The Saudi monarch was furious at the stunning attack on the Shoaiba oil terminal and he vowed to make the Yemenis pay for this. He needed a new defence minister so he chose a lesser known face for this job. The new defence minister was Prince Walid Bin AbdulAziz Al Saud. The Saudi monarch tasked him with the responsibility of attacking the Sanaa Military Airbase (SMAB) and destroying any planes they could see, to prevent the Yemenis from carrying out anymore attacks on their oil terminals. The Saudi monarch could not have been more wrong than this. The planes were operating from Karora and not Sanaa. But the Saudis had not way of knowing this because the pilots of Lima security had maintained low altitude during their previous attack and were careful not to be "seen" by the Saudi radars to keep their new airstrip a secret. The plan had worked and the Saudis were expecting an attack from the south rather than the west. Five F-5Es and ten F.53s had been readied for air to air engagement and ground attack respectively at Khamis Mushait airbase. The Saudis were desperate and determined.

Back in Karora the ground technicians had refuelled the planes and rearmed them for their second sortie in just 24 hours. Vladimir's plane was again equipped for ground attack while Lightning and Storm's planes were equipped for air to air combat. The plan was to take off for second sortie at 2000 hours and head south east to attack Jizan bulk plant terminal.. the problem was of navigating to the target. Lightning came up with a brilliant idea. He knew that during the days of heightened tensions with Egypt, Saudi Arabia had installed air surveillance radars at their strategic locations for monitoring the activities of Egyptian air force. Almost all ports and oil terminals on the eastern and western coast of Saudi Arabia had radars for air surveillance. "Jizan must definitely have an air surveillance radar which we can locate with the help of my plane's RWR and head towards it", said Lightning. The plan was good and Storm and Vladimir agreed.

After carrying out all preflight checks, Lightning took off first followed by storm and Vladimir. They were headed in south east direction and Lightning was deliberately flying at high altitude to be picked up by the radar at Jizan. Sure enough, when the trio were about 140 km away from Jizan, Lightning was detected and his RWR showed the direction of the radar at Jizan on his radar display. The track suggested that they were just a few degrees off course. Lightning made the necessary course correction and Vladimir and storm followed suit. The plan was working. After making the necessary course correction, Lightning reduced his altitude to prevent the Saudis from getting early warning of the attack and also to prevent the Saudis from getting continuous update on their position which would give away their plan.

The Saudi ground control nonetheless spotted Lightning on the radar and immediately informed his superiors about it. The senior officer at Jizan ignored that warning because he was expecting the Yemenis to attack from the south. "What could the Yemenis be doing at 140 km Northwest of Jizan?" Thought the officer and asked his subordinates to search for targets in the south. This was a fatal mistake.

Meanwhile at 1930 hours at Khamis mushait Airbase, after equipping the planes for the raid at Sanaa, the five F-5Es and ten F.53s took off and headed for Sanaa. The Saudi formation heading towards Sanaa reduced their altitude to avoid being detected by the radars and to have the element of surprise. The Saudis knew that the fan song-c radars were not capable of detecting the fat flying targets below the altitude of 3000 feet. Exploiting this weakness, the Saudi pilots arrived at Sanaa undetected. Making one pass over the base, the Saudis had located by sight, several aircrafts parked in the open. They then turned back for a strafing run over those planes. The 30mm ADEN cannons could destroy the planes with just one or two hits. After coming within range of the targets, the F.53 pilots opened fire. The 30×113mm rounds impacting upon the Yemeni planes tore through the fuselage and destroyed them. Some planes which had been refueled, caught fire and black smoke was emanating from them. The Saudis had destroyed 7 parked planes by now. They made one more pass over the base to search for more targets and spotted transport planes An-24 parked at the other end of the base. This time the Saudi pilots used their 68mm rockets to destroy them. Firing their rockets in salvos the Saudis destroyed 5 An-24s. They also saw fuel tanks which contained enough fuel for several sorties. The Saudis used their last few 68mm rockets on those fuel tanks. The HE warhead destroyed the fuel tanks and caused huge explosions which lit up the evening sky. The Saudis had caused considerable damage but by now, they had expended their ordnance. They were satisfied and decided to turn back and land at the airstrip at Najran. The Saudis had made one mistake. They did not attack the hangars which accommodated several planes which were undergoing maintenance and repairs. One of those planes was MiG-23M belonging to Vladimir. Upon returning to the airstrip at Najran, the Saudi pilots announced that they had destroyed several aircrafts and fuel tanks and they had succeeded... There was celebration in Khamis mushait and Najran. The Saudi monarch was informed of this "successful attack" but he was not satisfied. He wanted more revenge and this attack was too small, a retaliation for him.

