Counterattack
Flying Officer Goyal walked outside the squadron headquarters. It was late in the evening. On the runway, several Su-30MKIs were starting their engines; he could identify them as No. 102 Squadron1 aircraft. Goyal sparred frequently with 102 Squadron's pilots in the officers' mess and always came out on top. No. 102 had been nothing but a reconnaissance unit; around 2000, when the last MiG-25s reached the end of their airframe lives, the squadron had even been disbanded for a time. Its people always stood a head shorter before No. 24 Squadron. Even after re-equipping with Su-30s, they remained second-string within 13 Wing. A few years earlier, a detachment from 102 Squadron had been posted to Chabua Air Force Station2 in Assam, a godforsaken forward base with primitive facilities, reportedly only seventy-five kilometres from the Chinese border. Every pilot still at Bareilly lived in dread of being packed off to that desolate backwater.
"They've got a mission?" Goyal grabbed a passing technical NCO.
"That's right. Covering No. 7 Wing's Jaguars.3 New contact report; they've located a concealed Pakistani flak battery. The very one you found, by the way." The NCO said it with a grin, which embarrassed Goyal somewhat. He remembered how close those guns had come to bringing him down.
"Flying Officer, we all heard about your score this afternoon. Two enemy aircraft in one go; everyone says you're getting the Vir Chakra. The boys in 102 are all raring to go now, saying our military-technological edge over Pakistan is ten years. Everyone wants to bag more Pakistani aircraft. Maybe that'll spare them a posting to Assam." The NCO finished with a broad smile.
"I'd rather everyone didn't take this too lightly." The flying officer spoke without a trace of self-interest. The thought of the Pakistani pilot he had fought six hours earlier still sent a chill through him.
"Doubt there'll be any air fighting at all. They're all scared witless; probably won't dare take off." The NCO shook Goyal's hand firmly and left.
I have to warn them. They cannot underestimate the enemy. Goyal thought this as he watched two aircraft taxi forward one behind the other, then leave the runway. These two Su-30s were to rendezvous over Chandigarh with No. 7 Wing's MiG-21s and Jaguar strike aircraft and eliminate the flak battery lurking on the forward edge. They may have made a mistake, Goyal reflected. At night, most aircraft were incapable of radar-evading low-altitude flight. A formation this large would be easily detected by Pakistani radar.
The Pakistan Air Force was not asleep. A Saab 20004 from No. 13 Squadron, orbiting 250 kilometres from the border, detected a small group of Indian aircraft moving north. The information was passed to ground headquarters, and the formidable No. 5 Squadron's5 F-16s scrambled to intercept.
Squadron Leader6 Ahmed Hassan lifted his F-16 off the runway at Shorkot7 and surged toward the bearing the AWACS had given him. He and his wingman held at roughly 4,000 metres, slightly above the Indian formation's altitude. The Saab 2000's data link, which had been tracking the targets continuously, was feeding Indian air contacts onto his vertical situation display; they were still beyond the search range of his own radar.
"Rashid, listen. One salvo. Attack only the two slower targets trailing at the rear." The squadron leader spoke to his wingman while they were still outside missile range; a brief moment to coordinate.
"Copy!" On their vertical displays, a cluster of contacts was moving: a group of MiG-21s escorting two Jaguars heading north. For now they were hugging the border, but they could cross at any moment.
"This afternoon they nearly did old Sami in. A Su-30 from a deep rear base ambushed him. Shows their tactics have improved. Anyway, I'd say Sami's days are over."
"If the group captain had had the sense to leave the combat units, he'd be an air commodore8 by now. You know, having a general officer in the air causes all sorts of headaches for the chain of command. Maybe he really is past it. But that miraculous strike on the Afghan border9 when he was young — you have to envy that."
"Was he with 14 Squadron then?" Rashid asked.
"No, No. 9 Squadron, I think."
The voice of the distant AWACS broke in over the radio: "Falcon leader, eleven o'clock, ninety kilometres. Two Su-30MKIs closing."
Squadron Leader Hassan adjusted the magnification on his vertical display and saw the two Su-30s moving along the Indian side of the formation, performing some manner of half-hearted escort.
