Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 101 Brilliant Fighter

New Delhi International Airport.

Prime Minister Kahan's special plane has just taken off against the gloomy low-pressure clouds, bound for the United States.Unlike previous visits to the United States by the Prime Minister leading a large group of people from business circles, this ice-breaking visit aimed at breaking the misunderstanding between the United States and India is not high-standard, and the entourage is not too large; even many people in India did not report too much. Hope. In the circle of scholars who study American politics, some kind of conspiracy theory is gradually gaining the upper hand. Many people think that the United States will take the opportunity to weaken India's position in the Indian Ocean as before, and at the same time pressure Pakistan to give up several navies near the Arabian Sea. The base, like the 90s extending its tentacles into the Persian Gulf, deployed the navy to the throat of the Indian Ocean.Therefore, the Prime Minister's visit this time will yield nothing but criticism.

Watching the plane gradually disappearing into the dark clouds, Singer looked back immediately. He saw that the American ambassador was also in the send-off team, and he had no intention of going back immediately.Singer thought, this is a good time to say hello to the US ambassador, and take the opportunity to hint at his gratitude for providing information on Chinese submarines.

At a distance of 40 meters, Singh waved to Ambassador Anderson, who immediately responded with a smile and stopped to wait for him.As the Secretary of Defense, he never had the opportunity to contact the US ambassador. Today is a rare "chance meeting" opportunity.And it seems that the ambassador is also thinking about communicating with Singer.In this gloomy day, things suddenly become simple and beautiful.Singer couldn't help but feel a little proud. He thought: How could those nerds who study international relations in universities know the real progress of US-India relations in secret?But as he was about to walk over, Lujad Nahan, the head of the office, came forward with a blank face, a phone in his hand.

"The important call is a confidential line of the Ministry of Defense." The supervisor said.From his calm demeanor, there was no hint of it.

"Vice Admiral Vijapat of the Eastern Naval Command?"

"Yes, the lieutenant general is waiting for you."

"Great, found 'him'?" Singer asked.

"I think what Lieutenant General Vijaypat meant was that we found it." The supervisor replied in a measured manner.

"So, kill him?" Singer continued to ask, looking a little frivolous. In fact, he shouldn't be caught between a group of staff from different departments to discuss such a confidential matter.Rujadnahan dodged the question and just shoved the phone into the minister's hand.

"Lieutenant General, I'm Singh, what's the situation." He said while talking on the phone, he glanced at the American ambassador, and found that Anderson also had a call. Appears too disrespectful.

"That's right, Your Excellency. The Chakra launched a torpedo to that nuclear submarine 30 minutes ago." Lieutenant General Vijapat said cautiously on the other end of the phone.

"Miss, or let him slip away?"

"Not exactly, it actually hit. We forced the sub out of the water. The sub is now nearly crippled and 'floating' 270 nautical miles east of Sri Lanka."

"Great, that's how it should be. By the way, we can send the helicopter to take some pictures. It should be in the headlines tomorrow."

"But Your Excellency, the telegram sent by the Chakra is not what you think."

"It's not what I thought it was? What's going on, tell me if you have something to say." Singer became alert, but he couldn't think of anything unexpected for a while.

"It's actually like this. The nuclear submarine that floated up is not Chinese."

"What did you say? You must have made a mistake." Singer's mind was a little confused for a while, he thought whose nuclear submarine would it be?Could it be Pakistan?
"It was an American nuclear submarine. It was clearly seen in the periscope of the 'Chakra'. He sent back the video. It was an American nuclear submarine, number: SSN785, John Warner. I'm pretty sure it was an American nuclear submarine. Virginia-class attack submarine."

Singer was silent for about 10 seconds. He felt dizzy and felt that he had to get out of this matter quickly.Not far away, Ambassador Anderson suddenly left hurriedly surrounded by a group of embassy entourage; apparently, he received a call with similar content.

"Damn it, you've caused trouble for the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister is still in the dark."

"However, Your Excellency, I am following your instructions..."

"I don't know what happened to lead to something like this, but someone must have made a mistake. I will never let this person escape responsibility, I swear." Singer said fiercely.

"Listen to my Excellency, I think it must be the Russian drunkard on the Chakra. I know Lieutenant Colonel Dihener well, because he is my nephew. With his ability, it is impossible to hit any Targets moving underwater."

"Damn it, you want the Prime Minister to tell the President of the United States that these are all done by the Russians? Tell them to settle accounts with the Russians?" Singer yelled loudly.Fortunately, other government officials had gone away at this time, and no one noticed this detail. If Foreign Minister Chandra unfortunately heard these words, he might faint on the spot; but that would happen sooner or later.

"Okay, let me ask you, is there a Chinese nuclear submarine there?"

"I think... Judging from the Chakra's telegram, there may be some, but he... anyway... has fled into the Indian Ocean now."

