Chimera (15 page)

At the tactical levels however, the response strategy was currently far from clear. This was due to a variety of reasons. Firstly the damage to the communications in the northeast was still under repair. New commanders were replacing dead or wounded ones and only now were these decapitated units recovering from the initial attacks. Secondly, the reports of Chinese ground offensives were unclear. Then there was the issue of retaliation.

This meeting should clear that up
…

Chakri thought as he pulled his chair closer to the table. Three of the four TCD screens lit up immediately to announce that the meeting was beginning. There were now three senior commanders visible on the screens: General Yadav, Lieutenant-General Suman and Air-Chief-Marshal Naidu. Chakri started off the briefing once all three men confirmed audio and video at their ends.

“I know we have had a hell of a morning so far, but just so we are on the same page, let’s have a recap. General Yadav?” Chakri said and then lay back in his chair. The fourth screen shifted to show a digital map of the current situation in the Northeast.

“Region wise speaking, we have four sectors of the land border with China. These being in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Ladakh moving east to west. As of 1030 hours there have been no aggressive activities from the Chinese in Uttarakhand and Ladakh, although the latter sector will open up by the end of the day today as per our predictions. Near Sikkim we are detecting significant movement of enemy forces that suggest the front will open up in the next few hours. The Arunachal sector has already opened up.

“Following up the missile attacks, this morning the Chinese opened up with heavy artillery fire along most of the border positions in the Arunachal region, specifically the Lohit, Upper Subansiri and Tawang Districts. Our forces responded as best as they could under the circumstances and in several sectors were able to defeat, or currently in the process of defeating, the Chinese using available long-range artillery systems. This action is ongoing as we speak. DIPAC detected further Chinese activity in central China which suggests further Chinese cruise-missile strikes later today,” Yadav concluded. Chakri spoke up after a few seconds of absorbing what had been said.

“General Yadav. What Chinese units are we facing in these sectors?”

“One PLA Group Army assembling in the Aksai Chin and one north of Arunachal Pradesh. Two Division plus forces are in the Chumbi valley opposite Sikkim. Plus two more Divisions deployed south of Lhasa. We are not sure what their intentions are,” Yadav said impassively.

“And why is that?” Chakri queried.

“Because they are not moving. We are not sure why. One theory is that they could be earmarked for an invasion of Bhutan,” Yadav offered.

“Bhutan?” Chakri said in surprise.

“Yes sir. The Chinese may attempt to use Bhutan as an entry point to strategically outflank our forces in the Tawang sector from the west and to beef up their forces in the Chumbi valley and deny us that route,” Suman added his speculations to the mix.

“But Bhutan is sovereign nation. Why on earth would Beijing be looking to invade them?”

“Perhaps because they don’t see it the same way as we do? We know the Bhutanese government has been taking a lot of flak from Beijing on the whole Tibetan revolt issue. If this entire war is meant to be a repeat of 1962 in their minds, they might want to threaten Bhutan into taking a harder line against the Tibetans as well. Add to this our defense treaties with the Bhutanese and you can see why Bhutan could be dragged by Beijing into this war,” Yadav added. Chakri stayed silent and focused in his thoughts.

“It may make sense to talk to them at some point about this?” Suman added.

“Who? The Bhutanese?” Yadav asked.

“Yes. If there is a threat to their sovereignty, they have a right to know about it beforehand.”

“But we don’t know that there is indeed a threat. It’s just a theory at this point,” Yadav countered. Chakri re-entered the conversation.

“General Yadav, let’s try and confirm that theory as soon as possible. For the time being let’s concentrate on the more pressing issues. Now. Tell me about operation Snow-Thunder...”

EAST OF DIRANG

WESTERN ARUNACHAL PRADESH

DAY 1 + 1540 HRS

The soldiers were busy removing the snow-camo netting over the two vehicles. They were parked on a grassy clearing on the eastern bank of the frozen Khouma River. The road from Bomdi-la to Dirang to Se-La and then to Tawang was parallel to the river along this section. And the soldiers on this side of the river bank could see convoys of trucks moving through the slight snowfall to Tawang. The personnel of this particular unit, however, were busy with their own little war.

The two vehicles now being uncovered were the TELs for the 862 Missile Regiment of the Indian army. Each vehicle was armed with three launch canisters. Each of these canisters was loaded with a Block-II variant of the Brahmos cruise-missile. They had enough firepower within these two launch vehicles to decimate the better part of a small town within five minutes. But that was not why there were here today. 

Two vehicles with three missiles each meant a total of six deadly warheads. A cruise speed three times the speed of sound and a travel distance of three hundred kilometers to target allowed for a roughly five minute flight. Such a short launch to impact time could surprise anybody, anytime and anywhere.

The issue however, was terrain.

The current launch point was at six-thousand feet above sea-level. Se-La peaks to the northwest were at fourteen to fifteen thousand feet above sea-level. The Great Himalayas peaks went as high as sixteen thousand feet, and then the Tibetan plateau remained at roughly the same altitude from there to Lhasa. High supersonic velocities like those of the Brahmos missiles do not allow low-level terrain-contour-matching or TERCOM flights through the valleys without drastic reduction in range, if at all. So the missile had to climb above these peaks rather than fly between them and in doing so make themselves visible to Chinese air defenses. But that could hardly be avoided at the moment.

The Major in charge of the two launchers walked around the back of one of the vehicles after having done his visual checks. He walked past the driver’s cabin on the front and slapped the door twice, letting the personnel inside know he was done with his checks. On their end they had already gone through their pre-launch process. Once the Major gave them the go ahead, the two TELs came to life with the hydraulic pumps pushing the canister tubes from horizontal position to vertical.

