The Eagle
The aircraft rolled a short distance and lifted off the runway. Goyal pulled the throttles back to military power,1 cutting the afterburners. Once the landing gear was retracted, the aircraft circled once over Bareilly airfield and headed northwest.
"I know the 33rd Wing at Qutba—just an ordinary tactical attack wing, all flying antiquated jets. Well… some Mirages and some Chinese-built MiGs, basically." Jafar said from the back seat, his tone distinctly dismissive.
"Pity our route takes us in the opposite direction. Maybe the Lions can pick up the scraps. Though I expect they'll come back empty-handed. The other day, one of their aircraft launched a long-range missile from well east of Kasur, and the enemy got away without breaking a sweat."
"The Lions are always too reckless. Their idea of tactics is to switch on the radar and patrol around like they're on a parade ground, practically begging to be noticed," weapons officer Jafar said.
"Eagle 302, this is Eagle's Nest. The AWACS from Sindan2 has developed a fault and appears to have turned back. You will continue on ground radar guidance. Over."
Bad news over the radio. The first uncertainty of the sortie had arrived, and in the grand tradition of the Indian Air Force, the unexpected was always inevitable. Flying Officer Goyal was unfazed. He held his preset heading at 4,500 metres, maintaining a moderate speed on what was essentially a straight-line course.
Gradually the Su-30 pushed out of the northern hinterland, approaching the vicinity of the Line of Control.3 The radar warning receiver flickered intermittently. Jafar checked each signal in turn: navigation radars on the ground, G-band emissions from SA-64 batteries belonging to the 19th Infantry Division5—nothing from the Pakistani side.
Vast snow-capped mountains were already visible in the distance. Beyond them lay Pakistani-controlled territory. Wing Commander Mohsin6 came over the radio: "Eagle, listen. The Lions came up empty. The enemy did not head toward Punjab. Their signals have disappeared. Our assessment is that they've most likely turned back, but it's possible they've gone north—toward you. We need you to stay on the border a while longer."
"They really vanished? Over," the pilot asked.
"Unclear. They've dropped off the radar, that's all. Too many mountains here to maintain a track. Be aware: their Mirages can sustain nap-of-the-earth flight for extended periods. If they're hugging the border at low altitude heading north, you can kill them at range. Do not close in." The Wing Commander's first thought was always to preserve his squadron's aircraft, even against a Mirage III built forty years ago.
"Let's hope so. They're good at using the terrain around here to duck radar," Goyal said.
"I recommend you maintain altitude and switch on the fire-control radar," the Wing Commander said.
"Copy." The flying officer sensed he might stumble into something this time. If the enemy was creeping north along the border, he was probably sitting at a slight right-hand bearing to them; a high, trailing position. He ignored the Wing Commander's instruction to activate the radar. Instead, he powered up the IRST,7 entering infrared scan mode: a passive search method, harder to detect, with near-radar field of view and better target resolution at close range.
The radio went quiet for a moment, then crackled back to life.
"Eagle 302, this is Eagle's Nest. Bad news. Latest intelligence: the forward base at Kargil8 has been hit. The bastards were heading north to evade radar, all right. They played our airborne command for fools. Sons of bitches in 181 Flight9 and their bloody broken-down AWACS." Goyal's private thought: how is this bad news? Because the Army lost a few bunkers? To him it was a golden opportunity, but he kept his mouth shut.
"At least we kept something in reserve. You're still up there. Continue searching your twelve o'clock. Remember the rules of engagement: long-range attacks only. No close-in fighting."
"Understood!"
"Oh, and one more thing. Your missiles can cross the Control Line, but your aircraft cannot. Starting a war is Parliament's business, not yours."
"Copy."
Goyal shoved the throttles forward. The seat slammed into his back and the aircraft quickly accelerated to 850 kilometres per hour. The enemy, having delivered their ordnance, would not flee directly west; not immediately. They would use the mountains for cover on the way out, the same way they had crept in. The flying officer had it figured. He aimed for the approximate bearing and surged ahead. The Wing Commander's rules of engagement had long since gone in one ear and out the other.
"Should we switch on the fire-control radar? Extend our search range?" Jafar asked from behind.
"No. That'll spook them."
