets ? Why not attack Jamnagar etc etc all in one shot? If you are going in for a full fledged war, and BM boundary has been breached, China will hit India with not just 6 missiles but with what ever it can muster ASAP. Because it knows that India will respond and it wants to cut off our legs before we can lunge again. The Chinese certainly have enough fire power for that.

2) Would the govt. decide to escalate the matter without offering ABM shields to sensitive areas? If the India is going to fight the Chinese without these steps, losing the war is a foregone conclusion.

3) Trying to hit a airfield with BM is not necessarily a very good idea. In terms of RoI, wouldnt the Chinese use cruise missile for the same?

4) What is the international community doing?

Anyway please consider these as just thoughts triggered by the post, they are not meant to say that the scenario itself was wrong, but merely that it triggered some thoughts;

Another thought is we can play a scenario in Which one author(s) takes the Indian position and the other Chinese. We can then wargame a likely scenario...
rsingh
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4451
Joined: 19 Jan 2005 01:05
Location: Pindi
Contact:

Post by rsingh »

ksmahesh and ajay pratap.......Arunachal Pardesh IS NOT DISPUTED AREA....it is integral part of India. Please edit your posts now and post some true map. :evil: :evil: :evil: Do the necessary now.......stting with the stick :shock:
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

NEW DELHI
2100 HRS THURSDAY

The situation in India had suddenly become desperate; what was to most people a sanitized exercise in watching a televised war and wondering what was going on; had suddenly turned into a nightmarish reality that the Indian public were by and large were completely unprepared for.

While the fault for not focusing enough on Indian geopolitical developments rested primarily with Indian Media which had been happily covering the remarriage of Abhishek Bacchan with Rani Mukhurjee, they suddenly did a about turn and started focusing their energies on a witch hunt of the current govt., accompanied by rumor mongering and panic creation focusing on the devastating scenes of loss at the refineries and other places.

The money well spent by China in funding the Indian intellectuals through its left cadres was beginning to pay good dividends. Primarily the media was blaming the govt for unnecessarily escalating the situation by meddling in Myanmar s internal affairs. No attention was paid to the Chinese role in aggression.

The large population centers of Delhi etc. saw a large number of refugees starting to pour out to "safer" places as soon as it was clear that the head of the govt. had been evacuated from Delhi to hidden hardened shelters.

The resulting chaos further hampered the armed forces abilities to respond further, which was already affected from Chinese strikes at critical nerve centers.

The people understood one thing clearly though "this was not 62". A war would not be restricted to jawans being left to die on the borders by their govt. This time the entire nation was involved and everybody would need to step up and make sacrifices for the nation and everybody would be hurt.

This was the context in which further actions of Indian populace were to be viewed.
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

Brussels
2100 HRS THURSDAY

As soon as the news of Chinese strike with horrific consequences had come in, the realization dawned on the officials in the EU nerve center. This was big!! And they had been caught completely unprepared for the emerging scenario.

The first reaction of EU as well as that of the US was to start pulling out its citizens from the conflict zone. However given that all airlines had canceled their flights to and from India, (China was not completely affected yet), it was proving to be a difficult task with the population being moved out through road from Bangladeshi ports.

Already 25 EU citizens, working with at the refineries in various capacities (mostly students working at India to see what was going on) had died, and the fear that the largely expatriate crowd in Chinese industrial cities could be endangered as a result of Indian backlash was causing much consternation in the West.

The govt. of the western nation therefore decided to put all possible pressure on India to step back. At the same time discussions on which side to take if the war continued on its natural course was was on and the international contours were starting to crystallize.
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

SARAIGHAT SETU -GUAHATI -ASSAM- 0630 HRS -FRIDAY


Chinese game plan in the first phase of emrging war was simple-level the playing field.Indian armed forces had the advantage of well developed road and rail net work to supply the war efforts hwile the chinese army had an insurmountable logistics situation in any kind of long drawn out war operating out of Tibetian plateu .

Taking out the oil refineries closest to border namely duliajan and digboi was just the first step in the well planned escalatory missile strike ,the next salvo will cause even more chaos and destruction .

The mighty Brahmaputra divides the state of assam almost in half and soldiers fighting in the northern borders depended on the supply chain passing thru a few road and road rail bridges between lower and upper assam.

Perhaps the most important of them is the Sarai ghat setu named after the historic battle between the mughals and assamese general Lachit Barfukan on the banks of brahmaputra and called the battle of Saraighat

The road -rail bridge carries almost 75% of all road rail trafic between assam and rest of india and this morning was busy as usal with pre dominantly military traffic heading north east .

The 12 su-27s of the PLAAF came in low over the hils of tezpur .Four of them split up and engaged the base cap while rest just flew on turned south west linning up on the bridge from north .Each of them carried close to 6x1000 kgs laser guided bombs and the pilots all of them special grade did not even look at the air battle over tezpur as they zoomed up and 30 kms from the bridge and released thier load from a ht of 30000 ft and turned back .

A total of 48 bombs were released over a period of 30 minutes .Only six stuck the bridge ,but that was enough .As the bridge broke in two by a pair of direct hits both the supporting piers lost balance and tumbled into the raging currents in slow motion -cuttting off the life line of assam to rest of the country.

Two of the bombs missed thier target altogether and glided in to main runway of the adjacent Guahati air base bringing all air operations to a stand still

Trafic started piling up immediately on both sides of the now destroyed bridge and all long distance trains to north east states were cancelled .Still the road bridge near Tezpur was operating and the incomming trafic was diverted thru that option .

Army engineers moved in quickly after the dead and wounded were carted off rather hurriedly .But the job they had in hand was not a easy one .Spanning one of the worlds mightiest rivers was not certainly an easy job
Hari Sud
BRFite
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 Dec 2002 12:31
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Hari Sud »

Guys

Can you hold off on your stuff for a few days.

Let Vivek, finish what he has started. It is likely to be a short missible war with horrific losses on both sides and ends in a draw with India having a slightly upper hand.

All of you can fill in the blanks on any other possible scenario as soon as Vivek is done with this specific part.

