via Times of India.
The cabinet committee on security (CCS) on Wednesday gave its approval for raising a mountain strike corps along the China border. This would be India's fourth strike corps, meant chiefly for offensive operations into enemy land, as well as India's first dedicated corps for offensive mountain warfare.Hmm.
Sources said, the CCS, chaired by the PM, gave its final nod for the ambitious plan that requires over Rs 64,000 crore and spread over the next seven years.
The proposal has been hanging fire for the last several years, and had been delayed primarily because of financial considerations. CCS is not believed to have discussed Army proposal for two other independent infantry brigades and two independent armoured brigades to plug its operational gaps along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. If all the proposals are approved it would result in a total financial outlay of over Rs 81,000 crore during the 12th Plan (2012-17) period.
By the time India woke up in the late 90s to China's modern infrastructure across the LAC, as well as rapidly modernizing military, it was too late to even play a catch-up game. Now, India is trying to build several strategic road links to the border, and to create a formidable military capability that can match up with the Chinese side. Many observers have said that it would take India several years before there is any parity with the Chinese PLA along the border.
If you're like me then the first thing you asked yourself was "what's a Strike Corps". Well according to Wiki, India has three different types of Corps. Strike. Holding. Mixed. Strike simply indicates an offensive formation which I assume (because the entry was clear) indicates either mechanized, helo-borne or specialist type infantry units (in this case mountain).
China has been making incursions into India at an increasing rate and this is just a natural reaction.
What many don't realize in the West (because we tend to focus on our own wars) is that China and India have tied up a couple times in the past and India has always laid the wood to them. India's main problem is that it now has two threats to its land, plus an active terrorist threat. India would welcome cooperation so that they could focus on terrorism and Pakistan... so the sabre rattling is foolish.
I hope our intel people are on this because something domestically must be going on to force all these bruised feelings in the region.
India's issues on the border go beyond raising another strike force.
ReplyDeleteFailure to procures soviet 152mm illum rounds because domestic production was "just around the corner" for the last twenty years.
Failure to procure sufficient quantities of night vision devices and thermal weapons sights.
Failure to develop a robust ground/air EW component to neutralize some of China's C2 tech advantage.
Adding more troops sounds good, but if you already have a huge military (which India does) you need to focus on developing capabilities more than expanding capacities.
yeah i never understood why a nuclear power couldn't take the time to issue their troops decent 782 gear. its real pathetic. but they seem to be trying, the only thing is that they're being pushed hard. real hard by China and they don't have (a little but not as much as china) western industry basically subsidizing their defense modernization via dual use technology.
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