Chimera (39 page)

Three hours ago, the King of Bhutan had handed over control of the Royal Bhutanese Army to the Indian Army. General Yadav had wasted no time in taking advantage of the existing IMTRAT infrastructure inside Bhutan to full effect. Lieutenant-General Potgam, the current IMTRAT commander had been named as the commander of Joint-Force-Bhutan or JFB. This command had the sole responsibility of defending Bhutan.

A tall order under the circumstances…

Regardless, Potgam had gotten to work immediately. He had taken over basic command and control of JFB from the IMTRAT headquarters at Haa-Dzong and more C3I equipment and personnel were being airlifted there for his use from the army’s eastern command.

One of the two most crucial pieces of equipment that had
already
come in had been a pair of ALH Dhruv transport helicopters and one Lancer light-attack helicopter from the Army Aviation Corps for immediate personnel movement. The eighteen-hole golf-course at Haa-Dzong had been converted into a temporary FARP for the three helicopters.

As vulnerable as Haa-Dzong might have been for an Indian theatre headquarters, Thimpu was in a worse situation. The collapse of a RBA Battalion north of the small city over the day had effectively opened the gates to Thimpu for the Highland Division forward units.

The situation on the streets of Thimpu was near panic. The Royal family had been evacuated to the south into Indian Territory by helicopters. The only defensive forces around Thimpu were the Royal Bhutanese Guard units and some police forces. Nearest Indian forces were sixty kilometres away.

Potgam had decided to take direct control of that sector. But he needed someone else to take control on the more rural sectors of eastern Bhutan. It was for that reason that he had dispatched Dhillon to take charge…

“You see that, sir?” the co-pilot said

“Oh
man!
That can’t be good,” the Major piloting the helicopter observed. The conversation sparked interest amongst the passengers in the cabin behind. Dhillon awoke from his nap and peered out of the side glass.

“What is it, Ravi?” he asked.

“Sir, we are seeing large smoke columns 
south
 of our primary LZ. It’s possible that the Chinese have overrun the area or are at least hitting the RBA forces around the LZ area pretty hard. We definitely have either a hostile LZ or at least a very hot one. What do you want to do, sir?” the Major replied from the cockpit.

Dhillon stepped forward from his seat and poked through the gap between the two pilot’s seats. The Major positioned the helicopter in hover several kilometres south of their landing-zone. Dhillon saw the Lancer moving forward of them now and positioning itself ahead to provide suppressive fire in case they began taking hits from the ground. He was actively scanning the horizon and the smoke clouds for signs of fires or explosions. He found none.

“See any traffic on the road below?” he asked the two pilots who leaned forward in their seats to see through the forward and side glass.

“Yes sir! Several RBA trucks one kilometre to the north,” the Major reported.

“Put us down by that truck convoy,” Dhillon ordered. “They must belong to the RBA Battalion that should have arrived here this morning. I know the Colonel in charge. Let’s see if he’s still alive down there.”

“Roger that, sir!”

The Major said as he brought the helicopter out of hover and reduced main rotor collective. They approached a small clearing near the road where the trucks were parked.

“Keep the Lancer on close leash while we are on the ground,” Dhillon continued and got a nod from the Major.

A few seconds later the Dhruv main rotors pushed up a dust cloud around the trucks and touched down gingerly. One of the army Majors in Dhillon’s staff slid open the doors and jumped out with his INSAS rifle in hand, followed on the other side of the helicopter by the rest of the officers, each armed with rifles and radios.

Dhillon pulled out his personal sidearm as well.

There was no way to tell what was going on over here. And they weren’t taking any chances. The Lancer flew over and banked away to the north, looking for trouble and not finding any. Dhillon waved the Dhruv pilots to take off immediately and they did so a few seconds later.

“
Movement!
I have
movement!
” one of the Captains said

Dhillon turned and saw a couple of figures heading towards them as the dust from the helicopter rotors settled.