Thanks


Hari
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

Bejing
2100 HRS THURSDAY

The CPC politburo was not unduly worried, although they had been taken by surprise at the speed and initiative of Indian reaction they were aware that China possessed a overwhelming advantage in terms of conventional weaponry and especially ballistic missiles as well as industrial infrastructure.

They also realized being effectively a military camp with window dressing of civilian enterprise China could more quickly and effectively put measures in place to evacuate and protect the civilian centers. Actions to minimize the effect of Indian backlash on the same was being already put into places where a conventional attack of sufficient magnitude could be mounted by India.

However there was only one aspect which was troubling them: "what was Indian game plan" While the Chinese knew what was it they were looking for in terms of strategic out come of the war. They had no idea as to what India wanted and why had it chosen to escalate the conflict.

The lack of understanding in what they considered a predictable Indian mind was what was bothering the Chinese brass, thus hampering and slowing down their moves.

This was especially important as the Chinese knew that the only way to weaken the Indian control of the mountain areas they coveted for strategic goals was to hit India elsewhere in softer centers, because given the terrain and prepardness even a smaller Indian army could inflict unacceptable losses on Chinese for their agression.

This was the doctrine the Chinese were following, with what looked to be a successful plan of action. The only worry that the Chairman had was,what in the hells name was the Indian politician who was currently occupying the chair of the Prime Minister of the country was up to!!
Last edited by saty on 19 Apr 2007 18:45, edited 1 time in total.
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

Hari Sud wrote:
All of you can fill in the blanks on any other possible scenario as soon as Vivek is done with this specific part.
Hello Hari,

If Vivek wants he is free to ignore the posts I have made, however since a war is usually to big a deal for one person to script it is okay if we dance along side too :-).

So if you see I am only looking at pieces that Vivek is specifially not looking at.

Some time the scenario developes even better when multiple authors write together. THis is the beauty of a forum writing as opposed to one man show.

Check out previous reincarnations of the thread before Shankar started dominating it completely :-).

Saty
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

Brahmaputra is a mighty river, 2900 km long, rising in the Kailash range of the
Himalayas, SW Tibet, China, and flowing through North East India to join with the
Ganga in central Bangladesh. In Tibet, where it is called the Yarlung Zangbo (Kubi-
Tsang-Po), the river flows 1,130 km east to form an important east- west transport
route. In SE Tibet it turns south and flows swiftly through what is at 5,075 m altitude
the world’s deepest valley (The 496.3 meter long Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon has
an average depth of 5,000 meters, but drops in places to 5,382 meters), into India to
traverse 920 km of Indian soil. In Arunachal Pradesh it is known as Dihang and then
Siang. In Assam state Siang, Dibang, Lohit and Dihing join together to form the
Brahmaputra which flows 725 km through the broad, fertile Assam valley. The braiding
river has Majuli Island, world’s largest river island in the middle of it located 12 kms
from Jorhat.

Saraighat Bridge was the first bridge constructed across Brahmaputra. After
independence, it was felt that a bridge across Brahmaputra was urgently required to
provide Rail and road connectivity to the North East Region with the rest of India on
the consideration of regional development and strategic importance. A decision was
taken in 1958 to take up the work of Saraighat Bridge, connecting Amingaon and
Pandu (the railheads then existing on North and South banks of Brahmaputra). The
work on the bridge was started in October 1958 and bridge was completed and
opened for traffic in April 1962. The bridge was inaugurated by the then Prime
Minister Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru. The 1.296 km long rail cum Road Bridge is
situated close to Guwahati and provided road connectivity to NH-31 on the North
Bank to NH-37 on the South Bank.
The mighty river Brahmaputra is one of the largest rivers in Asia with a total
length of about 2900 km of which a stretch of about 920 km lies in the northeast
region of Indian territories having catchments area of about 1.80 lakh
square kilometers. The river is well known for its meandering characteristics
and flows in the most unpredictable manner keeping a width of 10-16 km. The
river has been traditionally considered as extremely difficult for bridging due to
very short working season of 4 - 6 months, high current and turbulent waters,
extensive river training works needed to establish control points and high
seismicity of the area. Indian Railways has successfully met the challenges
posed by the river Brahmaputra and have already constructed and
commissioned three bridges involving long approaches and protective works
etc across the river, as under:
(i) Saraighat rail-cum-road Bridge at Guwahati commissioned in 1962 with main
bridge having length of 1.296 km [(1 x 33.2m + 10 x 122.95m + 1 x 33.2m) steel
truss girders].
* Chief Engineer/Construction, N. F. Railway, Maligaon, Guwahati, Assam
Brigadier Rao knew he needed something more than coffee if he has to rebuild the broken section in less than 72 hrs according to the latest flash trafic from the GOC in C eastern command
Hari Sud
BRFite
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 Dec 2002 12:31
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Hari Sud »

Shankar

Where about is the great fall in the Brahamaputra where the river drops close to 2000 feet. British always wished to find it and few National Geogrpahy teams in last 20 years went to locate it.


Hari Sud
Malay
BRFite -Trainee
Posts: 44
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 02:42

Post by Malay »

Shankar what kind of missiles were those? Ballistic or Cruise?

Cuz using Ballistic missiles just yet, even with conventional warhead would be a huge escallation in the war, and the chinese wont use, as they already have a HUGE military and resources at their disposal. They would slug out for a long time before using Ballistic missiles.

Cruise missiles IMO is much more likely.

Now have i goofed up or was SHankar using cruise missiles?
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

He was using DFO BMs, please also refer to my post where I have added further cribs on use of BMs at this juncture.... :lol:

BTW what is a DFO missile? I could not find it on the web on usual sources. Is it a DF 4 variant?

And according to global security there will be only close to 50 5000 range DFs in 2010. Why will China waste these in conventional role.

Also the minute these missile are launched, there is a chance that India may think these are nuke and reply with a nuke salvo?

