Bharat Rakshak

PNS MEHRAN -KARACHI NAVAL AIR STATION
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The fours P3C orions flanked by 6 mirage III s mad a n impressive fight formation totally configured for air to ground misson .The only weapons the mirages were carrying for possible air air combat scene were the twin DEFA 30 mm cannons and 2 R 550 magic air to air missiles . Apart from that they were also carrying 1700 ltrs drop tank and 2 x450 kgs EU3 bombs . The orions were armed with harpoon anti ship/surface missiles each . All of them were carrying max fuel load for their some what lenghty flight profile which would take them from karachi westward to main west east comercial air corridor south of iranian airspace joining london -mumbai-singapore .
Their just finalised flight plan called them to fly at 35000 ft at max speed of 480 knots so as to intercept the air corridor at 0400 PST .

Group captain majid ali once again checked his moving map dispalay -the route would take hime over ormar-pasni -gadar-jiwan before turing south west to link up with the high altitude airways just outside iranian restricted airspace . This was important -despite good brotherly islamic relationship between iran and pakistan -iranians have recently become paranoid about their airspace after their relationship turned sour over nuclear technology development with US few years back. USAF were still very much present in pakistan and so any aircraft from east was treated with utmost hostility . Majid ali definitely did not want to tangle with iranian tomcats on his way to a some what " delicate" mission.

The mirage III s of pakistani airforce were somewhat overworked sinec the air force top brass teneded to save the falcons ., some what similar to mig-21 s of indian airforce. Baisc function was ofcourse area defense and interception . At a cruise celing just over 50000 ft and cruise range of 1600 kms they were still a potent fighting entity -only problem is with rapid modernisation of indian air force in early 2000s some how they were out of their league with the more advanced bisons , su-30 mki s and ofcourse the mirage 2000 s . The lack of inflight refueling capability was perhaps the most serious draw back . But todays mission was different -today they would not be doing a shooting war with the su-30 s -while not exactly ethical by accepted standards of warfare -majid reasoned you can never win a war bybeing finiky about such minor details

The 4 P3C orions took of in a storm of dust and noise and after 15 minutes the mirage flight took off and formed an aerial umbrella over them on thier way south west .

PHALCON FLT 02 -OVER GURAT COAST
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Radar operator virendra singh spotted the multi aircraft take off on his situation dispaly monitor which instantly identified each aircraft type and their course and altitude in red . But since they were going west and quickly moved to the outer periphery of his monitor ,he did not consider them to be an imediate threat . He just down loaded the info for future ref erence and also forwarded to western naval command . He should have done more -he should have brought that to the notice of sr air intercept controller on duty and the course of modified IL-76 changed to track the 10 ship formation heading west atleast for one more hour . But in his mind he explained away the visit as routing maintainance visit by a PAF squadron to dassault works and for that cavalier attitude to duty he would pay a heavy price.

Since the distance between phalcon and mirage /orion air group increased the automated proximity alarm which would have sounded in a reverse situation didnot sound and the unknown to the the air intercept controller the phalcon turned away from the target toward s north.

AI 102 - SOUTH OF TEHRAN - 0300 HRS IST
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With more than 2/3 of the long flight almost over .Rajiv bhasin cliked on the transmit button to contact Iran center
- Iran center AI 102 -course 130 -flight level 350 -request flight following
- AI 102 -iran centre -roger -sqwak code 3455 -
- sqwak 3455 -ai 102 over and out
Capt bhasin handed over the controls to his xo and got up to strech his legs a bit and also inthe back of his mind was to get a cup of black coffe from the galey preferably from the ex miss india now mother of 3 but still very attractive sunita rao . For the last few weeks she has been smiling at him in an engimatic way and that capt bhasin didnot mind at all .

INS VIKRAMADITYA- 0330 HRS IST - 150 KMS WEST OF MUMBAI HIGH
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The clanking noise of Ka 31 as it took of from the rain soaked flight deck served as a wake up call to ground supprt crews on the extended flight deck . She would patrol the carrier force for next 3 hrs and in fact become the eye of the comander for next few hours . The morning CAP of twin mig-29 ks will take off in 30 minutes as soon as the ones patrolling overhead is recovered . The seaking search and rescue chopper also started its engine to offer assistance if required during the recovery take off sequence .Not that it has ever been required so far but you can never tell thought ajoy shukla as he checked over the old fashioned cockpit guages

The mig 29k would be taking off one by one - a limitation imposed bylack of steam catapult on the flight deck unlike her larger sisters in us navy . But then for the kind of role assigned to vikramaditya it did not matter much.

Kamov JSC began the development of Ka 31 in early 1980 s and the first flight took place in 1987. The first order from indian navy took place in late nieties and followed by a seperate order in 2001. First deployed in Virat and later in quite a few of its surface combatants including ofcourse INS Vikramaditya alias Gorshkov
As Surinder naik and his xo Ramaji rao looked over the comparitively spacious state of the art multi fuction cockpit diplay -they did feel a sense of pride and honour at being allowed to fly such an advanced chopper owned bya few countries in the world. At nearly 20 million a piece - it was really worth the price -while no way comparable o the phalcon orbiting some 300 kms to the north east ,she was still a force multiplier to recon with. The twin 2200 shaft horse power Sich TV3-17 VMAR gave her a spectacular turn and climb ability . Only problem was noise the cockpit was very noisy indeed but then both the pilots knew that is small price to pay for the privalage of flying her.

