by Vivek Ahuja
“God damn it!” Kulkarni lowered his mouthpiece in frustration and saw his loader staring at him in silence. Kulkarni realized had to keep his composure, if not for himself then for his men. He changed frequencies:
“Rhino-One to all elements! We cannot hold this ground. Enemy infantry is going to swarm and overrun us. We are falling back. I say again, initiate tactical retreat to the L-O-D on my authority!”
ABOVE POINT-VICTORY
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 1915 HRS
The Nishant UAV pushed forward by Sudarshan was now over the Arjun tanks of the 43RD Armored Regiment inside Chinese controlled territory. Sudarshan and his operations officers were standing inside the tents of the command post, watching the live feed while his signals personnel were attempting to make sense of the tactical situation and reestablish contact with Kulkarni. Sudarshan sighed as he saw the Arjun tanks being forced to make a fighting retreat to the south under heavy enemy infantry harassment using rocket-launchers and anti-tank guided-missiles…
The 43RD Armored had accomplished everything that he and Adesara had asked of them. They had broken into the enemy MSR after destroying the PLA tanks on their southern flank. That had cut the two depleted PLA infantry Divisions fighting the Indian 3RD Infantry Division for DBO, Saser and the Karakoram peaks.
For a while.
Now the PLA were attempting to take it back with infantry units using the cover of the surrounding hills. Once they moved around them, they could pick off the tanks with anti-tank weaponry fired into the vulnerable areas of the tanks.
Not acceptable…
The two PLA Divisions stuck between 3RD Infantry Division forces to their east and the 43RD Armored tanks to their west were certainly feeling the pain. But the PLA sector commander was no fool. He was rushing additional units from the east and hitting Rhino force in order to squeeze them out from the MSR and break the encirclement of his two Divisions. And it appeared that he was succeeding.
The 4TH Mechanized Battalion was rushing north to link up with Kulkarni’s tanks, but it was not pushing fast enough. Faced with no other choice, Kulkarni had ordered a tactical retreat as the UAV imagery showed.
“Where the hell is 4TH Mechanized?” Sudarshan barked without turning away from the video feed. A Major lowered his radio headset:
“They are encountering severe resistance from enemy infantry south of the 43RD Armored lines! Its total chaos over there. Rhino is taking fire from all sides. The PLA is throwing everything they have at our tanks out there. Small arms, mortars, anti-tank rockets and guided missiles. You name it and they are using it. 4TH Mechanized is unable to break to Rhino and establish a base of fire. And the air-force is reporting more enemy light-armor rushing in from the north-east along the MSR from Qara-Tagh-La. They are attempting to interdict and buy us some time!”
“Good god!” Sudarshan said. “Can Rhino hold until 3RD Infantry forces can defeat the two encircled PLA Divisions?” The Major shook his head.
“Well then there is only one thing left to do,” Sudarshan said dryly and looked back at the Major. “Tell both the 43RD Armored and 4TH Mechanized to break off and pull back to the south. And then get me steel-teeth at Saser!”
Sudarshan turned away as the Major got to work on the radio. He looked at the EO feed and gritted his teeth as he saw small white heat blobs showing PLA soldiers scattered over the hills around the retreating Arjun tanks. Sudarshan clenched his hands into an iron fist…
We could not hold the MSR, but neither will you!
“Sir! Steel-teeth on the comms!” the Major shouted from his seat. Sudarshan walked over and grabbed the speaker from him:
“Steel-teeth, this is steel-central-actual! I want priority suppression fire on point-victory in five mikes. I have red ants all over the place and I need some serious pest-control. Steel-central out!”
EAST OF DAULAT BEG OLDI
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 1945 HRS
Kulkarni pushed open the top turret hatch as his tank rumbled back in tactical progression. His loader opened his hatch, grabbed his hatch mounted machinegun and opened fire on PLA soldiers taking cover around their destroyed trucks. Kulkarni took in a breath of the freezing cold air and looked on either side to see three other Arjun tanks to his left and three more to the right moving alongside. He had lost two tanks to the murderous fire from the Chinese infantry battalions swarming the hills around him.