I really dont think China would resort to DFs so early, making my posts redundant :cry:
Last edited by saty on 19 Apr 2007 18:16, edited 1 time in total.
Malay
BRFite -Trainee
Posts: 44
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 02:42

Post by Malay »

yep, good post, i just read what Shankar wrote and directly posted.
merlin
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2153
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30
Location: NullPointerException

Post by merlin »

Where about is the great fall in the Brahamaputra where the river drops close to 2000 feet. British always wished to find it and few National Geogrpahy teams in last 20 years went to locate it.
Talking about the Tsangpo gorge are you? I think it drops far more than 2000 feet, almost 10000 feet.
ksmahesh
BRFite
Posts: 209
Joined: 10 Jan 2007 17:55
Location: Mt Everest - its the coolest one

Post by ksmahesh »

rsingh wrote:ksmahesh and ajay pratap.......Arunachal Pardesh IS NOT DISPUTED AREA....it is integral part of India. Please edit your posts now and post some true map. :evil: :evil: :evil: Do the necessary now.......stting with the stick :shock:
S.. S.... S...... Sorry phor mishtake. It iz rektified. pleaze keep the stick for chini onlee. Me no enemy. :oops: Nebher in phuture thish shall habebn:oops: A new map but not so-detailed iz prezented :oops: :scared:
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

Where about is the great fall in the Brahamaputra where the river drops close to 2000 feet

british surveyors noticed the Tsangpo in Tibet flowing east and disappearing into a tract of impassable mountains. in the south there were numerous rivers in India and a couple like salween and irrawady in myanmar appearing from the himalayas. at first one of these myanmar rivers was thought to be the Tsangpo. they tried numerous times from both ends until finally around 1850 someone managed to traverse the length from one side and emerge at other end.

there is indeed a sharp bend and steep series of waterfalls as the slope of the land abruptly changes so the river changes course. it is located in eastern arunachal north of the namdapha forest.
vivek_ahuja
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2394
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 16:58

Post by vivek_ahuja »

THE AREA NORTH OF TAWANG
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
INDIA
1735 HRS THURSDAY


The first 300mm Rocket projectile left the launch tube on top of a vast cone of fire and smoke as it accelerated off the ground. It was followed by dozens of others as all the Smerch launchers got into the action and soon the hills around the region were filled by a cacophony of ‘swishing’ noises as all the launchers attempted to empty their barrels in the minimum of time. Within seconds this job was done, and all that was left of the launch site was a massive cloud of dust. Before the dust came down, the dust covered launcher trucks moved out from within and headed south towards their next ammo drop zone in anticipation of a second launch that was already being drafted for them.

The Battery commander was witnessing the first launch. He was standing on top of his command trailer, half a kilometre away from the launch site itself. As soon as the first batch of rockets were on their way to the targets, he put down his binoculars and clambered down from the roof and walked inside the trailer and shut the door behind him. There he picked up a phone and informed Corps C3I that the first ‘fire mission’ had been executed by his forces. This allowed the TACIT-RED searcher operators sitting at the UAV base north of Bomdila to get into a proper viewing angle and allow visual acquisition of battle damage and second strike requirements.

At the target itself, the first detection of the inbound rockets was done by several Chinese observation posts at the south slopes of the Great Himalayas. They were quick to contact their commanders about the impending attack, but human reaction can never match the speed of artillery rockets, and by the time the warning ran out, the first rockets were overhead and diving. The rockets were not loaded with conventional impact type warheads, but carrying the cluster munitions and fragmentation warheads. This allowed them to achieve in a single salvo what would generally take two or three salvoes to achieve, especially against soft skinned targets and infantry in the open. The attack was devastating.

The large fields being used by the PLA to laager their self propelled artillery systems numbered five. And each was targeted by a single salvo of twelve 300mm rockets. The grounds were of pretty large size, and despite the highest of accuracy, it was tacitly accepted that another salvo would be need to finish the job. The question then was, where exactly? The answer to that question belonged with the TACIT-RED team, who would have to decide on the parameters of the second strike after the first one had hit. At the moment their cameras showed that the vehicles were under camouflage netting and the crews were in the open or inside their tents. None had the faintest idea of what was happening. That didn’t last for long, and the high-resolution cameras showed the faces of the Chinese soldiers as the looked up at the source of the noise. That’s when the camera showed people running around and half a second later the flat grounds were saturated with hundreds of small explosions that peppered the entire area with red-hot shrapnel.

The entire area was covered in a small dust cloud and within it several fireballs raced skywards, while more appeared as the first ones turned into black smoke. All five fields were now covered with smoke when the dust finally settled down after a few minutes. There were very few things moving. Some of which were the Self-propelled vehicles whose armour had not been penetrated and whose crew had been lucky enough to be inside the vehicle when the attack had begun. These were now trying to move out the grounds but were being obstructed by disabled vehicles or burning ones.

It was only a matter of time before they were free to move and after that would follow the PLA artillery counterstroke. Already the Chinese artillery tracking radars had fixed the Indian launch site. The Indian second strike against these targets would have to follow within seconds now. It was now race to see whether the Indians reloaded first or the Chinese were able to orient themselves. It also meant that the second salvos could not be used against the parked Chinese tanks and APCs or against the helipads north of there. That was to prove costly.

There was assistance available for the Smerch launchers. The other Indian artillery batteries based around Tawang were the tube based ones and their range was roughly same as that of the Chinese self propelled artillery. The first rocket strike had achieved its motive of instilling shock, confusion, immobility and mayhem. Now the good old fashioned work began as five 155mm Tube artillery batteries deployed in a star fashion around Tawang opened fire with the old fashioned impact warheads, although one gun of each battery was firing sub-munitions based warheads for that special added effect. These rounds began hitting the disabled Chinese artillery bases and attempted to finish off what the rockets had not.

For all that was falling on top of them, the Chinese weren’t cowards. They knew that it would take a lucky shot to impact the top of the turret of their self-propelled vehicles and the law of probability was with them. Even if their tracks were disabled, they could still fire. Several of the self-propelled vehicles began returning fire into the Indian artillery sites and with that the artillery duel began. The Chinese were heaving outnumbered as a result of the initial attack, something that was new for the Indian army, and which couldn’t last long. The Chinese rounds were being concentrated at the northernmost Indian 155mm gun battery, and it was being battered to death as each successive gun was knocked out.

