The buildup in India’s northeast is centered on the Tawang Plateau adjoining Bhutan and Tibet.The weapons have been acquired over the past few years and stems from rising concerns over Chinese assertiveness.
Against the backdrop of a deadlock over disputed territory in the Himalayas, India has deployed recently acquired US.-made weaponry along its border with China, part of a new offensive force to bolster its capabilities, a Bloomberg report in the Economic Times says
The buildup in India’s northeast is centered on the Tawang Plateau adjoining Bhutan and Tibet.
The weapons were acquired over the past few years and stems from rising concerns over Chinese assertiveness.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India across nearby mountain passes to escape a Chinese military operation. Three years later, both sides fought a war in the area.
Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General Manoj Pande said: “The Mountain Strike Corps is full readiness now. “All units including combat and combat support units are fully raised and equipped.”
“Boots, armour, artillery and air support were being combined to make the force agile, lean and mean so that we can deploy faster”, he added
India has moved to bolster its defenses along the border with China after the worst fighting in decades last year led to the deaths of at least 20 Indian army personnel and four Chinese soldiers.
While the two sides have held several rounds of talks on disengagement, there has been little progress on pulling back from a key flashpoint in another border area near the disputed area of Kashmir.
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi says the “possibilities of a second winter engagement at the border is why India needs to work on building its capabilities and infrastructure at the border and source more equipment from partners like the U.S”.
A new Chinese boundary law Beijing says was a “unified standard for strengthening border management”, was a new source of friction.
India has warned that the new law, passed last week, could affect ongoing border tensions.
A newly raised Indian Army aviation brigade, based about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tawang, forms a critical component . The brigade is now equipped with Chinook helicopters, which can ferry U.S.-made light howitzers and troops quickly across mountains. It also has Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles that relay real-time pictures of the adversary round the clock.
A large deployment of India’s fresh forces have moved to the east, where a formation of least 30,000 troops have been deployed over the past year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been concerned about a repeat of the bitter 1962 battle in the Himalayas, when the People’s Liberation Army took Tawang
The area is crucial to India’s defenses, as the borders stretching east to Myanmar are “poorly held” and the narrow corridor passing by Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh — which holds gas pipelines and railroads connecting central India to the northeast — is of “critical concern,” an army commander said.
The army’s offensive option along the Tawang Plateau, which is in the middle of those areas, would allow India to counter China as it steps up military activity in the area.
The LAC is patrolled by India and China, although General Pande said the scale and duration of PLA troop exercises on their side have increased since the stand-off in the eastern area of Ladakh last year.
A newly raised Indian Army aviation brigade, based about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tawang, forms a critical component . The brigade is now equipped with Chinook helicopters, which can ferry U.S.-made light howitzers and troops quickly across mountains. It also has Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles that relay real-time pictures of the adversary round the clock.
“The Chinooks are a game changer,” said Major Kartik, a pilot in the newly-formed brigade. “They offer mobility and maneuverability like never before — troops and artillery guns can be carried from one mountain ridge to other quickly.”
And that’s not all. Engineers in India are digging the world’s longest two-lane tunnel, which is 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) above sea level and runs underneath a critical mountain pass currently accessible by a 317-kilometer meandering road to the disputed border.
Construction is ahead of schedule and will be operational by next June, said Colonel Prakshit Mehra, a project director of the tunnel. “The tunnel will reduce travel time by hours, allowing faster and unhindered movement of troops round the year.” It will also ensure that India can move its troops without detection by the Chinese
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