Singer hung up the phone and fell into a situation of atmosphere and helplessness.There were only a few people left around him, and Lujadnahan stood silently to one side, seemingly not hearing anything.

"Are we going back to the Ministry of Defense? Your Excellency the Minister."

"Yes. We must deploy a new offensive immediately; the ground offensive must be launched within the stipulated date anyway, and now we must set our sights on our new fighter jets."

"So, what about the Chinese nuclear attack submarine that slipped into the Indian Ocean?" asked the office manager, suggesting he knew everything.

"There's nothing I can do for the time being, I can't let the 'Chakra' continue to pursue; there are some things that you'll never understand if they haven't happened, and in fact, those Russians who we paid a lot of money for are always drunk The Chinese nuclear submarine is much more dangerous. Maybe that Chinese nuclear submarine will be taken back to the Pacific Ocean after a good meeting, or they will sail all the way to Karachi, for the time being, they can only go with him.”

"Last night, the LCA mk45 of the 2th Flying Dagger Squadron has completed a secret transition and is ready to attack at any time." The supervisor immediately turned the topic back to the attack that could cheer the minister up.

"Very well, the 'Glorious' fighter jets are our pride. They won't mess up the good things like those unreliable mercenaries in the Navy. Let Biafrata act according to the plan."

The 45 "Glorious" fighter jets of the 12th Flying Dagger Squadron have secretly moved from the Sulua base in southern India to the Pathankot Air Force Base, which is the closest to the Jhelum Dam.This front-line airport is located in the frontier mountainous area, only 20 kilometers away from the border. As far as the attack is concerned, it can give full play to the suddenness of the attack.In the past, 18 MiG-108 helicopters from the 20 Squadron under the 21th Wing and Mi-135 helicopters from the 35 Squadron were stationed here.These air forces are mainly configured to provide limited air defense and fire support to the nearby 29th Infantry Division of the Indian Army. It can be said that the ground attack capability is very weak.The Indian Air Force did not use this base in its previous attacks on the dam for two main reasons; one was that the runway was too short for heavy aircraft to take off and the other was that it was too close to the border with a large concentration of advanced aircraft , It is easy to be attacked by the Pakistan Air Force with the help of low altitude.After the last major failure, Biafrata suddenly paid attention to the unique advantages of this simple airport, because the distance from here to the Jhelum Dam is only 160 kilometers. Even if the Air Force received an early warning and responded quickly, it would not be able to reach the sky above the dam in time.This idea was quickly appreciated by Singer. For this reason, the Air Force Chief of Staff had to choose a squadron that could carry a large number of bombs and take off and land at short distances.Considering the length of the base's runway and the quality of its construction, a large number of Su-30MKI or Mirage 2000 squadrons were excluded, and the troublesome short-range problem of the Tejas fighter jets did not seem to be too serious in this mission. The decision was made to transfer here the two squadrons of the newly formed 45th Squadron that had completed bomb-dropping training.

In the concrete building next to Patan Cortland Airport, Captain Jaafar is giving the team members a final attack explanation.Not long ago, the captain was a pilot of the 24th Squadron flying a Su-30MKI fighter jet. Now, according to the choice he made in front of the Minister of Defense, he has become a small captain of the 45th Squadron.It must be admitted that the choice at that time was costly. The LCA "Glorious" fighter jet cannot be compared with the Su-30MKI in many aspects. The small cockpit, poor range, and greatly reduced search performance of the small radar are all unsatisfactory.But he also has to admit that LCA also has its unique advantages. One is that it has a good ability to hover instantly, and the other is that the optimized MKII-shaped take-off distance is not very large; of course, once the load is large, the above two data will be very large. rewrite.

"Everyone, be careful when taking off. Don't pull up too early. You have to remember that the load of this mission is different from the past, so try to increase the speed to 470 kilometers, which is a safe speed." The captain said.

"470 kilometers? It sounds like taking off a bomber. For example, a Su-30." Some of the pilots below said, and then many people echoed and laughed.Most of these pilots came from some of their MiG-21 units, and their understanding of aircraft take-off was not the same as that of Captain Jafar.

"In short, make full use of the length of the runway and try to take off at the end of the runway. Don't rush to retract the landing gear." The captain continued to say patiently. The training experience of the past few months told him that the most dangerous moment of flying the Brilliance fighter is mainly concentrated on the side of the heavy load. These two situations when taking off and landing with a crosswind; this is why the pilot's manual of this aircraft always places special emphasis on various precautions for low-altitude approaches.At a mountainous airport like Pathankot, taking off and landing is especially troublesome, because the airflow is always unpredictable, maybe it’s not a big deal for a 25-ton aircraft, but for a small aircraft less than 10 tons, it’s easy to go wrong. Unexpected situation in business.

(End of this chapter)