They made an attempt to infiltrate our land.
We unleashed our Air Force into the fray without a moment's hesitation.
Hi, you wanted me to be here?
All right.
So yeah, I also got my logbook.
This is a very special logbook.
It's a very old document.
I can go back to any day, any time.
Each and every incident is absolutely crystal clear in my mind.
This was the last mission for me.
I got airborne, but I did not land back.
But I'm going to tell you about the story behind it.
Thank you for having me on this documentary of yours.
I'm delighted to be here.
While striking,
flying through the enemy fire,
sometimes I just saw death around.
So when I look back 25 years, I consider myself privileged.
We did very commendable things,
some things which were absolutely necessary.
We reclaimed the LOC, we reclaimed Kargil.
It was a glorious innings for the Indian Air Force.
And I think the Indian Air Force lived up to its tradition,
lived up to its motto of 'Touch the Sky With Glory'.
Air Force Base, Srinagar,
the high altitude frontline base of the Indian Air Force
defending Kashmir and its troubled borders.
Overseeing a region that has seen
one of the world's longest ongoing conflicts
between India and Pakistan.
25th May 1999.
Srinagar's Air Traffic Control Tower was busy guiding its aircraft
through its routine exercise sorties
when suddenly an urgent call cut through its transmissions.
I got a call from AOC, Air Commodore, M.D. Khanna.
"Tango Tiger, I said, "Go ahead, sir."
Then he said, "Recall all aircraft,
and transmit a message to all COs and flight commanders,
Base Ops 1630."
All aircraft to monitor,
all aircraft to monitor, recall.
All to land back immediately on priority.
Request acknowledged.
Cobra monitored.
Viking monitored.
Harpy monitored.
Stop, stop, initiate immediate return.
The order to call back all aircraft echoed across the airspace.
Cobra 1, finals.
Viking, report finals.
Cobra 1, clear to land.
Viking, clear to land.
As the aircraft started landing,
the tower relayed one last order:
"Calling all officers for an emergency meeting
at the base operations room."
All to monitor, all to monitor,
all COs and flight commanders, assemble with Base Ops at 1630 hours.
Please settle down.
You all must be wondering...
Just hours ago,
the Indian government had issued urgent orders
to launch air operations against
Pakistan's illegal incursion of Kashmir's mountains
and to take back what belonged to India without delay.
And bringing the news to Srinagar
was the Indian Air Force's top boss, Air Chief Marshal, Tipnis.
I am Air Chief Marshal, Anil Yashwant Tipnis.
Former Chief of the Air Staff.
Within a few months of my taking over,
The Indian Air Force went into operation
for the first time after the 1971 war.
Kashmir has been a hotbed of conflict
ever since Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947.
Pakistan has been frustrated right from 1947.
They wanted a bigger country,
they tried to take Kashmir by force.
So every Pakistani leader from Muhammad Ali Jinnah
till the current leadership have obsessed over Kashmir.
Before 1999,
India and Pakistan had fought three wars
and India had come out triumphant each time.
But this time, it was different.
Pakistan had chosen its battleground with care.
Pakistan's Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf
hatched a simple yet brutal plan.
He wanted to invade Kargil,
cut off National Highway 1 Alpha
and force India's retreat from the Siachen Glacier.
In early 1999,
Pakistani troops invaded and took over
the vacated Indian Army posts along the Line of Control.
You know, what Musharraf did was stab in the back
and in the summers of 1999,
before we could go back,
the Pakistan Army had already infiltrated and occupied
these features on our side of the Line of Control.
The Indian Army was taken by surprise
when the first sign of infiltration showed up in May 1999.
When we got there mid-May,
every convoy was in the line of fire.
By early May, Pakistani troops were dominating the heights
and had captured around 130 Indian posts
and were nearly 7 kilometres deep inside Indian territory.
The Indian Army wasn't prepared for it.
They were just rushed up and launched at 17,000 feet altitude.
And in the last week of May,
we had very heavy army casualties
and that is where India realized that you needed air power to beat this enemy.
