Khurana shouted as he ran over in his flight-suit to the hardened aircraft shelter. Khurana and the rest of No. 28 Squadron detachment at Leh were the last to be scrambled from the airbase. The Fulcrum only had so much endurance once in the air. And with every single aircraft in the IAF inventory rushing for the safety of the skies, there weren’t enough IL-78 airborne tankers around to refuel everyone. Once the missiles broke through, it was anyone’s guess whether or not they would be able to land back here or not. They would need to stay up there long enough after the attack for the confusion to be sorted out before recovering to one airbase or another. But with the first missiles now entering range for his Fulcrums to attempt an intercept, they could not delay any more…
Khurana was already climbing into the cockpit by the time the two other Fulcrums taxied past his shelter towards the runway. He could see them in the distance as he settled into his cockpit and strapped himself in. Ground crewmen were running around checking the weapons hanging from the pylons. Khurana knew that these men he saw working around him would have to bear the attacks here while most of his pilots would be in the air.
“You take care of yourself down here, and keep your head down! You hear me?” he told the old, aged Warrant-Officer helping him strap into his seat.
“I heard you, sir. But do us a favor and knock out as many as you can up there. Give them hell!” he patted Khurana on the shoulder, closed the cockpit around him and then jumped off the stairs before removing them. He waved off a salute to Khurana which Khurana returned sharply just as the engines came alive inside the shelter.
Less than a minute later the Mig-29’s nose emerged from the shelter into the cold Ladakh air and the aircraft rolled towards the end of the runway. Most of the Mig-29s at Leh were already in the air except for Khurana and his wingman to his side. He looked to his right to see the main tarmac at Leh also devoid of all transport aircraft. All of the C-17s, Il-76s and An-32s had already departed. He did see a whole bunch of ground crews attempting to clear all cargo and supplies off the tarmac in anticipation of what was coming. His radio squawked back to life:
“Claw-One, this is Leh tower. You are clear for immediate departure!”
“Roger, tower. Claw-One is rolling,” Khurana released the brakes and pushed the throttle forward and clicked into afterburner. The aircraft leaped forward on the runway. His wingman to his right did the same. Several seconds later both aircraft were in the air and climbing out of Leh and above the Ladakh peaks.
“Leh tower to all Claw elements. Switch to Eagle-Eye-One for airborne control. Score one from all of us down here. Leh tower is now shutting down…”
“We have contact! Multiple inbounds detected on bearing zero-three-five! More inbounds detected! Here they come!”
The radar tracking specialist on board the Indian CABS AEW aircraft shouted into his comms headset for all inside the aircraft to hear. Even as the crew commander was rushing down the central corridor between the consoles, the radar operator was already switching the computer to track mode and checking the flight profile data…
“Confirmed Chinese cruise-missiles inbound. Tracking seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and counting many more now!”
By this time the crew commander was behind the console operator. The commander switched his headset’s comms network so that he was able to talk with the operations staff at the Eastern Air Command in Shillong…
War officially broke out between India and China when the first of the Chinese cruise-missiles cleared the peaks of northern Arunachal-Pradesh and streaked southwards. Almost every type of defense that could be erected on the Indian side to defend against such an attack was up and running. But they faced several challenges including short reaction time, difficult terrain for high-end surface-to-air missiles and mountainous terrain that resulted in patchy long-range radar coverage.
Of the three dozen cruise-missiles aimed at the Indian Army in the region, most went through unscathed. The radar directed gun batteries near the Tawang sector took their toll and knocked two missiles out as they entered the valley.
A handful of others were also knocked out of the skies to the east by short-ranged surface-to-air missiles of the Indian Army. But with only a dozen or so missiles aimed per Division inside Arunachal-Pradesh, the Chinese could not hope to hit much. Their missiles also lacked the accuracy required to take down specific targets inside deep mountainous terrain. So they were more aimed at the various headquarters in each Division area and also major artillery battery locations. All three Indian Division HQs and the Corps HQ had been evacuated of personnel to alternate sites in the past hour. But the evacuation had been hectic and incomplete in such a small timeframe…
The ground shook violently throughout the region as the first of the Chinese cruise-missiles slammed into their targets in the hills of Arunachal-Pradesh. Brigade and Division HQs in all three Divisions of IV Corps took hits and many went offline. The night skies lit up with orange fireballs as the Indian Army defenses took a beating. Many gun batteries in the region were mauled because of their immobility and lack of time. The UAV coverage of the border had been shut down for the last half hour as units had recovered their aircraft back on the ground for evacuating. But it hadn’t been possible to evacuate the entire equipment in an hour. The biggest blow from the attacks came when the UAV bases near Tawang, Bomdi-la and Walong took direct hits. Most of the command trailers were destroyed while others were thrown about like junk under the force of the explosions.
One crucial ISR node had gone down.
And the attacks had just begun…
Even as the three Indian Mountain Divisions in the hills of Arunachal-Pradesh reeled under the attacks, the rest of the missiles were already streaking overhead as they went south towards the main focus of the attack: the Indian infrastructure south of the Himalayas.
This was where they cleared the mountains and presented themselves to the main Indian air defenses. Several batteries of Akash SAMs now came online as the Rajendra Radars immediately picked up the contacts. But the numbers were against them. With over seventy missiles for this region diving into their targets around the Brahmaputra River, the engagement time was short.
Akash missiles leaped into the sky in barrages as the system was capable of engaging several targets at once. And they did. The skies around Tezpur, Chabua and Jorhat were lit up by orange-yellow exhausts streaking into the air with their characteristic swishing noises visible to the entire Indian population in the region. Missile launchers fired off the live rounds one after another until the launcher rails were empty. Of the seventy odd missiles racing in, thirty one were knocked out of the sky in massive fireballs and thunderclaps throughout the region. But with that short and brutal engagement complete, the crews of the Akash missile batteries watched helplessly as the remaining missiles flew into their targets…
Airbases at Chabua, Jorhat and Tezpur received the brunt of the damage despite the efforts of the local ADGES. There were just too many missiles in the sky to take care of. The massive explosions shook the region. Contact with all three airbases was immediately lost. The road junctions north of Tezpur received a direct hit from a Chinese missile as well.
Further to the west, Hashimara airbase received multiple hits with major craters on the runway. When the smoke cleared and the shockwaves died away, raging fires had gripped the ATC building. Most of the buildings at the airbase were also shredded…