China and India, 21st century’s two foremost powers. Both of them belongs to Asian contingent but living with enmity against each other. Though India have tried hard long back in 1960’s to promote a very good relation with its Northern neighbor but China had back-stabbed India in 1962 when it had attacked its southern neighbor without any warning and any serious incident.
54 years have passed since that bloody war, but these two nations are living in a cold war like situation still. While China is busy to show itself as the sole power from Asia, ready to take on World’s only Super Power United States of America, India on the other hand with its vibrant democracy, soft power, growing economy and with a growing military is posing a serious challenge in front of China as a possible counter weight. That is why China is looking at India with enmity.
China can not tolerate another rising power competing them from the same continent. Their target is obviously to suppress the US power everywhere in the world but they are equally wary of India’s growing stature at the world stage. It has started to deal India seriously particularly after the entry of Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India in 2014. Prime Minister Modi’s promise of dealing China with eye to eye contact has raised huge support for him within India which have been searching for a leader like him. China on the other hand is very cautious in dealing with Modi’s India now. They are very much aware of the fact that it is not the soft power India, it is a Modi-fied India which can act like a brave boy which they are not used to deal with.
For a long time after 1962’s bloody war, India was out of Beijing’s security calculus but the year 2014 has changed it dramatically. With Indian people have voted for a self dependent Government with a thumping majority almost after 30 years. It has sent a signal to both Pakistan and China that Indian people have voted for a Government and for a strong leader like Modi for tackling them better than the previous coalition Governments. This has triggered an alarm bell in Beijing and forced them to re-consider their strategy towards India. PM Modi’s foreign tours in these 2 years in office have proved to be a golden time of India’s diplomacy as India have succeeded to improve bilateral relations with lots of powerful countries including Japan, Australia, UK, the US, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia etc. India have succeeded to garner huge support for its NSG membership although it has failed to get the membership due to Chinese blocking.
But the amount of support India have got from the 48 members NSG, among which almost 40 nations backed India, have shocked China at large. PM Modi has been successfully countering China’s ‘String of Pearls’ strategy with India’s own ‘String of Rapiers’ policy in which India have successfully formed military relations with the enemy neighbours of China like Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Mongolia and Taiwan. Besides this, PM Modi has successfully managed to bring India’s neighbours closer to India again. Afghanistan-Iran-India tri partite agreement to develop Chabahar port in Iran and link it to Afghanistan’s districts via rail lines is a major win for India as it will counter China-Pakistan’s Gwadar port development project.
People’s Liberation Army – Air Force + People’s Liberation Army – Navy
Total Aircrafts = 4,500+
Combat Aircrafts= 1,900+
200 Shenyang J-31
250 Chengdu J-20
24 Sukhoi-35 MKK
73 Sukhoi-30 MKK
75 Sukhoi-27 MKM
300 Shenyang J-11
50 Shenyang J-16
300 Chengdu J-10
60 Xian JH-7
100 Shenyang J-8
120 Xian H-X
PLA-Navy :- 50 Shenyang J-15
50 Chengdu J-10
48 Shenyang J-11
24 Sukhoi-30 MKK
124 Xian JH-7
47 Shenyang J-8
30 Nanchang Q-5
Indian Air Force + Indian Navy
Total Aircrafts= 3,500+ Combat Aircraft’s= 1,300+
160+ Sukhoi-FGFA (40+ aircrafts will be inducted later)
50+ HAL AMCA (300+ aircrafts will be inducted later)
312 Sukhoi-30 MKI
36 Dassault Rafale
80 HAL Tejas Mk.2
100 Gripen/F-18 ??
100 HAL Tejas Mk1A
20 HAL Tejas Mk1
69 Mig-29 UPG/K (will be phased out by 2035)
50 Dassault Mirage 2000H-Mk3 ( will be phased out by 2035)
100 Sepecat Jaguar (will be phased out starting from 2030)
Indian Navy :- 40 HAL AMCA 50 HAL Tejas Mk2 50 F-18/Rafale-M ?? 70 Mig-29K/KUB
People’s Liberation Army – Air Force + People’s Liberation Army – Navy
Air Defence Systems :-
S-400 Triumf (Maximum Range : 400 km)
S-300 PMU2 (Maximum Range : 200km)
HQ-9 SAM (Maximum Range : 200km)
HQ-16 SAM (Maximum Range : 40 km)
HQ-7B Sam (Maximum Range : 20 km)
Naval Defence :- HHQ-9 SAM (based on HQ-9, Maximum Range : 200km) equipped Red Aegis Air Defence Guided Missile Destroyers Type 052 D.
Indian Air Force + Indian Navy
AD-1 and AD-2 Anti Ballistic Missile System (Maximum Range : 5,000 km) PAD Anti Ballistic Missile System (Maximum Range : 2,000km) S-400 Triumf SAM (Maximum Range : 400km) AAD Anti Ballistic Missile System (Maximum Range : 200km) Barak-8 SAM (Maximum Range : 150km)
Naval Defence :-
Barak-8 SAM (based on US THAAD Anti Missile System) (Maximum Range : 150 km) with EL/M-2248 MF-STAR (Multi Functional – Scanned Towed Array Radar) AESA radar equipped Aegis type Destroyers Visakhapattnam and Kolkata class. Barak-8 will be deployed on all Indian Navy frontline warships including Destroyers, Frigates and Corvettes sigficantly taking Indian Naval defence to a new standard.
Conclusion : Comparing future air defence and combat assets of China and India, we will easily find that India’s air defence assets and combat aircrafts will be far more capable, technologically advanced and superior to ranges and firepower. In the naval front, if Chinese Destroyer Type 052D and Indian Destroyer Visakhapattnam confronts each other at high seas, it will be interesting to see which will penetrate others air defence first. After analysing firepower of both Destroyers, it can be said that Visakhapattnam may emrge as victorious as its main offensive weapon BrahMos anti-ship cruise missile has the capability to confuse even the best anti missile system in the world, leave aside Chinese HHQ-9.
But China will feet more heat when India will equip Visakhapattnam with BrahMos-II Hypersonic anti ship cruise missile in future, leaving no option for the Chinese except to surrender in front of Indian Naval power as no one will be able to stop BrahMos-II, even by laser beams because it will have laser beam protection suite in it which will be first in the world. With a missile having a speed of Mach 7 and an Air Defence system like Barak-8 in its ships, India can deploy its ships anywhere at China’s backyard without fear. JAI HIND !!!
