Intercepting the Brahmos was always a dicey question. Even so, three more Brahmos missiles were knocked out in quick explosions just moments from their targets.
Unfortunately for the Indian side, once again they were falling short as their missiles fought through a swarm of intercepting Chinese missiles. Operating at the extreme range of their operational radius, there was little hope of the Brahmos doing any elaborate maneuvers before impact. The intercepting missiles on the other hand, operating a short distance downrange of the launch point, couldn’t care less for range. They were executing drastic maneuvers as their foes attempted to use speed to escape from under them.
Many of the Chinese missiles lost out as a result of this. There was no time to respond given the high speeds of the Brahmos missiles. And by the time some 48N6E2 missiles dived in, their targets were already behind them. Out of the sixteen Brahmos missiles, ten finally made it through to their targets. Across the Aksai Chin, Chinese battery crews braced for impact on their radars and the ensuing loss of signal.
But it didn’t happen.
The missile vectors changed as the ten Brahmos missiles flew past all active radars and instead dived into the launchers of the rearmost S-300 battery whose job it was to cover the other batteries when they were in their reload mode during intensive operations.
The ground shook as the first of ten Brahmos missiles slammed into one of the six S-300 launchers. The resulting fireball lit up the horizon for the Chinese convoys moving nearby. The ground reverberated again as the other five launchers were also blown to smithereens with their ready-to-fire missiles still in the canisters. The one active radar for that battery was also destroyed when the shredded vehicle was thrown up dozens of feet into the air. It fell on the rocks of Ladakh in several pieces a few moments later. The shockwaves rippled out from the battery location and spread for hundreds of yards in all directions behind a wall of gravel carried by it…
In the five minutes it took from the launch of the Brahmos missiles by the Su-30s to the burning debris of the launchers scattering into the rocks of the Aksai Chin, a window of opportunity had opened up. There were now no S-300s with loaded missiles ready to fire until they were reloaded. Back on board the Phalcon, Verma sent out the word.
They now had precious few minutes before this window of opportunity closed again…
“Eagle-Eye-One to Firefly elements! Weapons-free! Take them out!”
“Roger! Firefly rolling in!”
Parekh’s eyes never left the heads-up-display. They were moving just a few hundred feet above the rocks and gravel of the plains below. All of this had been planned beforehand. But all the planning in the world could not make this a safe flight even if the Chinese decided to stand by and do nothing.
Which they wouldn’t!
The twelve Jaguars were operating in groups of four. Now they began spreading out and going after individual targets.
Parekh finally showed some emotion as the aircraft cleared the last set of ridges and entered what was essentially a vast flat terrain. He could make out the long snake-like convoy of trucks moving along the Chinese highway that cut through here.
Each one of those trucks was loaded with PLA men and supplies…
The sight in front of the Tuskers pilots was one that all Jaguar squadron pilots in the IAF wished for. But their current targets were not those vulnerable convoys but rather the small speck of vehicles spread out on the plains around the highway: the S-300 batteries.
The active launchers with vertical canisters could be made out from above by their L-shaped silhouettes against the moonlit, rocky terrain. Parekh was relieved to see that none of the vehicles were L-shaped. As planned, Almost all were reloading. But one launcher was elevating its canisters…
Parekh flipped his control-stick and dived in.
The sky was filling up with tracers and exploding shells from the point-defense anti-air guns all around the plains. Most of this stuff was manually operated. But there were radar-directed guns in there as well. And those could prove deadly. The ARC crew on board the Gulfstream-III near the LAC was playing hell with the Buk gun-radars in electronic space. All the elements of this plan were falling in place.
Parekh smiled ruthlessly behind his oxygen mask.
The Chinese S-300 crews on the ground realized the futile nature of their effort when they saw the tracer fire rising into the night sky to the south. That could only mean one thing and they knew what it was. It was only a matter of seconds after which they spotted the Indian strike aircraft streaking towards them at murderously low altitude.
The operators dropped their headphones, slammed open the vehicle hatches and ran for their lives in all directions away from their vehicles…
The rain of cluster munitions deployed a few hundred feet above their heads made sure neither they nor their vehicles survived. The mass of small sparks flying off over a circular carpet area announced the end of the first S-300 battery launchers. As Parekh banked to the side to make another pass, he already had to look for new targets because by this time the other Jaguars had also struck.
Four of the six launchers of the battery he had struck were now on fire. Two others remained. And then there were the radar trucks and other auxiliary equipment scattered nearby. The return fire from the Chinese side was also getting heavy. Parekh could distinctly hear the thuds of exploding shells near his aircraft and the whitish trails of the heat-seeking missiles racing across the sky. Most of the latter were being fired by panicked and surprised Chinese crews on the ground and were failing to find targets. But professionals like Parekh knew that such luck would not last forever.
For now however, the missiles were flying off into the mass of flares and chaff being dumped by the Jaguar crews after every few seconds…
As Parekh steadied his aircraft after locating the launcher he was after, his aircraft received several hits from shrapnel and shuddered under the impact. The port wing was completely shredded with several holes visible as he again steadied his aircraft. He still continued with his bomb run and only discovered the sluggish control response from the aircraft as he pulled away from a mass of fires on the ground behind him.
“Damn it! Up you come you beast!”
He pulled on the control-stick to no avail. Because of the heavily damaged control surfaces, most of which had been shredded, the aircraft barely avoided flying into the ridge he was trying to hide behind. But he wasn’t the only one in trouble…
Parekh looked away from the HUD and spotted a fast moving white streak moved across the night sky and slammed into another Jaguar with a thunderclap. That aircraft slammed into the ground below in quick seconds.
His own aircraft received more jolts now as several more rounds slammed into his starboard engine from below. This time a whole host of warning lights began flashing in his cockpit. The starboard engine flamed out a few seconds later.
There was no hope of making it back now.
“JC, you hear me back there?” he called back to his WSO. No response.
“Damn it, JC, are you receiving me? If you can hear me, eject now!”
Verma strained his neck to see the shattered glass of the cockpit behind him and what he could make out as blood splattered against it.
No!
He forced himself out of the shock just as freezing winds swept into the cockpit.