sir?”
Admiral Vaughn was standing. “Commander, this isn’t getting us anywhere. I think we all know that the Russkies aren’t going to pull their own weight out here, not if it comes to a stand-up fight. Let’s hear what the Indians have.”
Neil swallowed his anger. “Yes, sir. Phil? Let’s go to number twelve.” It took a moment for the projectionist to skip ahead several slides and find the first one dealing with Indian ships. As he waited, Neil summarized the Indian forces.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware, India has designs on being the number-one power in the Indian Ocean littoral. They have the third largest standing army in the world, the fifth largest air force, and the eighth largest navy. While we will be primarily concerned with their naval capability, we have to keep in mind that the Indians will be able to support their naval operations against us with a sizable fraction of their ground-based air force. All together, the IAF maintains some 960 combat aircraft. The Indian navy consists of at least sixty combat aircraft, including twenty-six attack helicopters. Of course, these one-thousand-plus aircraft are spread out over the whole Indian subcontinent, and the majority are already tied down in action against Pakistan. Our best guess …” He hesitated. “Our best approximation is that the Indians can deploy between one and two hundred aircraft of various types against us here at Turban Station.”
Another aircraft carrier flashed on the screen behind him, an odd-looking ship with a long island and a massive, up-swept hump at the bow end of her flight deck.
“Okay. Here we go. India currently has two aircraft carriers, gentlemen,” Neil said. “This is their latest, the Viraat. The name means “Mighty’ in Hindi. Her displacement is almost 24,000 tons. She has an illustrious history. Originally, she was the British Hermes, one of the two Brit carriers that supported the Royal task force in the Falklands campaign. The British sold her to the Indians in ‘86.
“For a while, the Indians operated her as a commando carrier and later used her for ASW. That ski jump you see forward lets her handle Sea Harrier V/STOL aircraft. Until recently, she carried one six-plane Sea Harrier squadron, plus a number of helicopters, but Intelligence believes the Indians have been upgrading her capabilities. Last year they completed purchase of thirty additional Sea Harriers from the British, and many of those are probably destined for the Viraat. She also still has provisions for 750 troops and carries four landing barges to facilitate landing operations. Next.” A new slide appeared on the screen.
“The other Indian carrier is the Vikrant. She started off as a World War II-era Glory-class carrier, the HMS Hercules. She was purchased by India in 1957. She’s smaller than Viraat — only 15,700 tons — but she carries six Sea Harriers. Vikrant is scheduled to be replaced by a 40,000-ton, Indian-built carrier sometime later in the late nineties, but that one’s not off the drawing board yet.”
Neil went on with a rundown of the Indian navy, concentrating on the warships known to be operating out of Arabian Sea ports. There was one nuclear sub, the Chakra — a Charlie I-class vessel on loan from the Soviet Union, but it was unlikely that the Indians would be in the mood to trust the Soviet technicians aboard her during the current crisis.
There was a new Soviet Kresta-II cruiser, the Kalikata, recently arrived at Bombay. All together, the Indian navy included over fifty capital ships, plus numerous missile and patrol boats, auxiliaries, and the like.
As he continued speaking, he was distracted by the sight of Admiral Vaughn leaning over to the captain at his side, apparently in deep conversation.
Just what the hell was going on with the flag staff today anyway? It was as though Vaughn simply didn’t care … or at least felt that the information was superfluous. It was impossible not to make comparisons with Admiral Magruder. That man might not always have agreed with OZ assessments, but at least he listened. And his questions had always been good ones, sharp and to the point.
Vaughn’s indifference sent an icy tingle down Neil’s spine, and he could sense that it was affecting the other officers in CVIC as well. Did he simply distrust his own intelligence department? Or was this something more than that, something deeper?
Neil didn’t know, but he knew that Vaughn’s attitude was being marked by the others, and that it could be deadly to the mission, to the men.
Deadlier, perhaps, than a third Indian carrier.
CHAPTER 11
Defense Minister Kuldip Sundai was a small, mustached man with rimless glasses that caught the fluorescent light from overhead and flashed it back at the generals and admirals sitting at the table. Rear Admiral Ramesh watched as he took a sip of water, then smiled at the assembly of high-ranking military officers arrayed about the conference room table.
“Gentlemen,” he said without other preamble. “I thank you for your invitation to meet with you today. I bring the compliments of the Prime Minister, who is proud and pleased with your prosecution of the war thus far. The Political Affairs Committee has asked me to express their complete confidence in you and your good efforts.”
Ramesh stifled a twinge of impatience. He didn’t like Sundarji, though he understood the man’s obsequious manner and politician’s smile.
The political situation within the Indian Federation was, as always, an extremely delicate one, as was the balance between the civilian government and the military. The Indian Constitution vested command of the armed forces with the President, but defacto control lay with the Prime Minister and his cabinet. The cabinet’s Political Affairs Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, was responsible for all high-level decisions on defense matters. The Minister of Defense was the only true liaison between the Indian government and its military, and there was a tendency for the armed forces to become isolated from government decision making.
By the same token, though, the government tended to leave military decisions to the military in a live-and- let-live arrangement that both sides found politically useful. As the public clamored for an end to Pakistani border aggressions, the government could truthfully say that the matter was in the army’s hands. And the service chiefs could count on a certain amount of noninterference from New Delhi when they sat down to plan their strategies.
Of course, that put a terrific responsibility on Kuldip Sundarji. The Defense Minister had to juggle two agendas — the government’s and the military’s — and make them come out to the common advantage.
He was, therefore, a master politician. Ramesh distrusted such people.
“General Dhanaraj,” the Defense Minister said grandly. “Would you be so kind as to brief us on the First Corps situation?”
General Sanjeev Dhanaraj scraped his chair back, rose, and walked to the wall map at the head of the table. Unit positions, movements, and defense lines were marked onto a transparent overlay that showed the broad scope and thrust of the war’s first three days.
“Overall, we have every reason to be pleased with the accomplishments of the past sixty hours,” he said. “Intelligence estimates that better than seventy percent of the Pakistani air force has been destroyed or grounded. We have reason to be concerned that a number of F-16 strike fighters, which are, of course, nuclear-capable, are still being held in reserve. Efforts are underway to locate and destroy them.”
He indicated a cluster of marks in the south, a few hundred miles from the sea. “Operation Cobra commenced at 0300 hours this morning.
Following massive artillery and air bombardments, a full division is attacking here, at Naya Chor, on the highway from the border to Hyderabad. Two more divisions are in reserve. Our diversionary attacks in the Punjab appear to have successfully pulled Pakistani attention to the Lahore-Islamabad region. Our armor has reported a major breakthrough and is now moving west at a rapid pace. Lead elements have reached the Nara River, and pioneer units are preparing to effect a crossing. Success there will bring us to Hyderabad.”
The general turned from the map. “Coupled with the planned naval blockade and commando landings along Karachi’s waterfront itself, it is the Senior Staff’s belief that we will control the Sindh within another three days. Pakistani resistance can be expected to crumble shortly after that.”
