Fictional Indian War Scenario: Skirmishes over the Arabian Sea – Part 3

L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace

(Audacity, audacity, always audacity.)

-          Napoleon Bonaparte

Captain Rajesh Sen could sense the change in the tempo at the bridge. The atmosphere was visibly tense and changed in the space of a few hours.

A good commander should always know the pulse of his troops mused the Captain.

What’s their flight path, Venkat? “Either Gujarat or tip of Maharashtra Captain” replied Lieutenant Venkatesh Kuppuswamy without battling an eyelid. “We will have a better picture in a few minutes Sir”.

“We do not have those few minutes, sailor” replied back Captain Sen in his gruff voice. Please patch me through Sinha at Command HQ and Air Commodore Johnson at SWAC.

Captain Sen was not wasting any time, it was not his habit to do so.

Captain Rajesh Sen, often referred to as the scholar captain in navy circles was war gaming the fast changing scenario like all good commanders would have done at this moment of time, and Captain Sen was the best of them.

While the 8 F16 were approaching Gujarat he was trying to figure out the worst case scenario.

Asking questions and answering them, playing different scenarios against each other within split seconds.

Where the F16’s hostile? yes, assume they are.

What’s their target: an Indian defence command structure, or defence production unit or was it something else.

This was what he had been trained for.

Sir, Air Commodore Johnson and Rear Admiral Sinha on Secure 1.

Gentlemen, boomed Rajesh leaving the exchange of additional pleasantries for a different occasion, we have a rapidly emerging situation. 8 Inbound bogies Identified as F16’s most likely PAF F’16’s.

Likely target is Gujarat, either defence or infrastructure. We need to inform Mr Singh and Mr Raman immediately. The 2second pause was infuriating for Sen as he looked the illuminated dial on the multi-function display which was giving the flight path of the F-16’s.

I will inform the NSA and the Defence Minister Rajesh, Rear Admiral Sinha retorted breaking the 2 second pause. Rules of Engagement are clear, Buzz them on IFF, and if they transgress on our air space shoot them down.

Instructions could not have been any clearer.

 The problem was as Sen had figured when he got the initial situational report from Vikram  that the Vizag only had 4 Barak 8ER missiles while he had 10 potential targets, 8 of them which were now almost within Indian air space.

“Buzz them “ Venkat  and start assigning targets to “Claw 1” , Claw 1 being the integrated target acquisition and firing system which integrated the EL/M-2248 MF-STAR multi-mission AESA and  the Thales LW08 radars and the ships armaments which included the long range Surface to Air Barak 8ER missile.

Squadron leader Bashir Ahmed broke into a slight sweat. The MFD had just flashed a warning sign that he had been buzzed. Message just flashed on his Link 16 secure link that the others had been buzzed as well.

He ruled out equipment malfunction, which meant that they had been detected.

Their biggest  advantage – stealth – had just been lost.