PART-3

On 27^th November 2006, India shocked the world when it conducted an ABM (anti-ballistic missile) test by destroying a Prithvi ballistic missile with an indigenously developed surface to air interceptor missile. Although public at large didn’t notice that event but strategic importance of that event was not less than 1998 nuclear test. Only USA had such capable anti-ballistic missile at that time and the ABM systems of Russia & Israel were not very advance. No other country had ABM system then. In 2009, a similar event happened when India declared that it was developing direct energy weapons (Laser weapons) to shoot down enemy missiles and aircrafts. India was moving forward to develop a BMD (Ballistic Missile Defence) shield, which was going to protect the whole India from long range surface to surface missiles. In 2012, the development phase was completed and the full scale production of PAD & AAD was started and by 2020 sufficient number of missiles were produced to cover the entire country.

[PAD (Prithvi Area Defence) and AAD (Advanced Area Defence ) were the two interceptor missiles developed under ABM program and were having range of 80 km & 120 km respectively. Ballistic missiles travel in a ballistic path and their speed is between 3 to 15 Mach. It is impossible for any surface to air missile system to intercept them. Only a few ABM systems have been made till now which could intercept a long range ballistic missile. It is said that stopping an incoming ballistic missile is like hitting a bullet with a bullet.]

Now, all of the India’s main strategic areas like big cities & important military bases were protected by the two layers of ABM system, comprising both PAD & AAD missiles. Rest of India had only one layer of ABM system comprising the AAD missiles. An AAD missile system with a range of 120 km can protect an area of 45238 sq. km and total 72 AAD missile sites were present all over India which were providing missile shield to the entire country. Laser weapon development program was completed in year 2018 and therefore by 2020 not many laser weapons were available. The limited number of laser weapons which were produced, were deployed to protect large cities. Pakistan was aware that India was having ABM system and except some areas, rest of India was having a single layer of missile defence shield comprising with limited numbers of AAD missiles. But the problem for Pakistan was that the number of AAD deployed in each location was not known to them because India’s ABM program was highly classified. Some reports send by ISI agents from India said there were 12 AAD missiles per site, where as some said 24 missiles. But actually there were 36 AAD missiles per site. Same type of confusion was been faced by the India on as to how many long range surface to surface ballistic missiles, of Gauri class and Shaheen class, Pakistan was having. Some say 150 missiles and some say 200 missiles. As the cost of long range ballistic missile is very high (upward of Rs. 50 crore per missile), it was assumed by India that Pakistan can’t produce them in large quantity due to their limited resources. But Pakistan had produced 300 long range ballistic missiles at the expense of its economic development.

AAD MISSILE FIRING UNIT

JAIPUR

8^th JUNE 2020

02:00 HRS

“Missile launch detected, an IRBM class missile either Shaheen or Gauri is approaching towards Jaipur area” said LRTR (Long Range Tracking Radar) Swordfish’s incharge.

 “Missile firing unit launch an interceptor missile immediately.” He said.

The flight path of incoming Shaeen-3 missile was been continuously monitored by many ground radars and when the missile was in its free flight stage, the interceptor was launched.

350 km above Jaipur, the warhead of Shaheen missile, loaded with 500 kgs of conventional high explosives, was now in its re-entry phase. It was entering back into the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 15 Mach (5 km per second). 30 km above Earth’s surface it was intercepted by an AAD missile.

AIRFORCE HEADQUARTER

NEW DELHI

8^th JUNE 2020

02:25 HRS

“Sir, 25 minutes ago, a Shaheen-3 missile was launched towards a power plant which is located outside the Jaipur. It was intercepted. Since then 8 more Shaheen missiles have been fired towards the Jaipur area. Similarly, 7 missiles have been fired in Ahemdabad area & 11 Gauri missiles in Nasik area. All missiles were intercepted.” said Air Marshal Ashok Gupta, Commanding Officer, Air-defence.

“Oh no. They are saturating our ABM shield in 3 areas. They want to finish our stock of AAD missiles, so that they could destroy our strategic assets there.” Air Chief Marshal R.S. Laxman said.

By 3:00 am, 20 cruise missiles and 30 ballistic missiles each were fired on Jaipur, Ahemdabad and Nasik. All the cruise missiles were intercepted by IAF fighters patrolling near the border and ballistic missiles were intercepted by AAD missiles. Now Pakistan had stopped firing more missiles as they wanted to access the damage done. They had assumed, that 24 AAD missiles were deployed on every AAD site and now, 18 missiles would have been managed to reach and destroy their targets. Pakistan was not having any spy satellite & all their UAVs, who tried to enter into India, were shot down by the IAF fighters. So, Pakistan ordered their ISI agents to reach those areas and find how much damage has been done by Gauri & Shaheen missiles. The agents were asked to give their report by 7:00 am. This was a window of opportunity for India.

