The Bombing
Lieutenant Issa,1 who would carry out the attack, looked down at the head-down display and tapped in a few waypoints, stringing together the planned route. The attack would follow a ravine, turning around a large mountain at the end to reveal the landing zone on the valley floor. He would make the first pass. In addition to the LANTIRN2 pod, his F-16 carried a TV-guided bomb. The difficulty lay in acquiring the target and releasing the weapon in time; the valley was so narrow and long that the entire sequence would be rushed for a single-seat fighter. If he missed, No. 26 Squadron's two Thunders would make a second attack with unguided 500-pound bombs, with even less chance of hitting anything.
"Five minutes. Remember what I told you: the darkness is your friend, and your deadliest enemy." The group captain offered this piece of veteran's wisdom, then checked his RWR display. The primary radio-frequency threats had yet to appear, which meant the first phase of the mission, the covert approach, had gone well enough. The Indians had not been alerted. For years, using the night and mountain terrain to close with the enemy had been a principal area of study for the Pakistan Air Force, and in this respect they were the equal of any professional air force in the world. Of course, as with everything else, low altitude and darkness cut both ways. Even with precise GPS and inertial navigation, a terrain-dependent mission like this carried considerable risk. The compromise was to attack at dusk or dawn. This also degraded thermal imaging, but extensive rehearsals had shown that the low-light mode could still do the job.
"I can see the mountain. Turning now." Lieutenant Issa slowed the aircraft. His radio altimeter read only 500 metres; barely above the peak ahead. The eastern horizon was whitening and visibility had improved. A difficult trade-off: the low approach was extremely dangerous, but weighed against the threat of nearby low-altitude missile positions, descending was still worth it.
Issa switched on the LANTIRN pod, came around the mountain, and immediately engaged the autopilot. His eyes had to leave the view ahead and move to the CRT display below, switching it to low-light mode. This was the moment of greatest risk. One could imagine why the air force had not dared send the more suitable two-seat F-16s of No. 5 Squadron:3 they were plainly afraid of losing a new aircraft.
The targeting pod hung beneath the fuselage, aligned with the nose, so in theory one could fly the aircraft while watching the small screen. Issa set the magnification to eight and immediately picked out, against the green background, the outlines of two Mi-17 helicopters parked side by side on the valley floor. They were still a few kilometres away. Behind them, not far, was a cliff face. The Indians had chosen the spot well; it posed serious difficulties for an air strike. If he was even slightly late pulling up after releasing the weapon, he would fly into the mountain.
Following procedure, he first powered up the AGM-654 seeker head. While it warmed up, he manually activated the targeting pod's laser rangefinder and measured the slant range to the target: only 2.8 kilometres. After a moment the seeker was live. He switched the display to the missile's own video channel. The low-light image was far inferior to the reconnaissance pod's; the field of view was much narrower, only 2.5× magnification, but the target was close now.
Issa placed the crosshairs over the first helicopter. The slant-range readout showed 1.9 kilometres.
"Griffin One, target locked," Issa said.
It was a fleeting window. He saw the barrel of a 23mm anti-aircraft gun nearby rotating toward him. The crew had heard the aircraft approaching, but in this visibility they could not yet aim. He raised his head briefly, eyes returning to the HUD to check the autopilot status: still in stable level flight. When he looked down again, the lock-on indicator was flashing. Range to target roughly 1,500 metres; nearly inside the missile's minimum launch distance. He pressed the release. A streak of flame shot from beneath the wing. The missile flew toward the target. Issa hauled back on the stick; any later and he would have hit the mountain. He dared not light the afterburner for fear the ground troops would see the exhaust flame as he turned. But the enemy opened fire regardless. Tracer rounds streaked past both sides of the cockpit, and the shooting was not bad. He shoved the throttle into afterburner. Speed surged. An explosion sounded below and the ground fire stopped.
Issa wanted to circle and assess the damage, but the sun had vaulted above the horizon and the glare blinded him. He could only keep climbing rather than risk a disorienting turn into a mountainside.
"I can see it. Two more targets untouched. The warhead was too small," Group Captain Sami said over the radio.
"Griffin Two, check below you. I see something behind you," Uhaq said.
Issa rolled immediately. He saw a white trail scribing a wide arc toward him.
"SA-7.5 It's tracking you."
Issa pushed the nose down. He was still in afterburner. The missile was close. It was only a man-portable air defence weapon, but it was difficult to spot at launch; most pilots shot down by these things never knew the missile was there until it detonated. Issa hit the flare button, dispensing five salvos. Then, at 800 kilometres per hour, he forced the aircraft into a turn. The missile lost its bearings and veered away. But the encounter had badly shaken the lieutenant. Not every pilot gets chased by a missile in his lifetime. His movements turned stiff, and he could only manage to nurse the F-16 clumsily away from the battlefield.
"Light's good enough. Abbas, you make the second run." Sami ordered his wingman in. For Abbas the task was straightforward: a conventional bomb drop. Hitting anything was another matter. The Thunder dived in and released two 500-pound bombs. The impacts fell well wide of the remaining helicopters. With the mountain looming ahead, the pilot's nerves had to endure an extreme test; Abbas had plainly not withstood it.
"Not bad. I've thrown wider," the group captain said.
"Group Captain, don't push it. I suggest you overfly the valley and do a level drop," Squadron Leader Uhaq said.
"Level bombing? Sounds like a runway attack."
"But Group Captain, in this visibility…" Uhaq went on, as though implying the group captain was too old to see straight.
"…Griffin lead, three o'clock, signal detected. Possible MiG-21, seventeen kilometres." The AWACS, 150 kilometres away.
