Chapter 156 Multiple Interceptions (Two in One, 5000 Words)

Later that day, near Mansehra, an important town at the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains.

Radar operator Captain Arshad Khan had just completed the change of guard with his colleagues in the previous group and sat on the chair in front of the radar operator's desk.

As the closest air defense missile site to the Kashmir region, it has been used as one of the most important nodes in defending Iba since the 1990s. It is equipped with a battalion of Hongqi 2A surface-to-air missiles introduced from China.

This model, which had shot down U2 many times, was no longer considered advanced in the mid-1990s. The poor performance of its imitation prototype S75 Dvina in the Gulf War even forced the Chinese Air Force to pull it out again. The easily jammed Type 59 100mm anti-aircraft gun turned the anti-aircraft missile regiment back into an air defense regiment to deal with air threats under strong electromagnetic interference.

But in any case, this kind of liquid-fueled, anti-aircraft missile that even needs to be refueled before launch has a pretty good shooting height and range on paper, and the warhead is huge, so it does not need to hit the target very accurately.

Since the position itself has an altitude of about 4,000 meters, this missile has hit an astonishing height of 28,000 meters in test firings.

For the Pakistani army, which is still unlikely to encounter high-intensity air threats like the NATO coalition forces, this is already the best anti-aircraft weapon they can get their hands on.

At least it can provide some actual sense of security to the big shots in Yburgh.

However, in the past year or two, the situation in Kashmir has obviously eased a lot. This may be because India's main weapons source country is in chaos and many equipment cannot be repaired and maintained smoothly.

Arshad yawned, turned around and slightly turned up the volume of the radio on the table behind him.

A match of his hometown cricket team was being broadcast there.

After the following rounds of competition, the scores of the two teams increased alternately, and the battle was very fierce.

"If this continues, the game may fall into a draw."

A fellow in charge of communications next to him was also paying attention to the score on the radio, with a bit of regret in his tone:

"We had a big advantage in the start."

As two countries with the same roots in the South Asian subcontinent, the discipline of the Pakistani army is basically on par with that of its old rivals. It is not a big deal to slip out of the army while on duty.

As a result, as soon as the correspondent finished speaking, the two home teams completed a beautiful pitch and successfully sent out an opponent's batter.

"I think if you say a few more frustrating words, we might win."

Arshad joked with his companions and glanced back at the radar screen out of habit.

A bright spot appeared on the screen and he suddenly became excited:

"Wait, there's a signal near the eastern border."

"What boundary? The next round hasn't started yet."

The correspondent was still immersed in the game. It was not until Arshad turned off the radio that he finally came back to his senses:

"Eastern border? Then why are you so nervous?"

The east side of Kashmir is the border area with China, which is basically in a completely free-range state. Their focus is still near the military demarcation line, which is also where the other side's air force most often carries out cross-border provocations.

"But this plane has an altitude of 18,000 and a speed of 1,100."

Arshad stared at the radar screen and frowned slightly.

This is by no means a height and speed that a civil aviation aircraft can reach, but judging from the opponent's trajectory, it is indeed just flying along the border in a regular manner.

"Perhaps a Chinese Air Force fighter jet is patrolling..."

The correspondent's voice became smaller and smaller midway through his words. It was obvious that this explanation was difficult for even him to convince.

"We have served here for six years. How many times have you seen their fighter jets in this position?"

Arshad rolled his eyes:

"Anyway, let the launch unit prepare first, refuel in advance, and then notify the battalion commander."

An important upgrade of the Red Flag 2A is the improved fuel tank. Although it still needs to be filled with fuel before use, it at least increases the lifespan. Therefore, the permission to refill the fuel command is delegated from the battalion commander himself to the officers on duty.

Of course, the launch order must still be issued by the battalion commander.

The combat command room suddenly became busy.

By the time this series of command and reporting processes were completed, the aircraft had already flown close to the actual control line.

"I hope it's just a false alarm..."

The correspondent, who sat back in his chair, looked at the bright spots on the radar screen and muttered to himself.

Almost as he said it, the target that was originally flying along the border suddenly changed direction and headed straight towards the north side of the dividing line in the southeast direction.

Feeling a little dizzy, Arshad suppressed the urge to gag his fellow countryman's mouth and ordered in a deep voice:

"Quickly notify Peshawar Base and Kamla Base and let them prepare to intercept the target!"

At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Mukherjee, who was sitting in the cabin of the MiG-25RB, was happy because his little cleverness just now worked.

He did not rush directly into Pakistan's actual control area from the northernmost part of Kashmir. Instead, he disguised himself as a patrolling Chinese fighter jet and suddenly turned the direction of the plane's nose when he was about to reach the actual control line.

About a minute after he crossed the border, he received a notification that he had been tracked by an S-band fire control radar. The RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) showed that the source of the threat was SNR-75, but Mukherjee knew it was definitely It's the kind of Chinese imitation model.

Just about 30 minutes ago, another radar with almost identical signals scanned him, but it was unable to complete the lock because it was too far away.

Obviously, the legendary S300 does not exist. He made an extra circle because of an air defense system that may just be an improved SAM 2, wasting nearly half of the fuel and nearly an hour.

