Late one night at the end of February 2019, the Indian Air Force suddenly dispatched a large number of fighters and flew brazenly into the airspace of its neighbors to the west, but because the other side had already taken precautions, the Indian fighters just flew to the border and encountered stubborn resistance.
Interestingly, the fierce battle lasted all night, but until dawn, neither side exposed the information of the attack and fall. Because of this, there are voices of ridicule from the outside world, saying that India has engaged in sneak attacks, but it has also ended up with a zero harvest.
Such remarks obviously irritated India, so at noon the next day, they sent the army and launched a second offensive. It has to be said that this military operation can be described as an immediate effect, in just 30 minutes, they sent out a war report that shot down a helicopter, and this is also the only result of India's harvest in this conflict.
However, just 7 months later, the singing and dancing Indian people learned a heartbreaking news. It turned out that the root of the military shooting down was its own helicopter gunship, in other words, India celebrated the death of its own pilot for more than half a year.
But it is puzzling that the Oolong incident is obviously very humiliating, but the Indian Ministry of Defense seems to be a reasonable party, not only righteously condemning its neighbors to the west, but also taking an Israeli company to court.
Today, let's talk about how India did it, shooting down its own helicopter without knowing it? And what is the reason for their suing Israeli companies?
In 2016, India's Ministry of Defense released a document saying it needed a more advanced anti-aircraft missile to fill the defense vacuum of derby and Snake-5 missiles that could not attack targets 50 kilometers away. It is worth noting that in this document, the Indian Ministry of Defense did not preach that they wanted to engage in "nationally produced" weapons as in the past, and eventually ended up in a situation of high and low, but was very pragmatic and directly disclosed the bidding plan.
As we all know, although India always cuts the door in the field of infrastructure construction and other fields, it is very willing to spend money when it comes to arms purchases, and it is precisely because of this that after the Ministry of National Defense announced the plan, a series of advanced military enterprises, including Germany and the United States, all came to the door.
Other countries have responded so much that it can be said that India has been eye-catching. However, after a lap, India still chose the Spade missiles that were in the same door as the Derby and The Snake-5 missile division. The reason is simple, although Spade's manufacturer, the Israeli Raphael company, has the highest asking price, but compared with other countries, Raphael is willing to sell the design drawings to India together, at the same time, they also show that as long as India later invests, the two sides can also deepen cooperation and jointly develop new weapons.
You know, in recent years, India can be said to have suffered enough of the loss of the "Universal Brand" weapon, so the conditions proposed by Raphael are undoubtedly the most attractive. In this way, as $240 million flowed into each other's accounts, India also received 3 sets from Israel, a total of 20 Spade missiles.
From an objective point of view, the Spade missile will not fall into the inferior position even if it competes with many American weapons. This is because it not only has a range of 80 kilometers, and a flight speed of Mach 4, but also has radar and infrared dual guidance as a guarantee, in addition, its compatibility is extremely strong, and it can even be installed in the rear of an Indian-made Tata truck. In fact, this is also an important reason why India chose to purchase the missile.
Time to November 2018, after more than a year of training and experimentation, 3 sets of Spade missiles officially entered service, as the saying goes, there are hammers in the hands, look at everyone like nails, tails cocked to the sky indians, inevitably put their eyes on the neighbors again, and then the scene we talked about at the beginning happened.
On the day of the clash, the Indian Air Force dispatched six MiG-21 fighters as a spearhead at 2 a.m. with the intention of attacking the defense facilities in Pakistan, but just as the Indian pilots entered Pakistani airspace, they saw dense black spots on the airborne radar.
It turned out that the Pakistani side already knew India's tricks, so before the other side launched a sneak attack, they issued a counterattack order, at that time, 13 fighters such as dragons and F16 had long been waiting on the only way for Indian fighters. You know, in military operations, sneak attacks are discovered to mean inevitable defeat, not to mention, only in terms of the number of fighters, India is also the side that does not have the upper hand.
Because of this, although the two sides seemed to be lively and lively all night, in fact, since the Indian pilots were discovered, they began to retreat. Among them, perhaps because of the relatively backward level of technology, the contact between the Indian command and the pilot was even interrupted for 40 minutes, thanks to the pilot's flying skills, so they fled back to their own airport at dawn on February 27.
