Everything depended on coordination. The Americans’ Triton was still feeding them the invaders’ general position and speed. Jamal had to try to confront them with his armor at the same moment the Apaches launched their attack, to give the attack helicopters the best chance of success.
The Crown Prince had promised Jamal personally that if he could knock out the anti-air launcher, he would have RSAF support minutes later. True to his word, the Crown Prince had already ordered that two F-15 squadrons be loaded with Mark 82 unguided bombs, each containing eighty-nine kilograms of Tritonal high explosive. Given the chance, they could deliver enough firepower to the battlefield to end the invasion on the spot.
Jamal’s strategy for confronting the invaders’ armor depended heavily on his M60s. Though he knew most tankers looked down on them, M60s had performed well in combat in Yemen, and were still a match for most of the tanks actually deployed in the Middle East. Jamal had often pointed out to grumbling crewmen assigned to M60s rather than M1A2s that over five thousand Pattons remained in service in the armies of nineteen countries.
It was true that many of those countries, like Turkey, had invested in upgrade packages that replaced the M60’s original cannon. Before retiring the Patton the Israelis had gone further and added armor, as well as replacing its hydraulic system with an electrical one. This cured one of the original M60s’ problems- when a shell penetrated its hydraulic system, the fluid would often burst into flames.
Well, Jamal thought, nothing was perfect.
But most of the Pattons the Saudis still had in service were the M60A3 upgrade with an improved engine, turret armor, IR sights, ballistic computer, and a Halon fire suppression system. It also had a crude built-in smoke screen capability achieved by recycling its diesel engine exhaust, called the Vehicle Engine Exhaust Smoke System. All of the Pattons Jamal brought to this battle were the M60A3 upgrade version.
His plan was to put the M60s up front against the invaders’ armor to serve several functions. First and most obvious was to do whatever damage they could. Its M68 105 mm cannon would be firing an M152/3 HEAT round capable of penetrating the armor of most tanks, including all but the most modern. It also outgunned any APC. If the invaders were foolish enough to leave their anti-air launcher within its range, a single hit from a round carrying a full kilogram of Composition B explosive traveling at a velocity of over a kilometer per second would probably be enough to destroy it.
The second was to help Jamal solve a puzzle that had vexed him and all the other top Saudi commanders from the start. What were they facing? The Americans had only been able to say that from their analysis of the images captured by the Triton the invaders were not fielding a “uniform force.” That meant there was a mix of different types of armor, but that wasn’t much help.
Once the M60s actually engaged the enemy, Jamal was confident he would quickly be able to pick out the easier and more difficult targets, camouflaged or not. Then, he would prioritize them between his M60 and M1A2 platoons.
Having seen tank combat in Yemen, where the Houthi rebels actually had their own M60 tanks, Jamal knew that identifying the enemy’s advanced tanks was critical. Against a T-55 or its equivalent, he knew the Patton could hold its own. But if the invaders had advanced tanks like the T-90, Jamal would have to push his M1A2s forward quickly before the M60s were slaughtered.
Jamal rode in the cupola of his M1A2 tank as he and the rest of his armor rolled towards the invaders, and chewed his lower lip as he thought about anything else he could do to improve their chances. Finally, he shook his head.
He had done all he could. Very soon, he would find out whether it had been enough.
Colonel Hamid Mazdaki nodded at the scout’s report. It was about time the enemy showed himself. He frowned, though, at the estimate that half the tanks he was facing were M60 Pattons, with the other half the M1A2s he’d been expecting as his sole opponents. Since elements of the M60s Iran had bought from the Americans before the Revolution had been used to develop the Zulfiqar-3 he was sitting in, it’s not that he dismissed them as a threat.
No. Instead, Hamid’s first thought was that the force in front of him was a decoy, intended to distract him while another armor force struck him on the flanks.
Hamid shook his head as he read more reports. Part of his purpose in staying away from highways most of the way had been to avoid a surprise flanking attack, and the terrain he’d picked for his approach to Riyadh had effectively guaranteed against one. There were escarpments on both sides of his force that would halt any flank approach.
By tanks. Hamid froze in his cupola as he thought to himself — What about helicopters?
He dropped into the tank to access its communications console.
“Commander Khalilli, can your missile launcher defend us from helicopter attack?”
Khalilli’s voice in response sounded genuinely puzzled. “Yes, sir. The S-300’s radar will spot helicopters even at low altitude from over a hundred kilometers away.”
Hamid gritted his teeth. “I’m not talking about helicopters approaching us on this plateau. What if they flew along the escarpment, and popped up alongside us at the last moment?”
There was a long pause, which Hamid let continue without comment. He wanted the man to think.
“Sir,” Khalilli said carefully, “I am glad you brought that possibility to my attention. It is a likely tactic, since I understand the enemy has Apache helicopters. Our crew will be watching for any sudden appearance by unknown contacts, and engage them immediately. Without this conversation, we might have thought such contacts an anomaly. Now, we will understand just how they could have appeared close to us without prior warning.”
Hamid grunted. “Good, Commander. Enemy armor is approaching. I think it’s likely Apaches are going to join in the attack as soon as their tanks are in range.”
“Very well, sir,” Khalilli said confidently. “We'll be ready.”
Hamid ordered his T-90s and the Armata to the front of his force, and along with the other Zulfiqar-3s fell in behind them. Though ready to die, Hamid wasn’t about to take unnecessary risks until they got to Riyadh.
The 2A46 125 mm smoothbore cannon in the T-90 could fire multiple types of ammunition, but for this battle had been loaded with armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot rounds. These particular rounds were the
3BM44M "Lekalo" with tungsten alloy sabots which would be fired at a muzzle velocity of 1,750 meters per second, and had the ability to penetrate 650 mm of armor at a range of two kilometers.
The T-90 had an autoloader that carried twenty-two ready-to-fire rounds in its carousel, and could reload in less than eight seconds. That meant Hamid’s ten T-90 platoons would be able to deliver nearly nine hundred Lekalo rounds with only three minutes needed to reload the shells.
Of course, that didn’t include the time needed to aim the T-90’s cannon accurately. This had been a major worry for Hamid prior to his unit’s last deployment to Syria, their first after receiving the T-90. Their T-90MS tanks included the same “Kalina” automatic target tracker and fire control computer installed in the T-14 Armata. Capable of automatically tracking and continuously locking the T-90’s main gun on a target, it had been a godsend for Hamid, since he had not been able to spend as much time as he’d have liked on training many of his tanks’ crewmen.
Now Hamid was going to see just how effective the T-90 was against the Saudis. Since the best the Syrian rebels had managed to field against him had been some captured T-55 Syrian Army tanks, all he knew for sure was that this would be a greater challenge.