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