Exclusive: In Kargil War, India Was Minutes Away From Bombing Pak Bases

[TylerDurden07]

IAF or no IAF. pakistan Northern light Infantry ran away shamelessly from Kargil.

 

[zebra7]

Civilian aircraft ?

https://defence.pk/threads/the-atlantique-incident.270147/

Ha Ha He is confused between Civilian and Military Aircraft !!!

 

[Taimoor Khan]

Indians can plan whatever they want. it doesnt matter. Bottom line is, those who may have tried this non sense would have ended in similar fashion like those 2 Indian planes who crossed few hundred meters inside Pakistani airspace. PERIOD.

While on the subject, from international news sources, not Pakistani or Indian, Pakistan was actually preparing to nuke India during the height of Kargil operation.

 

[dray]

Surely Pakistanis have balls...

I mean after repeatedly failing for the last 70 years to take back the land that they claim and that is even part of their country's name......losing all the wars they fought in the process....losing control of Siachen Glacier.....losing half of their country......and destroying Pakistan economically, and socially by raising jihadis at home........they still have the 'balls' to brag about 'balls'...!!!!!

 

[PaklovesTurkiye]

LMAO.Atlantique is a military aircraft which can be armed with bombs, torpedoes and missiles.It was operated by Pakistan Navy.None on board were civilians.

But at that time, plane was unarmed and yet shot down...thats why u picked that thing out of sky because it was unarmed...otherwise if armed, our guys wouldn't have gone down alone but had taken you too along with.....

No need to feel happy, buddy. Next time, try to have some honor and shoot armed thing.....Gud luck

 

[ito]

Another delusional bharti that fails to realise that even without nuclear weapons Pakistan has one of the biggest and strongest militaries in the world with a population of 200 million and heavily armed

By the way, why do Pakistan need nuclear weapons? Your only enemy is India and India has the policy of no first use. You should give up nukes.

 

[zebra7]

But we still have the better overall score throughout history of dog fighting between us.

India cannot do such a thing, because it would have if it could have, history showed us that in 1971.

Besides, we have nukes so attacking us is suicide.

This all because it is feed into your head, from the Childhood Man.

Overall score LOLZ, First with the element of surprise PAF hit IAF planes on the ground.

Second PAF flows defencive sorties and A2A sorties More than Close area support.

Third let your brain think wisely that the attacking IAF planes in Pakistani airspace would be loaded with fuel and amunition load heavily and the PAF planes which are lightly loaded, which one will have the advantage of maneuravality, speed, and support from ground units and Radars.

Forth Kindly think wisely, the purpose of the Airforce is to fight for the country, and not fight its own war and not to shy away from the airsupport of the Ground forces, and fight only Air Battle for its own Glorry.

Last and not the least, pls tell Pakistani govt, and PAF to release the Gun Camera video of the Famous 5 jets kill in 1 minute claim.

 

[Windjammer]

@ In Kargil War, India Was Minutes Away From Bombing Pak Bases.

LoL, seems the minutes are long where Indians come from, while they were minutes away during Kargil, they pussy footed for a whole year in 2002 and then in 2008 they found their their worth after getting clipped around the ear.
It's hilarious when the IAF makes such tall claims considering the mere mention of PAF either makes them nose dive or simply lose nerve.

https://defence.pk/threads/the-cheapest-kill-2.437531/

2008 air alert
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, PAF was put on high alert. It deployed to all its wartime locations and started combat air patrols. The speed and intensity of the deployment and PAF's readiness took the Indian Army High Command by surprise and later reports suggest was the main factor in the Indian decision of not going for cross border raids inside Pakistan.[45][46] PAF was issued a Standing Order to launch an immediate counter-attack in case of an air attack from India, after a call from the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari

 

[Stephen Cohen]

@ In Kargil War, India Was Minutes Away From Bombing Pak Bases.