The Chinese gunfire was reducing as well, as the TACIT-RED Searcher team coordinated with the Indian battery commanders and fixed fire on one Chinese Self Propelled gun till it was destroyed before shifting fire to another gun. It was like aiming a machine gun firing alternate tracer rounds. The searcher team coordinated fire on a Chinese gun until they saw the turret of that vehicle flying into the air on top of a fireball or when they saw the crew abandoning the vehicle and running away. It was starting to have effect but in return the northernmost gun battery had taken murderous losses and now only had a few guns operational that were continuing to fire at as fast a speed as they could, despite their casualties. The entire scenario was being played as a slugging match and sooner or later something had to give.

It did. Just as soon as the Indian Artillery commander for the Tawang area thought he was seeing a slackening in the enemy artillery attacks, suggesting that the sector north of Tawang had been sanitized of Chinese Artillery, and that he could soon divert fire to the tanks that were his primary targets, all hell broke loose. Artillery shells began falling along the entire Arunachal Pradesh border with China. The power of the Chinese artillery armies became powerfully clear to the Indian army. Shells were now falling at all major bases within range of Chinese artillery in addition to the forward areas. Fortunately for the 5TH Mountain Division soldiers deployed around Tawang, their supporting artillery had wiped out their Chinese counterparts before the Chinese began their assaults. As a result they didn’t have to bear the assault themselves, but as unit after unit of the 2ND Mountain Division and some units of the 21ST started screaming on the radios that they were under artillery assault, a grim picture began to come into view.

It was clear that the Chinese had not been ready to launch a ground attack when the Indian rockets had been launched, and they sure as hell couldn’t be ready now. It was therefore clear that the Chinese artillery assaults along the entire border were retaliatory in nature and an attempt to avenge the devastating artillery assaults north of Tawang. Whether these attacks were successful or not remained to be seen, but except for the sector north of Tawang, it seemed highly unlikely that any ground invasions would be launched before morning. The bulk of the Chinese artillery attacks were being faced by the 2ND MD in the extreme northeast of Arunachal Pradesh as well as several regiments of the 21ST Infantry, who were supporting the 2ND MD. For the soldiers of these units it was going to be long night.

The second Smerch rocket salvoes impacted the same ground that they had hit during the first, and this time the results were achieved. Faced with heavy 155mm warheads being targeted one by one on their vehicles like rifle fire and now faced with hundreds of falling cluster munitions that laid waste their tracks and disabled several gun barrels was the last straw for the Chinese crews. The handful of vehicles who were not yet disabled were ordered to pull out, leaving behind dozens of burning or immobilized Self Propelled Guns, burning tents, many dead crews and a cratered landscape of what had once been a flat ground. Of another few vehicles that were disabled and immobile, the crews jumped out. They faced a grim prospect as they were now entering into the open with no protection against the falling shells. Many were cut to pieces as they ran but many others made it and jumped on the remaining vehicles as they sped northwards, ending the artillery battle for the Tawang sector of operations. In return, the Indian army had lost an entire battery of towed artillery guns. With the massive casualties suffered within that battery, it was as good as decimated. But four batteries remained, and so did the rocket artillery battery, and despite the loss, they needed to get back to work, and were demanding targets over the radios.

That was the job of TACIT-RED. It shifted its cameras to the left and brought the Chinese tank column into view. That’s where the shock lay. The tanks were moving. They weren’t moving north either. The PLA Divisional commander had decided that with the loss of his artillery, he couldn’t afford to wait till morning for the intended assault. That would leave the Indian artillery with target practice during the night. He had contacted his army commander and got the authorization to move south. He was to raise the Chinese flag in Tawang by midnight. As for the Indian artillery, they would be dealt with the help of PLAAF fighter-bombers.

A flash warning was sent to all commanders of the Indian army near the Tawang area by the Corps headquarters. With Chinese tanks assisted by heavy infantry heading south on the road to Bum-La and then to Tawang, the time before they would be engaged by Indian ground forces was now slightly more than an hour. Perhaps more, depending on the speed with which the Chinese tank drivers moved on the weaving mountainous roads. In actuality, there shouldn’t have been any tanks involved in this theatre of operations by either side, but with the large number of surprises thrown by both sides at each other in the last ten hours, this was just one more and what would have surprised army commanders from both sides only a day ago, didn’t. As the Chinese Type 99 Tanks headed south, supported by the now scrambling Z-10 attack helicopters, the Indian T-90s moved out from their hiding spaces around Tawang and started to move north to meet, engage and stop the Chinese advance on Tawang.

The darkness had now fallen on this region of the world, and had brought with it the end of an extraordinary day of military operations by the two most populous countries in the world. However, modern war does not stop for the night. It only makes the war more visible for everybody to see.

The black silhouetted hills and mountains of the Himalayas were now visible with the orange glow of falling Chinese artillery shells on Indian soil, even as Indian and Chinese tanks were in for a night time fight. The fate of Tawang hung in the balance.
ksmahesh
BRFite
Posts: 209
Joined: 10 Jan 2007 17:55
Location: Mt Everest - its the coolest one

Post by ksmahesh »

:evil: i wish we had more of SMERCH to ensure mission objectives. Anyway, If a huge diversion is created on mayanmar-china border then perhaps we might force chini to move forces from twang to diversion. This would perhaps make their ops in twand more defencive.

Sad for Indian lives lost :( . Happy for chini losses. Praying for a miracle before morning. (Brahmos strike perhaps)
Hari Sud
BRFite
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 Dec 2002 12:31
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Hari Sud »

Bravo

The battle of Twang will be fought all over again.

Last time in 1962, Brigadier Hoshiar Singh lost the town and his life along with countless soldiers.

Let us see how it unfolds in the imaginaery scenario of Vivek.


