Before read: It is a Noval written by 野狼獾 Ye Langguan. Although it begins with a brief air combat, the story is about something much bigger. I had translate the first chap into English. However, with my crappy English and lack of technical knowledge, the work is not that perfectly done. If someone wishes to help by correcting the mistakes I've made, please do so 
Also the names of the character might not make sense, please help to correct if wanted.
“It’s cool in here.” Staff sergeant whispers to himself, and turns his head around. He sees a truck mounted air cooling system parked next to the aircraft and the grayish pipe in between.
Modi then climbs into the cockpit, switches on the cockpit panel, and start checking the instrument one by one. It is a routine check before the take off. Whenever he makes sure an instrument is functioning well, he put a tick in his checklist.
“Rudders on the vertical stabilizers!” The staff sergeant steps on the rudder pedals.
“Left, right, Checked.” A numb voice shouted out from behind the aircraft.
Staff sergeant put another tick on the checklist.
“Missile pylons!” shouts Modi, and swithes on the weapon control panel. For an awful long moment, the staff sergeant hears no answer but an odd silence. He sticks his head out the canopy and sees a man sitting in the shadow of the wing.
“Did u hear me? Check the pylon 2!”
Private Nigam gets on his feet in a slow motion, takes a flashlight out of his pocket, switch it on and shake it from left to right in front of the inferred guidance head of the missile. The staff sergeant then saw a blink on the HUD and a short “BEEB” from the buzzer.
“Now check Pylon 8!” Says Modi, swiping the sweat off from his forehead and continue ticking his list.
For other part of the planet, it could be a cold and slowing season. However, in this typical sub-continental spring, the bituminous runway outside of the concrete hanger is melting.
Staff sergeant Modi has completed the routine check. There is one last blank left in the bottom of the checklist, that’s where the pilots should put their signatures. He climbs off the aircraft and walks to the AC truck. Suddenly, he hears an Indian comedian is making lousy jokes in a perfect Pakistani Punjabi accent. It was the private listening to his radio very casually. This is another breach of the 13th squadron’s disciplines.
“Rajiv you Gandu, how many times I have to tell you, you shouldn’t wear sleepers while you are on duty! If the caption sees you in these…”
“Caption went to Bangalore this morning.” Says the private, as if he couldn’t care less.
“That’s irrelevant, I can put that in my report, you fool!” warns the staff sergeant. However, he really can’t do anything to these soldiers who just want to dawdle around.
200 meters from this gigantic fighter jet in a resting room with air conditioning, two pilots in G-suits are waiting for a flight order that can come any minute. It is a boring noon. Lieutenant Rajneesh Goel is checking to flight route for today’s mission on an old map which has been on this wall ever since he joint 13th squadron. Weapon system operator Lieutenant Neelam Verma is reading the Indian express. He sees the head line in the front page “1000 deaths counted 10 days after Mumbai Massacre.”He goes to page 2 and sees a more shocking title “Ministry of Home Affairs Confirms ISI Planed The Attack”.
“We need to teach them some lessons.” says Verma to himself.
Goel walks to the window and looks out. He sees the ground crews are taking off some pipes from the aircraft, and the air start unit is beside his SU30MKI. The WSO throws away the newspaper and join with his pilot. “I heard the 5th showed up last night. They covered the attackers from far side. I hope we’ll confront them and show them our manners.”
“Don’t underestimate them, my friend. The 5th is their best.” says Lt. Goel with an extraordinary glow in his eyes.
“Yeah, but we are the best pilots of all India” says Verma with dressing his mustache with his right index and big finger so that it points upwards.
“You are right, we are the best, and we will show them some manners.”
The pilots have their hands tap on each other’s back when they both leave the cool room and enter the hot and huge airfield.
When the Goel and Verma pass by the compressed air cart, staff sergeant Modi along with his ground crew all stand straight by the plane and smile to the pilots. Lt.Goel smiles back. He sees a new face hanging around the inlet. He probably thinks it’s good to stay away from the sun by standing there.
Goel swiftly get into the cockpit and finds the cockpit panel is already power-on. With the help of the staff sergeant, Goel has his safety belt put on. Then he turns on his VHF and switches it to 77.9 MHz, one of the main communication channels of the squadron. Immediately he hears from the control tower.
“Eagle 302, this is Lt Colonel Maisnam. You are free to take off, over.”
“Eagle 302 Copied, over.” Goel replies, while quickly scans the cockpit panel, and again he proves first staff sergeant Modi is as reliable as usual.
“New intel, there are some movement of the Pakistani 33th squadron in Quiba. It is possible they might be coming towards Kasur. The army has just finished some constructions over there. The Pakistani might be targeting them, over.”
“That means we had something to do.” Goel replies.
“Listen. There have been some changes in your mission. After takeoff, fly towards Srinagar and provide air cover for the Lions squadrons. Watch their flank. Then turn back when you reach the northern border. The AEWS of 181st squadron will provide live intel and mission update while you are in the air. I remind you, your mission is to feint an attack in the north. If fire breaks out above Punjab, let the Lions handle it, over.”
“Hmm…let the lions handle it, again. I knew it. What about the alternate airports?”
“The airfields in Srinagar are good for your SU30, over.”
In the back seats, Lt. Vermar presses a few buttons to reset the flight course and alternates.
“Why we are always providing cover?” Goel can’t help asking. He wants to know why.
“Because the caption has gone to Bangalore.” Colonel Maisnam replies.
“There’s another possible reason, though” says Vermar, “because we are the best of the best. They can’t afford to lose us.”
