Chapter 21: One Sword Seals the Throat

  The eastern face of Chogori, fifty kilometers north of the border in Chinese airspace.

  A KJ-2000 airborne early warning and control aircraft with a large round disk on its back and the bright logo of the Chinese Air Force on its vertical tail is flying at an altitude of 8,500 meters. As the electronic scanning antenna rotates once every five seconds, every five seconds, the lower half of the screen of the twelve tactical display screens will show dense light spots, one of which is particularly bright and eye-catching.

  That is a "fellow countryman": Indian Air Force's A-50I airborne early warning aircraft.

  Like the Beriev A-50, the Indian Air Force's A-50I also uses the Ilyushin Il-76 as a radar platform. However, the A-50I is equipped with the Israeli-made EL/W-2090 Phalcon radar instead of an indigenous Indian radar. The solid-state electronic scanning radar on the Beriev A-50 and the EL/W-2090 have similar performance, both having a detection range of over 550 km for large targets, capable of simultaneously detecting hundreds of targets and tracking tens of them to provide tactical information to twelve fighter aircraft. Both also share the same weakness: poor performance in detecting very low-flying targets above mountainous terrain.

  To make up for this deficiency, the "Kongjing-2000" is installed with a large active phased array synthetic aperture radar on its belly, which is used to detect ultra-low-altitude flying targets and can also be used for terrain mapping.

  In contrast, the Indian Air Force, lacking indigenous development capabilities, cannot provide similar equipment for the A-50I.

  There is no doubt that Indian Air Force's AWACS also detected the "companions" in the north.

  China did not participate in the war and Indian Air Force could only sigh at the activities in Chinese airspace.

  Similarly, the Indian Air Force cannot prevent Chinese AWACS from providing tactical intelligence to Pakistani fighter jets.

  In fact, the Pakistan Air Force also dispatched a Swedish-made "Saab-2000" early warning aircraft to patrol east of Islamabad and track Indian Air Force combat aircraft. The problem is that the "Erieye" radar on the Saab-2000 has a detection range of only 300 kilometers, which cannot "see" the Indian early warning aircraft 450 kilometers away.

  To take out an Indian AWACS, you would need tactical intelligence provided by the Chinese air force. Only that's still not enough.

  North of Srinagar, on the north side of the Indo-Pakistani ceasefire line, at an altitude of 18,000 meters, the "Vulture" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is flying leisurely at a speed of 320 kilometers per hour.

  At this time, the "Y-8" is performing two tasks simultaneously. One is to act as a tactical communication relay station, transmitting tactical intelligence collected by the "KJ-2000" to Pakistan's "Thunder" fighter jets that are executing combat missions. The second is to use millimeter wave synthetic aperture radar to map the terrain and provide accurate navigation information for Pakistani warplanes.

  In a southwest direction, four "Thunder" fighter jets are flying through the valley.

  In the front "Thunder" fighter, Major Hadi struggled to control the plane like a runaway wild horse.

  Thirty-five minutes ago, Squadron Leader Haider flew a "Thunder" fighter jet equipped with three large drop tanks, six medium-range air-to-air missiles and two combat missiles, taking off from the Ravalpindi Air Force Base in an emergency with three wingmen. As soon as they left the airport, the four fighters lowered their flight altitude to fifty meters.

  Six months ago, Major Hadif and three other pilots began training for ultra-low-altitude flights.

  At that time, he thought this was for executing deep strike missions in war. After all, ultra-low-altitude flight is the most effective way to break through air defense networks.

  Now Hadi is no longer thinking so, they are executing ground-to-air tasks, not ground-to-ground tasks.

  Fighter jets are equipped with air-to-air missiles. It's unlikely that the most expensive fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force would be used to strafe ground targets with machine guns.

  Within thirty-five minutes, four fighter jets successively dropped their auxiliary fuel tanks under the inboard wing pylons.

  According to the flight path transmitted through the tactical data link, four fighter jets adjusted their course eleven times within thirty-five minutes, almost turning once every three minutes.

  Gradually, Major Hadif found out that they had been flying in the valley all along!

  What puzzles him is where those tactical navigation data come from.

  At first, he thought it was the ground command center or an early warning aircraft. After entering the airspace over Indian-controlled Kashmir, Hadif didn't think so anymore.

  The ground command center cannot know the situation ahead, and the radar on the "Saab-2000" type early warning aircraft also cannot detect the situation here. More importantly, neither of them can provide accurate navigation information to the meter for fighter jets.

  There must be some other forces supporting from behind.

  All Hadif could think of was the Chinese Air Force.

  After flying over a narrow pass, the fighter plane turned again. The flight altitude had dropped to below 50 meters, and the right wing tip of the fighter was less than 20 meters away from the cliff. Even if it were an extremely skilled aerobatic pilot, they would not dare to be careless at this time. If there were a mistake in operation, all it would take is 0.1 seconds, and the fighter plane, flying at a speed of over 1,000 kilometers per hour, would crash into the cliff on its right side!

  As he flew over the next pass, Hadi bit his teeth tightly.

  Ahead were steep cliffs, the route on the main display screen was like a twisted earthworm, and the heading had to be adjusted almost every few thousand meters. Each time it had to be extremely accurate, with even a slight mistake resulting in the loss of the aircraft and its crew.