LoL, seems the minutes are long where Indians come from, while they were minutes away during Kargil, they pussy footed for a whole year in 2002 and then in 2008 they found their their worth after getting clipped around the ear.
It's hilarious when the IAF makes such tall claims considering the mere mention of PAF either makes them nose dive or simply lose nerve.

https://defence.pk/threads/the-cheapest-kill-2.437531/

2008 air alert
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, PAF was put on high alert. It deployed to all its wartime locations and started combat air patrols. The speed and intensity of the deployment and PAF's readiness took the Indian Army High Command by surprise and later reports suggest was the main factor in the Indian decision of not going for cross border raids inside Pakistan.[45][46] PAF was issued a Standing Order to launch an immediate counter-attack in case of an air attack from India, after a call from the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari

http://rbth.asia/articles/2013/01/16/migs_over_kargil_how_the_fulcrum_buzzed_the_falcons_21545.html

The Indian Air Force’s employment of airpower against Pakistan Army positions during the 1999 Kargil War at Himalayan heights of 18,000 ft – unprecedented in the history of aerial warfare – achieved three key objectives: it ensured an early Indian victory, demoralised the Pakistani military and showed the limitations of nuclear deterrence.

Because of the aerial superiority achieved by the IAF in the war – and again during the 2002 border standoff – the Pakistan Air Force’s “psyche took a big beating”, says a Strategy Page report.

While a number of IAF aircraft took part in the Kargil campaign, it was the cover provided by the MiG-29 Fulcrum armed with beyond visual range (BVR) missiles that exposed the PAF’s plight. “Analyses by Pakistani experts revealed that when the rubber met the road, PAF simply refused to play any part in support of the Pakistan Army, angering the latter,” says the report.

“While PAF fighters did fly Combat Air Patrols (CAP) during the conflict, they stayed well within Pakistani air space. On occasions, IAF MiG-29s armed with the deadly R-77 BVR air-to-air missiles were able to lock on to PAF F-16s, forcing the latter to disengage. In the absence of a PAF threat, the IAF was able to deliver numerous devastating strikes on intruder positions and supply dumps.”

The situation changed little during the 2002 border crisis between India and Pakistan. Strategy Page adds: “One Pakistani military expert observed that the PAF’s perceived inability to defend Pakistan’s airspace and even put up a token fight against the IAF was the biggest driver for Pakistani leaders’ warnings that any Indian attack would lead to an immediate nuclear strike by Pakistan. It would be no exaggeration to say that after the Kargil and 2002 experiences, PAF’s psyche took a big beating.”

In the report “Airpower at 18,000 feet: IAF in the Kargil War” published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2012, Benjamin Lambeth explains in detail how the IAF ground down both the Pakistan Army and the PAF: “Throughout the campaign, whenever IAF reconnaissance or ground attack operations were under way in the immediate combat zone, Western Air Command ensured that MiG-29s or other air-to-air fighters were also airborne on combat air patrol stations over the ground fighting on India’s side of the LoC to provide top cover against any attempt by the PAF to enter the fray in a ground attack role. PAF F-16s to the west typically maintained a safe distance of 10 to 20 miles on the Pakistani side of the LoC, although they occasionally approached as close as 8 miles away from the ongoing ground engagements.”

Lambeth quotes Air Marshal (retired) Vinod Patney, the then head of Western Air Command: “I think my insistence to mount CAPs across the (command’s entire area of responsibility) at different heights and times to give the message that I was ready and angling for an enlarged conflict helped. It was akin to throwing a glove, but it was not picked up.”

Although IAF fighters never joined in aerial combat with the PAF F-16s due to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s strict injunction that Indian forces not cross the LoC, years later IAF chief Anil Tipnis recalled he had “personally authorised his escorting fighter pilots to chase any Pakistani aircraft back across the LoC in hot pursuit were those pilots to be engaged by enemy fighters in aerial combat”.

Operation Vijay

It was when an IAF reconnaissance aircraft sustained a direct hit from a Chinese made Anza shoulder-fired surface to air missile launched by Pakistani intruder, that the IAF launched Operation Vijay to clear the Himalayan peaks. In the early hours of May 26, 1999 six attacks in succession by MiG-21, MiG-23 and MiG-27 fighters were launched against intruder camps, materiel dumps, and supply routes in the areas overlooking Dras, Kargil and Batalik.