First sergeant Modi stands in front of the jet, signals the pilot to test allthe rudders, and then climbs back to the cockpit to have Goel sign the checklist.
“Good Luck”
“And you, too. One more thing, get that newbie away from the inlet, please.”
The canopy slowly comes down. The boarding ladder is removed. Goel turns on the brake on the front landing gear, switches on the fuel tank selector, and then starts the engines. Soon, the war plane starts to roar. When RPM gauge shows 20% of speed, he turns his ahead around and sees the ground crews are removing the last compressed air pipe and the electricity cable away. Goel slowly push forward the throttle. He can feel the plane is shaking. The RPM slowly increases and then the speed reaches 50%, Goel sets loose the brake. The plane then slowly moves ahead.
Seeing a gigantic monster fully loaded with missiles is accelerating ahead, Private Nigam was stunned, and confused.
“Sergeant, why there is a white plane-like marking on the fuselage? I haven’t seen one like that in any other squadrons.”
After 2 days since first seeing private Nigam, staff sergeant Modi thinks this dumb kid has finally asked meaningful.
“You fool, Goel is a great pilot. A few years ago, Lt. Goel in behalf of 24th squadron took part in the Operation Red Flag in Nevada America. He shot down a F15.” Staff sergeant answers proudly.
“Unbelievable!”Says private, amazed, “Was that real or exercise?”
“You dumb ***, move that AC truck away!”
After taxing for a while, the SU30MKI lifts its head and flies away from the runway. Goel pull the throttle to the middle position and turned off the afterburner. Landing gears are up, and the plane flies north-west after circle around Barali air base.
“I know the 33rd squadron of Quiba. It’s just an ordinary tactical attack unit with a bunch of ancient planes. Hmm…some old Mirages and some Chinese Migs.” Says Verma, in a tone of disdain, “Unfortunately, our course is off the battle. The lions are the lucky one today. Still, they might come back with empty hands just like the day before yesterday. They launched a missile from a far distance, far eastern of Kasur, and hit nothing. The bogie got away as if it was walking a park.”
“They are always too reckless” Says Goel, “their tactics is having the radar turned on like a flashlight in the night, signals everyone ‘hey we are here’.”
“Eagle 302, this is eagle nest, The AEW has some sort of malfunction and has returned to base. You will be navigated by ground radar, over.
Just like any other moment in IAF history, an unanticipated event again takes place. Goel is not surprised. His SU30MKI continue on a course at altitude 4,500 meters with medium speed. It is basically a straight course.
SU30MKI slowly approaches the line of actual control. RWS starts to blinks occasionally. Vermar checks each of the sources. They were either navigating radar, or the G-band radar signal from the 19th infantry’s SAM6. None of them comes from Pakistan.
The white mountains are in sight, beyond that is under Pakistan’s control.
“Eagle 302, be advised. The lions missed the targets. They didn’t come to Punjab, and we lost track of the signal. They might have returned, or headed north to your position. Stay alert, over.”
“Eagle 302 copied, over.”
“Eagle 302, keep an eye on those mountains, the bogies might be flying low, taking cover from these mountains. It was impossible for us to keep track of them in this mountainous area. If these Mirages keep heading north, eliminate them from long range. Don’t get too close.” Preserving his precious planes is always the priority of Colonel Maisnam’s tactics, even if it is a 40 years old Mirage III on the other side.
“Copied that. They are good at using the advantage of the terrain.”
“Maintain altitude. Turn on your fire-control radar, over.”
Lt. Goel has a feeling that this might be a chance. He did a quick estimation, if the enemy is sneaking into the north in low atitude, then the target might be ahead of him, or, his SU30MKI is behind and above the bogie’s tail. Lt Goel didn’t switch on his radar as the command suggested. Instead, he turns on the IRST and starts infrared signal scan mode. It is a passive mode that doesn’t give his position away. It has an equivalent resolution and line of sight compare in close range compare to conventional radar.
After a short moment of silence, the radio again starts making noise.
“Eagle 302, this is Eagle nest. Bad news. New intel indicates Kargil forward base is attacked. Those bastards must be somewhere at the north below our radar. **** the 181st (the AEWs squadron).”
A bad news? Army losing couples of bunkers is not a bad news. Goel is happy that the location of the enemy is finally confirmed to be ahead of him. And a few concrete houses are not that much of a lost.
“Eagle 203, pursue the enemy, they should be dead ahead of you. Remember the rule of engagement, BVR only, over.”
“Eagle 203 copied.”
“One more thing, missiles can cross the border, not the entire airplane. It is the congress’s’ duty to declare a war, not yours, over.”
Goel didn’t waste a second to respond, he pushes the throttle and the seat hits his back. The aircraft soon reaches 850km/h. It is obvious the enemy wouldn’t flee west right after dropping the bomb. They would fly along the mountain in order to hide themselves from detection. Lt. Goel has made his own strategy then flies towards where the enemies are most likely to be. He didn’t pay any attention to the rule of engagement.
“Should we switch on our radar to increase our range of search?” Verma asked from the back.
“No, it will give out our position, we don’t want them to know we are behind them.” Goel is sure that if the ground radar can’t find the enemies, it means they must have hid themselves behind the mountains. Instead of fly straight to west, the enemies must have circled to the north side of the mountains.
“You see the mountains ahead of us?” Goel asked, “they must be on the other side of them. If we fly over them, we will find them.”
“But that will cross the border. It’s prohibited.”
“Forget the ROE, if I am right, they will be at our 1 o’clock. We will have an upper hand to open fire first.”