"Fortunately, I deceived them, otherwise it would still be a bit dangerous to rush directly to the anti-aircraft missile position..."

The lieutenant colonel said to himself happily.

Of course he had no way of knowing that the sluggish reaction shown by the other party was simply due to the radar operator's negligence.

In a few breaths, the MiG-25 climbed to an altitude of 22,000 meters, and the speed was still maintained at around 1,100km/h. Due to tight fuel, Mukherjee could only turn on the afterburner at the most critical moment.

The Pakistani missile operators on the ground showed incredible efficiency and completed launch preparations in the shortest time through various operations that did not comply with the manual.

The air defense battalion commander was still reporting for instructions, but he found that the MiG-25 still had no intention of turning after crossing the entire Kashmir, but continued to rush towards Ibao.

He only hesitated for half a second at most before giving the launch order.

From the hexagonal launching position, two missiles shot straight into the sky with thunderous sounds and dazzling firelights.

The solid fuel booster can give the missile good acceleration capabilities. Although the highly toxic nitrogen-containing fuel is inconvenient to use, at least the working time is relatively long.

Inside the MiG-25 cabin, the sound of the RWR instantly turned into a continuous high-frequency buzz, which often meant that the missile had been launched and was flying towards itself.

"So fast?"

The opponent's reaction speed surprised Mukherjee. He pushed the throttle valve as fast as possible. It was obviously not the time to worry about fuel.

The battalion commander in the command room looked hopefully at the two anti-aircraft missiles on the screen that were getting closer and closer to the target. For a moment, he was already imagining the scene when he was awarded the medal.

But the good times did not last long. The speed of the target displayed by the radar was getting faster and faster, exceeding twice the speed of sound in a short period of time.

"2.2 times the speed of sound?" A drop of sweat appeared from the battalion commander's forehead.

This speed and height obviously revealed the opponent's identity. This was not the first time he had a battle of wits and courage with the MiG-25, but before that the opponent had only been active in the Pakistani-controlled area of ​​​​Kashmir, and had never been so rampant.

"If it continues to accelerate, it will be out of our killing range."

Arshad's tone was a little annoyed and a little scared:

"It...will it really fly over Iburg?"

"No... uh... I mean, I don't know, I hope not."

The battalion commander wiped the cold sweat from his head, and the face reflected on the radar screen had turned pale. After all, 2.2 times the speed of sound is not a number worth mentioning for the MiG-25:

"Has the aviation department already taken off?"

"Already notified."

Arshad nodded.

He felt that his battalion commander seemed to have overreacted, and at the same time he secretly made up his mind that if the people above found out, he would truthfully admit his mistakes and never implicate other people under any circumstances.

However, in fact, he underestimated the seriousness of the situation.

In the entire army, only the battalion commander himself knew what his anti-aircraft missile position was protecting.

It is not Yibao as everyone generally thinks, but a nearby top-secret nuclear industry facility that is currently producing high-purity weapons-grade enriched uranium.

If something went wrong there, even if he died a thousand times it wouldn't be enough to atone for his sins.

But at the same time, Mukherjee was not feeling well in the MiG-25 cabin.

The electronic reconnaissance pod under the belly of the aircraft had a greater impact on flight performance at high altitudes than he expected. Not only was the aircraft unable to accelerate to more than 3 times the speed of sound, it even took some time to break through 2.3 times the speed of sound.

RWR can only provide radar signals. In fact, the pilot has no way to know where the missile directed at him is.

After a few seconds of fighting between heaven and man, the huge psychological pressure still caused Mukherjee to make several consecutive sets of small left and right maneuvers.

At extremely high speeds, even this action caused the aircraft's overload to instantly exceed 3.5g. Fortunately, the aircraft was strong enough, and Mach 2.3 was far from degrading the performance of the body's materials due to heat.

The missile's booster rocket motor can only work for a short time, and after that it can only continue to fly to the target through inertia.

The situation of Hongqi 2 is slightly better, but it is only relatively speaking. The main engine of liquid fuel is really insufficient, and the top speed is not even much faster than the MiG-25.

Mukherjee's actions forced the two missiles to continuously modify their courses, which quickly exhausted their energy as they had lost power and were still climbing.

The air defense battalion commander in front of the radar screen watched helplessly as the two missiles began to drop high one after another. The closest one was more than two thousand meters away from the target.

But there is still hope——

He didn't know why the MiG-25 didn't use the simplest method to accelerate away, but the few maneuvers just now were not without cost. In addition to causing the target's speed to briefly drop below Mach 2.0, it also caused the flight direction to change. yaw.

Now the opponent needs to make a small-radius turn that will inevitably lose altitude and speed before re-aiming at Iborg, and this leaves a theoretical interception window for the aviation unit.

Correspondents are continuously reporting the situation to Peshawar and Kamra to assist them in directing fighter jets to conduct interceptions.

The two Mirage 3EPs of the 7th Squadron and the two J-7Ps of the 14th Squadron had already taken off as soon as they received the report and were approaching the target from two directions.

A little further away, two F16As of the 9th Squadron have also taken off and are ready to come to assist in the battle.

