Background: A series of ground skirmishes along the East Pakistan border on the 2d of December along with several aircraft incursions during the previous few days culminated in all-out warfare commencing on the afternoon of 3 December. The PAF attempted to gain the initiative in the air by preemptively striking several forward Indian airfields. Unfortunately, the Indians were ready for the attacks and had their aircraft dispersed and/or in shelters. Operating in small packets of four to eight aircraft, the PAF jets failed to do more than cause superficial damage. Only at Amritzar was any significant damage done. PAF Mirage Ills managed to damage a 300m section of the runway and also damaged a small radar site. One Mirage was reported lost to the Indian anti-aircraft defenses. Maps: G H Indian Airfield Units: Large buildings x 2; G-1 014, G-1 015. Hangar x 1; G-1016. EWR-A x 1; G-0816. ZPU-2 14.5mm Lt. AAA x 3; G-1214, G-1216, G-1215. Bofors L/70 40mm Med. AAA x 1; G-0912. Indian CAP Aircraft: Two Gnat Mk.1s, both in G-0201, altitude 15 and Speed 3.0, facing East, CL. Game Length: 20 game turns. Notes: 1. The maps are fixed. IAF aircraft may safely exit any edge but are removed from play if they do. PAF Mirages must exit the east edge of the play area by turn 20. if they exit any other edge, or fail to exit by turn 20, they are considered destroyed by IAF MiG-21s which were scrambled from other airfields. 2. The main target of the strike is the North-South runway and the EWR site. The other runways do not exist for this scenario. The main targets are worth double V.P.s to the PAF Mirages. 3. All a/c begin unspotted except the Mirages are detected by the EWR which is controlling the IAF CAP. The Mirages are camouflaged. The Gnats are silver. The Mirages may not climb above level 3 or visually search for Gnats until within 15 hexes of any airfield hex. The pilots are concentrating on their ground attack. 4. Weather: Stratus layers at 16 and 24. 5. Pilot Quality: Gnats= R, R. Mirages= V, R, R, N. All have average attributes and no special characteristics. 6. Fuel: Gnat start= 65, bingo= 20, or 40 if two or more runway hexes damaged. Mirage start= 160, bingo= 100. 7. Mirage Loads: Stations 2,4= 600L FT. Stations 1,5= one 5501b. HE BB. Station 3= two 5501b. HE BBs. Total weight= 4,400. 8. Variation: Let the defending CAP be one MiG-21 FL with two AA-2A Atolls and a GP-9 gunpod. Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 20 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by J.D. Webster This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com