Bullets were flying through the air and metallic clangs were ringing out as that ordinance bounced off the hulls.
The ground rumbled and he could see the afterburner flame of air-force Jaguars overhead, taking the fight to the enemy…
The radio chimed: “Rhino-One, this is steel-central!”
“Steel-central, this is Rhino-One reading you five-by-five!”
Finally! Kulkarni didn’t add.
“Rhino-One, we have you on infrared! Order all surviving Rhino elements to activate infrared strobes, right now! We cannot distinguish accurately enough for suppression fire! Over!”
Kulkarni immediately switched frequencies:
“Rhino-One to all elements: Switch infrared beacons active now!”
As all tanks went IR active, the overhead UAV electro-optical pod could make out the rough alignment of Kulkarni’s tanks as they retreated.
And the same went for the Chinese as well…
“Incoming!” Kulkarni’s loader shouted as he scrambled inside the turret and closed the hatch cover behind him.
Kulkarni did the same just moments before the interior of the vehicle shook violently. Chinese tube artillery shells slammed into the rocks a few meters in front of the retreating tanks, throwing mud and gravel all over the vehicles. With the kind of heavy armor that the Arjun tanks had, what the Chinese needed was a direct hit on the thinner top armor.
Not impossible, but just too damned unlikely. Nevertheless, it was enough to rattle the crews inside…
“Steel-central, we are being hit by enemy heavy tube arty! No casualties yet but let’s not push our luck on that! Suggest you do whatever you have planned A-S-A-P! We are lit up for enemy drones over here!”
Damn the Chinese aerial drones!
Sudarshan thought as he turned to his operations officers:
“Can somebody please figure out a way to take out those Chinese aerial drones hovering over our forces out there? What the heck is the air-force up to?” Sudarshan thundered to Narayana standing by the map table. The latter looked up from the maps and stared down the fuming Colonel:
“Sir, Wing-Commander Dutt and 199HU are working on it as part of operation Sickle-swipe.”
“Then get down there and see that they get it done now, not later!” Sudarshan barked. Narayana saluted and ran out of the tent to get to his jeep outside…
Saser valley once again became a cacophony of flashes as the Smerch MBRL battery fired a barrage of rockets at point-victory to the northeast. The large rockets were filled with high explosive sub-munitions and they impacted several seconds later into the hills occupied by the exposed PLA infantry.
The now empty launchers were quickly approached by their replenishment vehicles to rearm for a second barrage. This barrage was intended to deliver a cluster of small proximity-fused mines designed to choke off avenues for the enemy. As the ground crews loaded the still smoking tubes of the launchers with new rockets, the counter-battery WLRs near DBO attempted to determine the high-arcing trajectories of the newly arrived PLA tube-artillery units hitting Kulkarni’s tanks.
SASER
LADAKH
DAY 7 + 2020 HRS
The dust cloud picked up as soon as the LCH flared above the helipad. In the dark of the night, it approached with all ground visual nav-aids switched off and only a pulsing infrared beacon to serve as a bearing on the helicopter’s chin-mounted FLIR turret.
Dutt released the collective and adjusted the tail rotor power to bring the fuselage around just as he felt the slight bump of the landing gear touching the shifting g
ravel below. The hydraulic legs of the undercarriage pushed up with a slight swish and absorbed the load while the engine powered down. Dutt and his WSO switched off all equipment inside the cockpit.
Airmen from his unit were already rushing to make the helicopter ready for its next mission. Empty weapon pylons were being removed by one set of airmen while others brought in sets of ready-to-fire anti-tank missile rounds. For the last day, all they were carrying for each mission besides the chin-gun ammo were the HELINA missiles. These latest generation fire-and-forget missiles developed in India by the DRDO were being used excessively by Dutt and his pilots to help delete the PLA armor numerical advantage on the battlefields of Ladakh.
Dutt’s crew-chief was knocked on the side glass of his cockpit and opened it. Freezing cold air and falling snow flakes rushed into the cockpit. Dutt removed his breathing mask and took a deep breath of fresh air.
