Thunder Strikes Back

203 The Great Detour

The colonel felt that the battle seemed to go back to many years ago. It was an era when ground radar guidance was completely relied on and there was no AWACS data link.The two sides consider how to find each other and see each other first. In many cases, the one with better eyesight will have a greater advantage. Of course, there are also many lucky parts.

The MiG-29 of the Indian Air Force on the opposite side suddenly discovered that the Pakistani plane had violated the established rules of the game. Instead of accepting courtesy and withdrawing troops when it was good, it seemed to come straight in and seemed to occupy a high altitude to launch missiles.But the Indian pilots did not have the courage to fight, and they immediately turned around and went back to the Pune base.Sami saw the enemy's movements on the vertical monitor, and the ground command post also reminded him of this change in the enemy plane.He decided to follow closely and test the enemy's air defense capabilities along the coast. This was not the task of Major General Islam, but the old man's own idea.He just wanted to follow the enemy to the hinterland of India and disrupt their deployment.The formation of J-10 and Thunder flew eastward for a while, until it was spotted by a C-band phased array radar in the air defense circle of Greater Mumbai, and then turned to the south. At this time, the J-10B had already caught up to 29 kilometers behind the MiG-30 At the same place, Thunder's radar saw a second low-flying MiG-29 in downward-looking mode. It was hiding in the coastal mountains and fled inland after being tracked.The colonel refrained from launching medium-range missiles. It was not very sure that he would be able to shoot down an enemy plane fleeing at Mach 1.2 at such a distance.

Mesur Airport began to urge the colonel to return, which indicated that the protagonist of this mission had already taken off.However, the old man still has half of the fuel in the three auxiliary fuel tanks, and he also wants to test the air defense positions around Mumbai (his military rank allows him to temporarily modify the plan in the air).So he flew about 3 kilometers along the west coast of India, flying up and down, and two target interception radars and one continuous wave radar were turned on for tracking.These newly arrived Russian-made phased array radars have excellent performance, but the old man can easily get rid of the tracking of these radars at such a distance, and it seems that the operators are still very young.

His rampant actions finally angered the Indian Navy. After all, this is the first time that Pakistan has been so close to the Indian coastline to detect electronic signals after the war.The ground radar has also accurately identified the type of this aircraft. Shooting down such an enemy plane is obviously of high political value, so the defense and control positions along the coast are ready to counterattack, waiting for the two enemy planes to commit suicide. Fall within assured range.At the same time, the Sea Harrier fighter jets parked at the Goa airport are also ready for emergency takeoff. If the enemy plane continues to approach south, they will take off to intercept it.However, the colonel obviously knows the position and flight envelope of the S300 missiles very well. The J-10B is flying on a line almost in a position that cannot be seen. What the colonel has to do is to provoke the Indian Navy to intercept it along the coast.He almost forgot about the feint mission, and it seemed worth more to him if he could earn an Indian Navy plane.

At the same time, two J-11BS fighter jets loaded with ammunition and fuel tanks on the Mesur Airport in Karachi have already taken off. This airport is completely under the surveillance of India's radar in the highlands of Gujarat. It is necessary to pretend to fly westward for a certain distance, so that the Indians think that this is a Phantom V bomber turning westward, so as to relax their guard a little bit. Of course, since the Phantom V itself is also a key defense model of India, their turning westward The Indians must be seen clearly.After passing the Makran Coast Range, they lowered their altitude and turned south.In such a sneaky operation, it is obviously unwise to dispatch the Il-78 tanker. The range of the entire mission is almost strictly calculated. There is no fuel reserved for air combat or emergencies, and there can hardly be any mistakes.

After Major Hamid took off, he told his wingmen to turn as planned. Where can India's radar see it?In fact, he is not very clear.While radar surveillance of India's coast has been conducted by the Navy's P3C anti-submarine aircraft or other electronic reconnaissance aircraft, these data show that the plan is feasible.But after the war, India's coastal long-range radar has been greatly strengthened, and he is also very clear about this.Moreover, the Indian Navy still has a large number of warships scattered in the Arabian Sea, and the air-to-air radars of these warships may bring the plan to light in advance.But fortunately, the initial plan went smoothly. The enemy's coast seemed to be messed up by Sami and he didn't notice that two low-altitude planes sneaked deep into the depths of the Arabian Sea.

Hamid's flight plan is attached to the flight suit, but he doesn't need to look at it, he knows the whole plan by heart.This fighter is actually just a two-seater modification of the Su-27SK. It may be able to compete with the Su-30MKI in air combat, but it is not its strong point to use it to attack harbors at low altitudes.Although the low-altitude flight over the sea does not rely on the automatic avoidance function like the ground, but at an altitude of 100 meters, long-term low-altitude flight is definitely a nerve-testing behavior.The major watched the artificial horizon swaying slightly against the distant sea level. This was a moment prone to mistakes, because it was difficult to give the pilot an intuitive sense of altitude during such a flight.