Goyal understood. Whatever the ground radar couldn't find had to be behind the mountains, and it stood to reason the enemy was trying to loop wide to escape, since the terrain only rose higher to the north.
"See that snow-covered ridge ahead? Once we cross it, we'll find something."
"But the rules of engagement forbid us from crossing the Line of Control."
"Never mind that. If I'm right, they're somewhere around our one o'clock, heading away at ninety degrees off. In that geometry we can shoot first."
Goyal brought his altitude down to 2,700 metres. The mountain range ahead stood out sharply. He banked slightly, dipped the nose, and skimmed over the snow-covered ridge. Contact with the ground cut out instantly. A few seconds later, something appeared on his HUD: a faint line composed of a series of luminous dots. The infrared search and track system had, it seemed, found them.
"I can't make it out clearly. Could be a very small aircraft."
"Laser range-finding failed. Still too far. Maybe twenty-five kilometres ahead, altitude roughly… 1,600 metres."
The upside for Goyal was that the enemy had their arses pointed right at him. All he needed was a little patience and he could run them down without their knowing. The downside: if a ground radar on the Pakistani side switched on, he would be exposed too.
The data on the HUD kept shifting. As the infrared signature strengthened, the search system continued to scan. The target designation box had successfully boxed the contact; the system was now in track. The flying officer selected the R-73,10 the most dependable ambush weapon. Unfortunately he carried only two. The rest of the pylons were loaded with cumbersome semi-active radar-guided R-27s11—Wing Commander Mohsin's preferred style of engagement.
Following procedure, the flying officer pressed the weapon-arm switch and powered up the R-73 seeker head. The shoot cue finally began to flash. If he couldn't hold his nerve he could fire now; an infrared-guided weapon could be launched with the target's range and speed completely unknown, so long as the man pressing the button was willing to stake his life on the target being within envelope.
By Goyal's reckoning, if he could barely make out a small aircraft like a Mirage III or a MiG-21 in broad daylight, the range was roughly eight to ten kilometres. He could not yet see this aircraft clearly, so he had to keep closing.
The broken line on the HUD split into two distinct returns. There was now no doubt: more than one aircraft. The lead contact's signal was faint, perhaps obscured by cloud.
"Mate, we've only got two dogfight missiles. Better to light up the fire-control radar and engage them with the radar-guided ones," Jafar said.
"No. We're still in the dark and I won't give that up. Keep your eyes on the ground radars to the west. They've got mobile SAM batteries deployed on the other side of the Control Line."
"Right. I'm on it."
The enemy aircraft ahead showed no sign of manoeuvring. They remained oblivious to their pursuer. The flying officer had closed the distance to roughly four or five kilometres, and he could now clearly make out the rear aircraft's tailless profile12—unmistakably a Mirage V fighter-bomber.13 No drop tanks or bombs under the wings; he reckoned it was carrying two Magic missiles.14 The lead aircraft, further ahead, was still invisible to the naked eye. Goyal weighed his options. He could fire one infrared missile and quietly dispatch the trailing opponent first. Or he could switch immediately to a standard track-while-scan mode and launch several R-27s—he had six on board—engaging both targets at once. But the enemy's RWR15 would light up immediately, and they would certainly take countermeasures. What might have been a clean ambush could turn into a real two-against-one. The dilemma gave him pause.
