The order was given to strike, coded Shiva, the Destroyer.
Both Indian carriers had 18 Mig-29’s, and each would send up a squadron of nine planes carrying the Soviet built AS-20 Kayak, or Star. It was a slow turbojet missile with a 140 mile range and a terminal popup maneuver as it attacked. Another 12 Migs took off from Jamnagar AFB, a little east of the enemy fleet, also carrying that ordnance. Behind the carriers at Pune AFB behind Mumbai, a squadron of SU-30’s would bring the coup de gras, the high speed Brahmos.
Alarmed when they saw the planes on radar, the Pakistani Admiral Zahid Ilyas sent an emergency message to Karachi warning that they might be under attack, and requested air support. Unfortunately, most of the planes on the fields near Karachi had been loaded with strike ordnance, but six fighters scrambled from Omara on the coast northwest of the port. In frustration, the PAK Air Commandant looked at all the planes at Faisal AFB, J-20’s armed and ready on the field, but the Chinese Air Liaison Officer told him they had orders not to engage the Indian military unless attacked.
At that hour, no one was really sure whether this even was an attack. It could simply be a show of force, as would often happen during similar “incidents” during peacetime. But this was war, and the Vampires would soon be flying. As the radar crews on the Pakistani ships nervously watched the tracks they had on those aircraft, the Indian fleet was seen to be increasing speed in its distant pursuit. At 21:50, there was no longer any doubt when the Indian planes were cleared hot and began to release those Kayak missiles.
There were eight ships in the trailing PAK Task Force, and each one was targeted with six missiles. The Vampires were seen immediately when they were released, and a wide eyed Admiral Ilyas, forward in the leading TF, gave orders to prepare to defend the fleet. For that mission, there were 48 Chinese built HQ-7 missiles in the trailing TF, with a 5 mile range, and a dozen of another strange bird, the HQ-64. That missile had a twisted development path. The Italians first knocked off the US made RIM-7E Sea Sparrow, and then the Chinese got hold of that and copied it to build their HQ-64, a missile with a 10 mile range.
All the Kayaks penetrated the ten mile line unchallenged, but at 5 miles, the frigate Shamsheer began to engage with its HQ-7, which was itself a reverse engineered copy of the French Crotale missile. All these missiles dated to the 1990’s, but that was what the Pakistan Navy had, with nary an HQ-9B to be seen. Other ships started firing, but the missiles were not very effective, getting few hits, which soon brought the close in defense guns into action. Seconds later, Shamsheer was struck, and exploded in an angry welter of fire and smoke.
Frigate Khaibar was hit seconds later, and the 145Kg warhead in the Vampire was more than enough to kill that ship as well. Then, in rapid succession FFG’s Saif, Tariq, and Tippu Sultan were blasted open to the sea. Frigate Aslat was hit soon after, along with Frigate Sha Jahan, and seven of the eight ships were burning wrecks. Only the squadron leader, the US built Perry Class Frigate Alamgir, had survived.
The six Pakistani Mirage Fighters saw the long columns of smoke on the sea, and they rushed in to look for enemy fighters. Unfortunately, the Indian Migs had seen them, and moved to engage with their longer ranged Soviet built missiles. They would easily target and shoot down all six fighters, whereupon they began circling in a loiter, painting the next Pakistani TF with their radars. The dangerous sortie made by the PAK Navy had been a case of “fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.” India was teaching them a very hard lesson now, that at least in the Air/Naval arena, they held a clear superiority.
By this time, that squadron of nine SU-30’s from Pune AFB were arriving on the scene with their Brahmos missiles. They were looking for targets, identifying the frigate Larkana some 60 miles beyond the stricken TF. With time running out on fuel, they decided to fire, half their missiles at the more distant target, and the remainder at the two ships still afloat in the first TF, for one frigate, the Sha Jahan, had not yet sunk. That ship would die with its second hit a minute later, and the Perry Class frigate Alamgir would die with it.
Five other missiles streaked in at 1450 knots on the distant TF, but those were the best ships in the Pakistani fleet, all Type 054A Class Frigates bought directly from the Chinese. As such, they had the HQ-16 SAM, and enough of them to get those Vampires before they could harm any of the ships.
There, shaken by the stunning loss of all eight ships in his trailing TF, Admiral Zahid Ilyas stood aboard the frigate named for his home port and command center, Karachi, and burned with anger. This was a dastardly attack, he thought, and it must not go unpunished. Yet behind that anger he knew that if that were to happen, the reprisal would most likely have to be delivered by the Air Force or the Army.
Some fool gets spooked by an Indian submarine, he thought. Now I have lost nine ships, and over a thousand men in the water, and this war has taken a most deadly turn. The Chinese have abandoned us! Their planes sat idle on the air fields we provided for them here, and did not intervene. Yet can we bite the hand that feeds us now? This ship beneath my feet was built by China, and we get all our best weapons from them now. This is not over. We will have our vengeance! The Air Force is coming.
At that moment, Mirage F-1 Fighters and JF-17 Thunder strike planes were roaring off the Pakistani airfields. They were bringing the H-4 SOW Raptor glide bombs, with a 60 mile range, and the Wrecker cruise missiles, a derivative of the Chinese YJ-12 with a 135 mile range. They flew off in angry swarms, heading out to find and strike the Indian fleet, with a few Mirage-5’s joining them, carrying Exocets.
The mission was to be all guts and a glory. They would have no fighter escorts, but would just bore in on the suspected location of the enemy fleet, turn on all radars, and strike any ship they could find.
The Indian Admiral Arun Sing had joined the fleet when it left Mumbai, wanting a firm hand on what was to happen that day. He planted his flag of the new carrier Vikrant, and had been very pleased with the stunning results obtained by his strike. Now, however, he was going to have to weather the storm of reprisal heading his way.
As soon as word came that the Pakistani Air Force was rising from their bases around Karachi, he realized he needed to get more fighters up, and quickly. The nine planes he still had out there were only carrying their short range AA-11 missiles, but they would have to do until he could get more Migs in the air. He had one squadron of Mig-29’s remaining, armed for fleet air defense, and another Mig-29 Squadron at Pune AFB, with six more French built Raphael fighters there. All these planes would begin scrambling at once.
Berated by the Pakistani Air Commandant, the Chinese had agreed to send up two J-20’s to use their long range radars as spotters and coordinators, hoping India would not detect them. They also agreed to protect the Pakistani Saab 2000 AEW plane that was deploying out near the border zone.