"They always keep these precious babies tucked away safe and sound," Hassan said with a laugh.
"Should we change the attack sequence? We might get a shot at them," the wingman asked.
"No. Don't engage supermanoeuvrable targets at long range. Besides, they haven't crossed the border. Continue tracking the Jaguar ISs."
After several minutes of tracking, the F-16 pair, approaching the speed of sound, had closed rapidly on the trailing Jaguars.
"Squadron Leader, they've crossed the border. They don't appear to have detected us."
"With those MiG-21s for escorts?" the squadron leader said contemptuously.
The two Jaguars at the rear of the formation had entered the F-16s' forward hemisphere at thirty-six kilometres: the optimal engagement range for the AIM-120C.10 Once launched, the missiles could almost immediately acquire the target on their own active radar.
"Radar on. Track-while-scan." The squadron leader gave the order.
"Falcon requests weapons free," Hassan said into the radio.
After a pause, the AWACS cleared them to fire. Hassan pressed the launch button.
"Fox Three, launch."
"Away."
Two missiles ignited and left the leader's pylons in quick succession; the wingman launched two more an instant later. The missile-radar activation countdown appeared on the HUD. Seconds later the squadron leader watched the missile radars go active and smoothly acquire their targets. At the same moment, the two Jaguars began a panicked descent; they had evidently realised they were under attack. Far to the northeast, the two Su-30s turned and began accelerating toward the engagement.
"Squadron Leader, their Su-30s have found us. Seventy-five kilometres, still accelerating."
"Ignore them. We're withdrawing." Hassan executed a descending spiral and turned west.
"I'd love to see the results," Rashid said.
"Let the AWACS handle that."
The AWACS came over the radio: "Falcon flight, enemy has launched R-77 missiles.11 Five o'clock, sixty-five kilometres. Estimated time of arrival, two minutes."
"Are they joking? They think they can hit us from there?" Hassan lit the afterburners and accelerated away. He knew perfectly well that such an out-of-envelope shot was utterly meaningless.
"Falcon flight, Target One hit. It's gone down into the Hajira valley."12
"Got him?"
"That's how it looks."
"Falcon flight, Target Two has also disappeared. It's going down." The air surveillance operator aboard the AWACS.
"Excellent. My tally's just passed the group captain's, I think. If you don't count the drones."
"Heh, you'll overtake him for certain, Squadron Leader," Rashid said.
"Pity, though. The group captain's kill from twenty-four years ago can never be matched."
The two F-16s headed directly for Shorkot at Mach 1. The pair of R-77s chased them for a while, then burned out their fuel and fell into the desert.
1. No. 102 Squadron "Trisonics" (第102中队): One of the IAF's most storied units. Originally raised as 102 Survey Flight in 1951, the squadron was reformed in 1981 on the MiG-25RBK/RU Foxbat for strategic reconnaissance. The nickname derives from the MiG-25's Mach 3 capability. In May 1997, a 102 Squadron MiG-25 famously broke the sound barrier over Islamabad, triggering a fruitless PAF F-16 scramble. The squadron was "number-plated" (disbanded) in 2003 when the MiG-25 fleet was retired, and reformed on the Su-30MKI around 2011. In the novel's timeline the reconstitution has already taken place, though the squadron retains the institutional insecurity of a recently revived unit. ↩
2. Chabua Air Force Station (贾布瓦空军基地): An IAF station in Dibrugarh district, Assam, under Eastern Air Command. No. 102 Squadron is indeed based at Chabua in reality, operating Su-30MKIs as part of 14 Wing. The novel's claim of seventy-five kilometres from the Chinese border is broadly consistent; it is among the IAF's most forward-deployed Su-30MKI stations. The author's characterisation of it as a desolate posting reflects its remote location in India's northeast, far from the social and professional infrastructure of bases like Bareilly or Pune. ↩
3. No. 7 Wing's Jaguars (第7联队的美洲虎): No. 7 Wing at Ambala Air Force Station comprises squadrons operating the SEPECAT Jaguar in the ground-attack role. The Jaguar, known in IAF service as the Shamsher ("Sword of Justice"), has served since 1979 and remains the IAF's dedicated strike platform. IAF Jaguars are also a critical component of India's airborne nuclear deterrent, a detail that becomes significant in the following chapter. ↩