25th May 1999,
the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
ordered the Air Force to enter the battle zone...
To win this war,
we shall leave no stone unturned.
...with one restriction.
The Indian Air Force was barred from crossing the Line of Control,
restricting its full operational capabilities.
The operation was going to start next morning.
The Army said, "Well, the operation will be faster
and we will have to evict the intruders with the Air Force.
Thus give the necessary support."
And then I said, "But I need to talk to my guys.
They know nothing about what is happening."
In fact, it was the first time the Indian Air Force was
going into operation after the '71 war
and we were the lucky few who were sitting in Srinagar and doing it.
The Indian Air Force geared up to fight the world's highest aerial battle,
code-named, Operation Safed Sagar.
We were fighting at the heights where there was only permanent snow
and therefore everything was white.
Therefore Operation Safed Sagar.
White Ocean.
The entire world was watching now.
Two nuclear-powered countries going to war.
India using air power.
The world was petrified.
26th May 1999.
A red-letter day for the Indian Air Force.
The day fighter jets took off to fire in anger
after a gap of 28 years.
From early morning, fighters and attack helicopters took to the skies
armed with rockets, missiles and bombs.
So Srinagar was almost overwhelmed
with the amount of activities that it had to do
across maintenance, operations, administration,
air traffic control, air defence.
The entire war was being planned in the underground base operations centre
where teams of Air Force experts could monitor every air wave
and every inch of the Indian airspace.
The Army giving the Air Force target locations
in a seamless joint operation.
We plan which are the targets to be taken.
Assign it to three different squadrons,
four different squadrons.
Tell them what weapons to carry,
what route to follow, where to drop
and which way to come back.
Across the border, the Pakistani Air Force,
a formidable adversary.
Powerful F-16s forming the base of its strike corps.
The F-16 was a very formidable threat
which had to be countered for any offensive air ops that they may launch.
And the Indian Air Force planned for it.
We'd done a battle assessment of what is likely to happen
if the entire Pakistani Air Force gets involved.
So we had the bases south,
Pathankot... all of them activated
in case of a full-fledged incursion from their side.
To counter the enemy,
the Indian Air Force created an impenetrable combat envelope.
The strike force comprised MiG-23s,
MiG-27s, Mirages,
Jaguars and Mi-17s.
The MiG-21s taking battle damage assessment photographs.
The MiG-29s on escort and air patrol duties.
Casualty evacuation led by the Cheetahs and Chetaks.
Transport of men and munitions
led by the IL-76 and AN-32s.
Despite the Air Force's all-out efforts,
the hostile terrain and extreme weather
in the high Himalayas were testing its limits.
This was a war mankind had never fought before.
We had to fly
and deliver at very high altitudes
or something like up to 32,000 feet.
Very difficult in the sense
that this was the first time in the history of air power
that fighter aircraft were used at such high altitudes.
At that altitude, the air density is different.
The MiG-21s, MiG-23s, their performance becomes sluggish.
Even the smallest of error in aiming or calculations
can make the weapon go totally haywire.
Either you hit the target or you don't hit the target.
It was the first time
we had to do a lot of calculations and recalculations
because there is no ballistic table
that caters for engagement of a target at this altitude.
Even more worrisome was the lack of solid intelligence on the enemy.
There was no intelligence of how does the bunker look,
what kind of enemy weaponry exists.
We did not have clothing and we were not acclimatized.
We realized that if you eject and if you do land
at 14,000-15,000 feet
and without acclimatization and without clothing,
you'll die anyway.
Despite the dangers,
the Indian Air Force was fighting hard to win.
All of us joined the Air Force at,
God willing, a time when we were able to fight for our country.
The Indian Air Force frontline squadrons,
launching the first wave of attacks.
The intelligence was sketchy.
These pilots were fighting a war
at heights no air force in the world had ever fought before.
I'm Group Captain Nachiketa, retired now, from the Indian Air Force in 2017.
And 1999 was when the Kargil took place.
I was a prisoner of war for about eight days
and returned back to India in June of 1999.