JAGDALPUR AIRPORT

CHHATTISGARH

8^th JUNE 2020

04:15 HRS

A C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlifter aircraft took off from Jagdalpur airport. It was carrying 12 AAD missiles with it. These missiles were part of 36 missiles which were deployed to protect the area around Jagdalpur. Since the strategic importance of Jagdalpur is not much, therefore it was decided by the IAF to transfer 12 missiles to Jaipur. Similarly, 12 missiles each from western Orissa, southern Andra, northern Karnataka, central Maharashtra and Lakshadweep were airlifted to Jaipur, Ahemdabad and Nasik.

UNDERGROUND BUNKER

RAWALPINDI

8^th JUNE 2020

07:15 HRS

“I can’t believe it. What went wrong?” General Waheed said after reading the reports send by the ISI agents. Every report said, there was no casualty reported on the ground.

“Sir, perhaps they have deployed 36 or 48 or even 60 missiles in each AAD site. We must fire more missiles in those 3 areas.” Said a Lt. Gen.

 “No. Out of those 300 expensive missiles, we have already used 90. God knows how many AAD missiles are there in each site. Perhaps they even have laser weapons in every site.” Another Lt. Gen. intervened.

“May be that’s true.” Said General Waheed.

Before anyone could say anything more, Maj. Gen. Ansari from ISI  rushed into the war room. He was looking frightened.

“Sir, our agents from Ambala, Bhopal and Mathura have send us these reports. Some movements have been reported in the cantonment areas of these cities. It looks, like they are preaparing for a war.” He said.

“Oh no. If a war broke out, we will be in deep trouble.” General said.

After the recent clashes, the Indian army was put on high alert. The movements reported by the ISI agents were nothing but the preparations done by the army to face any type of situation. No orders were issued by the Indian government to start a war with Pakistan. After the debacle of 1971, Pakistan never wanted to fight a full scale war with India. Therefore they started low intensity conflict with India by spreading terrorism.

The Pakistani army has 5,50,000 soldiers and the entire army is divided in 10 corps. Two corps are in POK, five corps in Punjab, one in Sindh, one in Baluchistan and one in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. On the other hand, Indian army is divided in 13 corps and has strength of 12,00,000 soldiers. Four corps are China specific and have strength of 3,50,000 soldiers. One corps is in Ladakh, one in Sikkim, one in Arunachal Pradesh and one in Nagaland. Remaining nine corps are Pakistan specific out of which, six are defensive corps and three are strike corps. Among the six defensive corps, two corps are in J&K, two in Punjab, one in Himachal Pradesh and one in Rajasthan. The six defensive corps have about 6,00,000 soldiers and these corps are equal to the entire Pakistani army. India can fight and win a war with Pakistan by deploying these six defensive corps only. But from what Pakistan fears are the three strike corps which have total strength of 2,50,000 soldiers and one each is deployed in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. These corps are trained and & equipped to bisect the Pakistan in two halfs by rapidly marching towards Afghanistan border and causing an existential threat for it. But since Pakistan got nuclear weapons from China, option of cutting it into two halfs was closed as Pakistan could launch nuclear attack against India. Therefore in year 2002, during Operation Parakram, all three strike corps were deployed in Rajasthan sector but they were ordered not to go deep inside Pakistan, if war starts.

But now their primary nuclear weapon delivery systems, Gauri & Shaheen missiles have failed to penetrate Indian ABM shield. Therefore Pakistani army top brass was worried and to make things worse, there were reports of Indian army’s movements.

“General, before they start a ground offensive, we must demonstrate our capability that we can still launch nuclear strikes anywhere in India including their capital New-Delhi. It is time to implement Project End Game.” ACM Sultan said.

“You are right. Then Indian govt will understand that if they tried to enter deeper into our territory and capture large chunk of land they will have to pay a heavy price for this.” General said.

Firing of more Gauri & Shaheen missiles were cancelled and implementation of Project End Game was started.

1 X PHALCON AWACS

OVER BIKANER

8^th JUNE 2020

10:25 HRS

“Delta flight. Four JF-17s are heading towards Phalodi and are 150 km south-west from your position. Intercept them.”  Phalcon AWACS ordered Delta flight, consisting 4 EF Typhoons, which was patrolling nearby. Minutes later a large formation was spotted.

“Volga flight. A Large formation of eight JF-17s is heading towards Sri Ganganagar 200 km north from here. Intercept them.” Phalcon ordered its fighter escort consisting of 4 Sukhoi-30 MKI. Additional fighter jets from Jodhpur air base were to take position as escort for Phalcon AWACS. But they were going to take 15 minutes to take off because fighters on ground were not ready and then 15 more minutes to reach near Phalcon. Delta & Volga flight were following their respective targets as they were escaping. For full 30 minutes the airspace over Bikaner was going to be vacant from IAF fighter jets. These 30 minutes were going to cost India dearly.

