Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 103 The last blow

Captain Jaafar did not waste fuel and time waiting in circles over the airport, but flew directly west to the target. According to the plan, the planes taking off later would catch up to complete three formations of three aircraft.Soon the ground command told him that the penultimate aircraft in the formation had an unexpected takeoff problem during takeoff and had to withdraw from the mission.

The captain shook his head. Apparently, one of the pilots ignored his reminder last night about how to patiently operate this small plane to take off. He could even imagine a situation where a guy pulled up the plane too early and found it difficult to take off. Then the guy was forced to abort the takeoff, and in a panic opened the drogue and slid to the side, which was tantamount to announcing the abandonment of the attack.But one less plane is nothing to Jaafar, because one or two planes could not take off, which he had expected.He has served as the commander of the 45th Squadron for more than 2 months, and he has become accustomed to leaving room for everything. Don't expect too much, because this squadron is not an ordinary flying squadron.Sometimes he felt that the 45th Squadron was closer to a test flight unit than a combat unit.Because only in this unit, the pilots are always surrounded by many technicians from the manufacturers, and they often ask the pilots some technical questions that should be told to the pilots, such as the chances of the new brakes causing deviation during landing. How old is it?Or is the vortex provided by the flaps less stable during takeoff?When Jaafar was in the 24th Squadron, this never happened. It was enough for the pilot to fly according to the flight manual, and he was not responsible for writing this manual.So before taking off today, the captain had already predicted that there would be troubles. Now the first problem has appeared, but it has no effect on the mission itself.

Taking advantage of the darkness before dawn to attack suddenly in the early morning is a key point of this attack. Although this plane does not have a night navigation pod for the time being and cannot fly at ultra-low altitude in mountainous areas, it is always useful to use the night.The captain had been watching for enemy radio pings after takeoff, but the enemy's search radar never detected his plane, and the ground command post did not warn him of the threat.This made him a little proud. It seemed that the unexpected effect had been achieved. If the enemy's reaction was so slow, he was fully confident that he could complete this mission perfectly, except that the dam could not be guaranteed to be destroyed.

"Boss, this is Feijian. Is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing was found."

"Please ask for my current position." Jaafar said, he wanted to check the navigation data and stabilize his emotions at the same time. Take your time.

"Leader Feijian, you are now east of the border at an altitude of 5500 meters. You are still 140 kilometers away from the target."

"Are you sure no enemy radar is on."

"I'm sure. No enemy radar has been turned on yet. They must be scared by us. In addition, there is no information about enemy planes taking off. It seems that their eyes are dark now."

The captain knew that the enemy's air force would definitely not show up today, because the distance from him to the dam is less than the distance to any airport in Pakistan. Today is his first time fighting alone, and he is also in command of half a squadron, so He didn't want to act too badly.Perhaps after this attack his position in the squadron would be solidified, and he knew that the rest of the squadron hadn't been too impressed with his easy win of the wheel medal.

But the situation is not as simple as the captain imagined.The Pakistani side also knows that Pathankot Airport is too close to the border to occupy a huge geographical advantage.Although this base is not used very much, it has always been a thorn in the eyes of the Pakistani intelligence agencies, and his runway has always been under the close surveillance of the Pakistani intelligence agencies.Just as Captain Jaafar guessed before taking off, there are Pakistani infiltrators lurking in the mountains around the airport. These people are lurking day and night. They can see the time, number, and direction of the Indian planes after takeoff with binoculars. direction, and occasionally the types of ammunition piled up beside the runway can be seen clearly.The information was quickly passed on to the Pakistani headquarters, so the Pakistani intelligence department did not bother too much, and deduced the whereabouts of this small team of LCAs from the above information.No doubt they were headed for the dam.Of course, flying fighter jets at this time will not help, so Pakistan can only pin its hopes on the 24 missiles hidden in the col east of the dam.But at this time, the search radar vehicle of this missile battalion was on the mountain road outside the two preset positions, and the position was relatively low, which was not ideal.

This anti-aircraft missile battalion has just been established for one month. It was originally a part of the defense circle of Fort ***, because Fort *** is also very close to the border. The main imaginary enemies are also ultra-low-altitude raid fleets. The HQ1 missile system itself is very suitable for such tasks in terms of reaction time and maneuverability, but due to the short establishment time, personnel training is very insufficient.After the urgent task of defending the dam was issued, the missile battalion had to make some important personnel changes.Right now, half of the people on the battalion command vehicle are not Pakistani soldiers, but Chinese soldiers. They originally came to the front line as instructors. The last person to press the launch button was a staff sergeant from Pakistan.