The weather played spoilsport on day one.
Day two dawned bright and clear.
But with an unwelcome surprise.
The wolfpack squadron getting ready for the day's mission.
Riding one of the heaviest jets of that time, the MiG-27.
Halfway through the loading of armament on the MiG-27s,
their target was changed.
The new target, Muntho Dhalo, was an enemy stronghold.
So we knew that this target would be protected very heavily
and we were sure that they would place
the missiles
or shoulder-launched missiles.
The wolfpack scrambled to get airborne
with one last briefing from their commanding officer.
Keep doing repeated attacks.
When you are giving time to the defences to be alert
and then they have a higher probability of getting a hit on you.
So pilots were told only to do a first run attack
and not repeat that attack.
At the briefing, there were four MiG-27 fighter pilots.
Two planes were carrying bombs
and the other two armed with rockets.
The briefing also had pilots from the reconnaissance team
led by Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja.
After the briefing, I said let's have breakfast.
Ahuja sir said no, we have the mission, then come back and have it.
Within minutes, the powerful planes were airborne.
So all of us got airborne around 11 o'clock.
First the two MiG-27s, Boxer 1 and 2, followed by Hyena 1 and 2.
Air defence was being given by MiG-29s coming from Awantipora.
We navigated through the valleys
and we navigated across in the mountains
in order to reach our initial point.
The first two MiG-27s dropped the high explosive bombs on their target.
The explosion sending snow and debris flying,
engulfing and shielding the targets from the other two MiGs.
However, I could not pick up the target.
As a result, I had to abandon my attack and pull out
and I headed back for the IP.
By the time I came in, the smoke had settled down
and I was able to see the targets quite clearly and I fired.
After I finished firing my rockets, I told him targets are visible now.
So that is when Mando turned and came in for his drop.
Squadron Leader Mangdokhot came back to attack and hit the mark this time.
His number two, Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa following him.
I fired my guns and when I was pulling out of my mission,
that is when I had an engine failure.
[indiscernible voice]
I got a call from him,
"Mando, Nachi,
engine flame out, relighting."
I immediately realised that probably he has had a flame out
because of firing rockets at this altitude.
The engine, without enough oxygen to fuel it, failed.
The air at that altitude was hostile.
We have a system wherein the engine can be started up again,
but we require some height for that.
It was a deafening silence.
At that stage, I really did not know what to tell him.
I was only praying that his engine picks up.
The engine spooled up
and somewhere half the stage of engine relight was reached.
That is when I realised that the aircraft was gushing into the ground.
I was about to impact the hill.
So I had no option but to leave the aeroplane.
So I gave a call to my leader, "Mando, Nachi ejecting" and I ejected.
It was a shock.
Ejection is the last resort that the fighter pilot has
to leave his sick aircraft.
And as I punched out of the aircraft,
within a few seconds, my aeroplane, I could see the ball of flame
as it went into the hill on the side.
I looked around.
I could see the place where his aircraft had crashed.
It was a black smoke coming up from across the Muntho Dhalo bowl.
I could not spot him.
First thing which happened after I came onto the ground was,
I was trying to assess the situation.
Where am I?
Is it enemy territory?
Is it our side of the part?
Squadron Leader, Mandokhot gained height
and transmitted news of Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa's ejection
to Srinagar Air Force Base.
A call came on RTE.
"Shri, Shri, Hyena 1."
I said, "Go ahead."
"Hyena 2, ejected.
Tell BADO, we are giving cover to Hyena 2 on ground.
We have endurance another 10 minutes.
We need replacements."
BADO is base air defence officer,
who controls the war theatre from that station.
So I told BADO on hotline
and he said, "Roger".
The air force had lost its first fighter in the war.
At one end of the runway,
Squadron Leader, Ajay Ahuja, in his MiG-21,
was listening quietly to the emergency radio transmission.
We were lined up when Mandokhot came on RTE
and he asked that,
"My number 2 has ejected
and I am running low on fuel.
Can someone come and take my place?"
Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja and his number 2 flying officer BG Reddy
took off immediately towards Nachiketa's ejection site,
passing Squadron Leader Mandokhot, en route.
When he changed over to my frequency, I advised him
that there are a lot of missiles in that area, please do not go low.
And subsequently I changed over to the air traffic control at Srinagar
and I landed back.
And I ran to the ATC
and when we reached the ATC, I asked him to come back,
but unfortunately, Ahuja is out of my RTE reach.
Ahuja, in his effort to locate Nachiketa,
had descended and come within range of enemy fire and had been hit.
Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja had tried to manoeuvre his aircraft
till the very last moment.
But fate was not on his side.
When he hit the Indus river, instead of turning towards India,
which would have entailed around a 120 degree turn,
he took a 60 degree turn towards Marol,
where the Indus river enters Pakistan.
Ahuja had to eject, but he was not as lucky as Nachiketa.
Both of us got airborne from the same base for similar mission,
but fate had separate plans.
I ejected within 15-20 minutes when Ahuja ejected.
I survived, sir did not.
Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa was held prisoner of war by Pakistan for 8 days.
Meanwhile, the Kargil War continued to rage.
By day 3 of the war, the peaks had erupted in fierce battles.
The Indian forces launching relentless counter-attacks.
One of the bloodiest battles was being fought
at the peaks of Tololing and Point 5140.
Winning the peaks was important to break the enemy's defensive layout.
The Indian Air Force assisting the army
who were overwhelmed by the intensity of enemy fire.
I saw around me the dead bodies,
the mortal remains of the soldiers
who had died the previous night
under the enemy artillery shelling.
In some instances,
the Pakistanis did not even have to use their artillery
or their infantry to target our soldiers.
They would just roll down big rocks and boulders and kill our soldiers.
You know, seeing the dead bodies around me,
heavy artillery shelling going overhead,
continuous fire coming from 5140,
you know, I realized that from people would die on my orders.
So, the enormity of the responsibility that was given to me,
you know, that day on top of Tololing is something I can never forget.
So, the army requested the Air Force to use air power
and destroy some of these enemy defences and their 'sangars'.
That's when helicopters of the Indian Air Force, the Mi-17s took off.
The chief of the Indian Air Force was wary of using helicopters at high altitudes.
You are asking for helicopters,
which is in fact a suicidal request.
Because the area in which you are operating,
the helicopters are very, very vulnerable.
They can be seen from miles away.
There is no way that they can camouflage their approach.
There was in fact a bit of a heated discussion between the army chief
and he said, "In fact, it's okay, I don't want air support if this is what it is."
So, I called him back, I said, "Okay,
against my better judgment, I will use helicopters,
but I am not happy about it."
Despite reservations, the Mi-17s moved in for the attack.
The Mi-17s brute force
made it the only armed Air Force chopper to fly at those heights.
I am Air Commodore Anil Kumar Sinha.
And in 1999, I was commanding 129, the Nubra Warriors.
The missions were almost like,
you know, suicidal.
Because, once we go, we don't know what's gonna happen,
how many will come back.
None of our aircraft were really designed to operate in such kind of an environment.
But then we had to do something.
Wing Commander Anil Sinha and his men started modifying the Mi-17s.
Handheld GPS was brought in.
Armour plating was strapped to the helicopter body.
And countermeasure dispensing system or flares were procured.
But just five of the eight Mi-17s had armour plates and flares.
Apart from the equipment which we fitted in the aircraft,
there were other things which I thought perhaps, I think we might need it.
One is the bulletproof jackets.
Then you have that headband, the bulletproof 'patka',
which normally you see with the army guys.
And plus, of course, the AK-47s.
On the morning of 28th May, the Mi-17s lined up on the tarmac.
Ready to penetrate the heavily infested enemy peak,
Point 5140, just ahead of Tololing.
The youngsters were really, I mean, they were really like raring to go.
And that was the kind of environment and the spirit.
Like everybody, like, you know, giving a thumbs up, yay and Jai Hind.
The plan was to soar over the heights of Tololing and attack Point 5140.
