Chimera (36 page)

“Snafu! The Divisional RPV assets were diverted by somebody at Division to look up further north or something. By the time they redeployed, it was all over.”

“Good god!” Kongara muttered. But both men understood that such things happened during wartime. Especially given the fog of war…

“They are not cooperating with our plans now, are they?” Kongara continued, referring to the red pins on the map in front of them.

“No they certainly are not!”

“So what’s the plan now?” Kongara asked.

“We will have to find another breach point around this hornet’s nest of T-99s here. Problem is, along this section of the water stream, you have hills on both sides that are unsuited for vehicles and this armor force is blocking the valley between them. If we can somehow punch through, we can cut off the two Chinese Brigades from the east. The Colonel thinks that the only way for us at the moment is a head on attack through the Chinese armor. What’s your readiness?”

“Good to go. When is the jump-off?” Kongara asked. His colleague looked at his watch and then back at Kongara.

“Within the hour. We are going to launch the 10
TH
Mechanized as a steel fist into the enemy. If we succeed, we could have this Chinese Division on its knees before sundown!”

THE MALACCA STRAIT

DAY 5 + 0940 HRS

“Approaching drop five in fifteen seconds! Standby!” the pilot confirmed to the ASW coordinator in the back. 

“Drop in Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Drop!”

The aircraft slightly vibrated as yet another sonobuoy fell clear and into the waters below. The sonar operators noted the splash and then the sonobuoy went active. The ASW coordinator confirmed:

“Sonobuoy-Five is active!”

The ASW crew went back to analyzing the data streaming in from the newly deployed sonobuoy and began corroborating it with the information gathered previously; the flight crew up front pulled the Il-38 up and leveled out sufficiently high that fuel could be conserved.

The Malacca Strait is around seventy five kilometers in width on average, separating Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Singapore is to the south near the southern entry point and Myanmar and India are at the northern one.

Two Mig-29K naval air-defense fighters had departed the Andaman Islands to provide cover for the Il-38s patrolling the strait in search of Chinese submarine threats. A Singapore air-force G550 AEW aircraft had also been detected to the south by the Il-38s radar-warning-receivers.

This particular ASW aircraft had detected the two inbound Chinese Su-27s as the latter had finished their in-flight refueling operations over the South China Sea. The problem was that the Singaporeans could not very well pass that information to the Indians. Not yet, anyway. Singapore was sitting on the fence on this one until it became clear which side was winning the war in Tibet.

Nothing personal. Just geopolitics at work.

So for the moment the RSAF airborne radar operators watched in silence as the Su-27s approached the Malacca Strait from the south…

“
Wait!
Did you see that?!” one of the sonar operators said over the intercom to a colleague sitting on a similar console. The ASW officer took note and walked over.

“What do you have?”

“Brief sonar contact here…” the operator pointed on the digital map overlay. “Right at the edge of the range for S-5.”

“Check the SAR display for surface contacts!” the officer ordered.

“Checking...clear! No surface contacts in that sector.”

“Okay,” he brought his intercom mouthpiece close as he spoke.

“All right people, we have a possible submerged contact on bearing three-one-five. This could be what we are looking for. Prepare drops S-6 through S-10. Stand by on M-A-D!”

Moments later the cabin tilted slightly as the flight-crew up front adjusted heading towards the target and began their descent. They had to get low for the Magnetic Anomaly Detectors or MAD to be able to pick out the possible sub-surface contact clearly. Sonobuoy triangulation required careful drops which would also require the low altitudes.

Several minutes later the pilot confirmed their entry over the suspected target zone. By this time the sonar operators had already confirmed additional sonar contacts with the target and the MAD crews were on the job. The ASW coordinator authorized another sonobuoy drop. The pilot brought the aircraft low over the surface…

“Drop S-6 completed!” the pilot confirmed. This time the response from the sonar operators was immediate:

“Definite submerged contact below us commander! Bearing three-one-seven! Computer classification confirms Kilo class submarine! Designating contact as Zulu-seven. Triangulating on contact.”

“Prepare drop S-7 and S-8. Prepare for torpedo drop on target!”

The Il-38 and the Chinese Kilo class submarine were now locked in combat.

But the Chinese submarine was already trapped…

The Il-38 crew was flying in an arc as they dropped an additional two sonobuoys in order to get an exact fix. An airborne attacker could be active and still not be touched, but it could certainly touch its intended submerged target.

The Chinese crew on the other hand had few options. The waters of the strait meant that there were no local thermal layers to hide under. Depths were restricted. And this was the Indian navy’s back yard. Every inch of the ocean floors had been mapped over the waters for all MAD disruptions, sub-surface terrain variations and local variations in the saline content. So there were no surprises and high probability of intercept. The only hope for the Chinese crew was the hope that their air force would deliver on their intended promises…

“Buoys released!” the pilot said as the Il-38 banked away. 

“S-7 is active! S-8 is active! We have detections on Zulu-seven. Positional fix achieved!” the senior sonar operator confirmed.

“Prepare for single torpedo drop when ready!” the ASW coordinator shouted over the intercom to the weapons-systems crew. The latter then spoke with the pilot:

“We are going for weapons release over here. Bring us about.”

“Roger!”

The aircraft banked again and leveled out as the flight crew brought the aircraft on the required bearing and reduced speed.

“Torpedo ready! Drop in three! Two! One! Drop!”

This time the aircraft shuddered significantly as the large torpedo fell clear and splashed into the water. The sonar crew picked it up instantly.

“Torpedo in the water! Weapon is active and on target. Zulu-seven deploying countermeasures! Three so far! Weapon is running active, straight and normal. Impact in ten seconds!”

