Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 205
When the explosion happened, the project manager and the chief engineer himself were leading a group of workers on the fourth deck to check the drawings of the previous week's wiring, and they have not been seen since.

Hamid quickly climbed up and escaped according to the established plan.A quick climb would obviously make his formation more visible to enemy radar in one direction, but considering the unfavorable fuel situation, this was his only option.

Long before the missile attack, the Sea Harriers of the Indian Navy Squadron on Wellington Island had already received news of the approaching enemy planes, and began to prepare to take off to intercept the formation of enemy planes; at this moment, several Harrier fighters happened to be In the air, and trying to catch up with Hamid's formation, but for the J-200BS fighter jets that are 11 kilometers away and have reached high subsonic speeds, such a chase is meaningless.

What Major Hamid is worried about is the MiG-29 fighter jets at the Pune base. Intelligence shows that there are at least 8 fighter jets there, and they are relatively new naval models equipped with beetle radars.The major guessed that not long ago, Sami's violent feint action should have attracted all the MiG-29s on duty into the air. Now these planes should have just returned. Maybe it can be considered that the threat has been lifted?But he still dare not take it lightly.The radar of the Indian destroyer on the distant sea has been scouting him. He can roughly estimate that the distance is not too far. If he does not try to get rid of it now, the radar will track him for a long time. The major is not worried about the anti-aircraft missile of the Indian warship; If there are Indian fighter jets in the air, it is obvious that they can follow the guidance of this radar and use the shortest route to intercept themselves, and the most dangerous problem is that these sneaking aircraft do not use radar before they can launch medium-range bombs. Make yourself into a great passive.The major decided to ignore it. He had no other choice but to gamble on his luck.

"Major, another CW radar has appeared in the Bombay direction."

"Never mind it, we'll just keep an eye on the air radar."

"clear."

"Look around more, the cunning opponent will definitely approach from a very concealed angle, maybe the radar siren will not remind us that he is coming."

"I understand."

The four pilots of the two planes began to turn their heads and search the sea and sky to the east.Enemy planes taking off along the coast could emerge from anywhere in this nearly 2-degree fan, depending on the airport and route they took off from, and for the young Pakistani pilots, it is now only guesswork.Fortunately, this is not a mountainous area, and the enemy planes will not rely on the terrain to sneak too close.

"Hopefully there are no dodgy Indian pilots in the south."

"I remember the old man said before that Indian pilots are not lacking in cunning, but they lack the courage to fight." The major said, now he needs to encourage his own people.He knew very well that this long return route was a hurdle for him. He couldn't make a detour to the depths of the Arabian Sea as he did when he came here, because the fuel was tight, and for the same reason, he couldn't increase the speed. Too high, or the altitude dropped too low.In fact, even a MiG-21 appeared nearby, and a little interference could cause him great trouble.

"I don't know if the missile we launched hit anything?"

“I would say it’s not too ideal, it’s not too bad; I hope next time we can launch cruise missiles at their ports from a safer distance.”

As Hamid spoke, he kept turning his head, paying attention to possible wakes in the sky.He is an old hand and knows what another old hand will do; the quickest way is to use the height and speed to intercept him to the side. Both MiG 21 and MiG 29 can use this efficient method.

"We got rid of the coastal radar. But the Indian warship in the direction of 240 can still see us."

"Hopefully it doesn't cause any trouble. In a minute, we can get rid of it."

Hamid said cautiously.Now he has a small payload, but he is unlikely to use his maneuverability against any Indian aircraft.He kept looking down to check the fuel, but it didn't help, and there was still a long 1000 kilometers of straight-line distance from the Pakistani coast.

4 pairs of eyes vigilantly searched the eastern sky, but did not see any suspicious black spots.The major began to think wildly. He guessed that the enemy might use the clouds in the middle and low altitudes to approach him, or thinking better, they had already chosen to give up?
The actual situation is not as good as Major Hamid expected. The Indian Air Force is not just a group of rabble and backward aircraft in the south.

Captain Shub Harol, the ace pilot of Trident Squadron, is in the air and is approaching the J-11BS formation carefully.

A few days ago, Captain Rolle and his team came to the Pune base to receive the newly arrived naval MiG-29UPG fighter jets.These newly arrived aircraft originally belonged to the carrier-based aircraft squadron of the Indian Navy, but considering the training status of the Gorshkov aircraft carrier (the Indian name is Vikramaditya) hiding in the Bay of Bengal, it is impossible to participate in actual combat , Minister of Defense Singh used a rough phone call to forcefully assign 4 fighter jets ordered by the Navy to Rajasthan's Trident Squadron; Favor, the record of this squadron is second only to Goya's Eagle Squadron.In two months, during dozens of battles in Punjab, a large number of Pakistani front-line aircraft were shot down.