Hari
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

Tawang the headquarters of the Tawang district located on the Western tip of the state on a mountain side at 12000 ft above sea level, is the land of the Monpa tribes and a major centre of the Mahayana Buddhists. Tawang is famous for its 400 year old Buddhist monastery which overlooks the wide Tawang Valley. The best season to visit is from April to October. The nearest airport is Tezpur which is 345 km from Tawang and the nearest Railhead is Bhalukpong at 280 kms. Buses and Taxi ply regularly from Bomdilla to Tawang which is 180 km and takes 10 hrs.
On the way to Tawang lies the World's second highest pass, the Sela Pass through a high altitude lake of crystal blue water. Both sides of the lake are decked with miles of rhodendrons. There is also a Orchidarium at Tipi near the banks of the Kameng River in the West Kameng District, enroute Tawang.



Tawang Monastery or Gompa also known as the 'Galden Namgyal Lhatse', is a 400 year old Tawang Monastery Buddhist monastery of the Mahayana sect, built in the 17th century. It is situated at a height of 3500 meters or 10,000 ft at the Bhutan border. The monastery was founded by a monk, Mera Lama, a contemporary of the fifth Dalai Lama. It is a vast complex of 65 buildings - a treasure house of old scriptures, priceless images, painted tapestries, books and collection of gold lettered Buddhist scriptures. The ‘Parkhang’ hall of the monastery houses the library which holds the rare hand written and block-printed Thankas or manuscripts of revered books like 'Tangym', 'Kangyur' and 'Sungbhum'. The other rare works of Buddhist literature include 108 gold-embossed manuscripts of the 'Teaching of Lord Buddha' and 225 volumes of the explanations of Buddha’s teachings covered with specially designed moth - proof silk adorned with paintings. There is a towering 18 ft high gilded statue of the Buddha in the monastery complex.

The Tawang Monastery is associated with the famous Torgva festival which is held in the eleventh Monpa month called the Dawa Chukchipah(i.e Dec-Jan as per the Buddhist). There is also a Craft Centre here producing fine woolen carpets of colourful designs.
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

T
RAVEL ADVISORY -SELA PASS -ARUNACHAL PRADESH
Sela Lake or Sila Lake but people call it Sela. The road you can see beside the lake is the 2nd Highest Motor-able road in the world at a height of nearly 14000 ft. This part is snow covered through out the year, during winter the ice sheet becomes several feet thick. One can see Indian Army working round the clock to keep this pass open and motor-able. 10 KM (both way) from this point is danger zone. Never stop the engine here, be sure that your car is fully fit and the brake is well in control before entering this zone. Death occurs every year.
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

IAF STATION TEZPUR
Launchpad of Indian fighter pilots
Geetu Vaid
Tribune News Service

Tezpur, May 31
Clean, green and serene, this aptly sums up the first impression of the northeast. But for the IAF’s men in blue this area also stands for a host of challenges be it the hilly terrain or the fickle weather. Nestled in the green environs on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra, the Air Force Station Tezpur is the place where heirs to the glorious legacy of IAF’s fighter stream get training.

Since December 1986 the MiG Operational Flying Training Unit (MOFTU) in Tezpur is the place where all young fighter pilots are imparted the stage IV (F) training on MiG-21 FL aircraft. This largest fighter establishment is rightly called the ‘’launch pad of fighter pilots’’. An average of 7,500 sorties are flown per year by this unit. The unit also has an operational role in air defence and CFSO in Western sector.

The stringent training routine carries on here as the young top guns fly sorties unruffled by the problems plaguing the MiG-21 series of fighters.

The 32 trainees undergoing training at the moment expressed full faith in the MiG fighter that they fly, Flying Officer S.Bokil from Indore said there were no apprehensions about the aircraft while flying as each 25-minute sortie is preceded by meticulous planning and thorough technical checks. The technical staff spends hours to painstakingly check each and every part of the aircraft to keep it in top flying condition. Elaborate briefings and debriefs that make an essential part of the training schedule are exercises to rule out any chance of a mistake.

Air Cmdr P.K Barbora, AOC, Air Force Station Tezpur, said the aircraft is very safe but as the quantum of flying done on this is more thus it seems that the number of accidents is more.’’ This is the oldest aircraft being flown by the youngest pilots.

‘’It is a delight to fly this machine’’, he said recalling his days of flying as a young pilot. Though there has been no accident involving MiGs at this base over the past one year, the main cause for fighter aircraft accidents were human error, technical defect, bird hit, and other causes. A majority of accidents (38 pc) are due to human error followed by technical defect (37 pc). The human error accidents can be due to error of skill, judgement, poor airmanship, non-compliance of instruction, lack of situational awareness, etc,’’ he said.

Media bashing that follows each time an unfortunate accident occurs may leave an impression that there are some leniencies on our part but that is not the case at all, said an officer of the unit. The former air chief A.Y. Tipnis had covered every air force base in the country in a one seater MiG 21 after he became chief, as well as his farewell ‘‘to prove it is not a flying coffin or any coffin’’, he added.

Group Captain Chetan Bali, Commanding Officer, MOFTU, while telling a media team that visited the station about training on MiGs said ‘’this is one of the best trainers. Its design is suitable for training and even if AJTs come training on this aircraft will continue’’. He said the jump in training from Kirans and Ishkaras is not a quantum jump. ‘’MiGs are high performance jets but when one actually compares these with Kirans and Ishkaras that are flown during the initial phase of training then the difference is not much. Thus the impression that these young pilots are suddenly put on to a higher version is not accurate’’.

He also said there was no direct relationship between lack of an Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) and aircraft accidents. Though the induction of AJT would ensure smooth transition of trainee pilots to the frontline fighter squadrons equipped with high technology aircraft yet the MiGs will continue to play a role as trainers, said another officer.

Talking about other upgrades he said though sophisticated simulators would be welcome, nothing can substitute the real flying experience.
Top
IAF base Tezpur had been in the news for all the wrong reasons in early and mid 2000s ,when mig 21 training related aciedents were at their peak.As the flight safety improved it moved out of fickle public memory .It was to come back onec again ,ina mre postive light since the trainee pilots along with thier few experienced instructors were likely to play a decisive role in the battle for tawang in the making .

The message from air officer commanding eastern air command was clear and catagorical -tawang must be defended at any cost . Reinforcements were on their way from gwalior,agra,and ambala but the best of indian air force will not be available for close air supprt operations till next noon till then the about t be phased out,much malighned mig 21s were to hold fort.

