A New Conflict
The vicious midday sun had baked the gleaming shell of the fighter to a scorching heat. Sergeant Mohit was perched at the top of the boarding ladder, head thrust into the cockpit to check the instruments. Fortunately, the cooling cart's hoses were still plugged into this alert aircraft, and the cockpit remained pleasantly cool. The sergeant climbed inside, switched on the instrument power, and began the routine pre-flight checks, ticking off each instrument on his clipboard as he went.
"Rudder," the sergeant called out, pressing down on the rudder pedals.
"Left, right, check." A listless voice from behind the aircraft.
The sergeant marked another tick.
"Check the missile pylons."
The sergeant flipped open the weapons control panel. But a long time passed, and no one responded. He stuck his head out and saw someone squatting under the horizontal stabiliser, hiding from the sun.
"Hey, check pylon two. You hear me!"
Aircraftman1 Lugani got lazily to his feet, fished a torch from his pocket, and waved it in front of the seeker head of the missile hanging under pylon two. A light flickered briefly on the HUD in front of the sergeant's eyes, the buzzer gave a single beep, then went silent.
"Right, pylon eight now."
The sergeant ticked it off and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Somewhere else in the world it might still be snowing this time of year, but not here. The short stretch of tarmac outside the concrete revetment2 had already softened and buckled in the heat. Spring on the South Asian subcontinent was that merciless.
The sergeant finished the pre-flight form. The only line left was for the pilot's signature. He climbed down from the aircraft and walked over to the cooling cart, where he found the good-for-nothing aircraftman listening to his own radio — yet another violation of 13 Wing3 regulations. On the radio, a comedian was doing a pitch-perfect impression of a Punjabi accent from the Pakistani side of the border, telling inane jokes.
"Lugani, you idiot, how many times have I told you — you can't wear chappals4 on duty. If the CO sees you, you're finished."
"The CO went to Bangalore this morning." The aircraftman was unperturbed.
"That makes absolutely no difference. I can put it in my report, you moron."
The sergeant's threat was empty, and he knew it. With soldiers who only wanted to coast through their service, he really had no recourse at all.
Two hundred metres from the enormous fighter, in an air-conditioned ready room, two pilots sat in their heavy flight suits waiting for orders that could come at any moment. It was a dull afternoon. Flying Officer5 Rakhshina Goyal6 was studying the day's route on the map hanging on the ready room wall. Since he'd arrived at this squadron, the map of the northwestern border had never been changed.
Weapons officer7 Nilan Jafar was reading a copy of the Indian Express. The front page carried a huge headline: Day 10 After the Mumbai Massacre — Death Toll Exceeds 1,000.8 The second page bore an even more inflammatory title: Home Ministry Confirms ISI as Mastermind.9
"Time to teach them a lesson," Jafar muttered to himself.
The phone in the ready room rang. Goyal picked it up. A controller in the tower told him the runway had been cleared; they were free to take off. He walked to the window and watched a cooling cart pull up alongside his Su-30MKI. A group of ground crew were removing the last few hoses from the aircraft.
Jafar tossed aside his newspaper and came over. "I heard they scrambled 5 Squadron10 yesterday, lurking at standoff range to cover the strike aircraft. I really hope we run into them today, so we can show them what we're made of."
"Don't underestimate them. The 5th is their best squadron."
But even as the flying officer said this, what showed in his eyes was something closer to eagerness.
"But we're also the best pilots in all of India." Jafar stroked his moustache. "You're right about that. We can certainly leave them something to remember."
Goyal and Jafar each gave the other a light slap on the shoulder of his G-suit, then walked out into the scorching emptiness of the military airfield. As the pilots passed the cooling cart, Sergeant Mohit stood smiling beneath the aircraft at the head of his ground crew. Beside them, an unfamiliar soldier was shuffling about in the massive shadow beneath the engine intake; he apparently figured that standing there would shield him from the sun.
Flying Officer Goyal climbed into the cockpit. The instrument power was already on. The sergeant helped him quickly with the harness and plugged the data cable into his helmet. Goyal first switched on the VHF radio — the squadron's primary communication channel was 77.9 megahertz. The voice from the control tower came through almost immediately.
"Eagle, this is Wing Commander11 Mohsin. Runway is clear for takeoff."
