On the ground below, Indian soldiers looked on as the two hovering beasts in front of them created a massive downwash in the valley from their main rotors. But their cargo was finally here. The wheels of the Tatra vehicle touched down on the helipad a few moments later. The loadmaster flipped his control switch and the tough ropes fell clean from their attachment on the Mi-26.
The cargo was on the ground.
A few minutes later the second Mi-26 had done the same and both helicopters began heading down the valley to the south to pick up the next set of vehicles. The soldiers on the ground below got started on their end of the work. Within the next thirty minutes the first of the Pinaka MBRL launcher lurched forward on its own power and moved out of the grassy clearing, followed by its replenishment vehicle…
Dutt gingerly landed his LCH on the rough gravel clearing at FARP-Saser. As the engine turbines spooled down, he jumped out of the cockpit and shivered as the biting cold temperatures of Ladakh swept into the open cockpit. He scanned the valleys and the peaks around his new home.
FARP-Saser was just astride the supply road from Shyok to DBO. The relatively flat site nearby had been cleared of large rocks to create a forward helipad for Dutt’s helicopters. He looked east and saw several cuboid shaped command vehicles parked there. The roofs of these trailers bristled with antennae and dishes. He had to jerk his head almost vertical to see the tip of the huge mountains around him.
The An-32s from No. 48 Squadron had dropped enough supplies in the first few flights to construct the FARP with basic supplies and equipment. The local army engineers had used bulldozers to clear out the rocks and clean up the space for helicopters to land. A small truck convoy had brought in additional equipment and ammunition for the helicopters and the Mi-17s had airlifted the required personnel to man the FARP. With just two LCHs on hand, the base didn’t require too many men and supplies in any case…
A flash of lights emerged behind them.
Dutt and his other pilots jerked around and saw launches of large rockets from Smerch MBRL battery on the south side of the road. They were busy triggering off another barrage against some Chinese ground targets beyond the LAC.
Dutt smiled at the sight of the rapidly ascending columns of smoke from the Smerch launchers.
Perhaps we can work with these guys for some joint operations…
He put on his padded gloves to keep the fingers from numbing. The road from Shyok had dozens of trucks, armored vehicles and other machines from the 10TH Mechanized Battalion.
By this time the squadron ground crewmen were already at work on the two helicopters. They were removing weapon pallets from the supply trucks and bringing them over. Fuel was being filled from aviation-fuel barrels that had been brought in as well. Other airmen were loading the trenches near the eastern edge of the valley with critical supplies in case of a Chinese attack on this location…
He noticed two officers walking up to him. One of the two men was his operations officer and the other was from the army.
“Sir, this is Major Narayana from Brigadier Adesara’s staff. He has been deputed by the Brigadier as our liaison to the Brigade headquarters,” Dutt’s operations officer said by way of introductions.
Dutt returned the salute from the Major and shook his hand.
“Nice to have you with us, Narayana. I assume you are here to brief us on the happenings up at DBO?” Dutt asked.
“Yes sir!” Narayana said.
The three officers began walking away from the parked helicopters and towards the command trailers…
“The 10TH Mechanized Battalion under Colonel Sudarshan has just entered the sector, as you can tell by the large vehicle convoys going back and forth on the road here. The three Infantry Battalions in the Brigade have taken heavy losses but we are holding. The air-force has proven decisive in the battles over the last few days. The landscape east of the airstrip is littered with destroyed Chinese armored vehicles. However, we have lost twenty-five BMPs of our own so far and the air-force has lost at least three Jaguar strike aircraft in support of operations here. Initial estimate of casualties on our side are around three-hundred-sixty-five dead and wounded. And we are still counting,” Narayana said.
“Good god! What is the Chinese strength opposite our forces?” Dutt asked as they opened the doors of the trailer and stepped inside.
“We believe there are at least two Chinese Infantry Divisions backed by armor involved in the attack as of now, but they are heavily under-strength now. We think a fresh Mechanized Division is being rushed to the sector from Sinkiang, but are not sure where it is. The remaining S-300s near the Qara-tagh-La and northern Aksai Chin are effectively blocking all attempts by the air-force to conduct attacks against Chinese convoys reinforcing these under-strength units. The artillery units under these Divisions are now mere wreckage thanks to our Smerch units here at Saser, but we are still attempting to locate the Chinese headquarters. The Chinese have proven very effective in camouflaging their locations from our UAVs. But rest assured: we will find and kill them,” Narayana said.
By this time Dutt’s operations officer had spread a paper map on the table inside the trailer and the Major was showing exact unit locations.
“What is the strength of the Chinese anti-air units that your Brigade has seen so far?” Dutt asked.
“Heavy. It is in fact a credit to the Jaguar pilots that they lost only three aircraft. We saw the amount of firepower put up by the Chinese against our aircraft. It was massive. Nevertheless, we believe that our bombers using stand-off weapons took out a good portion of the organic anti-air units within these two Divisions. They still have the independent reinforcements pouring into the sector. Heavy on manual and radar directed guns, relatively low on high-tech equipment,” Narayana said.
“What about their helicopters?”
“Few. None that I have seen personally but some of the men claimed to see a few transport helicopters operating on their side.”
Dutt’s operations officer nodded on hearing that:
“That sounds about right, sir. Just like us, they have very few dedicated Z-10s flying as of now and that bird can barely fly at these altitudes. And this sector is not the right place for adapted gunships like FFAR armed Mi-17s.”
“Well then, that gives us the advantage, doesn’t it?” Dutt smiled.
Chakri stepped off the stairs and onto the concrete tarmac at the military side of the airbase amidst hectic activity. The smell of aviation fuel was in the air as aircraft engines spooled down. The Prime-Minister was already on his way to the secure base-operations facility. From there he would begin interacting with other government heads as needed. Everybody on the PM’s cabinet agreed that New-Delhi was not safe until the war was over.
Chakri and the home-minister disagreed.
Perhaps during first two days the national capital had not been safe. But that assessment no longer applied. By now the IAF had secured a level of superiority over southern Tibet and were beating back the PLAAF attacks in the northeast. In Tibet, only the S-300 batteries prevented the IAF from practically wrenching total control of the skies.
If the Chinese launched a cruise-missile from anywhere now, the IAF could and would detect it in time.
Chakri looked around and saw another Embraer ERJ-135 jet parked near their B-737 from the IAF Communications Flight. The crew of this aircraft would be taking him and the home-minister back to New-Delhi while the Prime Minister and other officials stayed in the secure facilities in Pune.