Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 590 Challenger

On the commanding heights, there is also a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun on standby. It has nothing to do with the mission of the scouts. It just follows the action and independently undertakes a special confrontation task, which is to shoot down the drones flying from the opposite side at any time.

As the saying goes, coming but not reciprocating is indecent, and of course the dispatch of India's main force will not be hasty.Of course, they will also use the drones provided by Israel to seize this last opportunity to conduct reconnaissance; and the route of the drones must be at the shortest distance between the fronts of the two sides, and the height of the route of the Chinese drones unanimous.

Fighting against the opponent's drones has naturally become a part of the information confrontation that cannot be ignored.

In Wang Zhenbei's tactics, his field air defense units with independent combat capabilities did not gather in one place, but were split up and scattered far away.The self-propelled anti-aircraft guns almost followed the reconnaissance troops.

He now has five 5mm 25-barreled anti-aircraft guns and a battlefield command vehicle, right at the front, erecting the first fence against low-altitude penetration on the 5-kilometer-wide front at a distance of 12 kilometers between two pairs.This is the optimal way after he comprehensively considers the anti-reconnaissance effect and cost control.

The warning radar on the turret of the PGZ95 anti-aircraft gun has been rotating rapidly. Those own drones that go back and forth will emit identification signals to avoid accidental damage at a certain clock interval, so the radar will focus on tracking those who have never responded. UAV, and transmit its location information to other friendly air defense stations, and finally the rear command vehicle calculates an optimal interception plan.

The pulse Doppler battlefield surveillance radars of five PGZ5 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns can barely cover a 95-kilometer-wide front, but the small-caliber cannons and Avant-Garde 60 missiles they are equipped with cannot cover such a large area, so this air defense network It is quite sparse and not rigorous. If necessary, it is necessary to use maneuverability to make up for the range, or to transmit target information to the rear for resolution by the rear system.

Behind the first line of defense, there is a command vehicle with the same chassis, and scattered Hongqi 17 high-mobility air defense systems deployed in staggered positions in the field. They are responsible for filling leaks.Of course, the range of the Hongqi 17 is also very weak, and the gap between them may still be discovered by clever enemy planes and used.When none of these short-range defenses work, expensive mid-range defenses are deployed.If two Hongqi-2 missiles are launched and a standard interception can only destroy one Skylark UAV, it is really not cost-effective.

According to intelligence, the Indian 4th Armored Division has already acquired a large number of Israeli drones, ranging from large to small, with a complete range of models and a relatively high level of personnel training. To maintain unilateral information transparency on the battlefield, the enemy must also be The means of reconnaissance are taken into account.

On the radar display of the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, there was finally a response. The self-propelled anti-aircraft gun discovered an opponent's drone flying over 9 kilometers away from the opposite side, and the flying height was only 150 meters.The computer predicted the trajectory of the target. The range of the anti-aircraft gun is far from the closest point it will pass. However, the target's flying speed is extremely slow, only 47 kilometers per hour, which is much slower than the speed of the Type 95 anti-aircraft gun.Obviously, it's just some sort of little thing powered by a battery and an electric motor.

The 95 command vehicle in the rear immediately gave instructions to the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun to drive it down the high slope and rush to the designated first interception point 4 kilometers away, ready to intercept on the enemy's path.

Lieutenant General Pacianita is currently watching the video played by the drone in real time through the Skylark III drone, the ground control station, and the relay communication station at a distance of 100 kilometers.In the Indian Army, there are not many units that can implement similar battlefield surveillance.

The reconnaissance route unfolded exactly according to the flight route he planned. In fact, this was also the route of the army he drew on the map. If the enemy commander had the heart, he might be able to guess this point.

The lieutenant general is not greedy. He first needs to clearly see some details of the route so that he can compare the map and make some adjustments. It would be better if he could see the enemy's forward.

His forward reconnaissance unit followed closely behind the drone. If an enemy is found, it may conduct several necessary firepower tests to measure the size of the enemy.