The fighters would fly in first
to strike and terrify the enemy into hiding inside their bunkers.
With the enemy down,
the helicopters would roll in for a slow but precise attack.
The aim was that when the enemy head is down,
that they will get little time to react and engage us.
And they will be surprised too.
Each Mi-17 was loaded with 128 rockets.
But moments before take-off, there was trouble.
In the morning, when we had lined up on the runway,
my aircraft went unserviceable.
And Squadron Leader Pundir and Muhilan
his aircraft also went unserviceable.
So, I got into the other aircraft, right on the runway itself, with change.
And similarly, Pundir and Muhilan.
But unfortunately, like, for them,
they got down and took on the other helicopters
which did not have the CMTS.
The absence of CMTS or flares
posed a serious safety risk to Squadron Leader Rajiv Pundir and his crew.
But the team forged ahead in the chopper.
However, the delay of the tarmac cost them precious time.
Time, which could have brought them back safely.
Just as the choppers flew past the Tololing peak,
the enemy came out and started firing.
The Mi-17s had flown right into the enemy's den.
We were filming with a small camera.
Later, we saw that 17-18 missiles were fired at us.
You can see these Stingers.
I can count 6-8. They're definitely going past.
Despite the onslaught of missiles,
the Mi-17s pressed forward with their attack.
Firing at their target with fierce accuracy.
But as they turned back towards Srinagar base,
they received an ominous,
automatically-generated emergency transmission.
[indiscernible audio]
So I heard that, "Right engine on fire, right engine on fire.
So that was an indication that somebody has been shot.
Because the right engine, the missile has gone into the right engine.
It was a heat-seeking missile.
And I further inquired with the gunner, what happened?
He said, "Our aircraft, what he meant was,
"our formation aircraft got hit."
So the aircraft behind us, he got hit.
So I said, what happened?
He said, "Sir, it's a missile hit."
And then I said, "Any chance of survival?"
He said, "Sir, it's been completely destroyed.
Looks like no one survived."
The ill-fated helicopter was Squadron Leader Rajiv Pundir's.
The one without flares.
By the end of day three,
the Indian Air Force had lost three aircraft.
And on 28th May, the Indian Air Force paused combat flying.
After those two mishaps,
they realized what needs to be done
and they took precautionary measures thereafter.
The entry of the Mirage 2000 would prove to be a tactical master stroke.
As the war would only get fiercer and bloodier from here.
The Mirages now entered the conflict as a strike force.
Ready to turn the tables.
I said to my team, "We have been specially sent here.
We want to prove ourselves.
And we were there to take revenge and turn the tide in our favour."
In 1999,
the Mirage was the Indian Air Force's only fly-by-wire,
multi-role fighter
which had the ability to fire precision guided bombs.
But its original French 1000 kg Matra laser-guided bombs
were too big and too expensive
to be used for small targets like that in Kargil.
Far away from the borders, in the heartland of India,
a man was on a war mission to find an alternate weapon.
I am Air Marshal Ahluwalia.
I was responsible for the Gwalior Air Base
at which the Mirage 2000 aircraft were located.
Gwalior Air Base was working on a war footing
and called on one of its test pilots to lead the effort.
So I get a call.
And specifically I was told
we need to operationalise the Litening pod
which at that point of time was still under testing.
The Israeli Litening pod.
An add-on mechanism that gives a fighter plane
precision bombing abilities
using laser, both during day and night.
Air Officer Commanding Ahluwalia
wanted the Litening pods activated and operational in record time.
There are no ifs and buts in war.
There is only one winner
and you have to be that winner.
And to do that you have to achieve sometimes things that are impossible.
Trials on the Litening pod had been on for two years.
Getting the Israeli pod to sync with the Mirage's French software
was not an easy task.
This team believed in doing it.
They believed in themselves.
They believed in their professionalism and they did it.
Because they knew that a lot of lives were at stake.
Gwalior Air Base had two technical teams working on the problem day and night.
While Team 1 worked on syncing the Israeli pod to the French Mirage software,
Team 2 worked to find a replacement to the French Matra bombs.