"Leave it to me. Group Captain, you just drop your bombs," Uhaq said.
"Very well. The young men always get the easy pickings."
"Group Captain, I'm holding at your two o'clock."
Sami began his attack run. The approach was narrow and short. Compared to the first and second passes, the light was marginally better, but the Indian infantry below had grown more alert. The group captain came around the mountain at 700 metres relative altitude, roughly level with the surrounding peaks, and entered a standard visual bombing run. Put simply: dive, release, pull out. Not much different from the most primitive inertial bombing, except that a CCIP6 computer assisted with the impact-point calculation. He placed the pipper on a Mi-17 below, initiated the computation, and stole a glance around to confirm no infrared missile was trailing him. A breathless moment. The target grew closer, and the steep mountain behind it grew closer still. Most pilots would have jettisoned the bombs early. This was because most pilots engaged the autopilot before release, and the autopilot would not allow a steep dive. Sami was the exception. He flew manually; a steep dive, for an aircraft without precision-guided bombs, improved the hit probability.
He quickly realised his approach altitude was slightly too high. He steepened the dive to seventeen degrees, nearly pointing at the ground. The CCIP parameters shifted with the new angle and speed, and the computation restarted. A dangerous situation; it seemed he would have to go around.
"Griffin flight, MiG-29 to the south. May launch R-77,"7 the AWACS warned.
Can those old F-16s handle this? the group captain thought. He considered sending his number two to reinforce the two F-16As, which lacked medium-range missiles.8
"Abbas, join Griffin flight. Switch on fire-control radar and watch the south."
"Copy."
The Thunder screamed toward the ground, but the CCIP had still not finished its calculation. Altitude was plummeting; 120 metres now. Indian soldiers on the ground were clearly visible. They had not abandoned their wounded and fled; a few brave ones were even firing small arms. Clearly a well-trained unit. The group captain knew he had a second, perhaps two, before he hit the ground. The CCIP was not going to deliver in time.
"Close enough!" He pressed the bomb release and hauled back on the stick. The aircraft's nose finally came up almost at the level of the Mi-17's rotor disc. The bombs detonated. A green helicopter door, blown off by the blast, flew past him. Mercifully it missed his aircraft. He pulled for all he was worth. On the hillside, several Indian soldiers stood slack-jawed. The group captain and the infantrymen locked eyes for an instant before the burning valley fell away behind him. He was about to look back when a massive R-77 missile came tearing around the mountainside, flashing past him. It was heading for an F-16. Before the group captain could make out whose aircraft it was, the F-16 exploded in mid-air.
"We've lost Issa," Squadron Leader Uhaq cried.
"Talk to me."
"More than four MiG-29s ahead. And more MiG-21s."
"Where did they come from?"
"As you predicted. From the east. Out of the sun," Abbas shouted.
1. Lieutenant Issa (伊萨中尉): A pilot with No. 9 Squadron "Griffins," flying one of the two F-16As on the precision strike mission. The Chinese 中尉 corresponds to Flying Officer in the PAF's RAF-style ranks, but since Issa is army-adjacent in his operational role here, "Lieutenant" reflects the original more directly. The text later promotes him to 上尉 (Captain) mid-chapter; this is an authorial inconsistency and I have kept him as Lieutenant throughout. ↩
2. LANTIRN (蓝盾吊舱): The Chinese 蓝盾 ("Blue Shield") is a loose rendering. PAF F-16A Block 15s were historically equipped with the Thomson-CSF ATLIS II laser designator pod (see C11N4), not the American LANTIRN system. The author appears to use 蓝盾 as a generic term for a day/night targeting pod. ↩
3. No. 5 Squadron's two-seat F-16s: The F-16D Block 52+ operated by No. 5 Squadron (see C1N10). The two-seat configuration would allow the back-seater to manage the targeting pod while the pilot flies, a significant advantage in the narrow valley described. That the PAF chose not to risk these newer, more expensive aircraft reflects an institutional conservatism mirroring the IAF's treatment of its Su-30MKIs. ↩
4. AGM-65 (AGM-65导弹): The AGM-65 Maverick, an air-to-ground tactical missile with TV or infrared guidance. Pakistan acquired AGM-65s for its F-16 fleet. The text describes a TV-guided variant used in low-light conditions, consistent with the AGM-65B or AGM-65D (imaging infrared). The 1,500-metre minimum range and narrow seeker field of view described are broadly consistent with the type's specifications. ↩
5. SA-7 (萨姆7): See C11N6. Its appearance here confirms that Indian infantry at the forward position are equipped with man-portable air defences, consistent with the "well-trained unit" described in the text. ↩
6. CCIP (连续弹着点计算): Continuously Computed Impact Point, a bombing mode in which the aircraft's fire-control computer constantly calculates where an unguided bomb would strike if released at that instant. The pipper on the HUD moves in real time. The pilot dives toward the target, places the pipper on it, and releases. Sami's problem is that his steep dive angle caused the CCIP to reset, and the computation did not finish before he ran out of altitude. ↩
7. R-77: See C7N11. The MiG-29's R-77 is an active radar-homing missile that does not require the launching aircraft to maintain a radar lock after launch. Its appearance here represents a qualitative escalation; unlike the earlier encounter in Chapter 7, where R-77s were fired at extreme range and missed, this shot finds its target. ↩
8. F-16A lacking medium-range missiles: The older F-16A Block 15s operated by No. 9 Squadron were not cleared to carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM (see C7N10), which was supplied only with the newer Block 52+ aircraft. This left the F-16As reliant on AIM-9 Sidewinders for self-defence, putting them at a severe disadvantage against R-77-armed MiG-29s in a beyond-visual-range engagement. ↩