Goel start to decent his plane to 2,700 meters. The lines of the mountain start to take shape. He then banks left, keeps a low slope and glide over the mountain. The communication is immediately cut off. In a few seconds, his HUD starts to shows things—a greenish dashed rectangular frame. It seems IRST has picked up the heat signal of the bogies.
“I don’t have a clear view yet, it could be a very tiny aircraft.”
“Laser ranging failed. We are still too far away. It might be 25 KM of us. Altitude…about 1,600 meters.”
For Lt. Goel, the good news is, the bogies have no idea someone is on their tail; the bad news is if there are any hostile SAM sites nearby, their position might be compromised. HUD keeps displaying new information. With the distance between them decreasing, the infrared signal is enhancing. IRTS keeps on scanning. The target locking frame is fixed on the target, and the system entered tracking mode. Lt. Goel select R73, it is the most reliable weapon for a sneak attack. However, he only has two of them on board; the rests are heavy SARH missiles—Colonel Maisnam’s favorite way of “sneak actack”.
Lt. Goel first presses down the weapon ready switch. The R73 now is powered on. The “ready to launch” starts blinking. If he’s running out of patience, he can now fire the missile. Infrared guided missile can be launched with or without knowing actual distance and speed. Of course, whether or not hitting the target is another story.
According to Goel’s experience, If he can actually see a Mirage III or a Mig21 during day time, then the distance in between is about 8 to 10 KM. Since he can’t see the plane ahead of him, he decides to wait to get closer.
Suddenly, the dashed frame on the HUD splits into two. Now it is clear. There are two bogies instead of one.
“We’ve only got 2 infrared guided missiles. Why don’t we use radar guided missiles?” asks Verma.
“No, we better keep ourselves in the dark. We should keep the advantage of surprise. Keep an eye on the signals from the west, they’ve deployed some mobile SAMs in the west side of their line
of control” says Goel.
“Understood, I’ll handle that.”
The bogy ahead of them is still unaware of the SU30MKI behind it. Lt. Goel has closed into 4 to 5 KM and he now can identify the aircraft ahead of him. It is a Mirage V fighter-bomber. There is no fuel tank of bombs under its wings. Goel guesses there should be at least 2 magic AAM. The lead aircraft has not yet insight. Goel now has a hard choice. He can either quietly take out the enemy aircraft fell behind, or he can use track while search mode (TWS) and attack both targets. However, the RWS on board the enemy aircraft will notice the threat, and if they take the right counter measurement, the battle will become 2 VS 1. There’s not much time for hesitate now.
One week after the conflict broke out between India and Pakistan. It remains as ground troops firing artilleries against each other. Air force of both sides participates only by occasionally dropping some small conventional bombs, never an air combat, nor was an aircraft shot down. Now it is the opportunity for a young lieutenant brought up in a country side. Therefore, Lt. Goel will not allow himself to take any risky decision that will blow his opportunity away. He has made up his mind. Take out the Mirage secretly, and take the other bogy 1 on 1. He’s confident that even it is a F16CD from the 5th won’t stand a chance in front of him. Plus, it could be just another ancient Mirage. After it sees its wingman is shot down, it might die trying to fly low to hide, and probably ends up crashing to the mountains.
Goel focus on the target. After the last piece of cloud between the Mirage and the SU30MKI disappears, Lt. Goel tried another laser ranging. This time, IRST successfully find the distance in between, and R73 also capture the heat signal. The continuous warning tone inside the cockpit indicates the guidance head of the missile has a perfect lock on.
Goel presses down single-launch button. One missile flies away from Pylon 8, dragging a long white tail, heads straight towards the target.
Goel laid his hand on the radar switch. No matter what happened next, hit or no hit, he will turn on the radar.
The Mirage has no reaction. The pilot has no idea that 4 KM behind him, a R73 is heading towards him. Normally, the pilot that flies in the back of the formation is responsible for watching 6 o’clock. He should at least turn his ahead every 30 seconds. Goel pray the Pakistani pilot in that Mirage not to turn his head around. If he would turn his head around, he would’ve seen it, but until his death, he didn’t. The Mirage blasts into a huge fire ball and falls.
“Splash one!” Goel can barely contain his excitement. First real shot down in his career, and the second is probably ahead of him. But he didn’t waste a second to celebrate. Goel immediately turn on the fire control radar and switch into vertical scan mode and adjust the scan rate to medium. He knows the target is right ahead of him, somewhere in the clouds.
Sooner than expected, the radar has found the target and shown on the MDF in front of Verma. Instead of one target, there are many.
“He is throwing decoys!”
“He is good!” says Goel with a cold breath in his throat. Goel realize the enemy must has sensed his intention as he’s releasing chaff decoy at the very same second Goel turns on his radar.
“But not good enough!” says Goel. He steps on the vertical rudder pedal, at the same time he bank right hard. The SU30MKI starts a nearly vertical dive and drops to 1,500 meters (relative). Goel assume the enemy pilot must be in a huge panic. He also believes within this close range, his AESA can burn through the jamming and have a clear lock on. The rest will be deciding whether to use one R73 or two R27 to send him to his Allah.
However, once again unanticipated happened. Goel lost his target. Just like the shadow of those aluminum decoys, the enemy aircraft disappears in Goel’s radar and the HUD. Lt. Rajneesh Goel always considered himself experienced, but at this moment he has no backup plan. It seems totally impossible that the enemy aircraft just vanished. The worse scenario is that they somehow ran ahead of the enemy, but Verma keeps looking back and spot nothing. Did it just panic and crashed into the ground? There is only one burning fuselage and that was the Mirage V. I didn’t even know what it looks like. Goel wonders, and assume perhaps the enemy got away.
