Fernandez looked around. His men weren’t very convinced.
“Boys, I know that location looks pretty hairy, but it’s the only good option and all of you know it too. Damn it, this is war! Don’t expect all our options to be safe and cautious. When it starts raining steel, and mark my words, it will rain soon enough, it’s better that these civvies are as far away from us as possible. We cannot sacrifice them on our account! Check your vehicles and your men. We are moving out in five!”
The airbase was on fully active. The reverberating sounds of turbofan engines coming to life filled the air. Ground-crews were hurriedly readying the brand new Xian H-6Ks of the 36TH Bomber Division. Other elements of the strike mission were already taxiing towards the runway.
Wugong airbase was secure by virtue of its location deep inside mainland China. It made sense to base the H-6 force there on account of the aircraft’s ability to reach numerous possible hostile countries utilizing its long combat radius. At the moment Wugong was part of the unified Lanzhou-Chengdu MRAF and under control of Lieutenant-General Chen.
The first aircraft to take to the air were a pair of Su-30MKKs and they took off in a paired formation on the wide runway built for the much larger H-6s. Following behind them, an H-6U tanker rolled on to the runway and turned to align itself as the two Su-30s became airborne.
This particular aircraft was to follow the two escort Su-30s as a refueling aircraft for the long flight. The overall distance to be travelled was more than twenty-five-hundred kilometers. The Su-30s were heavily armed for air-to-air missions and carrying only internal fuel. One refueling from the H-6U on the ingress route and another during egress would provide them the endurance they needed to cover the strike force bombers.
The bomber force was made up with six H-6Ks loaded with six under-wing pylon mounted YJ-62 missiles each. These missiles had been modified from the baseline anti-ship variant to allow targeting of land targets and had an effective range of around three-hundred kilometers. The problem today was the same as it had been one week ago when the PLAAF had struck Indian targets with cruise-missiles on the opening night of the war. They had no missiles apart from the CJ-10 Long-Swords that were truly long-range and the Long-Swords were not under PLAAF control at the moment. Their limited numbers put them solely in the strategic role under Colonel-General Liu of the 2ND Artillery Corps. And even then, the missiles were not ready for air-launch use.
This made the PLAAF utterly dependent on missiles like the YJ-62. The limited range of this type made it useful only for tactical targets and not deep penetration. The warhead was lighter than required and the guidance less than accurate, meaning it ended up flying more or less in a straight line to the target. That made it predictable and vulnerable to Indian defenses.
But there was really no choice on the matter. With the PLAAF forced to be on the defensive, flying over the targets by fighting through swarms of superior Indian air-defense fighters was not an option anymore. But exceptions did apply. Especially when Indian defenses in a particular sector were light…
When the six bombers had assembled in the skies above Wugong a half-hour later, the formation headed southwest. It was preceded by the two escort Su-30s now meeting up with their tanker over Qinghai.
“Oh, this ought to be interesting!”
Major-General Mohanty noted as he stepped outside of his command trailer along with the operations officer for the 3RD Infantry Division.
Both men stepped off the entrance and onto the gravel and walked towards the line of freshly painted tanks parked along the supply route from Leh. The fading sunlight glistened on the new winter camouflage paint on the tanks.
Well. Half hour of combat will change that!
Mohanty saw a Major from the lead tank jump off the turret and run over to meet the two senior officers. He snapped off a salute, which Mohanty returned. He shook hands with the young man as he spoke:
“Major Kulkarni. I see you managed to get your unit here in good order,”
“Thank you sir! 43RD Armored reporting for combat!” Kulkarni responded proudly. Mohanty smiled at that, and then became serious:
“Kulkarni, 43RD Armored is now part of the 3RD Infantry A-O. Get your unit to DBO via Saser and report to Colonel Sudarshan, who is in charge of all mechanized-infantry and armor operations in that sector. He can use all the help he can get. The Chinese have one of my Brigades under Brigadier Adesara by the balls over there. He’s giving them hell, and getting some in return. Sudarshan and his Mechanized infantry battalions are getting chewed out by Chinese tanks as he is trying to advance into Chinese held territory. Let’s see if 43RD Armored can change the odds in his favor somewhat. We will coordinate ASC support for your unit from here when your C-O gets here with the main bulk of the regiment. Understood?”
“Yes sir! Rhino force will give them hell,” Kulkarni responded as he saluted and ran back to his tank, signaling the other commanders behind him to rev-up their engines.
Mohanty took out a cigarette pack from one of his uniform breast pockets and lit it up, blowing the smoke away as the first Arjun tank bellowed smoke and roared forward along the road.
Since the first day of the ground war in Ladakh, when Mohanty, Adesara and Sudarshan had lost the tiny T-72 force in DBO holding the Chinese back, it had taken a good five days to get the next, fresh set of armor into the theater on account of poor infrastructure in Kashmir.
Five days!
Mohanty scowled and threw away his cigarette into the gravel.
Five days. Imagine what I could have down with this force if I had them on the very first day of the war!
He walked back to his command post. Behind him, a dust cloud rose into the gray cloudy skies as the tanks of the 43RD Armored rolled forward.
“What the heck are they waiting for?” Potgam asked his operations staff inside the admin building at the former IMTRAT headquarters, now functioning as JFB command center. He and his other officers were poring over a bunch of paper maps strewn about on tables and pinned to the walls. He had radios lined up in the other room and a couple of laptops and battlefield computers showing the UAV feed in case he needed to see it.
The whole arrangement was ad-hoc and everybody knew it. But it was also the best they could do for now. So everybody had to improvise and make do…
Potgam had long decided that his Chinese counterpart leading the Highland Division into Bhutan had made a mistake in stopping and consolidating his forces before rushing for Thimpu. The latest satellite imagery showed two Highland Regiments bringing up supplies and preparing defensive fall-back positions north of Thimpu. This was not without merit. They had captured vast areas of Bhutan and were now trying to bring in supporting arms to secure it. Potgam’s UAV crews had seen what looked like a lot of Mi-17s moving field artillery guns and supplies and they had even seen a few Short-Range-Air-Defense, or SHORAD, vehicles being brought in to create a bubble of protection around the Divisional forces.