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Meanwhile Lightning, Vladimir and storm were heading towards Jizan following the location provided by the AN/ALR-46 RWR of the F-4E phantom II. To make the last bit of course correction before reaching the target at Jizan, they followed the direction in which the ship traffic (mostly consisting of oil tanker ships) were headed. Now they knew that they were heading precisely for the fuel tanks. Sure enough, moments later Vladimir speed the port and the massive oil tanks. They knew they had reached Jizan. Instantly Vladimir turned on the missile launcher power switch on his right and set the HUD to ground mode. After moving his weapon selection dial to position 1-2 he dejected the Kh-66 for attacking the oil tanks. The switching his radar to fixed beam mode, Vladimir moved the reticule on the HUD over the massive oil tanks and locked it. When he was within 10 km from the target, he fired his Kh-66 and maintained course. Within an instant the fuel tanks exploded in a huge blast that set everything around it on fire. The impact of the explosion destroyed the second fuel tank which was close to the first fuel tank. The second explosion took place and to escape the shockwave of the blast, Vladimir changed course and applied his afterburners. After escaping the blast, Vladimir came in for second strike.

But by now, the Saudi planes were in the air. The SPO-10 RWR of the MiG-21PFM started beeping indicating that he was being tracked. Vladimir knew he was in trouble. He informed Lightning over the radio to neutralize the threat while he maneuvered to avoid a radar lock. Lightning was already on it and he had just locked onto that F-5E which was pursuing Vladimir. He fired a AIM-7 Sparrow and decided to track the second plane which was also in his tracking azimuth and elevation angles. In seconds he observed a "flash" on his radar indicating a hit. Now he fired his second missile at the next target and kept maneuvering to fit the target in his "tracking region". Though the F-5E tried hard, he could not outmaneuver the Sparrow missile and was shot down. The remaining pilots immediately retreated back to Jizan airport. Vladimir turned back to attack the third oil tank and after repeating process he fired his second Kh-66 missile from a distance of 5 km and maintained course. The missile hit the fuel tank and there was the third explosion and the fire had spread to the ships that were being filled with fuel. Vladimir checked the fuel gauge and realized that he was low on fuel and decided not to attack any more targets, but rather to land at SMAB. So the trio changed course and headed for SMAB. They were 20 km away from SMAB and they could see thick black smoke rising over it. They instantly knew that Saudis must have attacked. Vladimir only concern was that his MiG-23M must be safe. It was his most prized possession. He loved his plane a lot and took great pains to maintain it not allowing even the trained technicians near it in his absence.

Fortunately the runways were not damaged as the Saudi pilots did not have enough rockets to damage it. Upon landing, the trio taxied their plane to the nearest hangar which was spared from the attack. The chief of military operations saw the planes land and thanked the stars for keeping his boys safe and ran towards them to enquire about their mission. Vladimir informed him about the three destroyed oil tanks and the burning ships and before the chief could ask him anymore questions, Vladimir asked him about his plane. The chief told him about the attack by the Saudi planes and told Vladimir not to worry as the hangars were not touched. His plane was safe. Vladimir felt relieved. But now, the chief wanted a befitting retaliation for this attack. The pilots knew that it was time to execute the last part of the mission.

THIS TIME, THEY WILL STRIKE KHAMIS MUSHAIT............