Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 636 The Destiny of the Country
Now the Eagle Squadron has only two options, using the long range to bypass the enemy's air defense circle, and sneak attacking the opponent's transport planes in Ladakh under the cover of mountains. Of course, even if it can succeed, it can only slow down the enemy's transport speed; The second method is to forcibly break into the air above the airport and use cluster bombs to completely destroy the airport. If possible, destroy the engineering equipment and stacked facilities there. Judging from the speed and preparations of the airport, the air defense force they may invest will definitely be very strict. Now the scale of the Chinese Air Force's defense is visible to the radar. In addition, the electronic reconnaissance plane has also discovered at least three types of air defense near Chandigarh. Even if the remaining air force of the whole of India launches a joint strike, it may not be able to get close to this airport.

Four days ago, after Colonel Mosin of the Eagle Squadron found a way to transfer to the 4th Reserve Wing in the South, Goya, the acting squadron leader, had completely taken over the burden of the Eagle Squadron. Guys who can discuss tactics in depth.The 29th Wing that Mosin went to was only a tactical air force in name. In fact, there were only a few trainer planes there, so there would be no real combat missions.

In the morning, Goya took it upon himself to veto the order issued by the Air Force Staff to attack the Chandigarh Airport in spite of everything. He hoped that the higher-ups could issue a slightly more sane order instead of letting India's last elite troops die by themselves .At noon, a new order was issued, and the original unrealistic order was cancelled. Instead, the fighters were selected by themselves to intercept Chinese transport aircraft in the northern mountainous area.For the Eagle Squadron, whose teammates still have 6 fighter planes that can go into the air, this is just a slightly simpler task. In terms of cleaning up, the Chinese can deploy long-range rockets there, and there should be anti-aircraft missile troops hiding around. Fortunately, There are many high mountains there. Most of the time, the weak air force does not reject these, which may be used to offset the geographical barrier of the enemy's superiority in numbers; these mountains also provide Goya with many options to make use of its strengths and avoid its weaknesses.

The current lineup of the Eagle Squadron is very irregular, and its combat effectiveness is not optimistic. Four months ago, he personally ended the myth of the Pakistani Fighting Falcon Squadron and wiped them all out. Now it seems that the Eagles may follow in the footsteps of the Pakistan Air Force and be defeated A more powerful Chinese Air Force swept into history.

The squadron leader looked at his watch. The time had come. He walked out of the duty room with other pilots. Unlike in the past, no one wanted to talk along the way.At the end of the runway there are 6 lonely fighter jets. The rest of the 13th Wing's aircraft have been transferred to the airport where Chinese missiles do not often attack. Now the 6 Su-30MKMs that can be put into combat are the ones that will take on the heavy responsibility of the Ministry of National Defense. , to undertake a hopeless mission to cut off the enemy's supply lines.

The lieutenant colonel walked to the front of his plane, and the ground crew stood in a row to salute them. The lieutenant colonel shook hands with these guys one by one. Finally, when it was the turn of Sergeant Mohit, who had the deepest relationship with him, the sergeant angrily expressed that he would report A big deal, about treason by some in the squadron listening to Communist radio.Goya said with a smile that this matter is not urgent and can be dealt with when he comes back.

The 12 pilots climbed into their fighter planes and waited for orders at the airport. The Indian radar could not see the movement of the Chinese transport planes over the Himalayas. Naturally, the scale of the escort could not be seen, but the transport planes taking off from Chandigarh Airport could still be seen. These returning transport planes will fly out of the protection of surface-to-air missiles within 30 minutes (at least the Air Force Staff thinks so), and at this time, the Su-30 can catch up and make a sneak attack. Transport aircraft, you can also expand the results of the battle. If you can shoot down 5 to 10 large transport aircraft, the enemy's transport line will inevitably come to a halt, and the Chinese will inevitably rethink the possibility of this route. In essence, it will have the same effect as destroying the runway , this is the idea of ​​someone in the Air Force Staff.

Judging from intelligence, the Chinese Air Force's transport fleet is increasingly boldly using new routes in the Ladakh region; satellite photos show that 400 trucks can be gathered near Chandigarh Airport at any time, waiting to load and unload luggage. Most of the trucks There seems to be nothing to do, but intelligence analysts can also see that this is because they are confident that the scale of the airlift will multiply in a short period of time.

Even though Meneyam's army in the valley below in Himachal Pradesh has not been cleared, and the Chinese army invading from Punjab is far from being able to break through with the Chinese army going south from Aksai Chin, the vertical distance of the Chinese army crossing the geographical barrier The mode of combat has become bolder and bolder every time. This method of combat has been proven to be feasible in Assam. At least for the Indian army that is belatedly aware, this method is terrifying and unsolvable.