It will be a day of the fish beds
Vriksh
BRFite
Posts: 406
Joined: 27 Apr 2003 11:31

Post by Vriksh »

Singha wrote:Where about is the great fall in the Brahamaputra where the river drops close to 2000 feet

british surveyors noticed the Tsangpo in Tibet flowing east and disappearing into a tract of impassable mountains. in the south there were numerous rivers in India and a couple like salween and irrawady in myanmar appearing from the himalayas. at first one of these myanmar rivers was thought to be the Tsangpo. they tried numerous times from both ends until finally around 1850 someone managed to traverse the length from one side and emerge at other end.

there is indeed a sharp bend and steep series of waterfalls as the slope of the land abruptly changes so the river changes course. it is located in eastern arunachal north of the namdapha forest.
Off topic question:

So do we control these areas now ? Also does some one have accurate water flow data of the bhramaputra before and after it enters India?

The Chinese were planning on using the Bhramaputra for irrigating their Northeast... doe the river have enough water for them to do that and is this enough for us/Bangladesh to try stop this from happening
PaulJI
BRFite
Posts: 149
Joined: 10 Mar 2007 00:49

Post by PaulJI »

Shankar wrote:T
RAVEL ADVISORY -SELA PASS -ARUNACHAL PRADESH
Sela Lake or Sila Lake but people call it Sela. The road you can see beside the lake is the 2nd Highest Motor-able road in the world at a height of nearly 14000 ft. ...
Nowhere near 2nd at that height. That's less than 4300 metres, & there are motorable roads over 5000.
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

cshankar, The Tsangpo is a shallow placid river in tibet with a green and fertile river valley crops along it. only in assam it is joined by many tributaries, some as big as tsangpo to become different character - huge, fast, wide with heavy silt carriage.

it seems the gorge was explored only in 1913 and onlee in 2002 someone navigated it by water

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarlung_Tsangpo_Canyon

Namdapha as some know is a place of great mystery and power. few ever venture into its far reaches.

if u cross to myanmar side over arakan yoma there are strange stone towers
constructed in the old days standing on outlooks. usaf pilots flying supplies to the kuomintang army photo'ed these towers...I have seen in a book.
niran
BRF Oldie
Posts: 5535
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 16:01

Post by niran »

Rsingh
Hold your stick, sir. the map is from the amriki CIA archive. me just pasted the address. However I am sure that BR visitors know about Arunanchal pradesh is part of India.there is a custom ordinance to check and
destroy all videshi made globe. (They show Pok as part of pakistan). this does not mean we do not know that its part of India. its just videshi perception. The thing is Who cares. have some cold lassi, sir its hot outside.
Shankar
BRFite
Posts: 1905
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 11:31
Location: wai -maharastra

Post by Shankar »

IAF STATION -TEZPUR-ASSAM-0100 HRS
Destruction of habitat forces animals towards air force bases

By Rezaul H. Laskar, Indo-Asian News Service

Tezpur (Assam), May 31 (IANS) Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots training at
bases across the northeastern state of Assam have to contend with unusual
ground intruders - a variety of animals displaced by growing pressure on
their natural habitat.

For several years now, herds of up to 50 elephants have broken through the
fences surrounding the airbase here, walking across runways and other
facilities as they make an annual migration in the winter months.

At the nearby Chabua airbase, IAF personnel out on their usual evening
stroll have a wary eye open for a leopard that recently killed a cow in the
area.

And, at a forward surveillance facility near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh
boundary, a family of panthers has made a home for itself near a radar
set-up.

"They never bother us and keep to themselves and we keep well away from
them," said an IAF officer.

But officials admit that more animals have been moving towards air force and
army bases, which have more greenery and jungles than nearby civilian areas
with large populations.

"The elephants have been displaced by the destruction of their traditional
habitats due to deforestation of the foothills," said Air Commodore P.K.
Barbora, commander of the Tezpur airbase.

Assam and other northeastern states witnessed widespread felling of trees
across thousands of acres of dense forestland till the Supreme Court banned
timber exports from the region in the mid-1990s. Organised gangs even
operated in government-protected forests before the apex court issued its
order.

Barbora said the elephants often damaged runway lights and other
infrastructure during their migration through his airbase in the months
between November and February.

The elephants have also torn down the barbed wire fence around the Tezpur
airbase at several spots, necessitating costly repairs every year.

But there have been no reports so far of any of the animals attacking humans
in the IAF bases.

"We are now planning to build a 25-km-long concrete wall to prevent the
entry of the elephants," said Barbora. "We are a very environment-friendly
base and we want to do all we can to co-exist with the animals."

--Indo-Asian News Service
Ai commodore Banarrjee finished his night round along the perimeter fence and issued terse instructions to the perimeter guards to take care of some broken down patches in the perimter wire from last nights elephant intrussion.Last thing he wanted tomorrow morning was a pair of tuskers on the runway

Tomorrow Tezpur will be laucnhing almost all her 76 mig 21s in the battle to save tawang keeping a few for cap mission over the base .Waves of 8 aicraft each will be launched every 15 minutes and the sortie rate he intended to maintain till 1300 hrs when 29ks from navy,mirage 2000s from gwalior and jaguars from ambala are likely to join in the fray .

IAF policy as far as Tawang was concerned was plain and simple - the invading PLA infantry and armor will not go back .The world need to be shown the lessons of 62 have been learnt and learnt well

IAF STATION CHABUA -0130 HRS

When the first rays of sunlight herald the beginning of a new dawn each day, the valiant pilots of IAF roar into the skies in their magnificent jets from one of the eastern airfields of the country. The thunderous streaking manoeuvres of IAF planes are indeed reassuring sights that help the eastern frontiers of the nation remain secure and infallible. Therefore, the Air Force Base at Chabua in Upper Assam takes pride in being called the ‘Eastern Bastion’.

