I am a senior Indian Air Force fighter pilot. I overhear a chance cable communication between the Director General Air Operations(DGAO), Indian Air Force(IAF), Air Marshal Sudarshan Krishnamurthy, AVSM, PVSM and Director General Military Operations, Indian Army, Lt.Gen. Shokin Sharma UYSM, VSM about an IAF pre-dawn attack on Chinese airbases in response to a Chinese incursion in the North East(NE) and am immediately summoned to Air Headquarters(AHQ), Vayu Bhavan, New Delhi and find myself drawn into the war. It has to be mentioned here that Pakistan too has simultaneously attacked India on the western front. The DGAO and the DGMO tell me that India has to face up to and beat back the combined Chinese and Pakistani onslaught on two fronts and entrust me along with a select clique of IAF fighter pilots with the task. Myself and the crack team of IAF fighter pilots take off from Adampur airbase. I find myself at the controls of a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter bomber and soon along with my team of fighter pilots am on a bombing run of Chinese and Pakistani airbases on a mission to flatten Chinese and Pakistani cities. Now, Adampur airbase comes under the Northern Air Command on the Chinese border and is the sword arm of the IAF. Incidentally, Chinese analysts are surprised at the performance of the S-400 Triumf air defence guns in the limited but intense exchange that India and Pakistan had in the recent past as part of Operation Sindoor and believe Russia gave the simplified version to China. So, enthused by the performance of the S-400 Triumf with Pakistan India has deployed these guns on the Chinese border too. Now, myself and my team of ace fighter pilots need no validation of our flying skills and are determined to beat back the combined Chinese and Pakistani disgraceful assault on India's frontiers amidst a firm repudiation of the combined Chinese and Pakistani onslaught. We fly over the Himalayas and bomb Chinese airbases like Daishan, Danghang, Datun, Datong PLA Air Force HQ, Shigatse, Nyingchi, Chamdo Pangta, Lhasa Gongkar etc. On the western frontier we cross the border and bomb Pakistani airbases and other military installations like the strategically important PAF Sargodha airbase where Pakistan's F-16s are based, PAF Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur air defence radar, PAF Bholari, PAF Samungli, PAF Jacobabad, Pakistan's Afghan springboard, PAF Skardu for northern areas, PAF Chaklala outside Islamabad, PAF Murid(Chakwal), PAF Korangi Creek etc. For good measure we strike deep into China knocking out the Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant, Changjiang nuclear facility, Guangxi Bailong Nuclear Power Project, Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant, Fangjiashan, Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, Lufeng, Qinshan, Ningde Nuclear power plant and the Fangchenggang nuclear facility paralyzing and shaking up the Chinese nuclear set up out of its reverie. As is well said all is fair in love and war. In Pakistan, we cross the border and bomb Pakistan's twin nuclear nuclear facilities at Chashma and Karachi. Pakistan strikes at Rawatbhatta and Kaiga while China launches Dongfeng 28 ICBMs stationed in Tibet deep south at Kudankulam and Kalpakkam. Luckily for India there is no radioactive spillover while Communist China and the chequered democracy that Pakistan is do not disclose their exact casualties but there is reason to think we caused substantial damage to the Chinese and the Pakistanis and the scales have been tilted vis a vis both China and Pakistan. Prior to the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict India had greater prestige in international counsels and now again that situation may have been restored thanks to the Indian attacks deep into China and Pakistan. But, will the Chinese and the Pakistanis take this attack on their territory lying down?. The answer is a firm no. So it was that Chinese and Pakistani troops in a pre dawn attack attacked Galwan Valley, Ladakh, Tsangang Tso, Hot Springs etc all along the line of control in a coordinated attack and Chinese Air Force planes struck at Pathankot, Halwara, Hindon, Adampur, Tezpur, Chaubua in Assam and PAF jets struck at the maximum security Lohegaon Sukhoi 30 airbase, Bhuj and Jamnagar while the Chinese Air Force launched missiles at the Thanjavur Sukhoi 30 airbase down south where a squadron(around 16-18 aircraft) of Sukhoi 30 fighter aircraft are based. But this was a attack the Indian forces had anticipated and prepared for decades and were well prepared for. And so it was that they threw off this combined Chinese and Pakistani attack. Plus given the fact that Chinese troops fear nothing more than fighting against Indian troops in the icy chill of the Himalayas(for e.g. Chinese troops have no experience in high altitude warfare while the Indian military's history is steeped in high altitude warfare fighting in the Siachen glacier) and soon we scored a handsome victory against the Chinese and the Pakistanis(Pakistan anyway is no match for India and will be wiped off the map in an outright war). I receive a citation, a special mention and a Padmashri for my efforts as do my fellow fighter pilots who took part in Operation Cactus.
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