Chimera by Vivek Ahuja Read Free Book Online

KJ-2000, tore through the cold rarefied air on its way south. Its dorsal mounted airborne radar was fully active, and inside the aircraft fifteen PLAAF officers awaited the first contacts to appear on their screens. It didn’t take long. The lone J-10 near the border with India was soon picked up on active systems, though the passive ones suggested that there were Indian aircraft also in the skies further south, most notably the Phalcon AWACS. The small airframe of the escaping Heron UAV was not picked up at this range, however. The Chinese commander on board rubbed his eyes as he walked over to the lead radar officer. Contact was imminent now...
     
     
     
     
    AIRSPACE OVER LADAKH
    INDIA
    MAY 15, 2030 HRS
    The three Indian Mig-29 Fulcrum fighters under the command of Squadron-Leader Khurana were flying just over the peaks as they dashed to the southeast to barricade the lone Chinese J-10 just over the border. Rough geographical features and the curving nature of the horizon prevented their detection by enemy radar. But that was about to change. They were approaching the border now, and it was time to show themselves to the other side...
    “Okay boys, time to look sharp. Weapons tight. Follow me in,” Khurana spoke to the other two pilots over the radio before gently pulling back on the control stick. The aircraft nosed up and lifted effortlessly into the higher air, and almost immediately the threat picture lit up.
    The on-board Radar-Warning-Receiver or RWR bleeped an audio warning into the ears of the three pilots as the emissions from the Chinese AWACS saturated the skies. Khurana looked instinctively to his left to see the threat far to the north, but of course the skies were as dark as ever with only stars above and the rocky peaks below.
    He knew this was deceptive. There were Su-27s out there somewhere, potentially flanking his flight of three. But his job was to keep his eyes peeled for the single J-10 doing mud-moving work in the hills to the east and leave the Su-27 threat for the Indian Su-30MKIs also sharing the skies with him over Ladakh.
    As for that J-10, the Phalcon had lost contact when the Chinese pilot had gone low within the hills. But he would be poking his nose out of the hills after completing his strike and it was Khurana’s job to ensure that this happened on the Chinese side and not on the Indian one...
     
     
    AIRSPACE OVER SOUTHWESTERN TIBET
    TIBET
    MAY 15, 2032 HRS
    The three Indian Fulcrums were now in full view of the Chinese KJ-2000, and the Su-27s were vectored to engage. The PLAAF Commander on board the radar aircraft was Senior-Colonel Len Feng. He was the chief operations officer of the PLAAF units in the Lanzhou Military Region that bordered India along Ladakh and south-western Tibet. In this capacity he reported directly to the commander of the PLAAF Lanzhou Military Area Command, Lieutenant-General Duan Chen.
    This was China’s first real deployment of their AWACS aircraft in a potentially hostile aerial situation and so he was here to see the effectiveness and potential drawbacks of their new airborne-radar aircraft. Lieutenant-General Chen had convinced General Jinping, the commander of the PLAAF to release to him the use of the 26 TH Air Division, which controlled all of the Chinese airborne-radar, command and control and special mission aircraft. This precious unit had subordinate to it the 76 TH Airborne Command and Control Regiment (ACCR) that fielded the brand new KJ-2000 AWACS, the turboprop engine KJ-200 AEW aircraft and other special Electronic Warfare (EW) aircraft.
    Upon release to Chen, the 26 TH Airborne Division HQ had deployed to Korla airbase in northern Tibet. This airbase was deep enough inside China that no enemy action was expected. But it was close enough to the Tibetan border to allow a pair of KJ-2000s to rotate on a continuous basis and cover the Ladakh sector with their radars. This allowed Chen to maintain the required coverage needed to keep the