Chapter Nineteen: Missile Strike

  Within five minutes, forty-five "Pravitel", or "Land" tactical ballistic missiles took off one after another.

  In South Asia, missile warning satellites belonging to the United States, Russia and China were the first to detect the rising ballistic missiles.

  The US missile warning satellites belong to the "Space-Based Infrared System", which consists of four geosynchronous orbit satellites, two highly elliptical orbit satellites and twenty-four low Earth orbit satellites. When Prithvi took off, there was one geosynchronous orbit satellite, one highly elliptical orbit satellite and two low Earth orbit satellites over South Asia, all of which issued warnings at the same time. Because it was an Indian-launched missile, the US intelligence agency did not send the infrared photos and visible spectrum photos taken by the warning satellites to India.

  Russia's missile warning satellite is a highly elliptical orbit satellite launched in the early 21st century, and the photos it took were quickly transmitted back to Russia's Strategic Air Defense Command. Because the war was far away, and India did not heed Russia's advice, Pakistan was also not an ally of Russia, so after canceling the alert, Russia's Strategic Air Defense Command decided to take a wait-and-see attitude and watch the South Asian battlefield.

  China's missile early warning satellite is a geosynchronous orbit satellite positioned at 80 degrees east longitude above the equator, mainly monitoring South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. After an Indian missile takes off, the infrared detector on the early warning satellite immediately detects the infrared radiation generated by the tail flame of the ascending phase of the missile. After positioning, the high-resolution digital camera on the satellite begins to track and shoot, and automatically sends the target image back to the ground command center. By combining multiple images, the computer at the command center can calculate the trajectory of the missile within 40 seconds to one minute, determining the target of the missile attack.

  Missiles are not aircraft and cannot be recalled after launch.

  Indian missiles have not yet left the atmosphere, and the US, Russia, and China already know that war has broken out.

  The speed of information transmission is much faster than the flight speed of a missile.

  Less than five minutes later, the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters received a missile alert and air defence alerts were sounded at Pakistani Air Force bases targeted by Indian missiles. At this point, forty-five Prithvi missiles had just entered their terminal descent phase.

  Four minutes before the missile hit, the air force base's anti-aircraft radar system was activated. In just 15 seconds, the radar detected the incoming missile entering the atmosphere. Two minutes before the missile hit, long-range anti-aircraft missiles took off and sped towards the incoming ballistic missile at a speed of Mach 4. In an instant, 14 "Privyet" were shot down by the "Red Flag-2000" type anti-aircraft missile.

  Thirty-one "Privyet" missiles broke through the air defense system, scattering anti-runway submunitions at an altitude of about 1,500 meters above the ground. At this time, all the fighter jets in the five air bases had taken off, and the ground personnel had also entered the air defense shelters.

  The earth shook with a rhythmic vibration.

  The power of anti-runway penetration bombs is not great, and can only blast out shallow craters with a diameter of no more than two meters on the runway. In comparison, repairing one hundred shallow craters is much more difficult than repairing one large crater. Moreover, anti-runway penetration bombs can also destroy aircraft parked in the open, as well as logistical support equipment, but it is very difficult to pose a threat to aircraft parked in hangars and weapons and equipment in shelters.

  After the rain of bullets, the first to appear on the ground were the engineering soldiers from the air force base.

  Some of the anti-runway submunitions did not explode, either because their fuzes malfunctioned or they were set to detonate with a delay. When repairing damaged runways, it is also necessary to clear unexploded submunitions.

  The engineering troops were busy in an orderly manner, and the Indian Air Force's missile raid did not cause too much damage to the airport.

  The most severely damaged was the Okara Airbase, located southwest of Lahore, where eight missiles landed and over 300 anti-runway submunitions were scattered. About fifteen percent of the submunitions did not explode. Nevertheless, a 1,500-meter-long section of the 3,500-meter-long runway remained intact, sufficient for tactical aircraft to take off and land normally.

  Because the takeoff distance of air defense fighters is between 300 and 500 meters, when attacking airport runways with missiles, the interval distance of missile aiming points is generally 300 meters. This can reduce the consumption of missiles while achieving the purpose of paralyzing the air force base. Of course, the prerequisite is that the circular error probability of the missile is zero.

  "The Privyet" has a circular error probable of two hundred and fifty meters at maximum range. Not to mention whether it can hit a runway with a width of only tens of meters, even if it can hit it, the distance between the impact points is not necessarily three hundred meters, it may be eight hundred meters, or it may completely overlap.

  A single "Priveyt" can only carry forty-two anti-runway submunitions, the spacing between which cannot exceed ten meters, covering a circular area with a radius of thirty-two meters. If the missile's circular error probable exceeds thirty-five meters, it will be difficult to pose a threat to the runway. Even if it hits the runway, it can only destroy a segment about seventy meters long.

  It can be deduced that to hit a runway once, nine "Prithvi" missiles would have to be used. To ensure destruction of the Okal Airbase's runways, eleven hits on the runways would be required, consuming ninety-nine "Prithvi" missiles in all. Destroying five airbases' runways would require four hundred and ninety-five "Prithvi" missiles! The Indian Air Force fired only forty-five "Prithvi" missiles.

  "Privet" was already outdated in terms of performance when it appeared and is not suitable for striking tactical targets.