At this moment, he was a little nervous, because the enemy still arrived at the border before him because he was hurrying.The main responsibility, of course, is the waste of the garrison troops on the border. They seem to have fled without firing a shot, and retreated all the way back to the country, blocking the road for combat preparation.The fleeing crowd also spread many rumors, triggering the first wave of refugees in India since the war.The scene that happened in Pakistan half a year ago was completely replicated. The dense flow of refugees blocked the main troop transport channel. Fortunately, the main force of the 4th Armored Division did not take the road in order to hide their whereabouts and scale.

The internal affairs force and military police have found signs of the presence of a large number of personnel from Pakistan's tri-service intelligence agencies. They also seem to be mixing in the crowd to wantonly spread panic, saying that the Pakistan 1st Armored Division is about to bloodbath Chandigarh. They have captured and shot several people at this moment. Ten deserters, but no Pakistani agents have been caught yet.

Now the lieutenant general wants to know how far the enemy has penetrated, whether the defensive zone on the border has been captured, the size of the enemy's front line, etc., and judge whether it is possible to fight a beautiful encounter and stop the decline.

After the unmanned aircraft flew over the border, it was confirmed that the enemy troops had not entered India. Behind the empty border wall, there were piles of supplies, and even the Indian flag was flying. It can be seen that the border troops are assholes. They forgot to put them away when they fled. national flag.However, the Chinese army has not reached the farthest distance they can extend in one assault, and seems to be waiting for diplomatic negotiations.The lieutenant general thought, if this is the case, it would be great.He needs time to regroup the troops that have arrived one after another.

The optical equipment of drones began to be disturbed by the afterglow of the setting sun on the distant horizon, and there was always a large area of ​​colorful halo blocking the field of vision. A situation where the light source is lower than the lens. .

"I said, can we deviate from the original route and don't go due west, so we can't see anything. Can we go around?"

"I'm afraid it won't work, General. The Skylark III doesn't have enough range, and it won't be able to recover if it goes around too much."

"Is there any way?" The lieutenant general was dissatisfied. If necessary, he can fly until the fuel cells are exhausted without recycling the plane. The answer can only be given in hindsight.

"General, in five minutes, the sun will set, we can switch to night vision sensors."

"Fly higher first, and take a look at the general situation below."

The drone had no radar warning equipment and was unaware of the warning radar on an ongoing self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which was constantly updating its position.

The anti-aircraft guns arrived at the scheduled interception point, but the enemy was still slowly advancing along the established straight route. The accuracy of the search radar was not enough to confirm the specific location of the target, only to know that it was coming.Finally, aiming must be performed by an electro-optical system.But at dusk, the low-light system is particularly difficult to use, and this is a small drone with a wingspan of only 4 meters and a gray-white spray image, and its infrared characteristics are not obvious.Knowledge of the command vehicle behind, can always see the target approaching, without changing the course.

The gunner slowly adjusted the magnification and used a joystick to turn the TV field of view. He knew that if he could no longer find the target in the darkness, it would very likely slip under his muzzle and behind him at an extremely slow speed. Isn't it a great shame?
"Probably over our heads, can you hear me?"

The commander got out of the turret and said after a while: "I can't hear it at all."

The turret was searched with photoelectricity, and slowly turned 2 times, and finally found something.

The small plane was approaching slowly, at an altitude of about 400 meters.The laser rangefinder conducts continuous distance measurement. The enemy plane is still 3 kilometers away and has already entered the range of the Vanguard missile. However, the photoelectric system of the tank has not been able to automatically track the target in infrared mode. Maybe it is the infrared characteristics of this battery-powered aircraft. It was not obvious, maybe the distance was too far, but under manual tracking, it slowly entered the range of the 25mm cannon.The slope distance figure becomes 1.5 kilometers.

With the top warning radar folded and put away, the four 4mm guns were slowly raised, waiting for the opponent to enter the range.

Like a flash of lightning, the anti-aircraft gun lurking in the night fired a short burst.A piece of ammunition scattered like a fishing net is splashed on the target.Wherever it passed, the drone broke into two pieces and fell in response.

After the Indian Lieutenant General saw an unexplained bright light on the screen, the picture suddenly rotated. Obviously, the plane began to spiral down.He did not see the enemy, but enemy anti-aircraft fire was nearby.