ZDK-03 AWACS

OVER MULTAN

8^th JUNE 2020

10:30 HRS

“Brave air warriors of Pakistani air force, the saffron bandits have begun mobilising their troops. Their aim is to capture the land of pure, the Pakistan. They think that because our long range missiles have failed to penetrate their ballistic missile shield, we can’t drop nuclear bombs on their cities. But today we will demonstrate our capability by attacking their capital New Delhi. We will destroy the India Gate on which they have written names of their fallen soldiers and also Red Fort on which they host their national flag every year. It will be a symbolic attack and by this way we will tell them that we can drop nuclear bomb anywhere in their country if they cross the nuclear threshold in a war.” Air Vice Marshal Shakeel Khan said to the pilots of F-16s who seconds ago had taken off from Pakistani airbases of Rafiki, Multan and Vihari. There were 3 full strength squadrons flying at once, totalling 54 F-16s, and were moving towards New Delhi via Bikaner. No IAF fighters were patrolling there to stop them and the AAD missiles, which were present there, doesn’t have capability to intercept highly agile fighter jets. It was a going to be an obstacle free flight for the F-16s to New Delhi.

End of Part 3 of 5.

Next post on 02-12-2010

PART-2

As there was no target available there, Captain Abbas, 8th cavalry, Pakistan army moved his Al-Khalid tank towards south-east direction. After covering some 400 meters he spotted some movement about 1 km away. He zoomed his camera towards that location and now he could see it clearly. The last Arjun tank of Indian army’s highly decorated armoured regiment, Poona horse, was moving towards the north direction. A Sabot round was loaded into the 125 mm main gun of the Al-Khalid tank, target was aimed & gun was fired. It hit straight to the target and the Arjun tank was destroyed. Now the wreckage of 28 Arjun tanks were lying there. All were destroyed by the Pakistan’s 8^th cavalry.

“Ok it was the last Arjun tank which was defending the Jammu city. Now we will march towards Jammu and after capturing it, the entire Kashmir would be cut-off from the rest of India” Captain Abbas thought.

The dream of Pakistan, to defeat India and capture the Kashmir was going to become true. Soon 15 Al-Khalid tanks arrived there and as they were about to march towards the Jammu, his PA arrived and said “Sir, everyone is waiting for you in the war room.”

Prime Minister Mohammad Gul closed the book ‘When India surrenderd to Pakistan’ which he was reading and went towards the war room. When he entered the room, the chief of Pakistan air force Air Chief Marshal Rashid Sultan was arguing with General Waheed.

“We should not attack India” ACM Sultan said.

“Be practical General. During the Kargil war, India’s defence budget was 5 times greater than our defence budget. During 2008 Mumbai attack their defence budget was 6 times of ours. Despite they were having more money the major part of their budget was used to pay salaries and pensions. At that time they were not having advance weapons in large quantity. But in the last decade their economy has grown at the rate of 9.5% per annum and our economy, just like in the decade of 2000-10, has grown at the rate of 4.3% per annum. Now there defence budget is almost 10 times of ours and in the last decade they have purchased modern weapons in huge quantity. We would face shameful consequences if we attack them.” he said. But the arrogant General had already decided his offensive plan. No one could change his decision now. It is said that every nation has an army but in Pakistan, army has a nation. The Army General here is the real head of the state and in crisis like situation, civilian government has a limited role to play. Therefore Prime Minister Gul was sitting quietly as he knew that his country is not in his control any more. Apart from the Army Generals who are fundamentalists, Pakistani air force is believed to be of liberal view. Several air force chiefs were against the terror exporting policy of Pakistan. Therefore during the Kargil war, the then air force chief Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi discarded the request of General Musharraf to send fighter aircrafts to intercept Indian air force planes which were bombing the peaks in Kargil sector. But now, General Waheed was in control and the Air force has to obey his order. But ACM Sultan was right ‘PAF cannot face IAF’.

[In the year 2010 when PAF was operating in its full sanctioned strength of 450 fighter aircrafts in 24 squadrons, IAF was way short from the sanctioned strength of 45 squadrons. IAF was operating only 600 fighters, most of them outdated, in 32 squadrons. But in year 2020 the things were completely different. IAF was having 42 squadrons (almost 775 fighters) against the 24 squadrons of PAF. Apart from the quantitative advantage, IAF was having qualitative advantage as well because most of its fighters were very advance.

Pakistani Air Force in 2020 -

Name    Quantity    Origin     Main weapon

F-16      75             USA       105 km range Amraam c-5 BVR air to air missile

J-10       125           China    105 km range SD-10 BVR air to air missile

JF-17     250          China    105 km range SD-10 BVR air to air missile

Total      450                                (BVR= Beyond Visual Range)

Indian Air Force in 2020-

Name                  Quantity  Origin   Main weapon

Sukhoi-30 MKI    270         Russia   160 km range R-77M BVR air to air missile

EF Typhoon        126         Europe  160 km range Meteor BVR air to air missile

The rest of IAF fighters were Tejas, Mig-29, Mirage-2000 and Jaguar.

As per Operation Cloud Burst, India had decided to field only Sukhoi-30 MKI and Euro Fighter Typhoon against 450 fighters of PAF because these 396 fighters were more than a match for the PAF]

As per General Waheed’s plan, PAF was to first strike the refineries in the Jamnagar by J-10 fighters and later was to launch 10 Babur land attack cruise missiles against Maharajpura airforce base, Gwalior. Orders were issued and preparations were on in the PAF airbase Karachi.