100 ft vertically over the flight deck of vikramaditya surinder pushed the cyclic forward and down and the kamov picked up air speed quickly ,at the same time ramaji pulled up the lever controlling the under carriage and the landing wheels neatly retracted to make space for deployment of of the early warning planer array radar . At 9800 ft the optimum detection range of ka 31 the captain deployed the electronic warfare radar E-801M OKO which consisted essentially a 6mtr long 1 mtr wide planer array radar mounted beneath the fuselage. During take off and landing the radar is folded into a horizantal position and stowed . Once deployed in vertical position it rotates at 6 rev per minute adjustable by the navigator to upto 10 rpm depending upon threat density . Ramaji knew very soon his radar will tell him every thing ther is around him, upto a max of 200 targets and if nessecery with the click of a button track 20 of them simultaneously at a range upto 150 kms for fighter size target and for larger maritime strike aircraft like p3c orion he should be able to tarck them in excess of 200 kms.

The pilot pushed the chopper in a south westernly t rack as his navigator started energising the active elements and then establishing the encrypted down link to Vikramadityas combat information centre 2 levels below the bridge . From now on every aircraft and ship within 250 kms circle will be scrutinised and threat pririty assigned on real time basis on board Vikramaditya -courtesey Ka 31 from russia. She willbe on orbit for about 2 and half hour at a distance of approx 150 km from the carrier and at a pre programmed altitude of 9800 ft. Her position constantly verified by o board Abris GPS featuring 12 channel reciever which would provide also the nessecery naviagtional data .

As the monitor came alive a band of commercial aircraft to south west indiacted the commercial airways to mumbai ,down below an assortment of slow speed tankers and bulk carriers and to his north west -ramaji was surprised to see the 10 aircraft formation heading west automatically coloured differently by the radars data processor. Ramaji rao was perplexed and surprised - he just could not understand why such a formation would head away from war zone and more importanly trying intercept the commercial high altitude airways near the iranian coast .

Nalini Chauhan turned her head into the back of the jeep and quickly wiped a tear and swallowed a sob where no one would see.

Turning round quickly, Captain Chauhan issued orders and thought through what she had to do next. The medevac Dhruv's had already taken the worst cases back, now only the walking wounded remained, and they were ok for now. And then there was the line of blackened, bloody bodies of men in her command that had not survived the ambush. And then there was Pvt. Rajni Yadav. She had been found a few hundred meters away by the search party. She was dead - she was also naked. Her injuries were clear, not the slit across the throat that killed her, but the other ones. The ones that made Chauhan seethe with anger.

Her orders were to move forward, there was no time. As she prepared to move out, she saw the Gorkha lieutenant march up with his men.

"Are you sweeping the forest?"

"Yes maam" replied Lt. Gurung

"See this..." he pointed to Yadav, "you find them..." her burning eyes bored into Gurung, who momentarily faltered, and then regained his composure

"Yes maam..."

Folks:

Quick, before this thread goes into the trash can, how can I copy the entire thread into a WORD file without doing a copy-paste on the individual pages?

Thanks in Advance

Rajeev

The military scenarios would not be complete without bringing in the Chinese.....something to the effect of........Chinese troop buildup along the Sino-Indian border.......border incursions.......minor skirmishes with some border patrols........PLAAF aircraft intruding over Ladhakh and AP airspace........reports of extensive convoy movements.....certain Chinese units which were earmarked for Taiwan now being transferred to Tibet......all Tibetan airfields are 24/7 busy....missile movements spotted in Tibet by satellites and reported in Western media........
Indian political and military leaders gather and discuss moving reserve troops to Sino-Indian borders......effect on contnueing ops in Pak.......perhaps Corps Commanders under pressure to push foward in Pak before Chinese troop buildups reach levels that cannot be ignored.
[Would somebody do the honors since I have zero writing skills]

Click the round button (the one with an icon of what looks like a printer) that is to the right of the "post reply" button in the bottom left part of the page. This should open the thread in a print preview format.

The print preview format will have links to individual pages in a row on the top left part of the page. At the right end of this row is a link that looks like ": | | :". Click on that. It will display all the posts in the thread on a single page.

Thought she might b another Jessica lynch......Turned out to b Rabi Bai....

Priyank wrote:Click the round button (the one with an icon of what looks like a printer) that is to the right of the "post reply" button in the bottom left part of the page. This should open the thread in a print preview format.

The print preview format will have links to individual pages in a row on the top left part of the page. At the right end of this row is a link that looks like ": | | :". Click on that. It will display all the posts in the thread on a single page.

Great!