The airfield at Chabua was in fact a second world war airbase of the Allied Forces. Constructed in 1939, the airfield was extensively used for launching operations against the Japanese and was abandoned after the war. In 1962, in response to the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the subsequent threat it posed to the North-East, the IAF commenced operations from this airfield. Initially Dakotas and Vampires, later Hunters, Otters and Mi-4 helicopters commenced air operations form Chabua air base. In the mid-seventies, subsequent to the runway upgradation and renovation, the supersonic MiG-21 bacame the mainstay fighter aircraft operating from here till date.

Group captain sinha was busy checking the arming up of the two squadrons of mig21 bis with air to ground ordnance mainly 57 mm rockets and 250 kg dumb bombs .But there were plenty of them and he planned on doing a turn around of atleast 3 in tomorrows battle .The pilots were all sleeping after a light high protein dinner and mission briefing was scheduled for 0400 hrs followed by first wave take of at 0700 hrs in sync with tezpur

The flight time from chabua to tawang front was less than 20 minutes at normal cruise speed on the decided ingress route low all the way ,5 minutes over target area max and egress at 5000 ft over ground level full supersonic and back to base in an about 45 minutes .30 minutes for refuelling and rearming and take off agin within an hour of landing.Same pilots will fly two consecutive missions to save debrief time .

As of date 34 mig 21 were available and 28 of them will be used for the mission in two waves of 12 each spaced out by an hour so that the cycle can be continued for as long as the pilots can fly safely (flight norms be damned )
A total of
rsingh
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4451
Joined: 19 Jan 2005 01:05
Location: Pindi
Contact:

Post by rsingh »

Last edited by rsingh on 20 Apr 2007 17:03, edited 1 time in total.
ksmahesh
BRFite
Posts: 209
Joined: 10 Jan 2007 17:55
Location: Mt Everest - its the coolest one

Post by ksmahesh »

Deer Rsingh saar,

Even in thish map Arunachal pradesh is not shown as Indian part (dotted line). This is a problem with all western maps. :twisted: I guess the oly solution is to make something similar to google-maps fromIndian perspective.

mulla mahesh
rsingh
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4451
Joined: 19 Jan 2005 01:05
Location: Pindi
Contact:

Post by rsingh »

Please Check the updated map........it will be updated whenever needed.

Updated map
ksmahesh
BRFite
Posts: 209
Joined: 10 Jan 2007 17:55
Location: Mt Everest - its the coolest one

Post by ksmahesh »

rsingh wrote:Please Check the updated map........it will be updated whenever needed.

Updated map
Wah Wah rsinghji. man gaye
vivek_ahuja
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2394
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 16:58

Post by vivek_ahuja »

Hi guys,

I just wanted to convey a message to all of you. I don’t know if you guys noticed it or not, but with my previous post my scenario writing has touched a hundred pages!!!

I want to take this opportunity to convey my thanks to all of you who have enjoyed it so far and have been the source of my inspiration for writing each day. As I pen down my next post, I take pleasure in doing so.

As for the rumors that this war is going too fast and that it might get over soon, I have only one thing to say:

The war continues.
saty
BRFite
Posts: 126
Joined: 20 Jan 2005 17:07
Location: Delhi, India

Post by saty »

vivek_ahuja wrote:
The war continues.
The next installment quickly.... :shock:

I am beginning to suffer from withdrawal symptoms!! Including hitting the refresh button over and over and staring at a blank screen.

BTW are you at all planning to merge with Shankar's scenario? He has disrupted your war flow rather substantially you know. Or will it continue to be a independent story?
vivek_ahuja
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2394
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 16:58

Post by vivek_ahuja »

CHONGQING AIRBASE
CHENGDU MILITARY PROVINCE
CHINA
1830 HRS THURSDAY


Several Chinese J-10s pulled out from their Hardened aircraft shelters carved out of a big mountain and moved via the camouflaged taxiway to the main runway. Their main undercarriage lights were off and the Chinese pilots were looking left and right of the aircraft with their helmet mounted night vision equipment to ensure that they didn’t run off the runway concrete. At the main runway’s end, they turned around and came to a momentary stop. Then the slight humming noise of the aircrafts was replaced by a loud roar and a big cone of blue flame became visible at the engine exhaust. The brakes were released and the first J-10 moved down the runway at high speed and pulled into the air, the loud noise resonating around the airbase. Then more joined him, and pretty soon the entire force of sixteen aircraft was flying into the air and swiftly turning south after assembling into four-ship formations. Fifty kilometres south, they were met by the first wave of a massive SU-27 force, a full regiment level strong, which would be escorting them while they made their foray into India.

The pylons under the wings of the fighter-bombers were groaning with the weight of cluster bombs and the two main drop tanks carried under each wing. There was little ordinance for air-to-air engagements. That would be unnecessary in any case. They did not hope to be troubled by the IAF during their short time into India, as the massive force of SU-27s escorting them had plans to light up the night for the IAF. The ordinance carried by the J-10s was a special little gift to the Indian artillery batteries deployed around Tawang from the People’s Republic of China.



THE ROAD TO BUM-LA FROM TAWANG
THE GREAT HIMALAYAS
INDIA
1835 HRS THURSDAY


The units of the 5TH Mountain Division were now moving into positions on the hills overlooking Tawang. These hills, dominated by Peak 4617, lay to the north of Tawang. Tawang itself was in the foothills of this range, and a few kilometres north of a river by the same name. Whoever took control of these hills, took over Tawang. The single road from Tawang to Bum-La cut between this range of hills and was about twenty kilometres away.

The idea behind defending Tawang was to keep control of these hills using infantry armed to the teeth with anti-tank Milan missiles, and a handful of T-90 tanks allocated to each critical area. Despite the severe reduction in armoured concentration that this entailed, there was in any case no hope for armoured warfare per se, and their main role was infantry support. Unfortunately, there was as such only a squadron’s worth T-90s in Tawang, and the other two Squadrons coming into the town via trains were to bring this squadron level unit to nearly Battalion level strength.