“We lost the target. He might have descended into lower altitude.” Goel actually finds his own judgment ridiculous as they are now at less than 1,000 meters and there’s no way he could escape from the radar track.
“You think he’s planning to strike back?” asks Verma.
“No, not quite possible” says Goel, “If he had climbed, we’ve had noticed. He must have flown…”
Before he can say “…to the other side of the mountain and escaped”, suddenly, he sees a small, silvery dot at upper left of his canopy, coming out from the fog at the mountain peak and closing. It is clear the enemy has again hid behind the mountain and then circles out from the back of the mountain. For a moment, Goel was shocked, because the enemy not only has not fled, but also is pulling a 6G turn and heading right towards his 9 o’clock.
“****! Contact, 10 o’clock! Moving fast!” shouts Verma with a huge tense, “and he’s still pulling!” Although Verma can’t see this Pakistani aircraft clearly, however, it is sure that this is a very maneuverable light-weight fight jet. It’s very possible that this is a F16A or even F16CD.
Goel is feeling like someone just grasps his heart and squeeze all the blood out. If the enemy jet gets to their 8 or 7 o’clock with his nose pointed right at their Su30MKI, it will turn really ugly.
“Not so easy!” Goel banks left and pulled tense turn he never tried before so he can keep the enemy at his 9 to 10 o’clock. With the vectoring nozzles and high thrust-weight ratio, Goel believes his SU30MKI can regain advantage at this turning game. It is such a tight and narrow valley that Goel can see the mountains and snow very clearly. He must fight with the fear to remain calm. For a few times his wingtip pylons almost hit the rocks.
“Alright, that’s it.” Goel decides enough is enough. He pushes down the nose and with the acceleration, he pulls a 7Gs turn. In about 10 seconds, his SU30MKI is catching up and the enemy is approaching to his 10 o’clock. He finally sees that it is a single engine fighter with a configuration that is very much like a F16.
Suddenly, the white enemy jet pulls up to SU30MKI’s upper right and slowing down. Now Goel has to look up in order to keep track on A slight fear strikes Goel as he just realize now he is running ahead of his enemy. The Pakistani pilot is like a patient fishermen, throwing out bait and wait for Lt.Goel to make mistakes.
“Cunning bastard!” Lt. Goel is getting a little bit angry at himself as he shouldn’t underestimate his enemy. Goel immediately did a roll over and then pull up to gain a high altitude. As a result, his SU30MKI lost some speed. Now the bogy stays his 2 to 3 o’clock, but he is not on full afterburner. Goel knows the enemy is waiting, He also knows who ever gets impatient will lose this game.
“Damn!” the Lieutenant feels humiliated by this light fighter. “Don’t you underestimate me!” He knows he’s winning the fight, because after continuous high AoA maneuvers, both of the planes are losing too much speed. If the scissor chasing game continues, the single engine jet, which tends to has lower thrust-weight ratio, will either has no energy to turn, or crash by making a turn with a too low speed. Above all, Lt. Goel still has a secret weapon to use, and his waiting for that moment.
When Lieutenant Rajreesh Goel and Lieutenant Neelam Verma were still receiving training in TACDE. They have simulated dogfight against Mirage2000-5, which is believed to be a more advanced and highly maneuverable fighter jet. SU30MKI might better powered, but Mirage2000-5 has a very impressive turn rate. At first, Goel found Mirage2000 very difficult to defeat, but then he discover that however agile Mirage2000 is, if it does a continual turn, it will lose speed very quickly. Goel has repeatedly defeated his Mirage2000 instructors by bringing the fight into low altitude turns.
However, this small jet is another story. After series of turns, both planes were losing speed, but they still remains in each other’s 3, 9 o’clock. Now the altitude has dropped to a few hundred meters. There is not enough of height for neither of the pilot to do a high G turn. Goel knows that if he didn’t have so many of those over weight but useless R27 under the wing, the fight might have been much easier.
“It’s just a small single engine jet” Goel whispers to himself, carefully controlling the throttle in case again running ahead of the enemy, “And I,” Goel pressed down the switch of the helmet mounted sight. “I’m in a SU30MKI!” the HMS now is on, when it has a lock on, Goel can fire the R73 at the enemy without having his nose pointed at it. He slowly decreases G force of the turn. The enemy just passes the 9 o’clock and catching up. The enemy might think his moving into advantage, but it is a trap set by Goel, so that when he fires the R73, the enemy won’t be able to dodge the aim by a high G dive turn. Just a few more seconds and there will be a lock on. The enemy senses the danger. He pulls an extraordinary vertical climbs. Goel keeps his sight on his target and the lock on will be ready any second now. Suddenly, as the enemy climbs into the sun, Goel’s sight is also blinded by the burning sun light. “
“What the…” Lieutenant Goel don’t know if the enemy pilot just got lucky or he has predicted Lt.Goel's intension and pulled an extraordinary evasive maneuver at an extraordinary timing. At 1/10 second before the lock on is complete, Lt Goel lauches his last R73. The missile did a huge off axis turns and sprint towards the target. The enemy immediately dives down to increase speed while throwing out long streams of flares. The sky is like being ignited with fire and white smokes. R73 picked up the wrong signal and missed.Goel has lost his last secret weapon. The R27s can’t be launch with HMS.
With a clean sideslip after a short vertical dive, the Pakistani jet almost hit the mountain. As a result of such an extreme maneuver, it has taken the 7 o’clock of the SU30MKI.
“Chaffs and Flares now!” For the first time of his life, Lt. Goel panics, because he knows now he might be in mercy of an extremely skillful enemy pilot. He also knows this is the chance the enemy has been waiting for, and it seems he won’t miss it.