The pilot looked at his counter in the cockpit. The seconds ticked away quickly…

“Impact! We have impact! Multiple explosions registered on target. We can hear bulkheads collapsing! Zulu-seven is breaking up!”

The aircraft intercom was filled with raucous cheer as the Chinese submarine and its crew perished under the Malacca Strait. 

“Okay people, get back to work. Scratch Zulu-seven off the board. Inform naval headquarters that we have made contact with and subsequently sunk a Chinese Kilo class submarine and then send them the location.”

Up front, the flight-crew had been congratulating each other when the RWRs on board the aircraft began screeching. The pilot confirmed the data:

“
Oh shit!
We are being painted by Flanker radars from the south!”

“
Where
are our escorts?” the flight-engineer shouted from behind. The pilot was already asking that same question up the command line:

“This is Sierra-One! We are being actively painted by Chinese Flankers from the south. We need
immediate
assistance! Where the
hell
are our boys?”

“Sierra-One, this is ANC-OPCON. Seahawk-Five and Six are inbound your location. ETA two minutes! Suggest you egress immediately!”

“Yeah! No shit!” the co-pilot said before turning to the pilot:

“Get us out of here!”

The crews onboard the few fishing vessels in the area noted the large turboprop Il-38 streaking by less than one-hundred feet off the surface as it headed north. Two Mig-29Ks flew past the lumbering Il-38 on their way south on full afterburner. They put themselves between the unarmed ASW aircraft and the inbound Su-27s from the south.

The two Chinese pilots were already about to release weapons. Two PL-12 air-to-air missiles fell off the pylons of the two aircraft and lit their burners. They arced across the sky in a guided trajectory to the target. Two more PL-12s fell clear and this time flew in a depressed trajectory against the incoming Indian Mig-29Ks...

The Indian aircraft were just as quick to respond, but they had been caught off guard. Indian Commanders had expected the Chinese to punch through Myanmar airspace on their way to the Malacca Strait, not try to take the extremely long route through the South China Sea.

There were now four Chinese missiles in the air against two Indian ones. Two of the former were headed towards the Indian Il-38 and there was nothing much anybody could do. Two of the remaining missiles were headed for the Mig-29Ks and those pilots took evasive maneuvers and dived for the deck, punching chaff across the sky.

The Il-38 was headed away from the sector at its full speed and attempted to outrun the incoming missiles. Of the two missiles inbound, one splashed into the ocean behind the Il-38 as it ran out of power. The other slammed into the port wing section of the aircraft…

The explosion broke the outer wing section of the IL-38 and the outer engine broke off amidst furious flames. The shrapnel had also peppered the in-board port engine as well as the port side of the fuselage, wounding many of the ASW crew inside. A few seconds later the Il-38 cart-wheeled into the blue waters of the strait and broke up on impact.

The two Mig-29s and the Su-27s were also fighting for their lives. Both sides had successfully evaded BVR attacks on each other and had now entered the “merge”. Both sides were also using their helmet sights to try and take off-bore-sight weapon shots. But as with the similarity in weapons, the aircrafts were also just as maneuverable and highly so.

For the Indian pilots, the battle was getting very dangerous. Not only did they not outnumber the Sukhois, they also had shorter endurance and lesser number of weapons. The Su-27 could also absorb much more damage. The only way for them to end the battle was by either shooting down their opponents or breaking contact while they still had the means to do so.

The one true advantage on the Indian side was the aircrew quality. And it wasn’t long before it showed: one of the two Indian pilots managed to fire off a long burst of gunfire in a very tight turn that caught a Su-27 on its broadside. The canopy shattered and the pilot lost control at low altitude. The beast of a fighter splashed into the blue waters of the straits as the Mig-29K flashed overhead. The other Chinese pilot attempted to disengage: a very dangerous move in the heat of battle. The other Mig-29K claimed this kill with a tail chase R-77 shot right up the tailpipe of the Su-27. This aircraft blew up in a shattering ball of fire and fell into the sea.

A few minutes later the Mig-29s were pulling north as another Il-38 lifted off the tarmac on Nicobar Island to replace the loss of the first aircraft and all of its crew. The Indian navy and the PLAN had both suffered costly losses in the first skirmish over the high seas. But as more Chinese submarines approached Indian waters, a flight of three Mig-29Ks headed deep inside the Malacca Strait to establish a fighter barrier against future Chinese attempts to interdict Indian naval presence in the region…

EAST OF THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL

NORTHERN LADAKH

DAY 5 + 1005 HRS

“Go! Go! Move beyond it, damn it!”

Captain Kongara shouted at his vehicle driver as his BMP struggled to get around a burning BRDM vehicle.

The guilty Chinese tank had taken a direct hit from a Nag missile seconds after it had claimed the Indian BRDM reconnaissance vehicle. Kongara could see the pillar of smoke two kilometers away where the Chinese tank had been killed. But the crew of the BRDM was long dead, and that could not be changed by claiming revenge…

This is what happens when you take light armor against tanks!

Kongara thought as his vehicle passed the flaming wreck. His force of BMPs was spearheading the advance by the 10
TH
Mechanized to the battalion objective to the north.

He was worried about the overall design of the assault force he was leading into battle against the Chinese. Fact was that the Chinese infrastructure on their side of the LAC was vastly superior and flat. Both these factors were allowing them to bring in heavy armor units into the fight.

On the Indian side, the languishing infrastructure and tough terrain meant that not only were there fewer heavy units throughout Ladakh, but also that they were at the end of a very long logistical string that had to move from Leh to Shyok to Saser and then to the current FEBA.