We had a bunch of very dedicated engineers,
technicians based at Gwalior.
And through their innovations
and their attitude to complete these missions
there was a lot of work that went on in Gwalior.
The team modified a regular 450 kg dumb bomb
into a smart laser-guided bomb.
The American Paveway II kit had to be fitted to the front and the tail.
The front had a laser receiver
while the tail had the control system to take the bomb to the target.
Indian Air Force pilots, Indian Air Force engineers,
the entire team was thinking on their feet.
This war had to be concluded before winter set in.
Pakistanis had to be sent back and their supply chains had to be busted.
Within just a week,
the technical team had fitted four Mirages
with the Israeli Litening pod.
The team then headed to the desert of Rajasthan to test fire the innovation.
[indistinct wireless chatter]
Paveway II was the kit,
laser kit which was attached to the bomb.
This was American.
The bomb itself was Indian.
The laser designation pod was Israeli.
The aircraft was French.
And the pilot was Indian.
Now, it was fabulous to integrate all this.
The test was a success.
And Air HQ was now convinced that the Mirage could be the game changer.
The Litening pod made a huge difference within days.
While on a routine recce mission,
the Litening pod's camera hit the bullseye.
It captured Pakistan's secret logistic base.
Muntho Dhalo, the elusive mother base.
What really was there at Muntho Dhalo?
How important was it? How strategic was it?
It was not very clear in the absence of intelligence or imagery.
But where was it?
How to pick it up?
With no information forthcoming,
no reconnaissance missions able to detect this camp.
And our sorties also going towards Muntho Dhalo,
we used to call it search and strike.
[indistinct chatter]
And we had sent a lot of aircraft to bomb in that area.
But effectively no one had spotted this.
We used to get airborne day in and day out.
Not by night but mainly by day.
But we didn't have any pickup on this camp.
Till that eventful day of 15th June.
Stop, stop, stop.
The camera had picked up a large enemy base.
The Muntho Dhalo Logistics Camp.
He rewound at least 2-3 times, we couldn't pick it up.
And when the 4th time we rewound, we saw something like a camp.
We froze it, we zoomed in.
And we saw it's definitely
not just snow and rocks.
There's something there,
there's some movement
which has caused those tracks.
The logistics mother base ensuring a steady supply
of food and ammunition to Pakistani troops in that area.
The entire Batalik sector was actually being supported
by this headquarters.
And I still remember the excitement
when we froze and we said, "OK, this is the camp."
Instructions from the Indian Air Force high command were clear.
The Mirages were ordered to destroy the heavily-guarded Pakistani camp
in the next 24 hours.
There were F-16s on the other side.
So if we are in the target, close to LOC,
and F-16s are there, so, we asked for more escorts.
There were MiG-29s, more Mirages,
so we were protected.
Next morning, four people who were to be part of the attack,
went early morning over the target area, flying very high
so as not to warn the adversary.
[indistinct chatter]
The Litening pod zoomed on to the snowy Muntho Dhalo base.
The pod had locked on to the target.
Pakistan's secret base was in the Mirage's cross-hairs now.
I rolled in,
I went in, dropped bombs when number 2 was just about 30 seconds behind.
We dropped number 3, number 4, we all dropped 24 to 50 kg bombs there
and we exited.
I also went in another aircraft
to film this attack
to ensure that the target is destroyed.
The same target which was seen as a bustling camp,
you could see the vehicles moving,
men moving, and within seconds it was all black.
It was annihilating.
The Indian Air Force hit, and it hit hard.
The enemy's logistical supply came to a grinding halt.
Pakistan's logistic mother base was permanently destroyed.
Their weapons went up, their ammunition went up,
their supplies went up, and their soldiers,
a large number of Pakistani soldiers were killed at Muntho Dhalo.
It was such a successful attack,
probably the most successful attack of the entire Kargil operations.
As the resources dwindled to further west,
where they were supplying, that was the turning point.
It shortened the war!
Otherwise Pakistanis would have stayed there much longer.