Too be continued
Also the names of the character might not make sense, please help to correct if wanted.
Chap 1 : New Mission
The shiny fuselage of SU30MKI is burning hot under the noon sun. Staff sergeant Modi climbs up the boarding ladder, and sticks his head into the cockpit. “It’s cool in here.” Staff sergeant whispers to himself, and turns his head around. He sees a truck mounted air cooling system parked next to the aircraft and the grayish pipe in between.
Modi then climbs into the cockpit, switches on the cockpit panel, and start checking the instrument one by one. It is a routine check before the take off. Whenever he makes sure an instrument is functioning well, he put a tick in his checklist.
“Rudders on the vertical stabilizers!” The staff sergeant steps on the rudder pedals.
“Left, right, Checked.” A numb voice shouted out from behind the aircraft.
Staff sergeant put another tick on the checklist.
“Missile pylons!” shouts Modi, and swithes on the weapon control panel. For an awful long moment, the staff sergeant hears no answer but an odd silence. He sticks his head out the canopy and sees a man sitting in the shadow of the wing.
“Did u hear me? Check the pylon 2!”
Private Nigam gets on his feet in a slow motion, takes a flashlight out of his pocket, switch it on and shake it from left to right in front of the inferred guidance head of the missile. The staff sergeant then saw a blink on the HUD and a short “BEEB” from the buzzer.
“Now check Pylon 8!” Says Modi, swiping the sweat off from his forehead and continue ticking his list.
For other part of the planet, it could be a cold and slowing season. However, in this typical sub-continental spring, the bituminous runway outside of the concrete hanger is melting.
Staff sergeant Modi has completed the routine check. There is one last blank left in the bottom of the checklist, that’s where the pilots should put their signatures. He climbs off the aircraft and walks to the AC truck. Suddenly, he hears an Indian comedian is making lousy jokes in a perfect Pakistani Punjabi accent. It was the private listening to his radio very casually. This is another breach of the 13th squadron’s disciplines.
“Rajiv you Gandu, how many times I have to tell you, you shouldn’t wear sleepers while you are on duty! If the caption sees you in these…”
“Caption went to Bangalore this morning.” Says the private, as if he couldn’t care less.
“That’s irrelevant, I can put that in my report, you fool!” warns the staff sergeant. However, he really can’t do anything to these soldiers who just want to dawdle around.
200 meters from this gigantic fighter jet in a resting room with air conditioning, two pilots in G-suits are waiting for a flight order that can come any minute. It is a boring noon. Lieutenant Rajneesh Goel is checking to flight route for today’s mission on an old map which has been on this wall ever since he joint 13th squadron. Weapon system operator Lieutenant Neelam Verma is reading the Indian express. He sees the head line in the front page “1000 deaths counted 10 days after Mumbai Massacre.”He goes to page 2 and sees a more shocking title “Ministry of Home Affairs Confirms ISI Planed The Attack”.
“We need to teach them some lessons.” says Verma to himself.
Goel walks to the window and looks out. He sees the ground crews are taking off some pipes from the aircraft, and the air start unit is beside his SU30MKI. The WSO throws away the newspaper and join with his pilot. “I heard the 5th showed up last night. They covered the attackers from far side. I hope we’ll confront them and show them our manners.”
“Don’t underestimate them, my friend. The 5th is their best.” says Lt. Goel with an extraordinary glow in his eyes.
“Yeah, but we are the best pilots of all India” says Verma with dressing his mustache with his right index and big finger so that it points upwards.
“You are right, we are the best, and we will show them some manners.”
The pilots have their hands tap on each other’s back when they both leave the cool room and enter the hot and huge airfield.
When the Goel and Verma pass by the compressed air cart, staff sergeant Modi along with his ground crew all stand straight by the plane and smile to the pilots. Lt.Goel smiles back. He sees a new face hanging around the inlet. He probably thinks it’s good to stay away from the sun by standing there.
Goel swiftly get into the cockpit and finds the cockpit panel is already power-on. With the help of the staff sergeant, Goel has his safety belt put on. Then he turns on his VHF and switches it to 77.9 MHz, one of the main communication channels of the squadron. Immediately he hears from the control tower.
“Eagle 302, this is Lt Colonel Maisnam. You are free to take off, over.”
“Eagle 302 Copied, over.” Goel replies, while quickly scans the cockpit panel, and again he proves first staff sergeant Modi is as reliable as usual.
“New intel, there are some movement of the Pakistani 33th squadron in Quiba. It is possible they might be coming towards Kasur. The army has just finished some constructions over there. The Pakistani might be targeting them, over.”
“That means we had something to do.” Goel replies.
“Listen. There have been some changes in your mission. After takeoff, fly towards Srinagar and provide air cover for the Lions squadrons. Watch their flank. Then turn back when you reach the northern border. The AEWS of 181st squadron will provide live intel and mission update while you are in the air. I remind you, your mission is to feint an attack in the north. If fire breaks out above Punjab, let the Lions handle it, over.”
“Hmm…let the lions handle it, again. I knew it. What about the alternate airports?”
“The airfields in Srinagar are good for your SU30, over.”
In the back seats, Lt. Vermar presses a few buttons to reset the flight course and alternates.
“Why we are always providing cover?” Goel can’t help asking. He wants to know why.
“Because the caption has gone to Bangalore.” Colonel Maisnam replies.
“There’s another possible reason, though” says Vermar, “because we are the best of the best. They can’t afford to lose us.”
First sergeant Modi stands in front of the jet, signals the pilot to test allthe rudders, and then climbs back to the cockpit to have Goel sign the checklist.
