flight-suits covered with leather jackets to protect from the cold weather of Ladakh. Bhosale walked inside the hardened shelter along with his entourage a few moments later. Once there, he found himself staring at the shredded remains of the port wing of one of the Mig-29s from the previous night. The maintenance crews were attempting to remove sections of the aircraft for transport on board one of the IAF C-17s from Leh to Bangalore for repair.
Bhosale was shown the damaged underside of the aircraft by one of the Sergeants supervising the disassembly operations. It had been a miracle that the aircraft undercarriage had opened properly, allowing the pilot to make an emergency landing that saved the aircraft from total loss. A minute later Khurana walked over and saluted. Bhosale returned the salute.
“Hell of a night, son. Nice work out there preventing this thing from snowballing out of control. You and your men all right?”
“Yes sir. Some minor injuries to the pilot of this aircraft from shrapnel to the cockpit glass. Nothing serious though. He will make it.”
The Air-Marshal nodded as we walked around the crippled Mig-29 with the base commander in tow.
“So what do you make of our Chinese buddies and their intentions?”
“Sir, they are testing our response times, endurance limits and evaluating the overall threat we present to them,” Khurana replied.
“Which is of course in stark contrast to their activities in eastern Tibet. We know they cannot threaten us in this region from the air. Their ground based surface-to-air batteries are a different matter though,” Bhosale said as he walked near the damaged port engine exhaust and checked the deepness of the slash that a shrapnel piece had made into the fuselage paneling. It brought a frown to his face. He turned to face Khurana.
“You did good work out there to control the situation. I know how easy it must have been to let go and take down the bugger who did this. But as it happens, we are operating under a policy of restraint from New-Delhi. The idea is to not provoke a war right now. Unfortunately, events such as this one will change the rules. I will make sure of it. We will not sit by and accept losses in men and material simply to avoid provocation. I am headed to Delhi after this. Let’s see if I can get you boys the freedom of action you need to ensure this never happens again,” Bhosale nodded to Khurana as he walked away from the hanger with the base commander and his entourage.
Once outside and seeing the brown mountains of Leh and a gray overcast sky above, he turned to the base commander even as he entered the back of his car:
“The gloves will come off sooner rather than later the way the mess in Tibet is spiraling out of control. And Beijing is going to lash out once they get pushed beyond a certain limit. What happened yesterday night might just be a precursor of things to come. Samik, get your boys ready. For anything.”
THE JUNWEI-KONG-JUN
BEIJING, CHINA
MAY 25, 0900 HRS
The walk through the corridors of power was not a relaxed one for Feng. Neither was the thought of standing in front of some of the most powerful men in the Chinese military. He had been having a very busy month, and this visit was just another in a series of visits to this very building and to meet the very same people. And despite that he had not gotten used to it. He was more at home at his base on the fringes of China rather than at the heart of it. But this visit had not been his doing.
He walked with Lieutenant-General Chen into the office of Colonel-General Wencang. His personal assistant stood up and saluted from his desk outside Wencang’s office when he saw the two senior officers walking up. They paused and returned the young Lieutenant’s salute and then Chen signed in his entry on the receptions register while the young man opened the door for the two men into the office. As they walked in, they saw Wencang sitting behind his desk
Bhosale was shown the damaged underside of the aircraft by one of the Sergeants supervising the disassembly operations. It had been a miracle that the aircraft undercarriage had opened properly, allowing the pilot to make an emergency landing that saved the aircraft from total loss. A minute later Khurana walked over and saluted. Bhosale returned the salute.
“Hell of a night, son. Nice work out there preventing this thing from snowballing out of control. You and your men all right?”
“Yes sir. Some minor injuries to the pilot of this aircraft from shrapnel to the cockpit glass. Nothing serious though. He will make it.”
The Air-Marshal nodded as we walked around the crippled Mig-29 with the base commander in tow.
“So what do you make of our Chinese buddies and their intentions?”
“Sir, they are testing our response times, endurance limits and evaluating the overall threat we present to them,” Khurana replied.
“Which is of course in stark contrast to their activities in eastern Tibet. We know they cannot threaten us in this region from the air. Their ground based surface-to-air batteries are a different matter though,” Bhosale said as he walked near the damaged port engine exhaust and checked the deepness of the slash that a shrapnel piece had made into the fuselage paneling. It brought a frown to his face. He turned to face Khurana.
“You did good work out there to control the situation. I know how easy it must have been to let go and take down the bugger who did this. But as it happens, we are operating under a policy of restraint from New-Delhi. The idea is to not provoke a war right now. Unfortunately, events such as this one will change the rules. I will make sure of it. We will not sit by and accept losses in men and material simply to avoid provocation. I am headed to Delhi after this. Let’s see if I can get you boys the freedom of action you need to ensure this never happens again,” Bhosale nodded to Khurana as he walked away from the hanger with the base commander and his entourage.
Once outside and seeing the brown mountains of Leh and a gray overcast sky above, he turned to the base commander even as he entered the back of his car:
“The gloves will come off sooner rather than later the way the mess in Tibet is spiraling out of control. And Beijing is going to lash out once they get pushed beyond a certain limit. What happened yesterday night might just be a precursor of things to come. Samik, get your boys ready. For anything.”
THE JUNWEI-KONG-JUN
BEIJING, CHINA
MAY 25, 0900 HRS
The walk through the corridors of power was not a relaxed one for Feng. Neither was the thought of standing in front of some of the most powerful men in the Chinese military. He had been having a very busy month, and this visit was just another in a series of visits to this very building and to meet the very same people. And despite that he had not gotten used to it. He was more at home at his base on the fringes of China rather than at the heart of it. But this visit had not been his doing.
He walked with Lieutenant-General Chen into the office of Colonel-General Wencang. His personal assistant stood up and saluted from his desk outside Wencang’s office when he saw the two senior officers walking up. They paused and returned the young Lieutenant’s salute and then Chen signed in his entry on the receptions register while the young man opened the door for the two men into the office. As they walked in, they saw Wencang sitting behind his desk
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