Hurriedly configured bombs changed course of Kargil war

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

Gwalior, June 24

Twenty years after the Kargil conflict, May to July 1999, the Indian Air Force (IAF) today attributed the firing of precision guided bombs on Tiger Hill and Muntho Dhalo as the “turning point” in the war.

The Mirage 2000 fighter jets, based here, were advance-located to Ambala and Adampur to carry out the first laser-guided precision strikes exactly on this day 20 years ago. 

Tiger Hill, a 16,600-ft-high massif located in front of Drass in J&K, was targeted, hitting Pakistani Army position that had been pounding the national highway. Existing 1,000-pound “dumb bombs” were retro-fitted with a “kit” within 12 days, and converted into bombs.

Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa today said, “It was a turning point, it helped ground forces in their advance.” The conversion of a 1,000-pound bomb into a laser-guided one was done within 12 days.

Chief of the Western Air Command R Nambiar (then a Wing Commander) leading the “Battle Axes” squadron to strike Tiger Hill said: “The strikes on the supply base at Mutho Dhalo on June 17 and that on Tiger Hill on June 24 changed the course of battle.”

India had purchased “Paveway” bombs from the US. The first tranche came in 1997, the imposition of sanctions following the May 1998 nuclear tests, meant the integration was incomplete. The Mirage software was of 1985 vintage. “Israelis helped us,” he said.

The IAF today showcased how Tiger Hill and Tololing were attacked by Mirage 2000 fighter jets by replicating the features of the Himalayan range on a “scale” model at Gwalior. The IAF lost two fighter jets on May 27, 1999, and a helicopter the next day. In all, the IAF carried out 578 strikes, 462 combat air patrols and 149 reconnaissance sorties during the Kargil conflict.

Twenty years later, after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, the same Mirage 2000 jets were tasked to undertake combat air patrols. This time, these were no “hurriedly assembled” weaponry. The Spice 2000 long-range stand-off weapon was dropped to strike at Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp at Balakot.

On February 26, a strike team was briefed that they could be the ones getting the “execution order”, which they did. 

On Balakot, the Air Chief Marshal said, “Pakistan could not achieve its military objective nor could they breach our air space.”

An-32 will continue to fly

• Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said the recent An-32 transport plane crash, which led to questions over flight safety, doesn’t mean that the Indian Air Force would stop flying the Soviet-origin three-decade-old fleet 
• On being specifically asked if the An-32 will continue to fly including in the Himalayas, he said, “Of course, it will, we have no other option. It’s only when we get a new fleet that some of the tasks can change.”