1 x PHALCON AWACS

GULF OF KACHCHH

7^th JUNE

12:41 HRS

The Phalcon AWACS (Airborne early Warning And Control System) was patrolling at an altitude of 15000 feet since 05:00 am. Its task was to search and track the Pakistani fighter jets. There were 3 Phalcon AWACS patrolling along the Indo- Pak border, first over Gujarat, second over Bikaner in Rajasthan, third over Udhampur in J&K. The whole border was under their scanner.

[All the fighter aircrafts have radar with them but because of their small size the range of those radars is very limited. Morden fighter radars have range between 100 to 250 km. Therefore large transport aircrafts are usually modified and fitted with massive size radars in order to search aircrafts flying deep inside enemy territory. The range of Israeli Phalcon AWACS is 400 km. It means it can track all aircrafts flying within 400 km radius.]

Air Commodore Dutt was sitting on his chair and was holding a cup of coffee. As he was the commanding officer of Phalcon AWACS, he was responsible for the operations in Gujarat sector. In front of him was a large screen, showing activities within 400 km range of all directions. He could see movements of passenger flights from Ahmedabad & Vadodara airport. Also, the cargo ships moving in the Arabian Sea were visible on the radar screen. But he was interested in the areas of north & west directions. The entire Sindh province of Pakistan was in the range of the Phalcon AWACS. Movements in all five Pakistani air force bases in Sindh- Karachi, Masrur, Nawab shah, Mirpur khas and Sukkur were visible.

“4 fighter size aircrafts have just taken off from Karachi airbase” a radar operator said.

“Confirm their type”

“J-10”

“Alpha formation Scramble-Scramble-Scramble” Air Comm. Dutt screamed on his radio set.

The order of scramble was for four Euro Fighter Typhoons which were lined up on the runway of Bhuj airforce base. Pilots were inside the cockpit from last several hours and were ready to tackle any emergency situation. Within 1 minute of the Scramble order, all four Typhoons were airborne and they started super-cruising towards the west direction.

“Alpha lead this is Phalcon one. Four J-10. Twenty km south east of Karachi. Take them out.”

“Copy that. Alpha 3 & 4 cover the Phalcon one. Alpha 2 follow me”

Both the Typhoon formation & J-10 formation were still 300 km away from each other but J-10s had no idea that Typhoons were approaching towards them. The small and less advance Chinese KLJ-10 radar onboard the J-10 had range of only 100 km. J-10s couldn’t see activities beyond 100 km. On the other hand Typhoons were getting real time data from Phalcon AWACS through a secure data link and the powerful radar of Typhoon, the CAESAR radar, itself had range of 250 km. It was only after 300 seconds, the J-10 came to know about the presence of EF Typhoons.

[Although the range of Typhoon’s main weapon, the Meteor air to air missile, is 160 km but if it is fired from that distance, the target can easily evade the missile by moving few kms behind, making a distance of more than 160 km . In order to make a confirm kill, air to air missiles are launched when the target enters their ‘No Escape Zone’ (also called as ‘Kill Envelop’). If the target is inside the no escape zone and missile is fired, then the target can’t out run the missile. The no escape zone of an air to air missile is about 40% of its maximum range. So the NEZ of Meteor was 64 km and of SD-10 was 42 km.]

“Alpha 2 take out the left flank” said Alpha leader while locking four Meteors against two J-10s of the right flank. Now the distance was just 60 km between both the formations.

“Fire” he said.

Eight Meteors started racing towards Four J-10s, two missiles per target in order to ensure 100% kill. J-10’s missile approaching system (which is an infrared detector which tracks large infrared signatures of a fast incoming missile) started giving warnings about the Meteors. J-10s also launched four SD-10 air to air missiles but the Typhoons were still out of their no escape zone. Both the Typhoons turned 180 degree and moved away with high speed, J-10 also turned back towards the Karachi but it was too late. In the last moment J-10s tried to out maneuver the Meteor missiles by taking steep dive towards the ground but the highly agile missiles were quick to respond. As the Meteors exploded the J-10s were decimated and the debris fall all over the Sir Creek area. Two pilots were dead and two managed to eject on time. Within an hour they were caught by the BSF.

MAHARAJPURA AIRFORCE BASE

GWALIOR

7^th JUNE 2020

14:18 HRS

“Spyder squadron this is Eagle Eye four .10 Babur cruise missiles are approaching. Intercept them “said Aerostat radar incharge from Rajasthan.

“Eagle Eye four this Spyder Squadron. We are ready to welcome the Babur with fireworks” said Flt. Lt. Mehta who was incharge of the Spyder short range SAM (Surface to Air Missile) system. Maximum range of this system is 15 km. It can intercept aircrafts, helicopters, UAVs and sub-sonic cruise missiles. Babur is a low-tech and slow moving cruise missile with maximum speed of 0.8 Mach. Any morden SAM system can destroy it easily, once it is located. As the Babur missiles came within the radius of 15 km, five Python & five Derby missiles were fired by the Spyder squadron. All Babur missiles were intercepted and their debris fall over the agriculture fields. This attack was also foiled by the IAF.