“Halt! Halt right there or we
will
open fire!” the Captain shouted.

“Hold fire! RBA!” one of the men shouted.

“Hold fire!” Dhillon ordered.

He stood up and put his sidearm away when he saw the Colonel Toshum and his Bhutanese officers. Toshum snapped off a salute as Dhillon dusted off his uniform and returned the favour. Formalities asides, Toshum smiled:

“Welcome to hell, my friend!”

“Toshum, what the devil is going on over here? Your CP looks deserted from the skies,” Dhillon said.

“Sir, almost all of my men who haven’t fled under panic are fighting on the frontlines. We are trying to buy some time so we can get these civilians out. The Chinese have been bombarding us for some time now. I think they may even have UAVs above us. It’s very dangerous for you to be here right now, but I am glad you
are
here!” Toshum said.

Both men walked back to a few tables with maps on them lined up behind a parked truck. It was the Bhutanese command post. Dhillon’s staff officers were already getting to work in there while two of the Captains held on to their rifles, just in case.

“What do you need to hold, Toshum?” Dhillon asked.

“Everything you can spare!” the Bhutanese officer responded.

HAA DZONG

SOUTH-WESTERN BHUTAN

DAY 5 + 1840 HRS

The downwash from the Dhruv helicopter lifting off the grassy field on the golf course provided an unintended break in the discussion as all of Lieutenant-General Potgam’s officers grabbed their caps and held on to their papers. As soon as the wind reduced, Potgam turned back to see the grassy field.

“So you can chop down those trees over there to make room?”

“Yes sir. Once that happens, we can begin medium lift operations using Mi-17s. But I should warn you: this grassy field won’t last long under sustained operations,” The army-aviation Colonel reminded him.

“We don’t have a choice!” Potgam shot back, “Get it done 
now
! Blow those trees down using explosives if you have to! All I want to know is how soon we start operations from here?”

“In a few hours. Most of the Mi-17 crews are night-ops capable. After that we can start bringing in the light artillery units.”

“Yeah well, this place...” Potgam gestured to the golf-course, “…won’t last long once Chinese satellites pick up what we are doing. Two or three missile strikes and we would all be out of action. Still, let’s get whatever we can while they are busy with the Chumbi valley whoop-ass we are handing their Divisions right now. What about air support?”

“Mig-27 strikes from Hashimara are all I have been assured of right now,” the Colonel said neutrally.

I need more time!

If we can’t have it for free, we have to go buy it…

OVER SOUTHERN TIBET

DAY 5 + 2030 HRS

As the night unfolded along the blazing frontline in Ladakh, eight Jaguars in two flights of four broke into Tibetan airspace again, this time doing so from the Himachal Pradesh border. The eight aircraft tore into the thin mountain air and continued east… 

The Tuskers were on the job again and out to exact revenge for the loss of their commander and two other aircraft to the PLAAF defences two days ago.

They banked towards Rudok-Dzong. The terrain identification was the teardrop shaped lake pointing east. There the Jaguars would turn north.

The S-300 air-defences in northern Ladakh near the Qara-Tagh-La were playing hell with the air-force’s ability to provide battlefield interdiction in the Aksai Chin. But after five days of intensive combat between the PLAAF and PLA air-defences on one side and the IAF on the other, both sides had lost the stomach for costly slugfests. The Chinese had only a handful of S-300s left in Western Tibet now after the destruction of significant numbers of these batteries by combined Jaguar-ALCM operations two days ago.

This left several holes in their defences in the region and Air-Marshal Bhosale fully intended to use them to cripple the PLAAF even more.   

Strategic initiative was the name of the game now…

The eight aircraft thundered over the lake near Rudok and then headed north from there. Soon thereafter the two flights broke into the flat plains of the massive Taklimakan Desert inside Tibet and left the Himalayan peaks behind them. All eight aircraft dived to ultra-low altitude above the desert.