“Good Luck”
“And you, too. One more thing, get that newbie away from the inlet, please.”
The canopy slowly comes down. The boarding ladder is removed. Goel turns on the brake on the front landing gear, switches on the fuel tank selector, and then starts the engines. Soon, the war plane starts to roar. When RPM gauge shows 20% of speed, he turns his ahead around and sees the ground crews are removing the last compressed air pipe and the electricity cable away. Goel slowly push forward the throttle. He can feel the plane is shaking. The RPM slowly increases and then the speed reaches 50%, Goel sets loose the brake. The plane then slowly moves ahead.
Seeing a gigantic monster fully loaded with missiles is accelerating ahead, Private Nigam was stunned, and confused.
“Sergeant, why there is a white plane-like marking on the fuselage? I haven’t seen one like that in any other squadrons.”
After 2 days since first seeing private Nigam, staff sergeant Modi thinks this dumb kid has finally asked meaningful.
“You fool, Goel is a great pilot. A few years ago, Lt. Goel in behalf of 24th squadron took part in the Operation Red Flag in Nevada America. He shot down a F15.” Staff sergeant answers proudly.
“Unbelievable!”Says private, amazed, “Was that real or exercise?”
“You dumb ***, move that AC truck away!”
Chap 2 The Eagle
After taxing for a while, the SU30MKI lifts its head and flies away from the runway. Goel pull the throttle to the middle position and turned off the afterburner. Landing gears are up, and the plane flies north-west after circle around Barali air base.
“I know the 33rd squadron of Quiba. It’s just an ordinary tactical attack unit with a bunch of ancient planes. Hmm…some old Mirages and some Chinese Migs.” Says Verma, in a tone of disdain, “Unfortunately, our course is off the battle. The lions are the lucky one today. Still, they might come back with empty hands just like the day before yesterday. They launched a missile from a far distance, far eastern of Kasur, and hit nothing. The bogie got away as if it was walking a park.”
“They are always too reckless” Says Goel, “their tactics is having the radar turned on like a flashlight in the night, signals everyone ‘hey we are here’.”
“Eagle 302, this is eagle nest, The AEW has some sort of malfunction and has returned to base. You will be navigated by ground radar, over.
Just like any other moment in IAF history, an unanticipated event again takes place. Goel is not surprised. His SU30MKI continue on a course at altitude 4,500 meters with medium speed. It is basically a straight course.
SU30MKI slowly approaches the line of actual control. RWS starts to blinks occasionally. Vermar checks each of the sources. They were either navigating radar, or the G-band radar signal from the 19th infantry’s SAM6. None of them comes from Pakistan.
The white mountains are in sight, beyond that is under Pakistan’s control.
“Eagle 302, be advised. The lions missed the targets. They didn’t come to Punjab, and we lost track of the signal. They might have returned, or headed north to your position. Stay alert, over.”
“Eagle 302 copied, over.”
“Eagle 302, keep an eye on those mountains, the bogies might be flying low, taking cover from these mountains. It was impossible for us to keep track of them in this mountainous area. If these Mirages keep heading north, eliminate them from long range. Don’t get too close.” Preserving his precious planes is always the priority of Colonel Maisnam’s tactics, even if it is a 40 years old Mirage III on the other side.
“Copied that. They are good at using the advantage of the terrain.”
“Maintain altitude. Turn on your fire-control radar, over.”
Lt. Goel has a feeling that this might be a chance. He did a quick estimation, if the enemy is sneaking into the north in low atitude, then the target might be ahead of him, or, his SU30MKI is behind and above the bogie’s tail. Lt Goel didn’t switch on his radar as the command suggested. Instead, he turns on the IRST and starts infrared signal scan mode. It is a passive mode that doesn’t give his position away. It has an equivalent resolution and line of sight compare in close range compare to conventional radar.
After a short moment of silence, the radio again starts making noise.
“Eagle 302, this is Eagle nest. Bad news. New intel indicates Kargil forward base is attacked. Those bastards must be somewhere at the north below our radar. **** the 181st (the AEWs squadron).”
A bad news? Army losing couples of bunkers is not a bad news. Goel is happy that the location of the enemy is finally confirmed to be ahead of him. And a few concrete houses are not that much of a lost.
“Eagle 203, pursue the enemy, they should be dead ahead of you. Remember the rule of engagement, BVR only, over.”
“Eagle 203 copied.”
“One more thing, missiles can cross the border, not the entire airplane. It is the congress’s’ duty to declare a war, not yours, over.”
Goel didn’t waste a second to respond, he pushes the throttle and the seat hits his back. The aircraft soon reaches 850km/h. It is obvious the enemy wouldn’t flee west right after dropping the bomb. They would fly along the mountain in order to hide themselves from detection. Lt. Goel has made his own strategy then flies towards where the enemies are most likely to be. He didn’t pay any attention to the rule of engagement.
“Should we switch on our radar to increase our range of search?” Verma asked from the back.
“No, it will give out our position, we don’t want them to know we are behind them.” Goel is sure that if the ground radar can’t find the enemies, it means they must have hid themselves behind the mountains. Instead of fly straight to west, the enemies must have circled to the north side of the mountains.
“You see the mountains ahead of us?” Goel asked, “they must be on the other side of them. If we fly over them, we will find them.”
“But that will cross the border. It’s prohibited.”
“Forget the ROE, if I am right, they will be at our 1 o’clock. We will have an upper hand to open fire first.”
Goel start to decent his plane to 2,700 meters. The lines of the mountain start to take shape. He then banks left, keeps a low slope and glide over the mountain. The communication is immediately cut off. In a few seconds, his HUD starts to shows things—a greenish dashed rectangular frame. It seems IRST has picked up the heat signal of the bogies.