When the commander received the information that the enemy plane was approaching, the Tejas fighter planes of the 45th Squadron were crossing the border. Time did not allow him to wait for the search vehicle to reach the hilltop position. He ordered the search radar to start immediately at the reserve position. The radar’s azimuth scanning angle There are 120 degrees, as long as the opponent does not take the risk of flying very low, there should be no problem.At the same time, the commander instructed the four missile vehicles hiding in the mountain to erect the launchers.Just after the launchers of the four missile vehicles were erected at 4 degrees, there was a message from the command vehicle that the first batch of enemy planes approached 90 kilometers away, but the formation numbered 90 was shaken on the radar screen It disappeared soon, and it seemed that the opponent lowered the height and hid in the blind spot. This is their normal reaction after discovering the radar scan.The new changes do not matter much to the command vehicle, because the enemy planes always bomb the target and the direction of entry is always fixed. south of the dam.For the defender, this is undoubtedly an extremely favorable situation that must be fully utilized.

The commander was not in a hurry to turn on another radar ambushed in the upper reaches of the Jhelum River immediately, so as not to scare the opponent away from the missile range or attract unnecessary anti-radiation attacks.However, the complexity of this attack and defense does not stop there. Since there is no further radar information to input turning instructions for the missile pilot, the second step of launch preparation must also stop and wait for the target to illuminate the radar. The radar is turned on early or late. If it is too late, it will make this counterattack fall short, but the timing depends more or less on luck.Based on the previous distance and speed information, the commander calculated on the map the time it would take for the group of about eight planes to reach the south turning area. If they didn't slow down, there would be about a minute more.

"After the countdown of 70 seconds, the radar is turned on, and the pitch angle remains unchanged. A stable tracking must be established within 20 seconds. Listen to my password and start the countdown now." The commander said, and now the enemy situation on the monitor in front of each non-commissioned officer is It's blank, and no one knows what will appear after the radar is turned on later.

"What if the target doesn't appear after powering on?"

"Everyone, calm down. Once the enemy plane is no longer found, turn off the radar according to the predetermined method, wait for the second power-on, and prepare the radar vehicle for transfer."

70 kilometers away, Jaafar's formation was trying to approach the riverbed of the Jhelum River in the morning light. A few tens of seconds ago, the fleeting C-band scan made Jaafar's team fall into a little panic. However, after decisively lowering the altitude, they got rid of the radar.After penetrating tens of kilometers into the enemy's territory, they were finally exposed to the enemy, but the situation was not too bad, because the target was already in sight. For the ground air defense force, it is almost impossible to complete the launch preparation. It takes a lot of time to just turn the launcher and charge the missile (the captain's understanding of surface-to-air missiles is still in the Sam 2 era), not to mention that the enemy's radar can't detect it now. this formation.For Captain Jaafar, it was as simple as finding the river, dropping bombs up the river, and turning back home.He tried not to think too much about the possible threats, now was the time to concentrate on dropping the bomb.

"Captain Feijian, this is the leader. You should be able to see the river. In addition, a search radar with an unknown position has been detected. The beam width and scanning frequency are close to those of phased array radars. Maybe there is a search radar within 300 kilometers nearby. FD2000 position."

"We also found the same radar, and they seem to have a new batch of stuff, C-band. But I think it's too late."

"The radar is currently turned off. It is recommended to continue to lower the altitude, and there will be no trouble. So far no fighter jets have taken off from their airport." The base encouraged.
"I found the river, Flying Sword Team, prepare to turn."

Nine glorious fighter jets turned around and began to go up the river. The Indian pilots knew that a small half of the previous attack fleet was shot down by surface-to-air missiles in this section, and the rest were intercepted and shot down by fighter jets during the retreat. But none of that would happen today.Because this attack did not give the enemy air force a chance to lift into the air, and Pakistan's air defense has not been as good as their air force.

"Attention Flying Sword Team, turn on the main switch of the weapon. It is expected to reach the sky above the target in 100 seconds. Pay attention to the woods on both sides, they may have some 'stingers' hiding in the woods."

"We enter the target one by one to attack. Open the insurance."

(End of this chapter)