"Captain Eagle, the C17 in Chandigarh has skidded onto the runway and may be about to take off, you can take off now to intercept."

Some people in the command post said that the fighting in Chandigarh is still going on, so that some infantry can see the mobilization of Chinese aircraft on the airport east of the city, which is of course beneficial for interception operations.

This C17 must be killed for two reasons, one is its carrying capacity; the other is related to the dignity of the Indian Air Force, because this plane originally belonged to the Indian Air Force, and when it landed at Tespur Airport, it was deemed to have a front wheel failure. It couldn't be repaired, but it was abandoned hastily, and they didn't even bother to do the damage. As a result, after the Chinese occupied Tespur, they repaired it three times, five times and two times, and then the Chinese Army captured the second one in Punjab. The abandoned aircraft of the same type were repaired faster this time, and they even set up a special force composed of C17.

Now C17 has become the biggest threat to India (Indians are deluding themselves that China has no other transport aircraft that can transport more than 50 tons of tanks).

After the 6 fighters took off from Bareilly one by one, they did not fly directly to the east, but carefully avoided the radar on the western battlefield, and flew northward quietly, almost following the route of Chinese cruise missiles passing through Uttarakhand province. Flying, Chinese missiles always use the rolling mountains to avoid Indian radars and sneak attack on military bases around New Delhi, so it is obviously effective to do the opposite. Goya did not think too much about the command to shoot down C17. Under the condition of lacking the command and coordination ability of early warning aircraft, specifying the target of attack is tantamount to nonsense.What he needs to consider is how to approach the ambush area safely, and then launch a few rounds of missiles to retreat according to the situation.Since the enemy has opened up this route, he will not be without defensive measures.

The plane turned toward the north close to the mountain at the front of Aksai Chin. Fortunately, it was not detected by Aksai Chin's radar. During the period, the ground reported that the C17 had taken off, and it disappeared in the true north direction.

Goya turned on the radar to monitor the enemy's route over Ladakh 300 kilometers away, but because the altitude was too low, he couldn't see clearly for the time being.He guessed that China should send long-range fighter jets to cover the transport plane. Those dexterous and difficult J-10s may not appear. Those J-11s can gain altitude advantages faster than the Su-30MKM, but they can use wingmen to distract attention. The variable is also the anti-aircraft weapons that the enemy lurks here.

A continuous target trajectory appeared on the radar. The trajectory disappeared in an instant at an appalling speed and climb rate in an area that could not be scanned by the radar. This is not a characteristic of a fighter jet. It should be a rocket fired by the enemy. They are all firing this weapon intermittently. The Chinese always do this. If they get a little advantage, they will fully apply it to their opponents without mercy.

"Eagle formation, be especially careful of the enemy's Red Flag missiles. There won't be nothing near those ground rockets."

"Understood the squadron leader."

"Note that their medium-sized transport aircraft have a ceiling of about 10000 meters and are relatively slow. They are easily pulled down by escort fighter planes. They are our best targets."

"clear."

Goya has been watching the movement of the radar warning equipment. In such an area surrounded by high mountains, it is not easy to deploy surface-to-air missiles, but having said that, if they really exist, they will be quite concealed. It was detected at some stage before its launch.

"Squadron leader, I think I see the enemy's course." A pilot reported the new discovery, and via the formation data link, the target became visible on each fighter's display.

It was a Yun-8500 aircraft flying from north to south at an altitude of 7 meters, which was just higher than the surrounding snow-capped mountains of 8 to 27 meters. It seemed that the altitude was kept low, which was also a way for Chinese aircraft to avoid Indian radar. At the same time, this will also add some difficulties to the attack of medium-range missiles. Whether it is a semi-active R77 or an active radar-guided R[-], there is a certain possibility that it will be interfered by the reflection of nearby mountains, so even if the enemy plane has no reflection at all, It is impossible to attack from the limit range of the missile and then break away easily.

Goya deviated from the formation and rose a little higher, wanting to see if there were other Chinese planes around before the medium-range bombs attacked.After he rose 500 meters, he saw that at a later position of this Yun-8, there were two fighter jets identified by radar as Su-2, followed by the second Yun-27, the distance was 8 kilometers away.This reconnaissance naturally exposed himself, and Aksai Chin's radar also saw him, and the enemy's formation would respond immediately.