The MiG-21bis squadron at Srinagar was joined by additional MiG-21M, MiG-23BN and MiG-27ML squadrons, while additional squadrons of MiG-21Ms and MiG-29s deployed northward to Avantipur.

While the MiG-29s kept the F-16s bay, the other IAF aircraft carried out ground sorties.

An example of Indian jugaad – or improvisation – was the use of stopwatches and handheld GPS receivers in their cockpits by MiG-21 pilots lacking sophisticated onboard navigation suites. According to Prasun K. Sengupta in “Mountain Warfare and Tri-Service Operations”, another novel technique developed by the IAF for use in the campaign entailed selecting weapon impact points so as to create landslides and avalanches that covered intruder supply lines.

Air Marshal Patney said one of his younger pilots decided to carry a small video camera with him in a fighter and to film the area of interest so that an immediate reconnaissance report was available and at an expanded scale. On another instance, the IAF used the MiG-25R – which normally flies at 80,000 ft – in a medium altitude role to improve the resolution of its pictures, something that the aircraft’s Russian designers may not have thought possible.

Laser strikes

However, the MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-27s – lacking modern weapons – were not making a significant impact on hard to locate enemy positions. MiG-23 and MiG-27 pilots were used to manual dive bombing runs, and this tactic wasn’t suited in the rarefied atmosphere of the Himalayas. At this point, the IAF introduced the Mirage 2000H equipped with day and night laser-guided bomb delivery pods.

On June 24, two Mirage 2000Hs, in the first-ever combat use of laser-guided bombs by the IAF, struck and destroyed the Northern Light Infantry’s command and control bunkers. According to Lambeth, “For this pivotal attack, the IAF waited until the encampment had grown to a size that rendered it strategically ripe for such targeting.”

The IAF reported at the end of 1999 that it resulted in as many as 300 enemy casualties within just minutes. Radio intercepts by Indian intelligence revealed severe shortages of rations, water, medical supplies and ammunition, as well as an inability of the occupying enemy units to evacuate their wounded, writes D.N. Ganesh in “Indian Air Force in Action”.

Check or checkmate?

The effectiveness of the IAF’s operations can be measured by the fact that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, rushed to New Delhi on June 12, and implored the IAF to “stop its air strikes.” You don’t get more desperate than that.

However, the most telling statement on the war was made by India’s then defence minister, George Fernandes. In January 2000, he observed that in precipitating the Kargil War, Pakistan “had not absorbed the real meaning of nuclearisation – that it can deter only the use of nuclear weapons, but not all and any war.”

In this backdrop, when the current air chief says India might have to look at “some other options” to make Pakistan behave, it is no empty boast.

And you can take that to the bank.

 

[MadDog]

In 1999, 2002 and 2008 India was minutes away from bombing Pakistan, but they didn't what a loser media they have !!! Say clearly the mere thought of their cities being wiped off the face of earth made them sh** in their pants !!!

 

[nik141993]

Surely Pakistanis have balls...

I mean after repeatedly failing for the last 70 years to take back the land that they claim and that is even part of their country's name......losing all the wars they fought in the process....losing control of Siachen Glacier.....losing half of their country......and destroying Pakistan economically, and socially by raising jihadis at home........they still have the 'balls' to brag about 'balls'...!!!!!

best comment of the day

 

[Panther421]

Sure sure

Little known fact!!!!

India doesn't have the balls

come, take Kashmir

 

[Windjammer]

http://rbth.asia/articles/2013/01/16/migs_over_kargil_how_the_fulcrum_buzzed_the_falcons_21545.html

The Indian Air Force’s employment of airpower against Pakistan Army positions during the 1999 Kargil War at Himalayan heights of 18,000 ft – unprecedented in the history of aerial warfare – achieved three key objectives: it ensured an early Indian victory, demoralised the Pakistani military and showed the limitations of nuclear deterrence.