“I don’t have a clear view yet, it could be a very tiny aircraft.”
“Laser ranging failed. We are still too far away. It might be 25 KM of us. Altitude…about 1,600 meters.”
For Lt. Goel, the good news is, the bogies have no idea someone is on their tail; the bad news is if there are any hostile SAM sites nearby, their position might be compromised. HUD keeps displaying new information. With the distance between them decreasing, the infrared signal is enhancing. IRTS keeps on scanning. The target locking frame is fixed on the target, and the system entered tracking mode. Lt. Goel select R73, it is the most reliable weapon for a sneak attack. However, he only has two of them on board; the rests are heavy SARH missiles—Colonel Maisnam’s favorite way of “sneak actack”.
Lt. Goel first presses down the weapon ready switch. The R73 now is powered on. The “ready to launch” starts blinking. If he’s running out of patience, he can now fire the missile. Infrared guided missile can be launched with or without knowing actual distance and speed. Of course, whether or not hitting the target is another story.
According to Goel’s experience, If he can actually see a Mirage III or a Mig21 during day time, then the distance in between is about 8 to 10 KM. Since he can’t see the plane ahead of him, he decides to wait to get closer.
Suddenly, the dashed frame on the HUD splits into two. Now it is clear. There are two bogies instead of one.
“We’ve only got 2 infrared guided missiles. Why don’t we use radar guided missiles?” asks Verma.
“No, we better keep ourselves in the dark. We should keep the advantage of surprise. Keep an eye on the signals from the west, they’ve deployed some mobile SAMs in the west side of their line
of control” says Goel.
“Understood, I’ll handle that.”
The bogy ahead of them is still unaware of the SU30MKI behind it. Lt. Goel has closed into 4 to 5 KM and he now can identify the aircraft ahead of him. It is a Mirage V fighter-bomber. There is no fuel tank of bombs under its wings. Goel guesses there should be at least 2 magic AAM. The lead aircraft has not yet insight. Goel now has a hard choice. He can either quietly take out the enemy aircraft fell behind, or he can use track while search mode (TWS) and attack both targets. However, the RWS on board the enemy aircraft will notice the threat, and if they take the right counter measurement, the battle will become 2 VS 1. There’s not much time for hesitate now.
One week after the conflict broke out between India and Pakistan. It remains as ground troops firing artilleries against each other. Air force of both sides participates only by occasionally dropping some small conventional bombs, never an air combat, nor was an aircraft shot down. Now it is the opportunity for a young lieutenant brought up in a country side. Therefore, Lt. Goel will not allow himself to take any risky decision that will blow his opportunity away. He has made up his mind. Take out the Mirage secretly, and take the other bogy 1 on 1. He’s confident that even it is a F16CD from the 5th won’t stand a chance in front of him. Plus, it could be just another ancient Mirage. After it sees its wingman is shot down, it might die trying to fly low to hide, and probably ends up crashing to the mountains.
Goel focus on the target. After the last piece of cloud between the Mirage and the SU30MKI disappears, Lt. Goel tried another laser ranging. This time, IRST successfully find the distance in between, and R73 also capture the heat signal. The continuous warning tone inside the cockpit indicates the guidance head of the missile has a perfect lock on.
Goel presses down single-launch button. One missile flies away from Pylon 8, dragging a long white tail, heads straight towards the target.
Goel laid his hand on the radar switch. No matter what happened next, hit or no hit, he will turn on the radar.
The Mirage has no reaction. The pilot has no idea that 4 KM behind him, a R73 is heading towards him. Normally, the pilot that flies in the back of the formation is responsible for watching 6 o’clock. He should at least turn his ahead every 30 seconds. Goel pray the Pakistani pilot in that Mirage not to turn his head around. If he would turn his head around, he would’ve seen it, but until his death, he didn’t. The Mirage blasts into a huge fire ball and falls.
“Splash one!” Goel can barely contain his excitement. First real shot down in his career, and the second is probably ahead of him. But he didn’t waste a second to celebrate. Goel immediately turn on the fire control radar and switch into vertical scan mode and adjust the scan rate to medium. He knows the target is right ahead of him, somewhere in the clouds.
Sooner than expected, the radar has found the target and shown on the MDF in front of Verma. Instead of one target, there are many.
“He is throwing decoys!”
“He is good!” says Goel with a cold breath in his throat. Goel realize the enemy must has sensed his intention as he’s releasing chaff decoy at the very same second Goel turns on his radar.
“But not good enough!” says Goel. He steps on the vertical rudder pedal, at the same time he bank right hard. The SU30MKI starts a nearly vertical dive and drops to 1,500 meters (relative). Goel assume the enemy pilot must be in a huge panic. He also believes within this close range, his AESA can burn through the jamming and have a clear lock on. The rest will be deciding whether to use one R73 or two R27 to send him to his Allah.
However, once again unanticipated happened. Goel lost his target. Just like the shadow of those aluminum decoys, the enemy aircraft disappears in Goel’s radar and the HUD. Lt. Rajneesh Goel always considered himself experienced, but at this moment he has no backup plan. It seems totally impossible that the enemy aircraft just vanished. The worse scenario is that they somehow ran ahead of the enemy, but Verma keeps looking back and spot nothing. Did it just panic and crashed into the ground? There is only one burning fuselage and that was the Mirage V. I didn’t even know what it looks like. Goel wonders, and assume perhaps the enemy got away.
“We lost the target. He might have descended into lower altitude.” Goel actually finds his own judgment ridiculous as they are now at less than 1,000 meters and there’s no way he could escape from the radar track.