"Eagle copies." Goyal answered while sweeping his eyes across the flight instruments. Sergeant Mohit's work was always meticulous; you could count on it.
"Supplementary intelligence: Pakistan's 33 Wing at Qutba12 has made some new movements, possibly heading toward the conflict zone at Kasur.13 The Army just built bunkers there. Watch out for them coming to make trouble."
"So we've got something to do, then." Goyal said calmly.
"Listen. There are some changes to your route. After takeoff, head toward Srinagar to cover the Lions'14 flank, then turn back near the northern border. 181 Flight's15 AWACS is already airborne; if possible, they'll vector you for further action. I remind you: our mission is a feint along the northern sector. If there's a dogfight over Punjab, let the Lions handle it."
"The Lions again. I had a feeling it would be like this. What about the alternate airfield up north?"
"Srinagar has a full-length runway that can handle the Su-30. That's it."
In the back seat, Flying Officer16 Jafar pressed a few buttons on the side of the multifunction display, programming the new route and a new alternate.
"Wing Commander, why are we on escort again?" Goyal couldn't help asking. He very much wanted to know why.
"Because the CO isn't here. He's in Bangalore." Wing Commander Mohsin ended the call.
"There's another reason, heh," the rear-seater Jafar said with a laugh. "Because we're the Indian Air Force's aces. They can't afford to lose us."
The sergeant stood in front of the aircraft, signalling the pilot to cycle through each control surface. Goyal complied one by one, and then the sergeant climbed up to the side and had Goyal sign off.
"Good luck to you."
"Good luck to you too. Oh, one more thing — get that new man away from the intake."
The canopy descended slowly. The ladder was pulled away. Goyal released the nosewheel brake, deftly opened the fuel distribution valves, then started the engines. The aircraft quickly roared to life. The tachometer crept to twenty per cent. He looked over his shoulder and saw the ground crew pulling away the last of the pneumatic hoses and the power cables.
Goyal slowly pushed the throttle of the Su-30 forward. He could feel the vibration building. He watched the engine RPM climb to fifty per cent, then released the brakes. The aircraft began to roll.
Aircraftman Lugani crouched off to the side, watching the missile-laden colossus accelerate forward, utterly transfixed.
"Hey, Sergeant — why does the flying officer's plane have a white aircraft painted on it, when none of the other planes in the squadron do?"
The sergeant thought that this fool, three days on base, had finally asked a question with a shred of meaning to it.
"Kid, Flying Officer Goyal is an extraordinary pilot. A few years back, the flying officer led No. 24 Squadron17 to the Red Flag exercise in Nevada. He shot down an F-15."18
As the sergeant spoke, his face shone with unmistakable pride.
"But that was just an exercise, wasn't it? Not real?"
"Is that even a question? Get the cooling cart out of here, you idiot."
1. Aircraftman (二等兵): The original Chinese uses 二等兵, literally "private second class," a generic army rank. However, the setting is the Indian Air Force, which inherited RAF-style rank nomenclature. The IAF's lowest enlisted rank is Aircraftman. ↩
2. Revetment (机堡): The Chinese 机堡 literally means "aircraft bunker/fort." The standard English military term for a hardened aircraft shelter is revetment. However, 机堡 can also refer to a more enclosed type of aircraft shelter, while revetment strictly denotes a more open shelter. ↩
3. 13 Wing (第13联队): The Chinese 联队 corresponds to a Wing in IAF organisation. A Wing typically comprises multiple squadrons and is commanded by a Group Captain (equivalent to Colonel). ↩
4. Chappals (拖鞋): The original Chinese says 拖鞋, meaning slippers or sandals. Given the Indian setting, chappals, the Hindi/Urdu word for open sandals, is more fitting. ↩
5. Flying Officer (中尉): The Chinese 中尉 corresponds to the rank of Lieutenant in most armies. In the IAF, the equivalent entry-level commissioned officer rank is Flying Officer. ↩
6. Rakhshina Goyal (拉赫辛纳·戈亚): I highlight this particular name to highlight the difficulties of name transcription across three languages. The Chinese phonetic rendering is Lāhèxīnnà Gēyà. "Rakhshina," the most common Indian name resembling this rendering, is still not a common given name; the author likely constructed it from phonetic approximation. Gēyà could also yield "Goya" rather than "Goyal," but Goyal is far more common as a specifically Indian surname. ↩