PMO

NEW DELHI

7^th JUNE 2020

17:35 HRS

Operation Cloud Burst was an operation, having a mix of offensive-defensive strategy. At first India was to act in a defensive manner and monitor the level of aggression from Pakistan and then to go on full offensive and destroy several Pakistani strategic assets in a short, but fierce and brutal, offensive operation. The level of damage which would be caused in that swift strike will make Pakistan frightened because Pakistan would think that if India could do this much damage in just a strike, what would happen if it strikes with full power. Then Pakistan would be compelled to shred its terror exporting policy.

PM Singh had received several phone calls since morning from the presidents of USA, Russia, China, France and many other countries. All had requested him to resolve the issue with Pakistan peacefully. UN Secretary General had also appealed to both the countries to maintain peace in South Asia. Therefore PM Singh decided to call his Pakistani counterpart PM Gul.

Using the hotline, India contacted Pakistani govt. but they said, it would be General Waheed who would talk and not PM Gul.

First to speak was PM Singh,

“Good evening General, hope you have enjoyed your day.”

“Mr. Singh, you have not done a good thing by attacking ISI headquarter.”

“Since you had targeted Srinagar bus stand, counter attack from us was inevitable. Anyway, now I would appeal to you that you must stop sponsoring terrorism and accept Kashmir as India’s integral part.”

“Why would we accept Kashmir as India’s integral part? You have forcefully occupied it.”

“No we haven’t. Ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh had merged the Kashmir with India by signing the Instrument of Accession. Entire Kashmir is ours therefore it is you who should end the illegal occupation of Pak occupied Kashmir and give it back to India.”

“That instrument of accession is useless because in 1948, UN passed a resolution called ‘Resolution 47’ asking for a referendum in Kashmir. People of the Kashmir had to choose between India and Pakistan as per that resolution. You have still not conducted the referendum in Kashmir.”

“UN had to intervene after Pakistan had attacked the Kashmir & tried to illegally occupy it. In your attack, thousands of kashmiries, who were resisting your invasion, were killed. The entire mess was created by you. As far as UN is concerned, it has no right to order referendum in any part of India and because Pakistan has already given up its claim over Kashmir, the UN resolution itself has became void.”

“My country has never given up its claim on Kashmir.”

“Yes ‘your country’ wants to grab the Kashmir but not the Pakistan.”

“What do you mean?”

“Till 1971, the national assembly of Pakistan had 313 seats. East Pakistan had 169 seats and West Pakistan had 144 seats. Population of East Pakistan was more than the West Pakistan. So the Bangladesh, former East Pakistan, is the true inheritor of per-1971 Pakistani state. The UN resolution of 1948 talks about a different Pakistan, that doesn’t exists anymore and if it does, then Bangladesh is the successor state. Not the name should determine the successor state of Pakistan but rather the determination of the representatives through the democratic means. And since Sheik Mujibur Rehman, the former PM of Bangladesh had declared Kashmir as India’s part, your country has no say over the Kashmir.”

“What?”

“Yes and if you stop your mischief from now onward, I would assume that you have shredded your terror policy and accepted the facts. Good Bye.” PM Singh ended the call.

General Waheed can’t believe what he just heard. As the time was passing he was getting more and more furious. “Slay the Pagans.” he roared.

Within hours, swarms of PAF fighter jets & Babur missiles were launched to destroy various Indian airbases. Ariel warfare had started in all sectors right from J&K to Gujarat. But PAF was no match to the IAF. Till midnight 32 PAF fighter jets and 55 Babur missiles were shotdown by the IAF and there was no casualty on Indian side.

After loss of 4+32 fighters along with several pilots, Pakistan wanted to take the revenge. They changed their strategy and deployed ballistic missiles, which most of the Indian surface to air missiles can’t intercept. The target was also changed and now their target was Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor which India had developed in the last decade with the investment of hundreds of billions of dollars. Dozens of Pakistani Gauri and Shaheen missiles were ready to destroy that industrial corridor.

End of part 2 of 5.

Next post on 30-11-2010

PART-1




                       THE CLOUD BURST

7 Race Course

NEW DELHI

23rd MAY 2020

21:30 HRS

“Where is Mr. Singh?” asked British ambassador.

“I don’t know” foreign minister Vikram Sharma replied.

Although it was a celebration organized by the PMO for completion of one year of central government, Mr. Prime minister was not interested in attending the party. He was there but left after an hour.

“Ok, its ready and now I must inform them immediately.”

“Ajay, go to the function and tell all the cabinet ministers to attend the tomorrow’s meeting in my office and tell also that it’s urgent”.

As his PA Ajay left the room, Prime Minister Surya Pratap Singh took that draft and put it in his table’s drawer. Next day his government was going to introduce that bill in the parliament which was highly controversial in nature. He knew what he was going to do and its consequences. Although he was a popular leader but there were many who were against this move. But he was confident because of his decades of research and the things he saw improving over the years. PM Singh was M.Sc. in defense studies and a former IAS with 20 years of experience in ministry of defense which makes him mature enough in military and strategic issues.