The men flying the two LCHs from 199HU were approaching physical exhaustion. They had now been flying and fighting without break for an extended duration. The same applied to the ground crews working day and night to keep the helicopters operational.
The helicopters were not much better.
Engine exhausts were grimy and the side of the fuselage behind them was blackened with soot. Same for the chin-mounted cannon barrel. It had fired more rounds in the last two days than it had in the last two years of testing put together. It would need replacement soon, and Dutt’s operations officer had made urgent requisitions from HAL for new cannons. Even if they could be rushed to Leh, it might take days to arrive down the congested logistical artery from Leh to Saser…
In the meantime, the war went on.
Dutt unbuckled himself and with the help of his crew-chief, managed to step outside onto the snow covered ground below. He saw the empty helipad where his second helicopter would normally be, but it was off on another desperate mission to prevent a small platoon of Gorkhas under Adesara’s command from being overrun east of the airstrip.
Same shit, different day…
There were other helicopters at Saser as well. A couple of armed Dhruvs were parked nearby and further away Dutt could see a Mi-17. He extended his hand out and saw a few flakes of snow fall on it. He shrugged it off and stared into the night sky above. He could not see any stars, which meant there were clouds overhead. The weather was not cooperating…
“What’s the forecast for the next few hours?” he asked his metrological-officer as he walked up to the latter’s bunker near the base of the eastern ridge.
“Not good,” the Squadron-Leader replied. “Sharp snowfall later tonight will close everything down till tomorrow morning. I suggest moving our birds under cover and make sure everything is secured before the driving snow hit us. We should be clear again tomorrow just before noon.”
Dutt was not happy to hear that. The ground war would not wait for the weather to clear for his helicopters. The only advantage the Indian side had was the local air power…
Before Dutt could say anything, a jeep pulled up with a screech on the loose gravel and the three men turned to see. Narayana jumped off the jeep and ran over.
“Shit. This can’t be good.” Dutt’s WSO observed on seeing Narayana’s body language as the latter approached. Dutt snorted.
“What is good around here to start with?”
“Sir, request from Colonel Sudarshan,” Narayana said urgently. “We need to move operation Sickle-swipe forward right now. 43RD Armored has been forced to retreat and is taking heavy enemy arty. The Chinese have their drones in the sky there and are using them as spotters. These guys,” he gestured towards the parked Smerch launchers arrayed to the west, “are going to drop hell on the enemy guns once they locate all of them. But the Colonel wants us to take out the Chinese drones above our guys right now!”
Dutt turned to his metrological-officer:
“How long do we have before the weather cripples flying altogether?”
“Another hour. Two if we are lucky!”
Dutt shared a look with his WSO and gestured everybody to the command trailer nearby.
Once inside, the men spent ten minutes discussing the operation. Soon after, Dutt ordered his crew-chief to remove all weapons on the external pylons of his helicopter. The resulting helicopter was much lighter. He would need every bit of power he could spare for the mission.
A few minutes later Dutt and his WSO walked out of the trailer and headed for their helicopter while Narayana ran back to his jeep to drive back to Sudarshan’s HQ.
Dutt saw his crew-chief waiting for him by the cockpit with the flight helmet in hand and two bottles of energy juice in the other for both Dutt and his WSO. Dutt smiled at the gesture and took the bottle and gulped down the contents. His WSO did the same. They handed the empty bottles back to the warrant-officer and clambered aboard.
Soon they were strapped into their cockpits and the engines began to spool up. The main rotor and tail rotor slowly began rotating while the WSO checked the chin-mounted cannon slaving, his only weapon for this mission. He swiveled it left and right from his helmet mounted optics.
As the crew-chief gave him thumbs up, Dutt pushed the throttle and collective to maximum and the helicopter leapt off the helipad.
They headed north, bypassing the other returning LCH on the way south. In the greenish hell-scape of the night-vision view, the snow on the ground reflected strongly while the rocks did not. This created a checkered coloration terrain that could easily remove depth perception. And that was extremely dangerous while flying in mountainous terrain with little engine power to spare…
But the LCH was designed to fly and fight in these conditions.