The major's gaze moved down from the sea and sky in the distance, and landed on the fuel display panel. The fuel stock of the aircraft was slowly changing.Of course, he had to pay attention to the VHF communication at the same time.Although his formation had to maintain absolute radio silence, he could hear Sami's voice communication 200 kilometers away.It sounded like the colonel had gotten entangled with some MiGs, and now the colonel was luring the enemy to pursue north.However, Hamid was quite dissatisfied with Sami's extravagant way of directing so many enemy planes into the air. Once it was messed up, the beetle mines equipped with MiG 29s were likely to sweep the J-11BS unintentionally.Although the distance is so far, the radar reflection cross-sectional area of ​​the side of the J-11BS is obviously very large.

"Abbas, watch out for those sea harriers. They are outflanking." Sami's voice came from the radio.

"Colonel, request to disband the formation, and I will deal with the sea harriers that are left behind."

"Okay, I'll give you this chance. Don't get too close. Watch out for the MiGs to the east with medium-range shells."

Hamid shook his head secretly. He couldn't laugh or cry. In such an important battle, the colonel actually performed so hard as a supporting role.He's a real troublemaker.

The RWS system of the J-11BS can sometimes detect pulse emission sources that are higher than itself. Of course, these scans are very scattered, that is to say, the possibility of being searched by these mechanical scanning radars is not high.It can be determined that the enemy plane in the distance is wrestling with the old man with the pulse repetition rate in the search and short range.Major Hamid has been in contact with the beetle radar in China, and knows several commonly used search modes of this radar. These modes are due to different search distances and downward-looking capabilities. If there is not much chance, the enemy plane should not see itself. , which is obviously well known to Sami.

"Is Captain Black Spider okay?" the weapon operator behind asked.

"Don't worry about him, he's probably slowing down on purpose to lure the MiG-29 away from the Sea Harrier. But we've got to drop some more. Before the old man messes up."

The major continued to lower the height by tens of meters.His current concentration is high, staring at the altitude data that jumps on the side of the HUD at any time. This is a 2-digit number that is exciting enough. It won't be long before he has to exchange driving with the weapon operator to avoid exhaustion and falling into the sea. .

"Squadron leader. Fuel is tight. Stocks are below flight plan."

Hamid thought about it for a while, and it was indeed a bit tricky. Such a low-altitude flight would not do any good for saving fuel, and it would be too risky.He felt that the second backup route in the plan could be activated, which would have to go a little further to the west, so that he could completely get rid of India's ground radar, but the current route is already the most optimized route. Going in a large circle to the west, it is likely to be discovered by American warships entrenched near the Gulf of Amman.This is really a difficult decision.

"Squadron leader, I think we can go a little deeper to the west, so that we can completely avoid the Indian ground radar."

"Okay, change the scheduled route, let's fly to the southwest," Hamid finally made this decision.He was also worried that Sami's nonsense would bring all the enemy planes into the sky. If a Su-30MKI appeared in the appropriate airspace, he might be seen from a long distance away.

"Squadron leader, I shot down a sea harrier." Abbas shouted excitedly on the radio.Hamid sneered. He knew that it was nothing to ambush such a subsonic aircraft by taking advantage of the data link.What he has to do now is to wipe out the entire squadron of sea harriers. Thinking of this, he took a deep breath to relieve some of the pressure in his heart.

Two J-2BS quietly avoided the Indian coast and climbed southwest.

"There is a radar scan in the direction of 270." The weapon operator reminded.

"Whatever you are afraid of. You take over the flight." Hamid handed the flight over to the weapon operator, and then looked down.Sure enough, it was an S-band radar, like the US Navy's SPY-1 phased array radar.He knew that the installation position of this Aegis radar was usually very low, and if he didn't raise the altitude hastily, he probably wouldn't be able to see it.Thinking of this, the major can't help but feel a little regretful. This seems to be the first trouble encountered in today's plan.

"Don't dodge. This is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer," Hamid said.He knew that the formation had been discovered, and if he dodged now, he would inevitably leave the suspicion of melon fields and Li Xia in front of the Americans.

"Pulse gone?"

"This is not normal, this radar can track hundreds of targets at the same time."

"Maybe their mission is just to monitor the Iranian navy," Hamid said.He certainly didn't fully trust his own judgment.Hassan's death in Afghanistan is still unknown. He knows that the Americans have clearly favored India in this war.However, it is better to be spotted by the US fleet than to be spotted by Indian ground radar.Although their computers are likely to be able to analyze the formation's target, there may not be a timely communication channel between the US Navy and the Indian military.

(End of this chapter)