1. Military power (中间位置): The standard aviation term for maximum dry thrust; full throttle without afterburner. In most fighter aircraft the throttle has a physical detent at this position; pushing past it engages the afterburner. The Chinese literally reads "middle position," referring to this detent. ↩
2. Sindan (新丹): The Chinese 新丹 renders phonetically as Xīndān. I have been unable to identify this with certainty as a specific Indian Air Force base. It may be either a fictionalised name or less likely referring to Hindan, the largest IAF base. In some Chinese transliterations it is not uncommon to see an initial H dropped like this. ↩
3. Line of Control (实际控制线): The Chinese term literally translates as "Line of Actual Control," which in English refers specifically to the Sino-Indian border. However, in this India-Pakistan context it clearly means the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir established after the 1972 Simla Agreement. Chinese-language sources routinely use the same term for both boundaries. ↩
4. SA-6 (萨姆6): The 2K12 Kub, referred to by the author under its NATO designation of the SA-6 Gainful. A Soviet-era mobile surface-to-air missile system using semi-active radar homing in the G-band (4–6 GHz). India operated the system extensively along the LoC. Its emissions would be instantly recognisable to an IAF radar warning receiver. ↩
5. 19th Infantry Division (第19步兵师): The "Dagger Division," one of the Indian Army's oldest formations. Headquartered at Baramulla in the Kashmir Valley, it operates under XV Corps and is responsible for a stretch of the LoC from Gulmarg to Uri, consistent with the novel's flight path toward the northern border. ↩
6. Wing Commander Mohsin: The same ground controller established in Chapter 1. The original text alternates between 莫辛中校 (Mòxīn) and 辛纳中校 (Xīnnà) when referring to him; the variation likely reflects the Chinese convention of abbreviating transcribed names, or is simply an inconsistency in the original. See C1N11 for the rank equivalence. ↩
7. IRST: Infrared Search and Track. The Su-30MKI is equipped with the OLS-30, a combined IRST and laser rangefinder mounted forward of the cockpit canopy. It provides passive detection and tracking of airborne targets via their thermal signature without emitting radiation that would alert the target, with a published detection range of up to 90 km for fighter-sized targets in rear-aspect. The text's description of its capabilities is broadly consistent with these figures. ↩
8. Kargil (卡吉尔): A town in Ladakh on the Indian side of the LoC, approximately 200 km east of Srinagar. The site of the 1999 Kargil War, in which Pakistani forces and irregulars occupied positions along a 160-km front on the Indian side of the LoC. In the novel's scenario, a Pakistani air strike on a forward base at Kargil represents a significant escalation. ↩
9. 181 Flight (181中队): See C1N15. The Wing Commander's outburst reflects a perennial tension between fighter squadrons and their supporting assets; 181 Flight's AWACS failure left the IAF without airborne early warning over the northern sector, allowing the Pakistani strike aircraft to exploit the mountainous terrain. ↩
10. R-73 (R73导弹): The Vympel R-73. A highly agile short-range infrared-guided air-to-air missile. Its seeker can be cued by the pilot's helmet-mounted sight and requires no radar emission to guide to target, making it ideal for the covert approach Goyal is attempting. Maximum engagement range is approximately 30 km under optimal conditions, though practical range in a tail-chase at medium altitude would be considerably shorter. ↩
11. R-27 (半主动雷达制导导弹 / R27): The Vympel R-27 in its R-27R semi-active radar-homing variant. The missile requires the launching aircraft to illuminate the target with its fire-control radar throughout the flight, which announces the attacker's presence to any aircraft with a radar warning receiver. Wing Commander Mohsin's preference for radar-guided engagement at standoff range reflects the more cautious BVR doctrine the IAF had been developing with the Su-30MKI. The Su-30MKI can carry up to eight; Goyal has six aboard. ↩
12. Tailless profile (无平尾的后部设计): The Mirage family uses a pure delta-wing configuration with no horizontal tail surfaces, making its silhouette instantly recognisable from behind and one of the easiest visual identification cues for distinguishing it from most other fighters. ↩
13. Mirage V (幻影V型): The Dassault Mirage 5, a simplified ground-attack derivative of the Mirage III. Pakistan operated several variants, with a number upgraded under the ROSE (Retrofit Of Strike Element) programme at Kamra, receiving upgraded avionics including radar warning receivers. Despite its age, the aircraft's ability to fly low and fast made it a viable strike platform in the mountainous Kashmir theatre. In the real-world Balakot crisis of February 2019, PAF Mirage 5s from No. 15 Squadron delivered H-4 stand-off glide bombs. ↩
14. Magic missiles (魔术导弹): The Matra R.550 Magic, a French short-range infrared air-to-air missile with a maximum range of approximately 10 km. Pakistani Mirage IIIs and Vs were commonly armed with the Magic alongside or in place of AIM-9 Sidewinders. The Chinese 魔术导弹 is a direct translation of the weapon's name. ↩
15. RWR: Radar Warning Receiver. The original Chinese text uses the English abbreviation "RWS" directly, which could stand for Radar Warning System or Range-While-Search, which is a mode. In context, the meaning is clearly an RWR: a passive receiver that detects and categorises hostile radar emissions. PAF Mirage ROSE variants were equipped with upgraded radar warning receivers as part of their avionics modernisation. ↩