But ‘on the way’ was a whole other thing from ‘already here’, and the two trains going close behind each other carrying these armoured vehicles had just crossed Dirang north of Bomdila. That meant that they were still a good deal away, and despite the priority given by the railway officials at all levels in the region to get these trains to their destinations, they would still take more than an hour just to get to the station at Tawang. Then they would have to detrain, assemble and move out to the hills around the city in Platoon level units to beef up the scattered T-90s of the ‘A’ Squadron of the Battalion. The roughly dozen tanks of ‘A’ Squadron would thus be alone for the initial stages of the Chinese invasion, and that wasn’t funny to the crews of these tanks now facing ten to one odds against the Chinese Type-99 tanks heading for Bum-La.

Despite this, the tanks spread out into the hills one after another, each given a sector of fire to the north and each having the responsibility of supporting the infantry units to the left and right of the tanks with armoured gunfire. In return, the infantry would support the tank with its Milan missiles. As each tank moved into its position in the hills, they could look down at the road coming south from Bum-La at an angle from a distance of one kilometre. In effect, the GOC of the 5TH MD and the overall regional commander had decided to place their limited resources to attacking the Chinese tanks coming on the road from Bum-La from the hills north of Tawang.

The Chinese infantry coming with the tanks were more versatile, and could not be pinned down so easily. They would be able to lodge themselves in the hills around Bum-La without much resistance from the Indian army, seeing that the Indian army would be further to the south. It meant that the Indian army was gifting the Chinese these hills, but not the town, which was more important. In any case, the local infantry commander was certain that his forces could dislodge the Chinese infantry once their tanks had been destroyed. It was a risky operation, but one that could not be avoided.

The air threat to the Indian units was even more serious. The Chinese Z-10 attack helicopters had last been seen heading towards the Indian Border from the north, but TACIT-RED had lost visual on them as they started to weave through the hills. They would reach the area soon, and it was a certainty that the PLA would attempt to use them to destroy the small Indian tank force in the hills before the main Chinese ground force came anywhere near the border. To prevent that from happening, a platoon of Tunguska self propelled AA systems were now deployed around the hill tops with a clear line of view for several kilometres in all directions. In addition, a radar-directed gun battery was placed as a network around the hills. To improve the situation further, the IAF had intervened.

With the destruction of the ‘Red-eye’ radar facility by the TACIT-PATHFINDER team form Bhutan, the IAF Phalcon AWACS VICTOR-ONE was now able to move north and improve its coverage deeper into china. Several Mig-21s were at high alert at Jorhat at five-minute status. Another flight of four was armed with napalm and cluster bombs and was on fifteen-minute status. In the air, two flights of SU-30MKIs were orbiting in tandem just south of Tawang and were tasked with securing air superiority.

One aircraft in each flight or four aircraft was armed with laser-guided bombs for use against Chinese helicopters, the recommended tactic against hovering attack helicopters. Finally, a second Searcher-II had been launched from the UAV base near Bomdila to allow continuous coverage of the battlefield. Another was on standby and ready to replace the first vehicle should it get shot down.

Whatever the odds in favour of the IAF, the Indian army’s local commanders were starting to feel the heat as the Chinese tanks started approaching the border. They were severely outnumbered, and there was no denying that, but they had still seized the advantage from the Chinese artillery in this sector that they had massacred, with relatively minimal losses. Four gun batteries and a single Smerch Battery were still functional. The artillery units were now without the threat of counter battery fire, and thus would the first among the Indian army ground forces to hit at the Chinese invasion forces.

The entire defence of Tawang hinged on the Artillery batteries deployed around Tawang to slow the Chinese advance with accurate gunfire, thus giving the remaining tanks coming to Tawang that crucial additional one hour to arrive and deploy. Unfortunately, as the Indian artillery commanders were drawing up plans, the first flight of the Chinese J-10s went low and was now heading south for Tawang. They were just outside of the Phalcon’s range of detection. Before they entered, however, the massive Chinese SU-27 force broke at high speed into the detection range of the Phalcon which was swift to deploy the four SU-30MKIs towards the threat and thus towards the east. The four Mig-21s were told to scramble as well, and move to assist the charging SU-30MKIs.

With that done, the main threat of Chinese J-10s coming from the north went unattended to. There just weren’t enough Indian fighters in the region, just as the Chinese had anticipated.
Sudhanshu
BRFite
Posts: 307
Joined: 14 Feb 2006 22:15
Location: USA

Post by Sudhanshu »

Collective efforts of everyone is just awesome.

When shankar and vivek would fuse together (not literally off course :) )
we will just witness a superb writing and probably better than they could have done just alone.

Off course, we owe debt to the people who posts the maps, make everything crystal clear and makes writing more enjoyable.

I won't take names, but I think some people should refrain from suggesting something what authors should not do, because most of time, what authors do everybody else likes except him/her. By default, authors put more time in thinking than us.
dhruvarka
BRFite -Trainee
Posts: 18
Joined: 11 Aug 2006 21:35

Post by dhruvarka »

Dear Vivek & Shankar,
There are a few geographical errors in your posts.
1. "Tawang was the terminal junction for the main railway line..." (Vivek's post 18th April.)

There is no train link to Tawang and is not likely to be in the foreseeable future due to the mountainous terrain.

2. " first two exploded 50 mtrs over the atmospheric distillation column of indian oil refinery Digboi .... third and fourth came in a minute later over the oil fields of duliajan and the oil india refinery complex located exactly 25 kms to south east of Digboi and here the missiles were fused for ground burst hitting the main crude pump complex in the outskirts of the town ,ripping open the distribution manifold and starting a massive slow burning fire which spread to the nearby hospital complex ..." (Shankar - 19th April)

There are no oil refineries in Duliajan. The closest they have is a pilot plant scale coal gassification plant set up for research purpose which would be an insignificant taget, especially with Numaligarh refinery within easy missile range. Moreover, the hospital Complex at Duliajan is located at least a kilometer and half from the crude tank farm with lots of firebreaks in between so that there is no chance that a fire in the pumping comples would engulf the hospital as well. Shankar, with you having grown up in Digboi, this was most unexpected. Then again with two more refineries at Guwahati and Bongaigaon, the Digboi refinery tank farm and trans shipment terminal at Tinsukia intact, Indian armed forces would not run short of fuel on short term basis unless all these are they are rocketed as well.
Locked