4. Saab 2000 AEW&C (萨伯2000): A twin-turboprop aircraft fitted with the Erieye active electronically scanned array radar in a dorsal fairing, capable of detecting airborne targets at up to 450 km. Pakistan received its first Saab 2000 Erieye in December 2009, inducted into No. 13 Squadron at PAF Base Minhas (Kamra). The novel's assignment of the aircraft to this squadron is historically accurate, though the unit was later redesignated and additional AEW&C squadrons were formed. ↩
5. No. 5 Squadron "Falcons" (第5中队): See C1N10. One of the PAF's premier combat units, operating F-16C/D Block 52+ fighters. The squadron has a long operational history spanning all three Indo-Pakistani wars. Its scramble to intercept an Indian strike package is consistent with its historical role as a quick-reaction alert unit. ↩
6. Squadron Leader Ahmed Hassan (艾哈迈德·哈桑少校): A fictional PAF F-16 pilot with No. 5 Squadron. The original Chinese uses 少校 (Major) and at one point 少尉 (Pilot Officer); the latter is clearly an authorial error. "Major" has been rendered as "Squadron Leader" throughout, following PAF convention: the PAF uses RAF-style ranks, and the equivalent of army Major is Squadron Leader. This is consistent with the translation's practice of using service-specific ranks (Group Captain for Sami, Flying Officer for Goyal, Wing Commander for Mohsin). ↩
7. Shorkot (肖尔科特): The Chinese 肖尔科特 (Xiāo'ěrkètè) most plausibly corresponds to Shorkot, a city in Punjab near PAF Base Rafiqui, which has hosted F-16 operations. The phonetics could also yield Sialkot, closer to the Indian border, but Sialkot is not traditionally a PAF fighter base. Rafiqui's proximity to Shorkot and its documented role as an F-16 operating location make this the more likely identification, though certainty is impossible from the Chinese transliteration alone. ↩
8. Air Commodore (少将): The Chinese 少将 literally means "Major General," but in PAF rank equivalence the one-star rank is Air Commodore. A group captain (equivalent to Colonel) promoted out of combat units would reach Air Commodore as his next rank. The translation uses the PAF-appropriate term. Hassan's remark that "having a general officer in the air causes headaches" reflects the real organisational tension of very senior officers insisting on flying combat sorties. ↩
9. Afghan border engagements: Between 1986 and 1988, PAF F-16s shot down at least eight Soviet and Afghan aircraft (Su-22s, MiG-23s, an An-26, and an Su-25) that strayed into Pakistani airspace during the Soviet-Afghan War. Hassan's reference to Sami's "miraculous strike on the Afghan border" may refer to a ground-attack mission rather than an air-to-air kill, since Sami's career is associated with Mirage and JF-17 aircraft rather than F-16s. The exact nature of the exploit is left deliberately vague. ↩
10. AIM-120C (AIM-120C型导弹): The AIM-120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the primary BVR weapon of the PAF's F-16 Block 52+ fleet. An active radar-homing missile that guides itself in the terminal phase without requiring the launching aircraft to maintain radar illumination. The thirty-six-kilometre engagement described represents a close shot well within the no-escape zone against a non-manoeuvring target; the missile's active seeker would acquire almost immediately after launch, as the text states. ↩
11. R-77 (R-77导弹): The Vympel R-77 (NATO reporting name AA-12 Adder), a medium-range active radar-homing air-to-air missile and the Indian Su-30MKI's primary BVR weapon. At sixty-five kilometres against retreating F-16s in afterburner, the shot was fired well beyond effective range; the missile would exhaust its propellant before reaching the target, as the narrative confirms. The Su-30 crews' decision to fire regardless suggests either desperation or a doctrinal preference for forcing the enemy to react. ↩
12. Hajira valley (哈吉拉山谷): Hajira is a sector along the LoC in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, west of the Haji Pir Pass. The terrain is rugged and mountainous, consistent with the description of an aircraft "disappearing" into it. The area saw significant fighting during the 1965 war and has remained a sensitive sector along the LoC. ↩