AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 4 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 46 of 237 such as maps, call-sign cards, MIP s 1 , EW MIP s 2 , INU 3 plans, authentication tables- All in all a very cumbersome procedure. 4 Wheels Roll was at 0630 and our escort Mirages from Ambala joined up with us about 300 km from the target. The RV point had been selected well away from the border to remain outside the enemy radar cover. The RV as before was uneventful. We maintained R/T silence and meticulously went over the attack drill to ensure all our EW systems and weapons were up and ready. The passage of the magnificent scenery below was barely noticed. We were on the alert checking our systems and all perked up to go. Tiger Hill was spotted from about 50 km distance in the Litening Pod and we were thrilled to see there was not a speck of cloud around. Things then moved forward at a rapid pace. I had altered heading to place the aircraft track directly at a set of seven Artic tents perched precariously on the South face of Tiger Hill. The white tents made good camouflage sense in winter, but in summer, with most of the snow melted away, they stood out in stark contrast against the black rock formation. Tiger Hill is at an altitude of 16,600 ft, and the pre-briefed altitude for the attack was 28,000 ft, to which we quickly descended. A glance at the INU indicated that the winds at this altitude was 70 knots in a westerly direction and at 90 deg to our planned track. This was excessive and outside the release envelope for the LGB. Going up was not an option as the Laser was known to switch off automatically at around 30,000 ft. A different direction was also not viable as the target would be shadowed. A quick decision was therefore taken to descend down to 26,000 ft, placing us well within the envelope of shoulder fired SAMs. The crosswinds however were more tolerable at 50 knots and just at the limit of the LGB delivery envelope. We had IR flares with us and considered going down an operational risk which we were willing to take. The CRM was excellent 1 MIP is Module for Insertion of Parameters. It’s like a USB pen drive which feeds the aircraft navigation and attack system with the coordinates and other data, such as time over target, of the various waypoints etc. 2 EW MIP is the same as above, but specifically reserved for the Electronic Warfare Systems, which in this case was the Serval RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) and the Remora ASPJ (Automatic Self Protection Jammer). The Parameters of the enemy and friendly radar threats are fed into the EW system along with the Type and Technique of jamming to be used. 3 INU is the Inertial Navigation System and the Plan was a printout of the MIP Data mentioned for manual verification. 4 The Mirage 2000 is a 35 years old aircraft in the IAF. Each of the MIP was limited to 32 KB of data, so the pilot carried 4 sets of them and insert them in sequence. 1 was for Navigation and the other 3 for EW. Modern aircraft, including the Mirage upgrade, today combine the Data into one module of 32 GB.