“You think he’s planning to strike back?” asks Verma.
“No, not quite possible” says Goel, “If he had climbed, we’ve had noticed. He must have flown…”
Before he can say “…to the other side of the mountain and escaped”, suddenly, he sees a small, silvery dot at upper left of his canopy, coming out from the fog at the mountain peak and closing. It is clear the enemy has again hid behind the mountain and then circles out from the back of the mountain. For a moment, Goel was shocked, because the enemy not only has not fled, but also is pulling a 6G turn and heading right towards his 9 o’clock.
“****! Contact, 10 o’clock! Moving fast!” shouts Verma with a huge tense, “and he’s still pulling!” Although Verma can’t see this Pakistani aircraft clearly, however, it is sure that this is a very maneuverable light-weight fight jet. It’s very possible that this is a F16A or even F16CD.
Goel is feeling like someone just grasps his heart and squeeze all the blood out. If the enemy jet gets to their 8 or 7 o’clock with his nose pointed right at their Su30MKI, it will turn really ugly.
“Not so easy!” Goel banks left and pulled tense turn he never tried before so he can keep the enemy at his 9 to 10 o’clock. With the vectoring nozzles and high thrust-weight ratio, Goel believes his SU30MKI can regain advantage at this turning game. It is such a tight and narrow valley that Goel can see the mountains and snow very clearly. He must fight with the fear to remain calm. For a few times his wingtip pylons almost hit the rocks.
“Alright, that’s it.” Goel decides enough is enough. He pushes down the nose and with the acceleration, he pulls a 7Gs turn. In about 10 seconds, his SU30MKI is catching up and the enemy is approaching to his 10 o’clock. He finally sees that it is a single engine fighter with a configuration that is very much like a F16.
Suddenly, the white enemy jet pulls up to SU30MKI’s upper right and slowing down. Now Goel has to look up in order to keep track on A slight fear strikes Goel as he just realize now he is running ahead of his enemy. The Pakistani pilot is like a patient fishermen, throwing out bait and wait for Lt.Goel to make mistakes.
“Cunning bastard!” Lt. Goel is getting a little bit angry at himself as he shouldn’t underestimate his enemy. Goel immediately did a roll over and then pull up to gain a high altitude. As a result, his SU30MKI lost some speed. Now the bogy stays his 2 to 3 o’clock, but he is not on full afterburner. Goel knows the enemy is waiting, He also knows who ever gets impatient will lose this game.
“Damn!” the Lieutenant feels humiliated by this light fighter. “Don’t you underestimate me!” He knows he’s winning the fight, because after continuous high AoA maneuvers, both of the planes are losing too much speed. If the scissor chasing game continues, the single engine jet, which tends to has lower thrust-weight ratio, will either has no energy to turn, or crash by making a turn with a too low speed. Above all, Lt. Goel still has a secret weapon to use, and his waiting for that moment.
When Lieutenant Rajreesh Goel and Lieutenant Neelam Verma were still receiving training in TACDE. They have simulated dogfight against Mirage2000-5, which is believed to be a more advanced and highly maneuverable fighter jet. SU30MKI might better powered, but Mirage2000-5 has a very impressive turn rate. At first, Goel found Mirage2000 very difficult to defeat, but then he discover that however agile Mirage2000 is, if it does a continual turn, it will lose speed very quickly. Goel has repeatedly defeated his Mirage2000 instructors by bringing the fight into low altitude turns.
However, this small jet is another story. After series of turns, both planes were losing speed, but they still remains in each other’s 3, 9 o’clock. Now the altitude has dropped to a few hundred meters. There is not enough of height for neither of the pilot to do a high G turn. Goel knows that if he didn’t have so many of those over weight but useless R27 under the wing, the fight might have been much easier.
“It’s just a small single engine jet” Goel whispers to himself, carefully controlling the throttle in case again running ahead of the enemy, “And I,” Goel pressed down the switch of the helmet mounted sight. “I’m in a SU30MKI!” the HMS now is on, when it has a lock on, Goel can fire the R73 at the enemy without having his nose pointed at it. He slowly decreases G force of the turn. The enemy just passes the 9 o’clock and catching up. The enemy might think his moving into advantage, but it is a trap set by Goel, so that when he fires the R73, the enemy won’t be able to dodge the aim by a high G dive turn. Just a few more seconds and there will be a lock on. The enemy senses the danger. He pulls an extraordinary vertical climbs. Goel keeps his sight on his target and the lock on will be ready any second now. Suddenly, as the enemy climbs into the sun, Goel’s sight is also blinded by the burning sun light. “
“What the…” Lieutenant Goel don’t know if the enemy pilot just got lucky or he has predicted Lt.Goel's intension and pulled an extraordinary evasive maneuver at an extraordinary timing. At 1/10 second before the lock on is complete, Lt Goel lauches his last R73. The missile did a huge off axis turns and sprint towards the target. The enemy immediately dives down to increase speed while throwing out long streams of flares. The sky is like being ignited with fire and white smokes. R73 picked up the wrong signal and missed.Goel has lost his last secret weapon. The R27s can’t be launch with HMS.
With a clean sideslip after a short vertical dive, the Pakistani jet almost hit the mountain. As a result of such an extreme maneuver, it has taken the 7 o’clock of the SU30MKI.
“Chaffs and Flares now!” For the first time of his life, Lt. Goel panics, because he knows now he might be in mercy of an extremely skillful enemy pilot. He also knows this is the chance the enemy has been waiting for, and it seems he won’t miss it.
Too be continued
I did the translation on my own