7. Weapons officer (武器操作员): The original Chinese 武器操作员 literally means "weapons operator." In the Su-30MKI's two-seat configuration, the rear-seater is the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO). The IAF informally refers to this role as the "navigator" or "back-seater." The text later identifies Jafar with the rank 中尉, making him a Flying Officer as well. ↩
8. Mumbai Massacre (孟买大屠杀): The novel appears to be set in a fictionalised escalation following events resembling the 2008 Mumbai attacks (26/11), in which coordinated terrorist assaults killed 175 people. The novel inflates the death toll to over 1,000 and imagines a subsequent military confrontation between India and Pakistan. ↩
9. ISI (巴基斯坦情报局): The original Chinese reads 巴基斯坦情报局, "Pakistan Intelligence Bureau." This is rendered as ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), Pakistan's primary intelligence agency, which was identified by Indian investigators as having links to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. ↩
10. 5 Squadron (第5中队): 中队 is equivalent to a squadron, and this references PAF No. 5 Squadron, nicknamed the "Falcons." One of the oldest and most prestigious squadrons in the Pakistan Air Force, it currently operates F-16C/D Block 52+ fighters from PAF Base Shahbaz. The squadron has a long operational history spanning all three Indo-Pakistani wars. ↩
11. Wing Commander (中校): The Chinese rank 中校 is equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel in most armies. In the IAF, the corresponding rank is Wing Commander. ↩
12. Qutba (古德巴): I had some fun researching this. The Chinese 古德巴 renders as "Gùdébā." This placename is not readily locatable on Western mapping services, but appears on AMAP (a Chinese mapping platform) as the area adjacent to PAF Base Minhas at Kamra, home to the No. 33 Tactical Wing. A Western author would likely have written "Kamra"; the author evidently sourced the placename from a Chinese-language map. ↩
13. Kasur (卡苏阿): Kasur is a city in Pakistani Punjab, roughly 50 km south of Lahore and directly on the Indian border. Its strategic position along the Radcliffe Line makes it a plausible site for the border tensions described in the novel. The phonetics (Kǎsūā) could also yield Kathua in Indian Kashmir, but Kasur is the more strategically logical choice given the Punjab theatre. ↩
14. The Lions (狮子中队): IAF No. 31 Squadron, nicknamed the "Lions," a ground attack squadron equipped with Su-30MKIs operating from Jodhpur. In the novel's scenario, the Lions are assigned the more aggressive Punjab air combat role while Goyal's squadron is relegated to the northern feint. Historically, No. 31 Squadron flew strike missions between Kasur and Raiwind in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. ↩
15. 181 Flight (181中队): No. 181 Flight is a real unit of the Indian Air Force assigned to the Western Air Command, participating in electronic intelligence, reconnaissance, and airborne early warning and control operations. The IAF designates it as a "Flight", a smaller unit, rather than a "Squadron"; the novel's Chinese 中队 can mean either. ↩
16. Flying Officer Jafar: The original identifies Jafar as a 中尉 in the rear seat. Though the WSO and pilot can hold different ranks, here both are 中尉 (Flying Officer). In the IAF's Su-30MKI fleet, the rear-seater handles navigation, weapons, and electronic warfare systems through the multifunction displays. ↩
17. No. 24 Squadron (24中队): IAF No. 24 Squadron, nicknamed the "Hawks," was the first IAF unit to receive the Su-30 series, initially inducted at Lohegaon AFS (Pune) in 1997 and later relocated to Bareilly AFS. The squadron has a distinguished combat record stretching back to the 1962 Sino-Indian War and both Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965 and 1971. ↩
18. Red Flag / F-15 kill: This fictionalises real events. The IAF participated in Red Flag 2008 at Nellis AFB, Nevada, deploying six Su-30MKIs from No. 20 Squadron "Lightnings" based at Pune (not No. 24 as in the novel). The exercise generated considerable controversy after leaked footage showed a USAF colonel claiming American F-15s "dominated" the Indian fighters, while Indian sources countered that no Su-30MKI was defeated in close air combat and that the IAF won the majority of one-on-one engagements. The novel's claim of an individual pilot "shooting down" an F-15 is artistic licence; exercise kills are adjudicated events. The white silhouette painted on Goyal's aircraft is a further embellishment, borrowing Second World War kill-marking conventions that the IAF does not practise. ↩