The MiG-25 has a set of camera equipment installed on its nose and does not have a radar, and it is impossible to communicate with the base at such a long distance. Therefore, Mukherjee does not know how many aircraft are on the way to intercept him, but he is After realigning the direction, he made an extremely sophisticated response based on his experience.

Climb, not accelerate.

Including the F16A BLOCK15, no aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force can launch radar-guided medium-range air-to-air bombs, and no aircraft can fly above 21,000 meters. They are destined to be helpless against real high-altitude targets.

However, if you blindly increase the speed, on the one hand, it may lead to fuel shortage; on the other hand, if you are completely blind, you may even hit the face of an intercepting aircraft head-on.

At that time, it was impossible to save the immortal.

"What a seasoned bastard..."

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Sami, who was piloting the Mirage 3 aircraft, heard the other party's actions on the radio and cursed angrily.

He relied on his rich experience to completely guess the opponent's route. To this end, he took his wingman and made a special circle after takeoff. Now he was almost directly in front of the opponent's flight direction.

If the opponent is a daredevil who is superstitious about speed, then he will enter the missile range in about 3 minutes. The temperature of the MiG-25's skin when flying at high speed is amazing. Even the older infrared-guided combat missiles can capture the heat on the skin. The heat source does not have to be cut into six o'clock before firing like when facing ordinary targets.

But now, he knew the interception should have failed.

Soon, the two J-7Ps trying to pursue the target were the first to give up the attack due to lack of fuel.

Although the F16 in the distance had captured the target's signal with radar, the AN/APG66 radar was unable to guide the beyond-visual-range attack, so it had to give up.

Only Sami and his wingman made a single jump to an altitude of about 2,500 meters below the target and fired a salvo of Magic air-to-air missiles.

But close-range combat ammunition was not designed to be fired in such an awkward position.

Due to insufficient muzzle velocity and the need to climb, the four missiles lost their stability almost as soon as the rocket engines stopped working. The only gain was that the traces of the MiG-25 were captured with a camera gun, which at least saved some for the Air Force. face.

…

A few hours later, several pilots involved in the interception, as well as the battalion commander of the anti-aircraft missile battalion, were gathered together to receive a high-level report from the Air Force Staff.

Thanks to the desperate launch unit regaining a lot of time, no one knew that Arshad almost missed the target because of a half-game, so although the atmosphere was a bit heavy, the attitude above was generally positive. of.

After all, the equipment gap does exist objectively, and it is already quite difficult to see the opponent within visual distance.

A short time before the meeting, Colonel Badla Islam, the captain of the 9th Squadron who also participated in the interception, approached Sami who was a little disappointed.

"Good job, honey badger."

The two had served in the same unit for a long time, and Honey Badger was Sammy's codename at that time.

But his superiors obviously prefer Islam who obeys orders, so his official career is much better than that of Sami, and he can always stay in the F16 unit.

"Forget it, I didn't let them run away." Sami was obviously not satisfied with just taking pictures of the target with a camera gun.

"I think this is not a bad thing."

Islam whispered into Sami's ear and said:

"Especially now."

"How to say?"

Sammy raised his head and looked at his old friend next to him.

He was a fairly pure pilot, or more bluntly, a combat fanatic, but far less sensitive than Islam in other matters.

"Did you see their new fighter jets when you last went to China to attend an air show?"

The Xiangzhou Air Show has ended for a few days, and the air show during the opening ceremony has already been spread everywhere.

"Of course, but what we are looking at is actually another deeply improved version of the J-7. Should I show you its model photos?"

Islam nodded:

"Indeed, we have always regarded Chinese equipment as alternatives or cheap substitutes in the past, and the main force of the Air Force has always been Mirage 3EP and F16."

"But this time, do you think the big shots in Yburgh still have a choice?"

What his old friend said made Sami think.

He's just insensitive, not stupid.

"Hmm...you mean we might buy higher-end Chinese fighter jets, such as the J-8C?"

"But on the one hand, China itself does not yet have radar-guided medium-range air-to-air missiles, and its interception capability may not be stronger. On the other hand, even to deal with the threat of the MiG-25, the introduction of a high-altitude and high-speed interceptor aircraft is very important to us. It doesn’t seem like a good choice either.”

"You are right, but these are technical issues."

Islam's tone was a bit hateful:

"But for our country, the choice of main fighter jets must not only consider technology. The Chinese are much more reliable allies than the United States and France."

"That's true."

Sammy agreed.

"Just watch, there will be big changes soon."

Islam said and patted Sami on the shoulder:

"General Pervez may go to Kamla Base for inspection in a while. Remember to show off in front of him. Don't be too deliberate. It's enough to let him remember you as a person."

"Pervez?"

Sami was stunned for a moment after hearing the name:

"Isn't he from the Army?"

"Don't worry about it. You must remember this. I have never tricked you before...at least not on the ground."

Islam is not a very good pilot, and teaming up with him in an air battle is almost the same as fighting alone.

However, in all fields other than flying, he does quite well, and he treats his subordinates and friends well.

"Okay, indeed, it's up to you."

Updates will be added in the afternoon as usual, thank you book friends for your help in recommending