https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/strategic-postures-china-and-india-visual-guide
An interesting american assessment.
For me,
China's advantages include far better military industrial complex but that comes into play if war stretches out over several months.India much more dependant on imports and that is a handicap.
Intelligence capability.Both have lots of satellites and ASAT weapons.The chinese intelligence capability is better overall but most of it is focused on the SCS.India can count on japanese,aus and american intelligence sharing on chinese land and naval movements,as agreements have already been signed to this effect.
India's advantage is it has 12 mountain infantry divisions(raised since 1962) over 250,000 men with trained mountaineers,acclimatized troops,thousands of them recruited from ethnic hill tribes such as kumaonis, garwalis, dogras, ladakhis, gurkhas,ahoms,arunachali,sikkimese,nagas.China has 2-3 mountain infantry brigades only.The chinese land army is a vastly superior mechanized force - but massed vehicles dont work in the himalayas.Yes if china can deploy 3-4 armour divisions in pakistan plains beforehand then it would create a major problem for india.Indian infantry has more experience and are familiar with combat areas and already dug in.China has superior numbers of tube artillery though,but much of it is again mechanized heavy artillery.105mm and ultra light howitzers are lacking.Indian artillery modernization is ongoing and will still take 5 more years.
China has better infrastructure but India is catching up quickly.Chinese can still mobilize faster for now,while india has to compensate by forward deploying more troops.Indian airlift capability is very good -having grown leaps and bounds in last decade.20 IL-76,11C-17 heavy transports,100 an-32,11 c-130 hercules,50 dorniers and 50 avros for medium tactical transports.230 Mi-17 helicopters,100 dhruv ,100 cheetah light helos plus 15 chinooks is an excellent airlift capability for india.China's transports are handicapped by altitude limitations.
They have longer ranged MBRLs,but MBRL rockets can't fly over avg 15,000 ft himalyan peaks due to terrain obstruction.Ground hugging cruise missiles are also largely useless due to same reason,Ballistic missiles will work,as will aerial delivered PGMs and top attack steep dive cruise missiles like brahmos blk3 optimized for mountains.
China has a much larger airforce and can whittle down IAF incase of 2 front war if struggle becomes protracted.IAF has advantage of many more airfields,more experience and international exposure,but squadron strength is a major problem.IAF is at risk of attrition decimation until the S-400 and barak-8 arrive in numbers.For now we have had to emergency airlift 150 km barak-8 ER from israel for the current crisis from their stocks.3 chinese fighters pose a problem -the su-35(24),the j-10c and j-16.The latter 2 are equipped with AESA radar and apparently PL-15 missiles with on paper impressive specs.We don't have sufficient rafales or AESA equipped tejas/upgraded sukhoi jets yet.The rest of the PLAAF is not a major problem as our MKIs are superior,but if faced with these 3 we will be forced to fight defensively using AWACS and ground controlled interception to draw them in.
For attacks we will have to use terrain hugging mode to avoid radar.Thankfully terrain is rugged on our side while its flat on theirs.This facilitates stealth approach as well as defensive ambushes.Apaches with hellfire and Jaguars with CBU-97 will be very useful for ground hugging ambushes on any armour columns in the few sectors where limited mechanized warfare is possible.Altitude restrictions,fewer airfields and lack of OBOGs on majority of chinese jets will hamper china but it will handle attrition better and has better AESA jets for now.
A major advantage for china is SRBM and MRBM arsenal under strategic rocket artillery corps.Though mostly targeting taiwan they can be quickly diverted towards india.Over a 1000 of these missile types are available.This will cause heavy first day shock damage on IAF forward airbases no doubt.IAF has tried to counter this by redundancy -activating more and more airstrips,spreading out assets,making highways into emergency runways and by building hardened shelters.We will attempt to counter with brahmos and prithvi missiles,but volume of fire will be much lower.However this is an initial fire option,for protracted sustained firepower you need airforce still.We are at a definite disadvantage here until we can field our own new prahar and pralay SRBMs in number.
India's definite advantage is in the navy.PLAN does not yet have the power to win against IN in the indian ocean,especially as India fortifies andaman with brahmos and gets japanese and us naval tracking intelligence.In 10 years this might change,but not yet.PLAN naval buildup is incomplete as of now.We can choke off malacca and cut off chinese oil supply to a great extent and interdict/confiscate its trade goods in an all out war.Our economy will burn due to stress of the war,but we will torpedo theirs as well.It is very critical that india escalate immediately at sea at the outset of hostilities.Navy is an arena where pakistan is largely defenceless and we can decimate them quickly and then turn attention to china in IOR.Naval escalation is of paramount importance to india.
Chinese economy is much stronger but india has over 500 billion forex reserves for an all out war and can borrow from its allies if needed.
As of now India needs to wait for more AESA jets,s-400 and baraks,more tube artillery and SRBMs while china needs more mountain troops,more airfields and to complete naval buildup.China as far as we see it can't beat a dug in indian army in the mountains if it is unable to achieve surprise because it cant bring to bear its own strengths sufficiently.It will get bogged down and suffer huge casualities while unable to counter indian naval blockade of malacca properly.Result will be stalemate and embarassment.
If indeed it wants to win it has a deploy 3-4 armoured divisions and advanced jets in pakistan beforehand so its mechanized units can fight on the plains.However this is likely to compel India to abandon strategic autonomy and join a formal military alliance with the USA which US has been wanting for a long time.Then it will be a 2 front war for everybody,and likely world war 3.
the IAF may make strikes either to prevent a dangerous build-up of Chinese resources at a point, or to intervene if the Army is taking a beating.