"Fortress, fortress, 2 cubs were found, and 2 more flanked, the eagle is ready to attack from a long distance."

"Did you see the C17?" Someone in the headquarters couldn't forget the C17.
"No, no returning enemy transport planes have been found. They may still have a return route. We don't have time to wait. Their fighter jets should have noticed it and came over to our side."

"Captain Eagle, you can figure it out yourself."

The radar could see that the transport plane began to correct its course to the west, while the two J-2s flew straight to this side.Such an escort formation was actually completely within Goya's expectations. The enemy rushing here is also a standard expulsion strategy. Generally speaking, their strength is too small.

He lowered the altitude by himself, and then ordered the other three planes in the formation to climb up and meet them, distracting the attention of the enemy planes. He led the other two planes, lowered their altitude, and used the cover of the valley to secretly chase down the single transport plane. For the defense of fighter jets, he can get as close as possible to a certain distance and shoot down the two transport planes. In fact, those transport planes do not have much room to escape. If they go west blindly, they will easily fall into the aster deployed by General Meneam in Kashmir. within missile range.The new air corridor that the Chinese forcibly opened up is actually quite narrow. Perhaps they were dazzled by the victory. They thought that sending a few J-3 fighter jets back and forth a few times would make the route safe.

Sure enough, the feint attack aircraft group at a higher altitude worked, and two J-2s rushed towards them, trying to launch missiles first.

According to the strategy formulated in advance, the three fighter planes in the high altitude did not rush to use their numbers to destroy the enemy. What they had to do was first show weakness and retreat, so that the enemy thought that they could seize the opportunity to fire first, and unconsciously evolved from expulsion Successful pursuit, thereby luring them to continuously deviate from the protection target.When Goya's attack on the transport planes unfolds, the wingmen will simultaneously go into battle to entangle the enemy planes, make them impossible to recover, and shoot them all down if possible.

The Eagle Squadron is the best unit of the Indian Air Force. It has a large number of 3-on-2 tactics that have been honed in actual combat. At that time, the enemy will find out how stupid their own initiative is.

Goya's radar firmly locked on a Y-8, and rushed towards the enemy with afterburner. Even at a distance of 150 kilometers, the transport plane was unable to evade the radar, which was completely different from air combat.

On the radio, Samoya, the deputy squadron leader in charge of attracting the escort fighter planes, reported that one of his wingmen had already passed the enemy's side at 9 o'clock, which could be regarded as the completion of the outflanking. In 1 minute, he will shoot down these two enemy planes.

Without the instructions of the early warning aircraft, Goya can temporarily obtain the battlefield situation only through the information of the formation data link. With the advantage of the Eagle's strength, he has completely dominated the battle situation.At present, the two J-2s cannot protect themselves, and the two transport planes are fleeing. Aksai Chin's ground radar is looking at this side helplessly. Obviously, it is time to carry out the final blow.

The siren flickered inappropriately, and the MPCD detected a continuous scan lasting 0.1 seconds, but did not identify the threat source or threat level, and it was not even possible to determine whether this scan was from the ground or the air, only It was vaguely detected that the radiation source came from any possible altitude within the range of 2° from 4 o'clock to 60 o'clock on the right side.

Was it just a false alarm?This is rarely encountered near the snow-capped mountains where the enemy has not invested in jamming equipment and the electromagnetic environment is relatively clean.Goya thought, maybe the electronic equipment of Su-30MKK is more sensitive than that of MKI?
The electronic tactical threat system of the aircraft itself can detect tens of thousands of various electromagnetic radiations in all directions every second. To identify those threatening, continuously scanning, or radiation sources that have been tracked, it depends entirely on The judgment of the software leaves little room for people to guess.

But a veteran like Goya can still make some judgments based on his intuition. This is a rather abnormal "test", perhaps from some kind of low-detectable radar. He noticed that his right side is the north The area is indeed the area where the enemy is most likely to hide, but he cannot give up his attack because of this, because every successful landing of these enemy transport planes will add some weight to one end of the balance that determines India's fate.What they deliberately want to send to India is a catastrophe.

The alarm began to indicate danger, this time it was no longer vague, and a female voice repeatedly reminded Goya of the continuous tracking of the Red Flag missile.

The approximate position of the enemy radar on the display has been detected within a few seconds. It is a common phased array warning/search radar. The core warning radar, so before other information is exposed, it is still impossible to judge whether it is a Hongqi 9 or a Hongqi 16 with a relatively short range. However, according to common sense, the Chinese should deploy a Hongqi 9 in this area to better protect their routes. .

(End of this chapter)