Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 37
Close-range air encounters are accidental. In many cases, the battle situation is not determined by the angle or position of the two sides, but by who can see the opponent first.Of course, there are no absolutes in the world. On the surface, Goya’s team has 8 pairs of eyes to search the airspace, while Hassan’s 2 F16C-shaped fighter jets have only 2 pilots, and the pilots of the single-seat aircraft must worry about driving and look down every half a minute. A basic instrument and an electronic tactical threat display (MPCD), so the 2 F16s seemed to be at a disadvantage in the chaotic situation, but this time Hassan seemed to have some luck, he looked up and saw a lonely track turning in the sky, I was in a favorable azimuth on the right side, and the opponent obviously did not lower the height to hide, nor did I see myself.

"Look, that Su-30 is up there," the major said over the radio.

"But what about his wingman? The radar found two targets." Rasheed reminded.

"I don't know, it is indeed a trouble. You cover one kilometer behind me, and pay attention to your surroundings."

Hassan said that he may be a good pilot, brave and active, but he is still not sensitive enough to the possible danger, especially when he is rushing to the prey.

"I think it's about 8 kilometers, I have to do it quietly."

"You have to be careful, the back seat pilot is a problem." The wingman reminded.What Rashid said was not unreasonable. The rear seat of the Su-30 had a good view. As long as the opponent turned around frequently, he might also see the sneaky fighter jets following him.

"You're right, I have to maintain the current height and hide in a blind spot."

Hassan's plane also has 2 AIM9M fighting missiles. He lowered his head and selected 2 missiles in the attack option of MPCD, then switched on the power of the warhead, entered the automatic scanning mode of the seeker, and then pressed the seeker cooling button. This US-made missile needs to cool the seeker head before attacking. If the cooling is not sufficient, it may have an adverse effect on the omnidirectional attack.

When Hassan raised his head, the enemy plane was still moving north of the glacier, and his speed was slightly slower than his own.He followed carefully all the way, just waiting for the missile to find the target on its own, but the missile's seeker head was always in a ready state and failed to directly find the target. The major became a little impatient, because he hid in the enemy plane's 6 o'clock blind spot for tracking. It is necessary to keep raising the nose of the aircraft to align the infrared homing head guide ring with the target above. At the same time, it must be leveled frequently to prevent the altitude from being raised too quickly. With such labor-intensive movements, the speed of the F16C is always around 400 knots. It is not easy to catch up with each other.He knew that if he wanted to find the infrared heat source only by relying on the vision of the missile's own seeker, he would have to track it all the way to within 2 kilometers.He is a little anxious, because there are many lurking ground radars around the glacier, and they will start to scan the airspace from time to time, and with the early warning aircraft, it is only a matter of time before they reveal their whereabouts.Thinking of this, the captain put his hand on the radar switch. This is not a wise way. Turning on the radar will remind the opponent of his position in an instant. The enemy plane and surface-to-air missiles were attracted, but he changed his mind, if the enemy on the enemy plane was stupid enough, it might take ten seconds to check the position and make electronic contact, and then use ten seconds to release a few sets of chaff or start Electronic interference, and these redundant actions are ineffective for the Sidewinder, and this time is enough to complete the scanning-tracking-launching steps by itself.

"Leader Falcon, we can't see you now." The early warning aircraft sent an inquiry.

"Tell me about my surroundings."

"There is a mobile 2-coordinate search radar working in the southeast. This is the latest discovery." The Saab 2000 has been flying southward, and occasionally new discoveries are made. This is probably a ground search radar that can be deployed on a mobile basis. This sudden start-up radar can sometimes fill in the blind spots of long-distance early warning aircraft, and poses a considerable threat to pilots playing hide-and-seek in the mountains.

"Falcon understands."

The new discovery of the early warning aircraft increased Hassan's worries. He knew that many people on this damn control line were killed because of hesitation, so he had to make a quick decision. The major decided not to delay the time, and decisively use the radar Measure the enemy plane and assist the infrared missile to lock the opponent in advance, but he did not choose the traditional scanning and tracking mode. He thought that this would leave too much time for the opponent to react. He had to limit the mechanical scanning radar from doing useless dangling in the left and right directions , so he took the risk of using the vertical scanning mode. In this mode, the radar will search for the target in a very narrow range (about 4 degrees) in the vertical direction. The advantage is that it is easier to lock the enemy more quickly, but this also means that If the enemy reacts in time, the chance of escaping the locked range will be slightly greater.But the major was sure of his flying skills.

The moment the radar power was turned on, the enemy plane was moving slowly above the glass canopy. The major turned on the afterburner to increase the speed, and the engine speed increased suddenly. Within 5 seconds, the radar tracking would have completed one-to-one tracking. Sure enough, the enemy plane at 12 o'clock began to maneuver, trying to get rid of the pursuit, but it did not wait for ten seconds. It seemed that the vigilance of the Indian pilot was much higher than Hassan expected.The Su-30 began to dive downward to increase its speed, this action was expected by Hassan.He steadily placed the opponent in the narrow vertical search area, and the shooting elements such as the distance and angular velocity of the enemy plane were being measured.

"Captain, there is an enemy aircraft radar scanning at 4 o'clock, and the distance is very close." Rashid said.

"You block them for me, I need a few more seconds," Hassan responded, and he could only temporarily ignore Rasheed's report.

Ahmed Hassan served as Mohammad Sami's wingman in the 14th Squadron when he was young. During the war in Afghanistan and later the India-Pakistan conflict, Sami's record soared, but his gains were always zero. In the past few years, In addition to learning a lot of air combat skills, he also learned the greed and impulsiveness of old Sami.

"Captain, there are at least two enemy planes, and they have an altitude advantage 2 kilometers away." Rashid's terrified voice came from the radio, and it was obvious that Rashid had already guessed that it was not two Mimi planes 15 kilometers away. Grid 15, but two powerful Su-21 fighter jets.

"Falcon 2, release electronic jamming, you have to lure them away." The major ordered.

The enemy in front of Hassan was turning sharply while accelerating. It was hard for him to imagine that such a heavy aircraft could make such a sharp turn, almost running out of his narrow radar search range.He already had a premonition that today would be very different from the usual easy sneak attack, and it was likely to be a deadly situation.

(End of this chapter)