Because of the aerial superiority achieved by the IAF in the war – and again during the 2002 border standoff – the Pakistan Air Force’s “psyche took a big beating”, says a Strategy Page report.

While a number of IAF aircraft took part in the Kargil campaign, it was the cover provided by the MiG-29 Fulcrum armed with beyond visual range (BVR) missiles that exposed the PAF’s plight. “Analyses by Pakistani experts revealed that when the rubber met the road, PAF simply refused to play any part in support of the Pakistan Army, angering the latter,” says the report.

“While PAF fighters did fly Combat Air Patrols (CAP) during the conflict, they stayed well within Pakistani air space. On occasions, IAF MiG-29s armed with the deadly R-77 BVR air-to-air missiles were able to lock on to PAF F-16s, forcing the latter to disengage. In the absence of a PAF threat, the IAF was able to deliver numerous devastating strikes on intruder positions and supply dumps.”

The situation changed little during the 2002 border crisis between India and Pakistan. Strategy Page adds: “One Pakistani military expert observed that the PAF’s perceived inability to defend Pakistan’s airspace and even put up a token fight against the IAF was the biggest driver for Pakistani leaders’ warnings that any Indian attack would lead to an immediate nuclear strike by Pakistan. It would be no exaggeration to say that after the Kargil and 2002 experiences, PAF’s psyche took a big beating.”

In the report “Airpower at 18,000 feet: IAF in the Kargil War” published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2012, Benjamin Lambeth explains in detail how the IAF ground down both the Pakistan Army and the PAF: “Throughout the campaign, whenever IAF reconnaissance or ground attack operations were under way in the immediate combat zone, Western Air Command ensured that MiG-29s or other air-to-air fighters were also airborne on combat air patrol stations over the ground fighting on India’s side of the LoC to provide top cover against any attempt by the PAF to enter the fray in a ground attack role. PAF F-16s to the west typically maintained a safe distance of 10 to 20 miles on the Pakistani side of the LoC, although they occasionally approached as close as 8 miles away from the ongoing ground engagements.”

Lambeth quotes Air Marshal (retired) Vinod Patney, the then head of Western Air Command: “I think my insistence to mount CAPs across the (command’s entire area of responsibility) at different heights and times to give the message that I was ready and angling for an enlarged conflict helped. It was akin to throwing a glove, but it was not picked up.”

Although IAF fighters never joined in aerial combat with the PAF F-16s due to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s strict injunction that Indian forces not cross the LoC, years later IAF chief Anil Tipnis recalled he had “personally authorised his escorting fighter pilots to chase any Pakistani aircraft back across the LoC in hot pursuit were those pilots to be engaged by enemy fighters in aerial combat”.

Operation Vijay

It was when an IAF reconnaissance aircraft sustained a direct hit from a Chinese made Anza shoulder-fired surface to air missile launched by Pakistani intruder, that the IAF launched Operation Vijay to clear the Himalayan peaks. In the early hours of May 26, 1999 six attacks in succession by MiG-21, MiG-23 and MiG-27 fighters were launched against intruder camps, materiel dumps, and supply routes in the areas overlooking Dras, Kargil and Batalik.

The MiG-21bis squadron at Srinagar was joined by additional MiG-21M, MiG-23BN and MiG-27ML squadrons, while additional squadrons of MiG-21Ms and MiG-29s deployed northward to Avantipur.

While the MiG-29s kept the F-16s bay, the other IAF aircraft carried out ground sorties.

An example of Indian jugaad – or improvisation – was the use of stopwatches and handheld GPS receivers in their cockpits by MiG-21 pilots lacking sophisticated onboard navigation suites. According to Prasun K. Sengupta in “Mountain Warfare and Tri-Service Operations”, another novel technique developed by the IAF for use in the campaign entailed selecting weapon impact points so as to create landslides and avalanches that covered intruder supply lines.

Air Marshal Patney said one of his younger pilots decided to carry a small video camera with him in a fighter and to film the area of interest so that an immediate reconnaissance report was available and at an expanded scale. On another instance, the IAF used the MiG-25R – which normally flies at 80,000 ft – in a medium altitude role to improve the resolution of its pictures, something that the aircraft’s Russian designers may not have thought possible.

