The film opens before the declaration of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. At a forward operating airbase, Indian Air Force Wing Commander Anand "Andy" Bajwa (Jackie Shroff), setting his stopwatch, waits for the air raid siren to go. As the siren goes, he sprints towards his MiG-21, armed, fuelled and ready for takeoff. Bajwa and his air force wingmen soon take off to an unknown airbase in Rajasthan. Once there, he is briefed by his superiors that he and his squadron are assigned to the Jaisalmer sector and have to fly the outdated Hawker Hunter Ground attack planes (with no night vision capabilities) to support the Indian Army. He is soon joined by his brother-in-arms army Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri (Sunny Deol) as they meet on a courier flight and speak about the possibility of the opening of the Western front in light of the East Pakistan conflict. Kuldip takes up command of a company of the 23rd Battalion Punjab Regiment (India), arguing the light defence being assigned to the military post of Longewala. He meets his second-in-command 2nd Lieutenant Dharamveer Bhan (Akshaye Khanna) (who happens to be the son of a 1965 Indo-Pakistani War veteran who was killed during that war) and the Company JCO Naib Subedar Mathura Das (Sudesh Berry). The company moves to a remote outpost in the deserts of Rajasthan and begin to expand the rudimentary Border Security Force (BSF) post and does the observation of the area up to the international border with Pakistan. They meet the post's BSF commandant Bhairon Singh (Sunil Shetty), a deeply patriotic man who expresses his love for the desert.