Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 320 Hunter
Spanga was a soldier who admired adventurism. It was military adventures that made him repeatedly gain the upper hand in a series of offensives in the early days of the war.But risk-taking itself is addictive, and in the end, Spanga and his staff favored the riskier option for most decisions.

Arranging an air defense position east of the Nar River that can cover Quetta is the most offensive plan Spanga's staff can come up with, because judging from the latest situation on the Aksai Chin front, Surface-to-air missiles are often at a disadvantage in the confrontation with tactical aircraft; such results are obviously not simply obtained from the range of weapons, but are determined by the diversity of weapons currently in possession of the Chinese military.

Weapons such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition, which can be used after GPS is disabled, are the most deadly against less mobile anti-aircraft missile positions.In this war, anti-radiation weapons also showed a huge threat to air defense missile positions.

Spanga revised the conservative plan of the staff department. He went a little farther and planned to deploy an S300 position to the west of the Nar River. If the deployment is successful, it can almost achieve the effect of sealing the throat with a sword.Of course, he also knows that in the confrontation between modern warfare systems and systems, there will never be such an easy victory.Therefore, his plan still has a backhand. He deployed a relatively backward S300V position to the east of the Nar River, and deployed anti-aircraft guns and short-range defense systems around the railway bridge.

In Spanga's vision, when one S300 position is in a state of maneuvering or the radar is turned off, the other can provide cover. Once the enemy's air force strikes back, at least the troops west of the Nar River can be withdrawn to the east bank by railway to continue operations. .In fact, this is a decision he made after learning from the practice of the Chinese army in the Suleiman Mountains. The Red Flag 9 position of the Chinese army is often in alternate cover, retreating step by step, and rarely being completely passive.However, the Lieutenant General ignored two points. One is that the Chinese Air Force has more effective ground attack weapons than the Indian Air Force; Not found in southern Pakistan.Targets with fixed coordinates, such as railway bridges, have become extremely difficult to defend under the threat of such bombs.

The second point he overlooked was that the Indian Army's battle line was too long, and the units in front were too concentrated. This gave Lin Huaisheng, a little-known lieutenant colonel, a chance to bet against him.In the end, Lin Huaisheng took advantage of Spanga's negligence to the extreme, and he pushed the battalion-level mechanized troops into the weak rear.

Lin Huaisheng's luck is indeed better than Spanga's.Lin Huaisheng's information before departure was not complete, and his specific purpose was not clear. Basically, he took one step at a time. The attack he launched was even a bit chaotic. However, he hit Spanga's weakness. Concentrated too many high-value targets, but unable to defend. Within 20 minutes, a missile battalion and a railway bridge over the Nar River were dead, and another battalion was fleeing north.

Jereb's bad news came one after another.The staff officers in the Indian Army Command looked at each other in blank dismay. They suddenly discovered that the Chinese armored forces had penetrated into such a rear area and seemed to be trying to cut off the retreat of the entire 21st Army.

Spanga sat alone in front of the map without speaking.The surrounding staff began to plan, preparing to transfer the surrounding troops back to support Jebri. From the distress telegrams that flew like snowflakes around Jebri, the number of enemies was described as very large.

"I judge that this is definitely not the main force of the enemy," the lieutenant general finally spoke. "It's just a small force slipping through our fingers."

Everyone else in the headquarters looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

Spanga stood up and took two steps back and forth.

"We were short in Gilgit and did not block all the roads. This gave the enemy such an opportunity. As for what else the enemy used, I don't know. However, I don't believe that this is a large force. There are less than 60 tanks that can be assembled in Quetta."

"But General, Jebri's troops saw more than 70 enemy tanks."

"It's easy for soldiers to exaggerate the enemy's situation when they're panicked, let alone at night," Spanga said. "If they have a lot of troops, why don't they just take Jebri?"

Several people in the staff were nodding, feeling that Spanga's analysis was not unreasonable.

"I am determined to only transfer the anti-tank units directly under the group army there, to support the surface-to-air missile units to Khuzdal, and to keep the attack plan on the outskirts of Quetta in the early morning. In addition, tell Jebri's troops to hold on until dawn, everything will be fine."

"After dawn, the enemy will disappear?"

"It's because they won't wait to be surrounded. They will definitely leave before dawn, maybe to the south. If we abandon the main direction and turn back to pursue, then the whole situation will be messed up and their goal will be achieved."

On a hill 5 kilometers west of Jebri.

Lin Huaisheng and his headquarters are waiting for the results of the various troops.The command also uses nearby drones to understand the enemy's movements.The enemy he was looking forward to fully shrank, but did not appear, but there were a few troops in the north that were moving around, which made him a little worried.It was obviously not his intention to turn the battle into a stalemate, but he couldn't retreat now because Lao Ding still hadn't caught up with the S300 troops fleeing along the river.

All the horses in the hands of the chief of staff have been thrown out. At this moment, there is only a combat unit of the reinforced platoon and the communication/electronic support unit directly under the headquarters. These people are responsible for communication and the reconnaissance of several drones.

The Indian infantry rushing along the road at the foot of the mountain was very close to Lin Huaisheng's headquarters, so close that they could be heard yelling.However, Lin was not too worried about such troops without night vision equipment. What he worried about was that Lao Ding would suffer too much if he went too deep.