Interestingly, the attitudes of both sides were completely different in this battle in which you came and went without any casualties. On the one hand, they said that the operation was fruitless, entirely because the other side used the "improper" defense method of stealing intelligence; India, on the other hand, pointed out that their warplanes had been blocked as soon as they reached the border area, with the intention of showing that the other side was completely deliberately creating friction.
Of course, in the face of such results, the Indian spokesman was still futile even if his tongue was brilliant, so in order to regain face, they ordered the air force to cooperate with the army a few hours later and run to the front battlefield in a bright light.
Compared with the previous conflict, this battle can be described as a very lively fight, in just half an hour, the Pakistani side announced the war report, their Dragon Pilot, directly destroyed a MiG-21 fighter, at the same time, but also put the Indian offensive back.
It has to be said that India has never suffered a loss in the international "quarrel", just after the neighbors announced the results, they also issued a statement, saying that a Pakistani helicopter was found by their Spade anti-aircraft missile when it flew to the Buddjam area, the helicopter turned around and ran, but it only took 12 seconds for the missile to catch up with and accurately hit the helicopter, which directly caused the opponent to lose 6 elite personnel.
As we all know, since the second India-Pakistani war in 1965, India was beaten by the other side to the nose and face swollen, they can be said to have stood in the middle of the ridicule, and the results of this battle undoubtedly made the Indian people raise their eyebrows, and because of this, India launched a celebration for more than half a year, however, in November of that year, a report by the New Delhi Television Station can be said to have poured cold water on all Indians.
It turned out that after the helicopter was shot down, some Indian media felt strange, on the one hand, although the helicopter that was shot down fell into a mess, but according to the information in its fragments, it was learned that the helicopter was a Mi-17 helicopter gunship, however, the Pakistani army did not serve such a helicopter, but the Indian Army did have more than a dozen; On the other hand, when India made a high-profile claim to destroy its neighbor's helicopter, the other side seemed very ignorant and even showed an attitude of not understanding what India was saying, which inevitably made people feel contradictory.
In this way, these Indian media began to investigate, and after layers of obstruction by the Indian Air Force, they finally revealed the truth of the incident 7 months later.
At that time, India's Mi 17 helicopter had just taken off, it was targeted by its own Spade, the officer on duty did not say a word, he ordered the soldiers to launch missiles, in this way, the Mi 17 without knowing it, was directly hit by the propeller, resulting in all 6 crew members buried in the fire, and among them, there was a poor old Indian farmer, who was smashed alive by his own helicopter that fell from the sky.
When it comes to this, some friends may have doubts, when such a big thing happened, why did the Indian military not stop the flag, but also shouted in an unusually high profile? It turned out that the commander who destroyed the fighter plane could be said to have been overwhelmed by joy, and without verification, he reported the results to the Ministry of Defense, which is why the Indian spokesman was able to "fight back" so quickly.
Later, the Indian military also vaguely felt that something was wrong, but the cowhide had been blown out, not to mention, the Indian army has always been factional, fighting for each other, and among them, the Spade missile belongs to the jurisdiction of the Air Force, and the downed Mi 17 belongs to the Indian Army, which means that if the Indian military pushes down the previous remarks, then their great power face will be gone.
Because of this, after using economic and power means to level the dead crew and the family of the old farmer, the Indian military has been trying to conceal the incident until the New Delhi television station reported that the military put the officer who ordered the destruction of his helicopter into prison.
Just when the outside world thought that this oolong incident had come to an end, India jumped out again and sued the Israeli Raphael Company in court. They said that at the time of the arms purchase, the other side swore assurances that the Spade missile had an enemy or friend identification system, but the destruction of the Mi-17 fighter now means that the other side is suspected of exaggerating propaganda, so they also made a claim.
However, Raphael's rebuttal can be said to have slapped India in front of the whole world. They said that Spade has the function of identifying friend or foe, but the software system also needs to be set up, like India to use directly, obviously ready to take risks, at the same time, the Indian Air Force and the Army lack of integrated combat capabilities, coupled with a variety of operating systems can not be compatible, so there will be a problem of their own fight.
Under such rebuttal, the Indian representatives were forced to be dumbfounded, and finally had no choice but to withdraw the lawsuit against Raphael, at the same time, the Indian Ministry of Defense also stated to the outside world that this would be the last time they would make such a wrong judgment.
It has to be said that in this conflict with its neighbors, India has completely exerted the performance of the Spade missile to the fullest, and from this point of view, once India learns how to use it, its defense force can indeed reach a new height.