RAJAURI SECTOR

LOC

5th JUNE 2020

20:10 HRS

The rocky terrain of pir panjal range were never a comfortable place to live be it summer or winter. Climate remains extremely cold always. To make things worst, there were several hundred heavily armed militants, ready to cross the LoC.

“Inbound. Group of seven. Range 3500 meters northwest.” A night vision device operator screamed.

“Oh no, it has started” said Col. Mehta to himself. He has been eagerly watching almost every T.V. debate on the controversial ‘Zero Tolerance Act’ which was passed recently by the parliament. He himself was confused whether to support the act or not. But at the movement, infiltration was taking place and the time was to stop thinking and start acting.

“Hawk Eye to Bravo force, Proceed 500 meters northwest and lay an ambush. Seven bogies. You are weapons free” he ordered Maj. Shukla.

[In year 2002, India started fencing of loc to prevent militants from infiltrating in. Later entire fencing was electrified. The loc was given three tier cover of security forces and night vision devices were installed. These devices were purchased from Israel and were extremely powerful. They can even see through trees and bushes. With range of few thousand meters, it was almost impossible to escape from them. This resulted in more and more terrorists being killed while infiltrating. The no. of terrorists in J&K was between 5000 to 8000 in the decade of 90s. But after 2002 there no. came down substantially. By 2006 only 2000 were remaining and by 2010 only 1500.]

Maj. Shukla proceeded towards ambush area no. 4 with his team. A hand held UAV (Unmanned Ariel Vehicle) was launched to give complete information about infiltrator’s movement. Cold wind was blowing but it can’t stop Major and his team from sweating as tension was in the air. The tense silence was broken when one jawan spotted them by his night vision device. By radio set he informed his teammates and now all started waiting for a signal from the Major.

12 INSAS rifles loaded with 5.56 mm bullets were ready to shower the death. As militants approached near, Major Shukla inserted a 30 mm grenade in the under barrel grenade launcher attached with his INSAS, raised it and fired. Grenade exploded between the group of militants and then the entire area was trembled by loud noise of gun fire.

“Two are escaping others are down” shouted the UAV operator. All 12 soldiers of 8^th Dogra regiment started chasing the two militants. Dense jungle was not a problem as real time data on their movement was available through the UAV. But the militants got the advantage of being near to the LOC and they crossed over it. They ran towards the Pakistani army’s post named Al-Fateh and Maj. Shukla had to stop as he can’t cross the LOC.

7 RACE COURSE ROAD

NEW DELHI

5th JUNE 2020

21:30 HRS

“What happen General? Why you called me now” asked PM Singh.

“Sir I won’t take much time as you have a busy schedule. As per the latest circular issued by Ministry of Defense, the new act has instructed all the corps commanders to give the detail of infiltration attempt in their area to the Prime Minister. So, I would like to inform you that moments ago 7 heavily armed terrorists tried to enter our side from Rajauri sector. They were intercepted and 5 were neutralized but two managed to escape.” Said Lt. Gen. Sushant Kumar, GOC (General Officer in Command), XV corps

“Where the two militants went after crossing LOC?”

“Sir, as usual, inside the nearest Pakistani Army post.”

“So Pakistani Army helped them in infiltration.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Ok then send your men and destroy that post.”

“What?”

“I won’t take much your time as you will have a busy schedule tonight. Good luck.” PM ended the call.

“Oh no, it has started” the same line, which Col. Mehta had said moments ago, came into the mind of General Kumar.

GUREZ ARMY BASE

JAMMU & KASHMIR

6th JUNE 2020

00:15 HRS

Col. Roy was a little nervous because on his table was a fax from the GOC. As he was the in charge of the army’s aviation wing here, he had to plan and execute the order. Around him were other officers of aviation wing. After the brief brainstorming session ended, he walked towards the hanger to see the main work horse of his unit which was going to cause mayhem across the LOC.

The 5.5 ton class LCH (Light Combat Helicopter) was being armed with the lethal HELINAs.

[After the kargil war, an assessment was made. It was found that if India had an attack helicopter at that time, the casualties would have been less than the half. Almost 530 Indian soldiers were killed in that battle. But the fact was no country had ever produced an attack helicopter which could operate in such a high mountainous terrain. India decided to go all alone. After years of hard work, LCH finally made its first flight in year 2010. It was the only attack helicopter which could fly at very high altitude with all weapons and other payloads. It was also designed to engage the armed drones. LCH could carry 8 ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) HELINA or four air to air missiles or four air to surface missiles.

The HELINA (HELIcopter launched NAg) is a third generation fire and forget anti-tank missile. The first generation anti-tank missiles were radio command guided, in which missile needs continuous guidance from missile operator for engaging the target. These missiles could be easily jammed by employing powerful radio jammers. There range were between 1 to 4 kms.  The second generation anti-tank guided missiles were mainly wire guided, infra-red guided & laser guided. Due to wire guidance, missiles needed continuous guidance but it couldn’t be jammed. Using wire with every missile made there range limited to 2-2.5 kms. Infra-red guided missiles could be jammed by using flares and laser guided missiles can’t work in fog, rain, sand storm etc.