This is what the Jaguars were built to do. The aircraft had enough endurance to haul heavy weapons load deep into enemy airspace at extremely low altitudes. They even had over-wing Matra-Magic air-to-air missiles to defend themselves. The flight of eight Jaguars now spread into a line abreast formation. All eight pilots knew that they would only get one pass at this. 

HOTIEN AIRBASE

TAKLIMAKAN DESERT

TIBET

DAY 5 + 1940 HRS

The airbase was abuzz with activity.

It had several unloading tarmac areas where PLAAF transport aircraft were active in offloading supplies which were then to be driven to the Ladakh front. At the same time they were loading on board the sick and wounded soldiers evacuated from the frontlines to hospitals in mainland China. Three Il-76s stood on the eastern tarmac area of the airbase while several Mi-17 helicopters and lighter transport aircraft were parked at the extreme western tarmac areas. In the central area, two Boeing 737 airliners from the Chinese airlines fleet were parked as they offloaded PLA soldiers heading to the Ladakh front. The airbase was full lit as enemy action threat this deep inside Tibet was minimal.

In the skies southwest of Hotien, two J-8F fighters from Kashgar airbase armed for air-to-air combat were now conducting mid-air refuelling with an H-6U tanker from Korla airbase. A hundred kilometres north, a KJ-2000 AWACS aircraft flew on radar picket duty…

For the Jaguars streaking in such low altitudes, the margin for hitting the airbase was low. The J-8Fs would be back on station soon enough. As they flew over the terrain, the ground cleared and Hotien rolled in over the horizon. The airport well-lit and clearly visible.

The Chinese did get a few moments of warning as the eight Jaguars now climbed. As they reached several hundred feet above the desert floor, for the minimum CBU release height and to align themselves with targets, the KJ-2000 detected the eight inbounds and the warning was sounded.

As the base klaxons sounded off, the mass of confused soldiers and ground-crewmen ran for cover. One Il-76 had just taken off the runway on a return flight loaded with wounded soldiers. The pilots of that aircraft began screaming for air cover…

There was no time.

The first six Jaguars screamed over the well-lit runway before the first anti-air guns had even opened up, releasing two dozen cluster bomb units within seconds of each other. The Hotien tarmac area suddenly exploded within a mass of spark filled carpet punctuated with orange fireballs. The two parked Il-76s were ripped into pieces by the explosions and the control tower was a mass of blazing fires. The Mi-17s and the two airliners on the ground were also turned into funeral pyres. Several hundred Chinese lives were extinguished within those few seconds.

Two of the eight Jaguars were tasked for anti-air, and they immediately latched on to the slowly lumbering Il-76 as it took to the air in front of them. The pilots didn’t even bother with missiles. As the two aircraft strafed the large four-engine transport aircraft, its two port side engines caught fire and the wing broke into pieces. As the aircraft tumbled towards the desert below, the wounded soldiers inside were swept out by the winds without parachutes. The aircraft was fully loaded with fuel for a long flight and it disappeared into a blazing fireball on impact…

The two J-8Fs on patrol terminated refuelling operations and began diving to low altitude over Hotien. By this time the Jaguars were egressing south, away from the blazing fires and clouds of smoke encompassing Hotien airbase. One the two air-to-air configured Jaguars fired off two Matra-Magic heat-seeking missiles followed soon by his wingman as they cleared the way for the other six Jaguars down below. One of the two J-8Fs exploded under impact of the missile. The skies filled with flares as the other aircraft evaded for its life. But the J-8F is not nearly as manoeuvrable to evade from advanced heat-seeking missiles such as the Magic series. The missiles claimed the second J-8F low over the desert sands where it disappeared in a cloud of dirt and smoke.

It was over within minutes.

The eight Jaguars headed southeast towards the safety of the Himalayan peaks, ending their brief foray over the Taklimakan Desert. Behind them lay a devastated PLA logistical node for the Ladakh front.