North of Saser was the DBO sector. In the DBO, the 5TH Infantry Brigade under Adesara had barely escaped being overrun the day before. South of the Chip-Chap River, southeast of DBO, forward deployed elements of the 10TH Mechanized Battalion under Colonel Sudarshan had been badly mauled trying to hold back the heavy armored push by Chinese forces. The battle had between the unit’s BMPs and the Chinese ZBDs had been bloody and desperate, both sides having taken severe casualties.
The Indian commanders knew the danger that had opened up. They were providing all the air-support needed to attack and hold Chinese armor, but it was something that had already begun inflicting losses on the Jaguar squadrons.
As the soldiers at Saser watched and cheered, dozens of BMP-IIs and NAMICA vehicles, ARVs, trucks and AXEs rolled through the dust cloud being raised by their tracks and wheels. But as the main force of the 10TH Mechanized Battalion finally began entering the plains of DBO, the battle for Ladakh hung by a thin thread…
“We have inbounds! Twelve inbounds approaching on vector three-one-seven at angels thirty, speed… nine-one-seven!”
The radar console operator pushed one of the buttons near the screen and his computer went into a diagnostics mode by checking radar and flight profiles with existing databases. It spat out the results on screen a moment later and the operator read it off screen to his Mission Controller:
“Type jolly-sevens!”
The mission-controller pondered that piece of information for the moment. The J-7s coming down from the said vector made them out to be the elements of the 130TH Air Regiment of the 44TH Fighter Division. The 44TH Fighter Division had been the first PLAAF unit to become involved in the battle for the skies of the Indian northeast two days ago. That struggle was still continuing…
But the J-7 series aircraft were Mig-21 knockoffs and hardly top of the line in terms of technology. The other Regiment in the Division was the 131ST, and it was better armed with J-10 variant strike-fighters. But they had already lost ten of these during the battle in Ladakh two days ago and had also lost several flights of aircraft in subsequent battles.
The other Division of the PLAAF in the region was the 33RD Fighter Division. This division was armed with a regiment of high performance Su-27s and J-11s. They also had a regiment of J-7s with them.
Facing this force from the Indian side was a combination of Mig-21 Bisons and Su-30s at Chabua and Mig-27s at Hashimara and Kalaikunda. In addition, Su-30s from Bareilly based No. 8 Squadron were available as were a detachment of No. 24 Squadron Su-30s on AWACS protection duty flying out of Kalaikunda airbase.
The reason the IAF had not deployed more fighters in the region was the inherent vulnerability of airbases there to Chinese missile attacks. This had been proven true at the start of the war when all major airbases had come under consistent missile attacks.
In fact, two Mig-21 Bisons had been lost just that morning at Chabua when the hardened aircraft shelter harboring the two aircraft had been hit and destroyed by a Chinese cruise-missile. But these things happen. Luck is a factor that good commanders always factored in operations.
Unknown to the Eastern Air Command operations staff, that very idea was about to be put to test…
“More inbounds!” the radar operator on the CABS AEW aircraft shouted, the strain in his voice increasing.
“Second set of inbounds detected! Twelve new inbounds approaching on vector two-five-seven at angels thirty-five, speed seven-three-five. Type Su-27s!”
The mission commander changed radio frequencies to get the EAC operations staff on the line.
“Launch the Bisons from Chabua. Vector them towards the J-7s. Tell them to leave the Su-27s to the No. 8 Squadron Sukhois. Alert the EAC air-defenses! Bring the Mig-27s on readiness and send out a warning to all army aviation units to keep their heads down while we deal with this.”
He then turned back to his on-board operators: “Get the CAP fighters moving right away!”
“Roger!” two voiced replied in unison. The cabin filled with the sound of radio traffic going both ways.
“We are noticing electronic interference here! Possible electronic warfare aircraft trailing the attackers! Attempting burn-through!” the EW-operator shouted over the headphones.
A minute later he shouted again:
“Okay! We have burn-through! Suggest passive tracking of possible Tupolev electronic-warfare aircraft behind their fighters!”
“Do it!”
The klaxons were ringing around the airbase as pilots of the Mig-21 Bisons on the operational-readiness-platform were strapping themselves into their seats. Skies above were clear at Chabua with white clouds in an otherwise blue background.
Other ground crews were rushing to get the other aircraft out of their shelters and onto the tarmac outside for immediate scramble. There were ten available Mig-21 Bisons at Tezpur and at Chabua there were four Bisons that were already taking to the skies. A few moments later the glass windows around the base reverberated as the Bisons took to the sky on full afterburners…
“What’s the latest?”
The mission-commander said quietly after walking up behind the radar console operators sitting side by side.
“Okay, we have this group of twelve J-7s coming in from the northeast and heading southwest over the Chaukan pass hills on way to Chabua. The first ones to make contact on our side will be four Bisons from Chabua, with BVR ranges reached in seventeen minutes, but they will be outnumbered three to one unless we commit the Su-30s from Chabua into the fight as well.”
The mission-commander nodded his disapproval on that:
“No. That will bog them down making it easier for this second group of Su-27s to destroy our group of ten Bisons from Tezpur and cut off the Chabua fighters from the west. Perhaps even make a run for us over here! That’s unacceptable. We need to concentrate our force of Bisons from Chabua and Tezpur into an iron fist before we commit them to the fight. How far are the Tezpur birds?”
“At their current speeds they will be over Chabua in fifteen minutes,” the radar operator replied.
“Good. Pull the Bisons over Chabua to the west and task them to await the arrival of the Tezpur birds. In the meantime, we will let the Su-27s come in through the front door for now.”
The Dhruv helicopter came in low over the ground followed behind by its weaponized escort, known as the ‘Rudra’. Both helicopters reached the helipad near the relocated IV Corps headquarters despite the air-force warning orders on the impending air battle that was about to engulf the skies over Assam.
That said, the two army-aviation flight-crews did not have a death-wish. The escort chopper did not land but continued to hover near the helipad. The Dhruv came to a quick landing on the helipad, raising a dust cloud into the air by its rotor downwash.
The army ground-crews immediately opened the sliding doors to allow Generals Yadav and Suman and two other Brigadiers to clamber out onto the dust filled air holding their caps. They were directed away from the helicopter by a ground crew-man who then banged on the cockpit glass to notify the pilot to get the hell out while he still could. The pilot nodded and immediately pulled the Dhruv back into the air with every strut and bar inside groaning under the stresses. Within a minute both helicopters were streaking away to the west at treetop heights and the dust around the helipad dissipated away…