The disruptive digital camouflage adorned by Dutt’s helicopter denied a decent infrared return and gave the helicopter an element of operational stealth. Radar cross-section from its trim fuselage was very small and against the background clutter, almost impossible to cue on. Combined with terrain masking, the helicopter was a dangerous predator feeding on PLA armor and almost impossible to kill.
Tonight, these characteristics of the LCH would come into play. They were not going after ground targets. Their target was not below them but rather a thousand feet above. And they needed every element of survivability they can lay their hands on to make it back alive…
“Five minutes to A-O!” Dutt said to his WSO.
“Roger.”
Dutt looked to the left, right and above to see the cloudy night sky devoid of stars except for the moonlight breaking through the gaps in the cloud cover. He hoped he had the time to get the job done and get home before the weather closed in.
But bad weather wasn’t his only concern…
The cloud blanket above him was misleading. He knew that above that was the clear starry night sky where the war was being waged between the two air-forces.
Almost as if on cue, a Mig-29 streaked under the cloud cover as it dropped flares and then punched afterburner to climb back through the muck again, disappearing from view…
“Damn! I wonder what the hell is going on up there,” the WSO said as they saw the bright flashes of the dropped flares fade into the hillsides.
“Nothing good. Hang on,” Dutt said and then switched frequencies.
“Sickle-One to Eagle-Eye-One. What’s the word above DBO? Over.”
A hundred and fifty kilometers to the south, Verma on board the Phalcon was having yet another hectic night. The PLAAF was making another attempt to challenge the skies above Ladakh and southern Tibet. Tonight they were surging forward flight after flight of J-11s and had even resorted to surging flights of J-8IIs to overwhelm Indian defenders. These fighters were being further assisted by stand-off launches of short-range cruise-missiles from H-6s.
All in all, dozens of Mig-29s and Su-30s from three separate squadrons were in a stiff battle for survival tonight…
“The skies are neutral for now, Sickle-One.”
Dutt heard the delayed and cryptic response from Verma and suddenly did no
t feel very secure anymore…
“No kidding, Eagle-Eye-One!” Dutt replied. “I have our Mig-29s popping through the cloud cover dropping flares above my head here. I need to know if I should be worried about red-air interdicting this A-O! Over!”
Dutt could feel his heart-beat now pounding as they passed above lines of Arjun tanks and BMP-IIs below. Verma’s voice came back on the radio again:
“Roger that, Sickle-One! Will advise in case threat elevates. For now, DBO is clear for the mud-movers. Eagle-Eye-One out!”
The radio line chimed off.
“Well, that was encouraging!” the WSO noted. Dutt refocused:
“Nothing we can do. Let our fighter boys do their thing. We got our own troubles here. You ready?”
“Ready as can be, boss. Switching to FLIR. Let’s see if we can spot the elusive prey. On your mark!” the WSO replied from the rear seat.
Dutt looked forward to see that they were now a few seconds out from Rhino tanks below. He could see lines of heavy Arjun tanks maneuvering in the valley below but no longer taking enemy artillery fire. Further north he could see that the Chinese MSR was burning…
“Looks like steel-teeth did their job and took out the Chinese guns already. Good. We don’t have to fly through falling shells. Okay, let’s see what’s up there!” Dutt ordered and switched his radio frequencies to Sudarshan’s command post:
“This is Sickle-One on target above Rhino. I hope you have withdrawn your R-P-Vs because we are going to clean the skies here!”
“Roger! Skies are clear of all friendly R-P-Vs. If you see anything up there, it’s not one of ours. Take it out!”
“Roger that! Sickle-One out.”
Dutt nodded, closed that line and switched back to his WSO:
“You heard the man! Let’s roll!”
He pulled the helicopter cyclic to bring a very high nose up attitude on the LCH. The helicopter now starting losing forward speed quickly and the velocity vector began to reverse on the azimuthal plane while also slowly climbing. But this maneuver brought the chin-mounted FLIR pod facing the sky above. Against such a cold thermal background, anything manmade would be visible on infrared view…