The third generation missiles were IIR (Imaging Infra-Red) guided. It means these missiles can SEE and identify the targets just like humans do. They don’t need command after firing and they cannot be jammed. That’s why these missiles are called fire and forget missiles.  In year 2008, India developed Nag which was a third generation missile. It had a range of 4 kms. HELINA was an air launched version of the Nag and had a range of 7 kms.]

Captain Patel and Captain Verma entered into the cockpit of the two seater LCH, checked various sub systems and turned on the engine. Two Shakti turboshaft engines roared while producing 1000 kW power each. That indigenously build helicopter took off and headed towards the west direction. The sky was clear and there was no movement below. The powerful infra-red camera was giving clear picture of the hilly terrain and the multi-functional displays were displaying it .As they came close to the LOC, the helicopter came down to tree top level in order to evade the enemy’s radar.

The LCH was hovering over a pre-determined point which was 6.5 kms away from the LOC. Captain Verma positioned the camera towards the point about which he was instructed by the army troops of forward location and zoomed it to 100X. The Al-fateh post was clearly visible. A watch tower and four bunkers were there.

Captain Patel took a deep breath, locked 5 HELINAs toward 5 targets and pressed the fire button. Within a second, the target data was transmitted to the missiles, engines were ignited and 5 missiles, with complete fiber glass body, raced towards their targets. The 8 kg warhead of each missile has capacity to penetrate 1000 mm of steel. It means 1 meter thick steel wall can be destroyed by the missile and at the moment their targets were structures made up of bricks and cement.

As the missiles exploded, the bunkers were reduced to rubbles and the pieces of watch tower spread over the entire area. The Al-fateh post was completely destroyed and all 15 soldiers manning that post were dead.

This information was immediately transmitted to the GOC Lt. Gen. Sushant Kumar.

“Although the mission is completed successfully, only God knows what would be its consequences” he thought.

Next day at afternoon, PM Singh was briefed about an unsuccessful attack on Srinagar bus stand. Two militants were gunned down as they were about to fire and throw grenades on a bus. Security personals managed to foil that attack because they had intercepted a radio conversation between the militants. The supreme commander of terror outfit ‘Kashmir Mujahedeen’ had himself instructed two militants to take the revenge of last night attack by killing large number of tourists in the Srinagar bus stand. He also told both the militants that the Director General of ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) had personally requested him to launch an attack. Necessary orders were issues by the PM Singh immediately.

NAGROTA ARMY CANTONMENT

JAMMU & KASHMIR

6^th JUNE 2020

22:00 HRS

Major R. Vijay couldn’t believe what he just heard from his commanding officer. The Artillery officer from Chennai looked towards the 6x6 Tatra vehical. On it was that weapon, which the entire western world was trying to copy since last several years but without any success. The hypersonic cruise missile Brahmos-2 was waiting for its prey.

[Unlike ballistic missiles which fly on a ballistic path and are less accurate, the cruise missiles fly low like an aircraft and are more accurate. But ballistic missiles are harder to intercept by a surface to air missile because of their high speed which are in the range of 3 to 15 Mach. (1 Mach is the speed of sound which is about .34 km/second) Cruise missiles developed by the western countries were sub-sonic and they were an easy target for the surface to air missiles. But India and Russia after years of research and massive investments on ramjet technology succeeded in developing the Brahmos which had a speed of 2.8 Mach. When it was first deployed in yeas 2005, there was no air defense system available in the world which could stop it from reaching its target. 10 years later by 2015 when western countries developed air defense systems which could stop cruise missiles flying at 3 Mach speed, the new unstoppable missile Brahmos -2 was ready with a speed of 6 Mach.]

Major R. Vijay, along with his men, started preparation for the missile launch. It took only 15 minutes for getting things ready. Then the entire missile firing group of the artillery brigade started waiting for the final go ahead from their commanding officer.

ADAMPUR AIRFORCE BASE

PUNJAB

6^th JUNE 2020

22:15 HRS

3 Mirage-2000 fighter aircrafts of the Battle Axe squadron were lined up on the runway. Squadron Leader Ashok locked the bullet proof canopy of the fighter, turn the throttle to full after burner mode and activated the RDY-3 multi-mode radar. The French build aircraft, loaded with 2 Sudarshan LGBs (Laser Guided Bomb), 2 Mica BVRAAM (Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile) and 2 R-73 WVR (Within Visual Range) Missiles, started moving on the tarmac and seconds later it was in the air. Other two fighters followed and the Mirage formation turned towards north direction.

-Victor flight this tower one confirm your status.

-Tower one this is Victor lead passing through waypoint three.

-Victor lead proceed towards target one, Victor 2 & 3 proceed towards target two.

-Copy that.