An unmanned aerial vehicle flew north along the Nar River. This aircraft provided information to the headquarters on the coast and Lin Huaisheng on the ground through the data link. At the same time, it also provided video to the domestic headquarters through the satellite communication channel. According to the image information, unlike other drones in this area, this drone also carries 2 infrared-guided anti-tank missiles.

The plane flies at a higher altitude so that the synthetic aperture radar on the plane can monitor several convoys moving on the ground at the same time.Its first task is also to find the surface-to-air missile unit.

Command far to the south weeded out vehicles moving in the wrong direction, eventually spotting a convoy approaching Jebri.The plane immediately turned around a few degrees, trying to capture the target with a forward-looking infrared device installed on the nose of the plane to confirm the nature of the target.

One of Lin Huaisheng's staff officers was constantly switching the video information sent back by various units. He glanced at the infrared-enhanced image sent back by the plane, and found that this unit was not trivial, and immediately requested tracking.Lin's troops can share data link information, but they can't take over the command of this aircraft belonging to Yu Zhendong's troops, so they can only do it in a hurry for the time being.

The plane adjusted its course and altitude.From time to time, low-altitude clouds drifted past and blocked the view. It can be roughly judged that this convoy is still 8 kilometers away from Lao Ding, and it is likely to be an armored force.

The UAV lowered to a low enough height, and it was determined that this was an armored vehicle unit with a wheeled chassis, but these armored vehicle chassis were not equipped with turrets, but square missile launchers.

"Nag missile?"

Lin Huaisheng said in a broken voice.Suddenly gunshots erupted at the foot of the mountain, as if the Indians had discovered something.He straightened up and glanced down the mountain. The Indians were shooting at Yahini's tanks indiscriminately, apparently not finding himself.He called the communications soldier over and called Yu Zhendong's headquarters directly.In the few days since he came to Pakistan, he has not yet communicated with the Mao team in the Makran Coastal Mountains. Since the collapse of the Karachi defense line, the main task of the artillery colonel has become to gather the retreating Pakistani ground forces. Organize a temporary defense of the sea; India has a marine corps of 5000 people, which has not been dispatched during the war.

Lin Huaisheng only knows that Yu Zhendong has very low requirements for personnel and materials, but he attaches great importance to various reconnaissance equipment and drone troops, which is why he was the first to obtain new reconnaissance/attack drones.Perhaps from his artillery standpoint, as long as the reconnaissance is done properly, most ground threats can be resolved by artillery.

The communication was completed quickly, and the other party immediately agreed to Lin's attack request.Immediately, the UAV started a new round of position adjustment and tried to intercept the target with a multi-spectrum targeting system.The command vehicle was unwilling to continue to take the risk of lowering the altitude, because there are some Indian short-range defense systems near the railway bridge, and these weapons are difficult for drones to detect.

Lin Huaisheng waited anxiously for the plane to fire. If it missed the timing, it might have a negative impact on the next move, but the response of the drone was always slow.He could see the crosshairs on the screen moving slowly between the first and second armored vehicles, showing some difficulty in aiming.Of course, on the other hand, the chief of staff can also realize that the operator in the command vehicle 120 kilometers away is not as anxious as himself.

The cross-aiming finally caught the first tank. At about the critical distance, the multi-spectrum infrared scanning caught it. Attacking the first target of the convoy as much as possible is the default approach of all units, although many times the commander Won't sit in the first car, but most of the time, can stop the whole convoy.

After a lengthy conversation between the operator and his superiors, the missile was finally fired.After Lin Huaisheng saw a puff of smoke, his vision tilted to one side, and it took a while to level off. Obviously, for a light and small plane, it is difficult to control its attitude. ,

The missile never appeared in the narrow field of view until the moment it finally hit the target.A huge explosion can be seen engulfing the vehicle, which slows down rapidly before coming to a stop.As expected, about 20 armored vehicles behind also braked one by one, and then there was chaos in the convoy, some tanks began to turn around, and some crew members began to abandon their vehicles and flee.

Due to the depletion of war resources, the closer to the western theater, the worse the performance of India's air defense forces, which directly caused the ground forces to lose confidence in the air defense forces.The mechanized troops are particularly panicked by those invisible or even inaudible air enemies. There is even a saying among the troops: when encountering an air attack, it is the safest way to abandon the vehicle and flee.Because enemies only attack big targets.

The UAV slowly circled the convoy, raised altitude and re-emerged above the clouds, using synthetic aperture radar for wide-area search mode.Lin Huaisheng didn't understand this overly conservative approach. He didn't know what the operator was afraid of. Why couldn't he also destroy the second missile?
The Indian infantry at the foot of the mountain did not stop. They fired indiscriminately at Yahini's tanks 2 kilometers away, regardless of the range. They obviously didn't know that there was an important headquarters hidden a few hundred meters away.

Lin Huaisheng was unmoved, he continued to observe the slow movement of the drone through the monitor.The resolution of the imaging radar is less than 05 meters, which can clearly see the condition of the entire ground.The enemy is recovering, and some vehicles have been restarted, ready to continue to the destination.Apparently they thought the Air Force plane that attacked them had returned.

(End of this chapter)