Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 36 Siachen Glacier

With the uninterrupted scanning of the radar at 3 o'clock, Hassan realized that the enemy was not only not far away, but also formed a formation.After all, he is a veteran, so he didn't panic, especially the ALQ-02 electronic warfare pod carried by wingman No. 211 with high power jamming.The technical officer at the base once said that this kind of pod has the best jamming effect on PD radar, and its ability to interfere with phased arrays is halved. Based on the fact that Indian early warning aircraft rarely appear in the air, this statement has not been fully tested.

"Rashid, use electronic jamming equipment, and you monitor the enemy aircraft," Hassan said.The voice reached the command post on the ground, and everyone was worried because the enemy's situation was unclear.

The latest electronic warfare pod is installed under the belly of Rashid's F16, which has strong electronic reconnaissance and analysis capabilities. In principle, this equipment should be in working condition at any time and it will automatically monitor and analyze various threats. Pakistani pilots do not use it very often in the air due to suspicion of the Americans (during the 2011 US raid on Abbottabad, all Pakistani electronic reconnaissance systems were disabled.) Soon, the electronic warfare pod found 3 The electronic analysis system identified one of the most distant pulse sources as an A50 early warning aircraft, a large Russian-made early warning aircraft.The other two sources of radar waves are judged to be Su-30MKI fighter jets approaching at high speed. The distance is still unknown, and it is roughly estimated to be within 50 kilometers.

"Captain, is it a head-on attack?" asked Rasheed of wingman 02.

"No. 3 and No. 4, turn at full speed and search for the enemy plane. Follow me, Rashid, and continue to conduct electronic interference." Hassan still did not forget to guide the missiles flying towards the enemy plane. At this time, the AIM120 missile on his HUD The countdown of the radar power-on, there are only 10 seconds left.He hoped that the No. 3 and No. 4 planes could quickly turn around to form a 2-on-2 situation with the enemy, and perhaps drive the two Su-30s away from the battlefield. From his experience, Indian pilots are always not brave enough. They usually launch a few R27s and then escape.After a while, he and the No. 2 wingman can turn to participate in the attack.

The 2 wingmen turned at a very high angle of attack, which was a wrong action, making it easy for the Su-30's radar to track it.Before Rashid's electronic jamming, two F2s had been locked by radar successively.The beams emitted by the Su-16's powerful phased array radar pointed firmly at the two planes, making it impossible for them to get rid of them. However, their mechanical radars were still in the scanning and ranging stage, which was only the first step in shooting.

"The eagle called the fort. The radar has locked on the enemy plane and asked to fire." Captain Goya said with his hand on the launch button. The two targets flew head-on from 2 kilometers away, completely within the attack envelope of the R30.

"The fort calls the eagle, allowing shooting." 200 kilometers away, the A50 issued an attack command.

The F16 pilot's radar had just caught the opponent at this time, but on the HUD, he still only saw two targets. I don't know whether the enemy has launched missiles, but common sense should guess that the enemy plane is unlikely to stop in the air and not fire. The No. 2 aircraft chose to circle away without receiving instructions, and the No. 3 aircraft stopped in the air. A few seconds, hoping to finish the track in time to return fire, a heroic act that ruined his last chance to escape.When he saw four dazzling light spots flying close to the side of the snow-capped mountain in the distance, it was too late for any evasion. The missile collided head-on with a Mach 4 fighter jet, the plane exploded in the air, and the pilot had no chance to parachute.

Hassan's attention was still focused on the MiG-21 in hot pursuit, and he didn't know that one wingman was dead and the other was fleeing.At this time, the MiG-21 in the distance had accelerated to Mach 1.7, and the pursuit of the missile became more and more difficult.But Hassan knew that the opportunity was coming. These MiG-21s who were much older than him could not run at a speed close to Mach 2 for too long.

Sure enough, the last target on the radar screen suddenly decelerated and dropped rapidly. This unconventional action was so sudden that the trailing missiles could not keep up with this change. The missile missed the target in an instant and did not explode.Immediately afterwards, the HHD showed that the target became two during the deceleration process, which shows that the MiG-21 that landed at the end did not perform any shocking super-maneuvering, it just disintegrated in the air.

"Captain, we have lost an aircraft. Number 3 is out of combat, location is unknown now," Rashid reported.

"The situation of the enemy?" Hassan could only ask his wingman without the help of the AWACS.

"2 Su-30 fighter jets."

"Great, you follow me, we have to avoid that damn early warning aircraft, approach them slowly, give them a little color." Hassan said, he didn't ask his teammates if they parachuted, because he didn't care about it at all. Such a thing, now he is misled by wrong information (before the wingman was shot down, the radar information transmitted through the data link was consistent with the electronic reconnaissance, so he thinks that there are only 30 Su-2s 30 kilometers away, which shows that Goya's fleet is also in use Data link, not every plane uses radar.) Prepare to launch a new counterattack, if he knows that the opponent is 4 planes, the normal decision at this time should be to flee immediately.

"Falcon 3 reports the location, I need you to return to the battlefield." Hassan called in vain, the terrain in this area is complex, if someone wants to escape at low altitude, communication may be restricted.But Hassan has made up his mind. He knows that in this situation, the offensive and defensive translocation depends on the suddenness of one side, and a simple 3 vs. 2 numerical advantage will not have much effect, so he is not at all on the 3rd machine. whether to come back.

"Rasheed, see the glacier over there? Let's go down and surprise the bastards."

The air conversation of the Eagle leader was transmitted to the command post through the radio, and Sammy couldn't help standing up. He knew what Hassan was planning, and Hassan taught all the tricks by himself.But Sami felt that Hassan's decision was a little rash, because the current battlefield situation is very chaotic, and the enemy is two Su-2s.

"Has our AWACS been in a clear position yet?" Sammy asked.

"It will take another 7 minutes to go further south, so that we can leave the shielded area." The major general said.

"Seven minutes, the air battle is already over."

At this time, the Indian Air Force's early warning aircraft could no longer find the remaining two F2s, but this early warning aircraft stayed 16 kilometers south of the column, and it could be seen that the escaped F50 was still rushing westward across the mountains. Depending on the situation it will not come back.

"Fort Call Eagle, we lost 2 F16s, 3rd is heading west, very low altitude. Pursuit is not recommended."

"Eagle understands."

Goya didn't want to leave the battlefield immediately. He knew that his AWACS was controlling the situation, so he was still in a huge advantage. He also wanted to search the mountains to try his luck.So he sent a wingman to fly to a high altitude to search and attract the attention of the enemy. He and several other planes turned on the IRST system, hoping to find something. He knew that the remaining two planes would not disappear out of thin air. Using mountainous terrain as cover is a common method used by both sides in previous air battles, and the last radar information indicated that they were turning towards themselves.

"Don't be afraid of air combat within visual range. Their rattlesnakes need time to cool down before firing, so we can definitely fire first. Our helmet sights are the nemesis for restraining the enemy." Goya said confidently, and he now has reason to be proud , His record is currently two. As far as he knows, if the part of Indian air combat history that served in the Royal Air Force in World War II is excluded, his record can probably be ranked among the top 5 among Indian pilots.

(End of this chapter)