Laser strikes

However, the MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-27s – lacking modern weapons – were not making a significant impact on hard to locate enemy positions. MiG-23 and MiG-27 pilots were used to manual dive bombing runs, and this tactic wasn’t suited in the rarefied atmosphere of the Himalayas. At this point, the IAF introduced the Mirage 2000H equipped with day and night laser-guided bomb delivery pods.

On June 24, two Mirage 2000Hs, in the first-ever combat use of laser-guided bombs by the IAF, struck and destroyed the Northern Light Infantry’s command and control bunkers. According to Lambeth, “For this pivotal attack, the IAF waited until the encampment had grown to a size that rendered it strategically ripe for such targeting.”

The IAF reported at the end of 1999 that it resulted in as many as 300 enemy casualties within just minutes. Radio intercepts by Indian intelligence revealed severe shortages of rations, water, medical supplies and ammunition, as well as an inability of the occupying enemy units to evacuate their wounded, writes D.N. Ganesh in “Indian Air Force in Action”.

Check or checkmate?

The effectiveness of the IAF’s operations can be measured by the fact that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, rushed to New Delhi on June 12, and implored the IAF to “stop its air strikes.” You don’t get more desperate than that.

However, the most telling statement on the war was made by India’s then defence minister, George Fernandes. In January 2000, he observed that in precipitating the Kargil War, Pakistan “had not absorbed the real meaning of nuclearisation – that it can deter only the use of nuclear weapons, but not all and any war.”

In this backdrop, when the current air chief says India might have to look at “some other options” to make Pakistan behave, it is no empty boast.

And you can take that to the bank.

BS article.
Simply all the fighting took place on the Indian side, thus all the IAF activities also took place on that side, few times IAF ventured over the border they never returned, both sides flew caps within own air space and while India habitually makes a song and dance about the MiGs locking on to F-16s and even goes to as far as awarding the Fulcrum pilot, the PAF didn't consider it such a big deal when a flight of two F-16s trailed five MiG-29s for almost 30 minutes before the Indian GCI warned them of PAF presence, they panicked in such a manner that they almost crashed into each other.....alas as the saying goes, small things amuse little minds.
BTW, one wonders if India had the upper hand, why did Mr Vajpayee needed to have a letter delivered by his ambassador to Bill Clinton, asking him to intervene in the crisis.

 

[Stephen Cohen]

BS article.
Simply all the fighting took place on the Indian side, thus all the IAF activities also took place on that side, few times IAF ventured over the border they never returned, both sides flew caps within own air space and while India habitually makes a song and dance about the MiGs locking on to F-16s and even goes to as far as awarding the Fulcrum pilot, the PAF didn't consider it such a big deal when a flight of two F-16s trailed five MiG-29s for almost 30 minutes before the Indian GCI warned them of PAF presence, they panicked in such a manner that they almost crashed into each other.....alas as the saying goes, small things amuse little minds.
BTW, one wonders if India had the upper hand, why did Mr Vajpayee needed to have a letter delivered by his ambassador to Bill Clinton, asking him to intervene in the crisis.

Every body knows the reality and truth

How much SPIN can you give to the truth

You were a US ally and that saved you

 

[Khan_21]

Surely Pakistanis have balls...

I mean after repeatedly failing for the last 70 years to take back the land that they claim and that is even part of their country's name......losing all the wars they fought in the process....losing control of Siachen Glacier.....losing half of their country......and destroying Pakistan economically, and socially by raising jihadis at home........they still have the 'balls' to brag about 'balls'...!!!!!

Yeah sure what happened in 2002 and 2008? All of a sudden got shit scared? In 2002 your army got shit scared and went back killing hundreds of your own soldiers. In 2008 indian airforce admitted it lacked clear capability to strike inside Pakistan. After all allegations of terrorism you can only cry and whine on your crappy arnaab goswami and Zee TV shows.

come, take Kashmir

Why dont you take kashmir from us which you claim to be your integral part?