"The enemy is nearby, accompanied by anti-aircraft weapons. It is estimated to be 1 to 2 kilometers west of the border." He stood up, walked to the map 1 kilometer west of the border, and drew a parallel red line.

"There is no geographical advantage to take advantage of here. They stop here because of political needs." He said with certainty.

"Master, our reconnaissance battalion is very close, should we go there?"

"Very well, let's see where the enemy is coming from first. Let the vanguard battalion not take the pass on the road, where the enemy's main attention will be, and secretly detour from the route I have drawn."

"Does the tank platoon go together?"

"Yes, let the tank platoon join. It's time to see how powerful our new equipment is, and remind the front to be careful. Tanks should not be placed at the front, and firepower should be exerted at the farthest distance possible."

"Yes."

The reconnaissance battalion of the 4th Armored Division, mainly composed of BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, was reinforced with a Challenger 2 tank platoon before departure.

Pacianita is a cautious person. He has always wanted to know what level this British tank, which claims to be extremely defensive, is at.The British Chobham armor is well-known and has experienced several battles. Of course, it is impossible for Arjun's so-called composite armor to be penetrated by enemy shells 2 kilometers away.Of course, he couldn't secretly try to test his own Challenger II, although he really wanted to use the T90's 125 cannon to fire a few rounds to determine the best firefighting distance, so the British would feel distressed.Simply taking advantage of this encounter, he thought, why not let these equipments try out their power on a small scale, so that he can have a sense of proportion when deploying them in the future.

The sparse presence of Chinese reconnaissance units on the west side of the border, keeping a distance from the deserted India-Pakistan crossing, is partly political and partly tactical.

The road full of discarded materials leads all the way to the traditional border pass. If the enemy's motorized troops come in, they can only take a few roads, but the enemy is driving over. It is a mechanized army, so the scouts always pay attention Every segment on this border.

On this hundreds-of-kilometer-long border, a long stretch of high walls and anti-tank trenches have been built, all on the Indian side. It can be seen that Indians were also very worried about the intrusion of Pakistani tanks and spies.

On the Pakistani side are barbed wire fences and trenches, and interspersed bunkers.After India invaded, several sections of the border were flattened, including the anti-tank fortifications built by the Indians themselves, but the separation wall in this area is relatively complete.

7:40 p.m.Behind the high ground where the Chinese scouts were, another drone on rails flew into the air, dragging flames.At the moment when the drone flew over the peaceful separation wall, the high wall suddenly collapsed, and a small shadow sneaked in, and then the wall next to it fell down again, and some black shadows came out.

The Chinese scouts immediately noticed the abnormality, and when the target crossed the trench measured by Pakistan, they could confirm that it was an Indian BMP-2 tank, and there were a large number of them, much more than those found by drones.It seems that the fall of night has partially offset the observation advantage of drones from above.

The scouts quickly packed up their things and prepared to retreat.According to Wang Zhenbei's intention, he hoped to bring the enemy closer, and he also hoped to observe the opponent's characteristics at a close distance, not only the equipment, but also the style of play.

Groups of Indian infantry fighting vehicles, after crushing the fragile barbed wire, unfolded silently. Their advancing speed is very slow, and there are at least 2 companies in terms of scale.According to common sense, this type of forward reconnaissance unit will not be accompanied by heavy firepower or heavy armor.

China's Type 502 infantry fighting vehicles retreated down the hillside one after another to avoid unnecessary firefights, but a platoon leader was still lying in the grass to observe. He felt that the enemy seemed to have something behind.

"Platoon leader, go quickly, no matter how close the enemy is, they will hear us."

"Don't worry, wait a little longer. There must be something behind. You see that their infantry has stopped. That formation is waiting for something."

As a scout, intuition is sometimes important.

A huge turret appeared in the field of vision of the low-light night vision device. It easily pushed over the high wall, but it was a bit difficult to go up the trench. The huge deterrent force could be felt even a kilometer away. When climbing the slope, it seems that you can still hear the roar of the rumbling engine.

"Report to headquarters, found enemy Challenger II, about...a platoon."

Wang Zhenbei got the instant news in the command vehicle that the enemy had dispatched the Challenger II to embolden him. He could guess the intention of the commander of the opponent, and was eager to try the strength of the new equipment.

(End of this chapter)