  India chose Prithvi as the first strike force, probably worried that this tactical ballistic missile using a liquid fuel rocket engine, which requires several hours of preparation before launch and has a range of only 250 kilometers, would be difficult to play a role in the subsequent battle, and instead would be surrounded by the Pakistani Air Force.

  The Pakistan Air Force immediately launched a counter-attack targeting objects that were not India's missile launchpads.

  "Privyet" had not yet landed, deployed in the northwestern region of Pakistan, five missile brigades equipped with "Abdali-2" tactical ballistic missiles received orders.

  Within five minutes, 150 missile launchers entered the launch site.

  Launch vehicle positioning, loading instructions, erecting the launch pad, missile liftoff, in less than ten minutes, 150 missiles with a range of 350 kilometers, capable of carrying a 1,000-kilogram warhead, entered the blue sky with a circular error of less than 100 meters at maximum range.

  Relying on US advanced reconnaissance satellites, India received an alert before the "Abdali-2" missile took off.

  However, India's air defence forces face a much bigger challenge.

  "Abdali-2" missile uses solid fuel rocket engine, not only the preparation time is short, but also at the end of the trajectory, the warhead and the body separate. Neither the "Green Pine" anti-missile early warning radar imported from Israel nor the search radar of the Russian-made "Antey 2500" air defense system can detect the much smaller warhead in a timely manner, making it even more difficult for anti-missile missiles to hit the warhead with only one-tenth the size of "Privet".

  One hundred and fifty "Abdali-2" missiles struck ten tactical targets, including five air bases, three large military camps and two air defense command centers.

  Against different targets, the "Abdali-2" ballistic missile uses different warheads.

  The missiles loaded on the airbase strike aircraft were equipped with 48 multipurpose submunitions, each weighing 12 kilograms. Each submunition can not only create a crater of three meters in diameter and half a meter deep on the runway, but also penetrate non-reinforced hangars, damaging or destroying the aircraft inside, or destroy the airport's basic infrastructure and logistical equipment, such as fuel tanks, refueling vehicles, etc.

  The missiles fired at the military camp were loaded with 120 rounds of anti-personnel/anti-armor ammunition, each weighing 4 kilograms. Each round had a lethal radius of 15 meters against personnel and could destroy barracks and other infrastructure, blast ordinary vehicles, and penetrate the top armor of tanks and armored cars.

  Missiles targeting air defense command centers are equipped with high-explosive warheads weighing up to 1,000 kilograms, capable of easily destroying various non-reinforced buildings within a radius of 150 meters.

  Faced with a hail of bullets from the sky, India's well-equipped air defense troops could only watch and sigh.

  In the two minutes that mattered most, Indian air defences brought down just 14 warheads.

  When the smoke cleared, only one of the five Indian air bases attacked had a runway that could be used for takeoff but not landing. At least 120 combat aircraft were destroyed on the ground. The silver lining was that these combat aircraft were relatively outdated Mig-21 and Mig-23s; the mainstay of the Indian Air Force had taken off before the missiles arrived.

  Three military camps were hit even harder, except for the armored brigade deployed in the northwest of Amritsar, which left ahead of time and entered outside the offensive position. The Indian troops in the other two camps suffered a devastating blow. Hundreds of Indian army officers and soldiers were blown to pieces by a hail of bullets from the sky without knowing what was happening; dozens of tanks, more armored vehicles, and hundreds of military vehicles were destroyed.

  The air defense command centers near Bertamala and Mogadishu were luckier. Both air defense command centers were built in reinforced underground bunkers, the "Abdali-2" missiles did not have earth-penetrating warheads, high-explosive warheads could only destroy ground facilities of air defense centers, posing no threat to personnel inside the shelters.

  In less than half an hour, both sides of the battle exchanged a heavy blow.

  But the effect is completely different.

  Just before the battle began, a press conference by the Indian interim Prime Minister had just ended and Santos was on his way to the Strategic Command Centre.

  When he saw the satellite photos provided by the US of the Pakistan Air Force base after it was attacked, the old soldier was stunned.

  His first reaction was that America's reconnaissance satellites had malfunctioned.

  Obviously, this is just wishful thinking. US spy satellites can identify license plates, but can't see the damage to Pakistan Air Force bases?

  India lost very thoroughly in the first round.

  The war has just begun, losing one round is not important. What's important is that morale is dampened, and the fighting spirit is damaged, how can we continue to fight?

  The expressions of officers in the command center already showed that this result had an impact on everyone.

  The pace of war will not stop and will not end here.

  Both air forces' combat aircraft have taken off and an aerial battle is about to erupt. If India can defeat the Pakistan Air Force, it still has a chance to turn the tables.

  Of course, Pakistan's missile troops must be eliminated and Pakistan's frontline air force bases must be destroyed.

  Two thorny issues, two problems that must be solved.

  Santos did not interfere with command, after all he was still a soldier at that time, just a small soldier, not the commander.

  In the view of Indian Air Force Commander General Howarth, the situation at this time is not optimistic at all. The air force has already been deployed, and the air battle is about to start. In order to deal with Pakistan's missile troops and frontline air bases, only tactical ballistic missiles can still be used.

  Will the second missile strike have a better effect?

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