The Litening pod's camera had proved its worth.
Next, it was the turn of the Mirages' laser-guided bombs to make a difference.
Their first target, the heavily fortified enemy bastion,
Tiger Hill.
Pakistani soldiers had entrenched themselves on this peak,
the highest in the area.
At 16,700 feet,
the enemy had a commanding view of NH1A,
the National Highway 1 Alpha.
And because they were holding that vantage point,
they could accurately target artillery fire
on our troops down below.
The Indian Army was trying to recapture Tiger Hill.
But the terrain was equally unforgiving and deadly.
Tiger Hill, the gradient on both side was very steep.
Therefore, assaulting it frontally, was extremely difficult.
This was mission impossible for Indian Army
because every time one patrol went up
that patrol was directly attacked by Pakistanis.
Therefore, it was very important that we ensure its destruction.
To neutralize the enemy on Tiger Hill,
the Indian Air Force needed precision and power
and chose the newly inducted laser-guided bombs.
India was going to use them for the first time in history.
The stakes were high.
And an unexpected guest decided to be the observer for this historic event.
So out in the blue, I suddenly landed up at Adampur.
These guys were not expecting me, as I remember.
I said, I want to come and I'm going to fly.
Those guys' eyes widened.
Initially, we were not keen that he should be in that, you know, the hostile area.
They said, "What? Fly with chief?
See, you can't fly. It's operational area.
You know, somebody can come from that side.
I said, "Yes, but we are not crossing the Line of Control.
We are on our side."
He was very clear that he wanted to fly.
There's no way of him backing out.
But these are serious matters.
Naturally, I mean, there is no question of a chief of the air staff
taking part in operations where he can be shot down.
But all those aspects were taken, looked into,
and we talked about what the odds were.
24th June 1999.
As dawn broke,
the Mirages took off for the historic flight.
[indistinct chatter]
Since we had advanced the TOT,
to a little earlier to ensure that the weather was clear,
we were in the general area of the target by about 06:45, 06:50.
I was in the lead with the team, in the lead aircraft.
And number two was Nambi and Monish.
So, and number three, of course, was
our Big Chief and our CO, Wing Commander Chhabra.
We could clearly see Tiger Hill
because the army had done a great job of, you know,
marking the target with
flares and, which were lit up on the ground.
So, even from 50 miles, you could see these flares.
And we knew exactly where we were supposed to head for.
Clear day, target picked up, everything went as planned.
The laser pods locked on to the target.
The Mirages moved into an attack formation.
We were coming in two different directions,
so we maintained two separate heights.
We had to increase our speed so that,
you know, the bomb gets the maximum range and kinetic energy,
so that it goes with, you know, maximum impact.
I pressed the trigger and the bomb is gone.
We could feel it, you know, the aircraft suddenly becoming lighter.
The pilots knew that the laser pods would not fail them.
About 30 seconds later, second jet too engaged the target.
And about 30 seconds later,
Wing Commander Nambiar released from another direction.
And we both crossed over each other onto,
you know, I went, basically we crossed something like this.
Though the laser had started firing, we could,
you know, see it on the screen.
And we just counted down.
It took two seconds after that countdown.
It went to zero is when the impact happened.
I'm seeing with my naked eye
and I'm sitting at the back, in the rear cockpit.
And suddenly, there's an almighty splash,
a huge flash.
The earth shook as the laser-guided bombs hit their mark.
The enemy defences were brought down.
Soon, the ground forces would start advancing.
The Litening worked beautifully and we hit the target.
Explosions rocked the Tiger Hill camp.
The Indian Air Force had achieved
what no other air force in the world had done so far.
Dropping laser-guided bombs at an altitude of over 26,000 feet.
So the moment we landed, we played the tape again
and that is the time we realised how accurate the weapons were
and it hit the target.
In fact, the film shows
that how these army people
were running up the slope because they heard aircraft.
And wherever they were running, the bomb was going to hit that.
You saw that bomb going exactly where the 'Sanger' was.
A command headquarters of the Pakistan Army.
It hit it well and good.