Inside the launch control cabin, several officers were busy loading target information into the missile fire-control system. The Major in command of the detachment was monitoring the activities over the shoulder of the men sitting on the consoles. By this time small orange warning lights were flashing near the vehicles for everybody to clear the area. The Lieutenant sitting at the fire-control console announced a “Ready” to all in mobile command trailer. The Major verified the numbers and turned to the Lieutenant: 

“Fire!”

The Lieutenant flipped open the cover over the lit button labeled “LAUNCH” and then depressed the button.

A second later the ground vibrated as the first Brahmos Block-II cruise-missile streaked out of the canister on the first vehicle under the force of its solid-rocket-booster and raced vertically for the cloudy sky above. Several seconds later the booster exhausted itself and was ejected from the missile. Then the ramjet engine blasted into operation and propelled the missile even higher. With the booster ejection the missile lost all visible smoke trails just as the missile disappeared through the low gray cloud cover. But all of the Indian soldiers nearby heard a thunderclap announcing that the Indian missiles had gone supersonic...

LHASA AIRPORT

SOUTHERN TIBET

DAY 1 + 1600 HRS

Unlike Dirang, the skies were clear blue over southern Tibet. Over Lhasa, there were no clouds but the bright blue background was littered with pairs of thin white contrails forming large circles from the large number of Chinese military aircraft. The clarity of the cold mountain air showed new pairs of contrails approaching from the northeast…

The airspace over Lhasa was busy this afternoon. There were twelve J-11 fighters flying overhead on patrols while another six J-8IIs from the 33
RD
Fighter Division were on the ground being refueled. These were providing security to the small groups of Il-76 heavy transport aircraft that had been plying back and forth between Lhasa and other airbases to the northeast. On the ground, there were two Il-76s being hurriedly unloaded while another was approaching from Lanzhou. These aircraft were bringing in supplies and reinforcement troops for the PLA 13
TH
Group Army who’s Divisions were now in contact with the Indian IV Corps in Arunachal Pradesh.

There was no warning.

The six Brahmos missiles streaking across the cold morning skies over southern Tibet were detected by Chinese radar stations south of Lhasa just as they crossed the McMahon line. But with less than three minutes before impact, there was little that could be achieved with that small a warning window. Klaxons sounded all over Lhasa and everybody dumped what they were doing on the tarmac and began running for cover. Within thirty seconds the first Brahmos cruise-missile flashed over the peaks south of Lhasa and dived into the airport, the sun glinting over its sleek metallic body. The air-defense batteries around Lhasa managed to fire several missiles into the air against the Indian missiles, but the latter were just too fast to be intercepted at this late a stage in their flight.

The ground shook like an earthquake.

The two Chinese Il-76s on the ground didn’t stand a chance. The Indian DIPAC had been watching the Chinese activities at Lhasa for hours now. They knew that a certain section of the tarmac was always being occupied by the incoming Il-76s and they had promptly handed over that piece of intelligence information to the army and the air-force.

The first missile slammed into the ground
between
the two parked aircraft. Such was the accuracy of the Brahmos Block-II. As the wall of concrete and fire expanded outwards and enveloped the two aircraft in split seconds, both aircraft and the PLA’s precious supplies inside them were instantly shredded. The shockwave from the explosion rippled through the tarmac into all of the airport buildings and facilities...

Even as the shockwave from the first detonation expanded outwards, the second missile slammed into the main terminal building at the airport and decimated it with its large explosive warhead. The debris was still falling when two other Brahmos missiles slammed into sections of the main runway at almost equal intervals and cratered sections of it, dividing the runway into three one-third sections unusable to any but the lightest of aircraft. No aircraft could now use this runway for the time being. The fifth missile slammed into the parked J-8IIs on the other side of the tarmac and destroyed them. When that fireball rose into the sky like a mushroom cloud of smoke and dust several seconds later, it had left a large shallow crater where the parked J-8IIs had been.

The sixth and final missile slammed into the white radar dome of the long-range radar station manned by crews of the 42
ND
Radar Regiment south of Lhasa and destroyed the radar dome from the ground up. The station was mounted on flat terrain with long line-of-sights. When the fireball rose underneath the station and the dome shredded into a thousand fragments, it had a lot of audience from the PLA convoys driving down the roads nearby towards the Chumbi valley… 

The strike neutralized all aerial resupply operations at Lhasa airport in fewer than two minutes. Moreover, long-range radar support for the southern skies now had a large hole carved inside. At Chengdu, an angered Chen was left with no choice but to divert all aircraft flying overhead to other airbases in the north and east.

As the mushroom cloud over the airport dissipated and smoke and debris settled around the airport, the blue skies above no longer had circular contrails, only straight ones heading radially away...

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 1 + 1630 HRS

Feng was finding himself in a difficult situation with Major-General Zhigao. The latter man had reminded Feng exactly what he thought of his posting to Kashgar minutes after he had landed at the airbase. But Chen outranked them both, so if he ordered them to work together, there was little choice in the matter. Zhigao had left Feng to his work without further ado after the initial meeting in his office. With that behind him, Feng had hoped his existence here would prove easier. But that was not to be.

As he had come to discover in his few hours here, Zhigao was not a realist. He was a supreme optimist in his own abilities as commander. And that was dangerous for both himself as well as the men under his command. Feng noticed that Zhigao had more bluster in him than battlefield competence. The lack of the latter was not uncommon within the PLAAF, as Feng, Chen and Wencang all knew. The Chinese had not fought an air war since the Korean War. They had certainly not done so against any decent air-force in the last few decades. They had a whole lot of shiny new equipment and young officers trained on the technical aspects.