Several miles away, the air breathing propulsion of Brahmos-2 had started massive intake of the oxygen and was producing thrust of several thousand pounds. Speed of 6 Mach had heated the missile’s surface to hundreds of degree. The constellation of Glonass satellites was guiding the missile towards its target.

MUZAFFARABAD

PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR

6^th JUNE 2020

22:17 HRS

Kashmir Mujahedeen’s chief Bilal Durrani was sleeping in his house. The house was located on the outskirts of Mujaffarabad and was away from the residential areas. There were 20 armed militants guarding the whole compound. Pervez, his personal bodyguard, was sitting near the balcony. His AK-56 was lying nearby with which he had fought against the Indian forces in Kashmir for 5 years.  As he was about to change his position, he heard a sound.

“Strange it is” he said to himself. The sound was of an aircraft. He thought what does a plane was doing here at this time. Seconds later the sound became clearer and he recognized it. It was the sound of a jet plane. A fighter jet. He ran towards the bedroom, asked Durrani to run as there could be a danger, both rushed towards the downstairs but it was too late.

A loud explosion was heard by the locals and they saw a mushroom shaped cloud made up of dust and smoke lifted up for about 25 meters.

The main terror camp of Kashmir Mujahedeen received the same treatment from Mirage-2000s when four 500kg Sudarshan LGBs exploded in its compound killing all 79 terrorists who were present there.

ISI HEADQUARTER

ISLAMABAD

6^th JUNE

22:18 HRS

Unknowing the fact that just a minute ago mirage fighters have destroyed kashmir mujahideen's largest training camp also killed it's chief, the Director General of ISI Lt.Gen. Nadeem Khan, along with all other top officials of ISI, were waiting for a call from his Indian counterpart Vijay Rathore R&AW (Research and Analyzing Wing) chief. It was an unusual development as generally both the intelligence chiefs do not communicate with each other. But a request was made by the Indian side to discuss the current events and Pakistani side had agreed.

“These types of matters are dealt by foreign ministry and not by us. We must tell the Indians to talk with foreign ministry peoples.” Said an ISI official.

“True, but let’s just hear what they want to say.” Said another official.

Hot line was now activated and the R&AW chief was first to speak,

“When ever a militant crosses into our side of the LOC he has to face fencing, landmines, bobby traps and three tiers of security personals. But in your side there is no such arrangement so that an escaping terrorist could hide there quickly. This shows the level of confidence you have developed, despite being a smaller and weaker nation. You think you can send militants to harm us at your will and get away without being getting punished.”

“Have you called me to tell all these things only?” asked Lt. Gen Khan.

“I just want to say that we know it was you who had given orders to carry out a terror attack on Srinagar bus stand. As you tried to kill innocent citizens of our country, get ready to face its consequences.”

As Lt. Gen. Khan was about to speak, the Brahmos-2 slammed into the ISI headquarter and exploded. The entire left portion of the building was blown up killing the ISI chief along with all other top officials. Only a few, among those who were at the right side of the building, survive but were under tones of debris and bleeding profusely only to die within a few hours.

UNDERGROUND BUNKER

RAWALPINDI

7^th JUNE 2020

06:30 HRS

Last several hours were of total chaos in the Pakistan Army headquarter. Initially no one knows the cause behind the destruction of ISI headquarter. Slowly the things became clear as the radar station gave information that 3 Migare-2000 fighters were behind the attack in POK and a very fast missile was tracked which was moving towards Islamabad. The unusual request made by Indian side to have conversation with ISI chief at the time of attack made it clear that it was India which was behind this mess. Fearing more such attack the Army chief General Aslam Waheed was shifted to a underground bunker which was made to withstand even the nuclear strike. A copy of India’s Zero Tolerance Act was in his hand. The Act was short, unclear and various different interpretations could be made out of it. The only thing that was clear was, India would retaliate immediately after a terror strike and the Prime Minister could give order to retaliate without consultating cabinet committee on security. After 2001 Indian parliament attack and 2008 Mumbai attack, Pakistan had warned that if India sends fighter aircrafts to carry out surgical strikes, Pakistan would retaliate immediately and destroy that airforce base from where those fighters would come. But this time Pakistan had no idea from which airbase the Mirage-2000s came. So General Waheed gave order to destroy the Maharajpura airbase (Gwalior) which is the home base of Mirage-2000 fighters and is also India’s largest airforce base by launching 10 Babur land attack cruise missiles against it. And to teach India a lesson,  four J-10 fighter aircrafts were to destroy petroleum refineries near Jamnagar, Gujarat so that Indian investments worth billions of dollars could be ruined. All surface to air missile units were activated by Pakistan so that no IAF jet could cross into there airspace. After a brief meeting with all corps commanders it was decided to arm four Gauri-3 and Shaheen-3 long range surface to surface missiles with nuclear bombs as a situation may arise to use them.

In New Delhi, PM Singh was waiting in the war room. The Air force officials arrived and presented before him various plans and strategies which were made to counter this type of situation. He choose file no. 07. The operation which was going to be carried out using this strategy was give a name “Operation Cloud Burst”.

End of Part 1 of 5.

Next post on 28-11-2010