MiG-21
Group Captain Sami climbed rapidly to 2,000 metres. The enemy had not appeared from the blinding direction of the sun; it seemed they lacked the nerve for a close fight. Almost at once his RWR screamed: a fire-control radar at his twelve o'clock had locked onto him. None of the remaining Pakistani aircraft in the area carried medium-range missiles. A real problem. He switched on his own fire-control radar and saw, fifteen kilometres out, a formation moving away at ninety degrees. He judged this was not a genuine withdrawal; they were simply trying to open the range and exploit their beyond-visual-range advantage. They would turn back soon enough.
"Griffin One, Black Spider Two: descend immediately. Leave the area. Do not delay."
"Group Captain?"
"That's an order. I'll hold them off."
"Copy. Latest report: No. 5 Squadron is on the way," Abbas said.
The Saab AWACS could not establish a data link with the older-model F-16s or the Thunders; it could only provide limited early warning by voice. This gave the enemy a second advantage. To avoid a pointless tangle, the group captain decided to send the others away. The Indians did not want a close fight; better to let his people go while he bought time alone.
The Pakistan Air Force was professional and brave, but its equipment came from a bewildering variety of sources. Compatibility problems; incompatible interfaces, Magic missiles that would not leave the rail;1 these things plagued the service constantly.
The moment the other aircraft departed, the group captain's radar warning receiver shrieked again. The enemy had turned ninety degrees as predicted. Their radar was tracking him without pause. A second volley of R-27s was coming.
"Black Spider One, enemy has launched missiles. Two rounds, eleven o'clock, nineteen kilometres," the AWACS reported.
Sami pushed the nose down, diving to break the radar track. He knew the MiG-29's look-down capability was severely limited;2 against terrain clutter, the aircraft would quickly lose its ability to maintain a range track, and the R-27, a semi-active missile dependent on continuous radar illumination, would go stupid.
"Enemy formation has split. Some are disengaging," the AWACS reported.
Sami guessed the short-legged MiG-21 Bisons3 were running low on fuel. This interested him.
"Fortress,4 bearing and speed of the departing aircraft?"
"Twenty degrees right. Approximately Mach 0.5. Four-ship formation."
The radar warning receiver had gone quiet. The MiG-29s had apparently lost him. The group captain had no desire to tangle with a MiG-29 formation at twenty kilometres. He shut off his radar, followed the AWACS controller's bearing, and held at very low altitude, chasing the four MiG-21s. These were his primary targets.
"Black Spider lead, missiles have lost lock. I can see you heading toward the border."
"Fortress, are they ahead of me? The MiG-21s?"
"Any other activity?"
"The MiG-29 four-ship has turned north. Forty kilometres from you. They may be heading back to Adampur."
Sami knew the MiG-29 threat had essentially evaporated. He climbed slightly out of the mountains and switched the radar back on, scanning directly ahead. Four closely spaced contacts appeared almost immediately. He locked the aperture onto the trailing target. The contact made no evasive move; evidently these aircraft had very poor radar warning equipment.5
"Black Spider lead, Squadron Leader Hassan is at your four o'clock, fifty kilometres, two-ship."
"Fortress, put the Falcons onto the MiG-29s to the north. Leave this to me." The group captain was all but taking over the entire engagement. He knew perfectly well that Ahmed Hassan was the sort of man who picked the softest target available; that, of course, was something Sami had taught him years ago.
"Black Spider, this is Falcon. We cannot intercept that many MiG-29s." Hassan's voice came over the frequency, aggrieved.
"Fire your missiles. Drive them off. This end is mine."
As he spoke, Sami powered up the PL-56 on his wingtip and waited for the launch cue. For this elderly infrared missile, a dead-astern shot was an opportunity that came once in a lifetime.
The Falcon pair immediately engaged the Tridents'7 MiG-29 formation in a medium-range missile exchange at fifty kilometres. Both sides turned away to evade after firing. At that range, neither was going to hit anything.
At the far end of the battlefield, everything was still quiet. Perhaps they've expended their medium-range missiles, the group captain thought. If so, they're useless now.
"Black Spider, single enemy aircraft at your seven o'clock, slightly above your altitude. SA-6 radar to the east has come active. Initiate electronic countermeasures immediately," someone aboard the AWACS said, his tone as level as if this were a routine exercise.
The group captain did not comply at once. He saw no need. Since climbing, various radar pulses had been sweeping his aircraft without pause; he could not spare the attention for every one of them. There was something more pressing to worry about. He could see one MiG-21 glued to his tail, but the other aircraft was nowhere to be found. That was the real threat: an unseen MiG that could be lurking in any quarter, like a shark beneath murky water.
1. Compatibility problems: The narrative here broadens a theme introduced in Chapters 4–6 with Sami's malfunctioning Magic missiles. The PAF's inventory draws from French (Mirage, Magic), American (F-16, AIM-120), Chinese (JF-17, PL-5), and Swedish (Saab 2000) sources, each with its own data-link protocols and integration requirements. The inability of the Saab AWACS to link with older F-16As or JF-17s, described in this chapter, is a concrete instance of this problem. ↩
2. MiG-29 look-down limitations: The early-model MiG-29B operated by the IAF was equipped with the N019 Rubin pulse-Doppler radar, which had well-documented difficulties distinguishing low-flying targets from ground clutter, particularly in mountainous terrain. This was a known weakness that Soviet-era doctrine compensated for by relying on ground-controlled interception. Sami's dive exploits this limitation. ↩
3. MiG-21 Bison (米格21野牛): The MiG-21bis upgraded under the IAF's Bison programme with a Kopyo radar, R-77 capability, and improved avionics. Despite the upgrades, the airframe's limited internal fuel capacity gives it a combat radius of roughly 250 km, making fuel state a constant concern in prolonged engagements. ↩
4. Fortress (堡垒): The AWACS callsign. The Saab 2000 Erieye (see C7N4) is now functioning as the Pakistani command-and-control platform, providing Sami with voice-relayed early warning and bearing information in lieu of a data link. ↩
5. Poor radar warning equipment: The MiG-21bis, even in its Bison upgrade, carried the SPO-15 Beryoza RWR, a system of limited sensitivity compared to Western equivalents. Its failure to alert the pilots to Sami's radar lock is consistent with the type's known EW limitations. ↩
6. PL-5 (PL-5导弹): The PL-5E, a Chinese short-range infrared-homing air-to-air missile derived from the Soviet K-13/AA-2 Atoll lineage. Pakistan ordered 900 PL-5Es for its JF-17 fleet. The missile has all-aspect capability, a maximum range of approximately 14 km, and a 40g manoeuvre limit. The "elderly" characterisation in the text is the author's; the PL-5E was a 1990s upgrade of a 1960s design. ↩
7. Tridents (三叉戟中队): IAF No. 223 Squadron "Tridents," a MiG-29 unit. The squadron was originally equipped with MiG-23s and converted to MiG-29s in 1990, based at Adampur (see C11N8). The Tridents' engagement with Hassan's Falcons at fifty kilometres, with both sides firing and evading, illustrates the futility of BVR exchanges when neither side can maintain a track long enough for the missiles to guide. ↩