Thanks

It began, appropriately enough, with a full blooded Smerch salvo. Then, the 155 mms opened up with suppressive fire. Engineer tanks, strange creatures with mine trawls in front and towed trailers with ungainly tubes trailing at the back, moved forward. The tubes fired line clearing charges to clear up four lanes in the kilometer thick minefield, about 40-50 meters apart, each lane capable of taking two tanks abreast. 300 meters… 250… 200… the fires lifted, but not before flights of Mi17Vs had started pumping salvos of rockets in the opposite embankment of the obstacle. The tank hatches popped up, tank commanders came up with bazooka like tubes for TBRL developed bund busting devices. Huge, gaping holes opened up in the bund facing the Indian side, and the tanks drove up to the holes to pour fire on the other bank… now it was the turn of the ungainly Sarvatra bridge layers, trundling along at a lightening fast 10 Km per hour. No sooner had the bridges been laid that combined arms teams with T90s leading; mounted platoons in BMPs following, raced down the lane even as the arty fires shifted to hammer opposite bank of the obstacle. The tanks and Abhays were across now, fanning out of the breach. Diabolically camouflaged bunkers that had miraculously survived the repeated barrages opened a hail of fire. UAVs circling overhead computed locations; these were relayed to M2Ks circling overhead. Within half a minute, LGBs were streaking down, and the bunkers erupted in a cloud of smoke, debris, and severed human limbs. Even as troops disgorged from BMPs started digging in frantically, others raced past and fired a second set of line charges – just in case. Now units were attempting to bypass the line of interconnected bunkers, some still sputtering defiant fire. The aim was to encircle them, cut them off from reinforcements, and force the defenders back to the next line of defense. Slowly, like a dark blot of blood, the Indian forces started spreading out; then combined to form something resembling a bridgehead. Sporadic Pakistani arty fires were picked up the moment the shells left the tubes by watchful modified-Rajendra ALRs. Pinaka responded with its throaty twang, and the defiant thudding died away. A similar diversionary attack was also started simultaneously by Doraiswamy’s 1 Corps, to keep the defenders confused, harried, tied down.

Slowly, the bridgehead started filling up 6 IAB and 34 IIB – thrown in by a galvanized Saha still smarting from Avadhesh’s stinging insults. About four hours later, during the deep dark witching hour, the whole grizly process was repeated at the second line of defence. Then, it was time for Abhimanyu to step into the breach, and to undertake the first decisive breakthrough for the Southwestern Command – the crossing of the Dipalpur Main Line, now christened Point Bravo.

About 24 hours after the first Smerch salvo, 14 IAB had cleared its jump off points on the southern/eastern bank of Dipalpur Canal; a slender 10 km long and 1 – 2 km wide shaft had been opened up between Point Alpha (the Indian enclave west of Sutlej) and Point Bravo (the Dipalpur bridgehead). Shivi’s units and the trailing 149 Infantry Brigade were stretched in two parallel columns. Preceding the columns and hovering above them were swarms of UAVs – each battalion, Bde HQ, Div HQ, and IBG HQ had its own dedicated units, in addition to those deployed in their area by SW Command from its reserve. A pair of F18Is circled overhead, occasionally scanning north or westwards with SAR sweeps to check for any oncoming forces. Not really JSTARS stuff, but a powerful torch comes in mighty handy when rushing off into the dark. On land, tiny moles of SF and Guards detachments grubbed around, scouting and probing for enemy concentrations, mined bridges, soil load bearing capacity and possibly flooded terrain, and the like. Behind them came the two combined arms advance guard groups, traveling roughly parallel to each other, each the vanguard of a long column. The advance guard groups each had a squadron of tank and a company of BMPs, with BMP mounted radar, alr, and mortar units. They were followed by the main force units traveling in column formations. Every now and then a unit of tanks or BMPs would sprint past the slower moving column and take up blocking positions at intersections or other vulnerable areas. Tanks traveled in 3 – 1 formations, main guns and MGs ready for bear. Battalion UAVs circled overhead, keeping a watchful eye for suspicious groups of people or vehicles. Radars, IR equipement, laser disruptors were all on, commanders out on turrets with fingers twitching for action. Arty and soft skinned vehicles were tucked away in the column closest to and traveling parallel to the Dipalpur Canal. Detachments from 149 IB had already started passing through 14 IAB, to establish screening positions to the south of the columns. Beyond the canal, the two other BDS from 18 RAPIDS traveled in two similar columns.

Let’s see how they pull an ambush on this formation, Shivi thought grimly. A colonel had already been fired by Western Command for sloppy movement procedures, and Shivi had quietly told his Colonels that if any one of them had similar news they better not come to him with it if they valued their limbs. They knew he was serious. On one occasion, Shivi had spotted a pair of headlights racing towards his column. The COY radio net had whispered, a tank turret turned fractionally; crump, thwaank, splatter. Shivi permitted himself a feral grin at that – the vehicle could have contained the local chapter of Jaycees coming out to show their hospitality; somehow, Shivi didn’t really think so.

Expectedly, the first day had been slow going, but now the IBG was past the entrenched defensive lines and into lush farm country. The going was much faster, and Shivi expected to reach the pivot point (Charlie) well before daybreak.