  Six months of hard training and more than 5,000 hours of flight experience played a decisive role.

  Haddiff served in the Pakistan Air Force for twenty-one years, flying six types of aircraft, four of which were fighter jets. He had over 1,500 hours of flight time on the "Thunder" fighter jet alone. The other three pilots' skills were not inferior to Haddiff's, and even slightly better. What made Haddiff the lead pilot was his higher military rank and his actual combat experience in the Kashmir conflict eight years ago.

  Before entering the final approach, Hadi Tjahjanto jettisoned the drop tanks from the aircraft's belly.

  The "Lightning" fighter's internal fuel tanks hold 2,400 kilograms of fuel, enough to fly the aircraft 2,400 kilometers, sufficient for them to return to base.

  Without the interference of the auxiliary oil tank, the fighter became more agile and easier to control.

  A few minutes later, the red indicator light above the main display lit up. Hardy quickly scanned the screen, which displayed a vertical flight path diagram with an icon for launching missiles at an altitude of 500 meters relative height.

  What is this instruction?

  Hadi didn't think much, immediately pulled up the fighter jet and completed the operations of charging the missile, inputting the mid-course inertial guidance information just received into the missile guidance system, finally opening the missile safety device and lifting the protective cover on the top of the launch button.

  As soon as they reached launch altitude, Hadi pressed the missile launch button.

  In less than five seconds, all four medium-range air-to-air missiles hung under the wings on both sides were fired.

  As soon as he saw the trail of smoke from the missile, Hadi pressed down on the control stick and changed course to a new flight path provided by tactical navigation information, lowering his altitude to below 100 meters.

  At this time, a group of countdown data appeared on the screen.

  From years of experience, Hadi knew that this was the time when a missile hit its target, or more accurately, when it entered its terminal phase.

  Only after a few seconds, new prompt information appeared on the screen.

  It wasn't until then that Hagrid understood the entire tactical process.

  All sixteen medium-range air-to-air missiles launched by the four fighter jets will approach their targets along a predetermined flight path in an inertial guidance mode. About fifteen seconds before the missile enters its terminal phase, the aircraft needs to illuminate the target with its fire control radar. After receiving the radar waves emitted by the target, the missile enters its autonomous state and actively attacks the target under the guidance of its autonomous control system until it hits the target.

  Very advanced and extraordinary tactics.

  Hadi couldn't help but admire the pilot who came up with this tactic. He also realized that this was not a tactic of the Pakistan Air Force, but rather one of the Chinese Air Force. There were only a few pilots in the Pakistan Air Force who were better than Hadi, and the Pakistan Air Force had never employed such tactics before.

  With ten seconds left on the countdown, Hadiif switched on the radar power and the fighter began to climb.

  The "Thunderbolt" fighter plane shot into the sky at a speed of two hundred and forty meters per second. When the countdown reading jumped to one, Hadiif activated the radar, allowing it to work in automatic air-to-air combat mode.

  A very obvious and dazzling target appeared on the radar screen immediately.

  Indian Air Force's A-50I?

  Hadi was taken aback, he had not expected that the Indian Air Force's early warning aircraft would be about 45 kilometers in front of him. Before this, Hadi had never dreamed that he could use missiles to attack the Indian Air Force's early warning aircraft! If conventional tactics were adopted, even if forty "Thunder" fighter jets were dispatched, they might not be able to get close to the A-50I and launch air-to-air missiles.

  Hadi Tjahjanto and three other pilots were shocked when the fire control radar had automatically completed all the work.

  Once the missiles had locked onto their targets, the four F-6 fighters immediately dived and accelerated.

  The radar warning receiver shrieked, and the "Lightning" fighter jets dived into the valley like a flight of arrows. Thirty kilometers away, four Su-30MKI fighter jets escorting an A-50I had just locked onto the four "Lightning" fighters that suddenly appeared on their radar screens. Before the pilots could even press the button to launch missiles, the four "Lightning" fighters vanished from the fire control radar screen without a trace.

  Sixteen "Thunder-12" air-to-air missiles shot through the Indian fighter jets' interception network like sixteen flashes of lightning.

  Facing the Su-30MKI fighter jets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, 16 missiles were completely unimpressed. In their eyes, that A-50I was the most valuable target.

  Twenty seconds later, these overzealous missiles will give A-50I a fatal kiss.

  That A-50I would be shot down was something Hadi never thought of.

  Not to mention clumsy early warning aircraft, even agile fighter jets cannot avoid being surrounded by sixteen medium-range air-to-air missiles.

  When the A-50I disintegrated into tens of thousands of pieces under the intense heat of "Pursuer" and scattered to the ground, Hadif's "Thunder" fighter jet and his three wingmen had already flown out of more than ten kilometers.

  On "Kong Jing 2000", Liang Guoxiang and Di Boqing stared blankly at the tactical screen.

  After witnessing the air force's airborne commander complete a set of tactical commands, Liang Guoxiang and Di Boqing thought not of that unlucky A-50I, but of the incident in which they were inexplicably shot down by an air force J-10 during exercises over Qinghai Lake. Only now did they realize just how formidable the air force's new tactics were.

  It's indeed extraordinary and indeed hard to imagine.