We could get the highway opened up
because that was getting a choke point at that point of time.
And of course, it took another week to clear Tiger Hill.
But, you know, that made a huge difference
because we lost very few people in this assault.
Despite it being one of the toughest assaults.
It was the first time
that we had fired a smart weapon
in anger, so to say, and successfully.
So yes, it was certainly a historical moment.
The coordinated efforts between the Air Force and the Army were exemplary.
It redefined the art of high altitude warfare.
Not just for the nation, but also for the world.
On the battlefield, the Indian Air Force was unstoppable.
Hitting targets in the Kaksar area, Mushkoh Valley, Drass and Batalik sector.
The Pakistan Air Force played a limited role.
Partly because the Indian Air Force had enough platforms
to counter the Pakistan Air Force threat.
Pakistan knew it will not be able to sustain this battle.
It could not use its air power in Indian territory
because that would mean massive escalation.
And Pakistan was not on top of the escalation ladder.
The Pakistan Air Force curiously never joined the war.
The Indian Air Force worked tirelessly.
The relentless night strikes dealing the final blow to the Pakistan Army.
Just the number of bombs and missiles that were being dropped
meant that they had to keep their guards up all the time.
They weren't getting sufficient sleep.
Even if you are not hit and the bomb goes just 25 yards away from you,
it shakes you up.
You can't physically beat him out of that place.
You have to play to his mind.
It had a psychological impact on the Pakistan Army.
It had a psychological impact on the Pakistani nation.
Because Pakistanis realised, "Oh my God, this is really serious."
The night bombing broke the Pakistan Army's will to fight.
And on 12th June, a panicked Pakistan
sent its foreign minister, Sartaj Aziz, to India.
And the first thing that Sartaj Aziz said was
do not use air power.
The use of air power reduced the duration of the war.
Had that not been deployed,
maybe this war would have carried on for months and weeks.
Musharraf was tactically brilliant, strategically a fool,
because he thought that he could do something like a Kargil
and that India would neither use its heavy artillery nor use its air power.
And that is why Pakistan failed.
The air force planes flying through Kargil's war-torn skies,
watching over their army brothers fighting on the ground.
And when these aircraft would come on top
the troops on the ground would smile and cheer up
that yeah, we have the support of the air force behind us.
Just like the army,
the air force paid the price for freedom.
Any freedom, we have to pay with... We have to give our blood for sacrifices,
otherwise it will not be there forever.
You have to do anything to protect your country
even at the cost of your life...
The cost of freedom is non-negotiable.
In doing that a lot of lives are lost.
It's always in the back of my mind that
I wish even Sqn. Leader Ajay Ahuja had come back.
Squadron Leader Pundir, Muhilan,
Sahu and Prasad.
And I really salute them for the great sacrifice.
Operation Safed Sagar lasted 47 days,
during which the air force flew over 6,500 sorties,
ferried 30,000 troops and passengers,
and airlifted over 7,700 tons of supplies.
The Kargil war finally ended on 26th July 1999,
when the Indian Army won back all its posts.
And I have to congratulate the youngsters in the cockpit,
their commanders.
Well, they did something which they had not done before.
See, you have to remember that
this is the first war which has been fought at such a high altitude.
And I think this is the lesson
which all the air forces in the world have learnt from us.
Other air forces have told us,
they were also seeing the use of air power at these altitudes.
Because nowhere in the world, not even in Afghanistan till then,
had the Americans used air power like this.
All powers were watching us, whether it's Americans,
the Russians, the French.
And subsequently, some of these lessons have been used by other countries,
especially in Afghanistan and places like such.
Operation Safed Sagar
remains a testament to the sheer grit
and determination of the Indian Air Force.
The courage and audacious innovations of the pilots,
engineers and technicians, working together
to defend the skies above and their beloved country below.
For their role in Operation Safed Sagar,
the Indian Air Force will go down in the annals of military history,
for successfully doing what no air force in the world had done before.
Forging a trailblazing blueprint for high altitude warfare
and creating a new frontier in the skies.