Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 76 Meeting in a narrow road

"Bastion, we request to change the return route and fly directly to Adampur. Then turn back to the base. With the current situation, I cannot return the same way."

"Okay Captain Scorpion, allow to change the route." The AWACS allowed Pandit's request to return to the border nearby. This seems to be a safe shortcut, but last time, his team was also intercepted while taking this route.

"Why change course?" Lieutenant Thatch asked.

"It's safer to go east into the border and then turn south, we can't stay in enemy territory for too long. By the way, you have to keep an eye on the north. Not all threat AWACS will tell you that," said Capt. Pandit, along with many others Like the Indian pilot, he has a deep mistrust of the early warning aircraft in the sky, because these aircraft are sometimes not very reliable.

In the far northern section of the Suleiman Mountains, a large number of Pakistani fighter jets carrying medium-range missiles suddenly jumped over the mountain and appeared over the Punjab province without geographical barriers. When the Indian early warning aircraft saw them, the fleet had already bombed the dam in the second round The area of ​​​​2 kilometers after the fighter side is gone.However, this distance is still enough for Goya's escort fleet to respond in time. However, after Captain Goya led 180 Su-6MKIs of the Eagle Squadron to make a turn, he quickly discovered from the display on the vertical monitor that his team was at an absolute numerical disadvantage. among.

"Bastion, their number... is too large, I can hardly guarantee what will happen after the first round of medium-range bomb attack?" Goya said in a little panic.This is one of the few times that he feels scared from the bottom of his heart, not only because the enemy is close to three times his own size, but he also knows that among the new equipment that Pakistan has recently acquired are some heavy fighters with combat capabilities close to the Su-3MKI. , the enemy will fire long-range weapons at a distance up to the same as himself.There are also those remaining F30C/D and the AIM16-C120 they carried.In short, judging from the information of the early warning aircraft radar transmitted by the data link, they seem to be all here today.Although the Su-5MKI still has some advantages in technical indicators such as radar performance, the number today is 30 to 14.

"Bastion, I need the assistance of 'Rhino'."

"The Rhino Squadron is coming. Before that, Captain, you must intercept them." The early warning aircraft strictly ordered the captain to block the enemy plane.

Goya was a little dizzy, the fleet flew head-on, and the distance between the two sides shortened very quickly.The enemy was approaching in wall formation, and Rhino Squadron didn't know where it was.

"Brothers, we must be the first to launch the missile. Immediately conduct radar tracking." Goya bit the bullet and issued an order. This seems to be the only thing he can do at present. As far as he knows, the R77 has a better range than the AIM120C missile. There is one slight advantage.

In such a long-distance targeting confrontation, the Eagle Squadron's phased array radar has limited advantages. Within 20 seconds, under the guidance of the early warning aircraft, both sides used the high PRF mode of their respective radars to track each other's fighter jets successively. The difference is that Pakistan's radar immediately switched to a very secure one-to-one tracking. In this way, the slight disadvantage of the J-11 or F16C/D on the radar is completely reversed. On the contrary, the 6 Eagle fighters have to use the simultaneous scanning and tracking mode for multi-target tracking.This made the Goya team's operations more and more difficult.

"Trident Squadron is also fine, I need their help." Goya shouted, although he knew that today's mission made the Trident's aircraft unable to carry medium-range bombs.It's just that he saw on the monitor that the trident was fairly close, and the rhino had just crossed the border slowly.

"Eagle, you must hold on until the rhino arrives."

"Missile launch." Goya gave the order, and the timing was a little too early. The 6 missiles of the 12 fighter jets flew towards their respective targets.Goya doesn't expect to gain anything as it is clear that the launch range is too far and the target data update is insufficient (due to the use of multiple target tracking).It was obvious that his team would be crushed by the enemy within a minute, and what he had to do now was to buy some time for the attack planes that were running slowly to escape back to the country.

Before today, no one would have guessed that the Pakistan Air Force would dispatch so many fighter jets at once?This has never happened before.The idea of ​​underestimating the enemy that pervades the Indian Air Force makes the attack plan formulated by the staff look like a mess.The air force pulled out all available combat aircraft from all air force bases in Rajasthan and Punjab, and lined up for bombing, almost ignoring the enemy air force.However, the enemy replenished in such a short period of time, and immediately counterattacked aggressively.

On the HUD of the Su-30, the countdown to the start-up of the missile radar is jumping rapidly. At the very least, they have to wait until the number returns to zero before they can turn and escape.At that point, the missile will fly to the target on its own.In Goyard's cockpit, the warning sound from the radar siren kept echoing, and he knew that the other fighters in the entire squad were locked on just like him.

"The enemy has launched a missile." The pilot of the AWACS shouted.

It seems that the advantage of the R77 in range has been offset, and Pakistan must have secretly obtained something new from a neighboring country.

"Hold on," Goya said, trying to stabilize his team.At this time, he himself was already drenched in sweat.If you turn and flee immediately, you will be safe, but the 12 missiles in the air will lose the command correction of the data link, and it is absolutely impossible to hit any target.But if you stick to it, the missiles flying on the opposite side will also get closer to you.

"Captain, there are too many of them, we can't take advantage of it." A pilot's terrified voice wafted through the team's communication channel, and he spoke the aspirations of everyone (including Goya).

I don't know what kind of confidence it came from, but the oncoming Pakistani fleet did not take evasive actions. Perhaps it was because of their confidence in their numerical superiority, and they were convinced that the Indian fighters would definitely collapse first in such a narrow situation.

"All, make a 180-degree turn to avoid it." Captain Goya finally failed to hold his breath. When the R77 was still 27 kilometers away from the enemy plane and the seeker radar failed to effectively detect the enemy plane, he turned around and fled along the opponent's radar tangent.At a distance of 65 kilometers, this instant maneuvering method is still easy to unlock a highly maneuverable fighter.However, it is inevitable that one's own missiles miss the target.

At this time, India's air command fell into considerable confusion, just as Goya's team took a huge risk to delay the huge enemy fleet that had crossed the Suleiman Mountains from rushing towards the vulnerable attack aircraft.The order to abandon the bombing and evacuate quickly has not yet been issued to the bomber formation.

The A50 early warning aircraft of the Ares Squadron has air command capabilities. In fact, the Indian Air Force has also delegated the entrusted command authority to this early warning aircraft.But no one on this plane dared to make a decision on whether to give up the all-out attack, so they wasted precious time communicating with the command post on the ground.If the plane had an officer above a major general sitting in command, perhaps the situation would be very different.But now the situation is taking a turn for the worse. Pakistan's breakthrough fleet began to divide into two parts, and the six F6s continued to chase the Eagles turning south to prevent them from turning around.The other 16 fighters began to turn to the direction of the dam.Major General Islam is currently in a ZDK-8 early warning aircraft above Atak. This type of aircraft is not easy to lose the target when turning, so it has become the air command aircraft for this battle.Another Saab 03 also remained in the air at the same time as a backup early warning aircraft.

(End of this chapter)