Captain Roll only had two take-off and landing trainings to fully adapt to this new aircraft. The combat capability of this new MiG-2 is far better than that of the old MiG-29B, whether it is radar or control.The second lieutenant felt that flying this type of aircraft and f29C/D in air battles at long and short distances would not be a disadvantage, but having said that, there are not many F16C/D fighters left in Pakistan.

Recently, Trident and other squadrons have shifted their attention to the J-10B fighter jets that appear from time to time in Pakistani skies; in just two weeks, the Chinese-made J-10B fighter jets have shot down several Tiger squadrons And the Mirage 43 and Tejas fighters of the 2000rd Squadron.Not only these fighters lacking medium-range combat capabilities were shot down, even the MiG 29 of the naval squadron was also shot down once by a fighter whose model could not be verified in the ground support operations.Judging from some recorded air conversations, it is likely that it was shot down by a Chinese pilot assisting Pakistan, and the Chinese pilot did not fly a Thunder fighter jet.

Just before Rolle took off, the other two Trident fighters had already taken off to intercept a daring J-10B fighter, and were forced to retreat because they did not dare to approach it to confront it.The sophisticated J-10 chased it all the way to the area very close to the coast of Mumbai, not only forcing all the radars in this area to start monitoring, but also making Mumbai sound the air defense alarm for the second time in history.The Pakistani pilot who invaded the door has been flying close to the envelope of the S2, and has never entered the threatening range of the missile.At that time, Rolle's fighter jet was not ready to take off, so he could only let the plane circle around and fly away.Sitting in the cabin, he had been listening to the conversation in the air; he heard the ground directing an overconfident Harrier to chase wildly alone, and was finally shot down by another wingman hiding on the side.

Just when everyone thought that this disgraceful confrontation was over, news of an attack came from the distant Kachin Port. Obviously, this was the real target of the enemy.However, the enemy who attacked from afar finally showed his feet. The captain and another fighter jet on duty took off quickly. He hoped that on this bad morning, he could save some face for the Indian Air Force.Although the second lieutenant still couldn't figure out how the enemy was able to attack such a distant target, he could roughly guess that it should be a heavy fighter/bomber.The radar of the USS Ranwijay has been tracking the enemy, and the updated information confirmed the captain's guess.Those were two planes that were similar in appearance to Sukhoi fighter jets.Although the two MiG 2s did not integrate the data link with the naval ships, this does not seem to be a serious problem, because the captain found that the enemy's retreat route was very simple, and he did not even get rid of the naval radar maneuvers. It can explain some problems, their fuel should be very problematic.The captain decided to be patient and approached the enemy plane slowly.He wants to launch an attack at a distance where it is difficult for the enemy to escape.

Destroyer D55 finally lost track of the distant formation of enemy planes, and they ran out of sight of the warship, roughly 250 kilometers northwest.

Rolle was not in a hurry to use the MiG-29's radar. Although he was a little behind from the position where the enemy disappeared last, he was confident that he could guess the enemy's route.Not only that, as an old pilot, he can also guess the enemy's current mind, the Pakistanis will be vigilant against the east, and of course he can't let them do what they want.

"Trident 2, you maintain the altitude, speed up to follow the enemy's actions, and turn on the radar according to my order. Then use R77 to attack." The captain said.

"Do you want to disband the formation?"

"Yes, don't worry, they must be right in front of you. You can see them by turning on the radar."

"Understood. But it is difficult for me to attack two enemy planes at the same time. They will flee west."

"I'll be on one side and stop them."

"Which side?" The wingman was a little confused.

"Of course it's the side they can't guess. I don't think they'll be stupid enough to go to Gujarat."

Captain Roll pushed the throttle while making a slight detour to the northwest.He has to sprint at high speed for a while.The huge consumption of the afterburner caused the rapid consumption of the external fuel, but the captain didn't mind it, and it was obviously not him who should worry about the fuel now.Under the strong thrust, the fighter gradually reached Mach 1.5. During this period, the distance between him and his wingman increased rapidly.The ground command post has been asking the Trident formation to use radar to intercept the enemy plane, but the captain had his own plans in his stomach and did not follow through.He has been using the IRST system to search for the infrared heat source of the enemy ahead, but this Russian-made system is not very effective as before, and no trace of the enemy has been found.

(End of this chapter)