Indian army's big step in plugging gap along China border

[JanjaWeed]

New Delhi: On New Year's Day 2014, India's 1st Mountain Strike Corps has been launched, designed for mountain warfare along the border with China.

A Corps is the largest fighting formation in the Indian Army with troops usually numbering 40,000 to 60,000 directly coming under its command.

India has 13 full-fledged Corps out of which three--1, 2 and 21-- are designated as Strike Corps for an offensive against Pakistan. The new Corps allows India to plug the gap in its preparedness along the China border both in the Northern and Eastern Sectors

The eventual strength of the Corps is meant to be 80,000 troops. The Corps is currently headquartered in Ranchi in Jharkhand, but is expected to move to Panagarh in West Bengal. The move will happen after the infrastructure needed in Bengal is developed -that includes training area, ammunition dumps, barracks and location for various units including infantry, artillery, army aviation, signals, ordnance, and supply formations.

The latest Corps of the army has a budget of 64,000 crores over seven years. The new mountain Corps will require light artillery which can be easily airlifted to the highest mountains. Given India's painfully-slow process of weapons acquisition, empowering the Mountain Strike Corps quickly will be a big challenge

At least six C-130J aircraft of the Indian Air Force will be attached to the Corps at Panagarh. The C-130J is a versatile medium-lift transport aircraft which can transport at a time up to 200 fully-equipped soldiers from the Parachute or Special Forces regiments.
Indian army's big step in plugging gap along China border | NDTV.com

 

[Killswitch]

New FICV's, artillery, and F INSAS are badly needed if these new formations are to have chance at defeating the PLA.

 

[hari sud]

China a few years back held military games in Tibet and used a formation of 40,000 men from Chengdu military district. They used para drops and helicopter borne troops in their exercise. Later the troops returned to their home base about a thousand miles away

Implications to India in this exercise was that China has troops to outmaneuver any India defensive moves to capture Tawang or other vital Indian towns and passes. Read in between the lines that China was telling India that 1962 could be repeated with ease.

With that kind of threat, India could not stay idle. A Strike Corp was needed to counter any Chinese moves, although activating new Indian airfields in Arunachal Pradesh in last two years negated a few of Chinese advantages. Two years later, India has a strike corp of its own. If Chinese act funny, the strike corp can go ahead aand capture some key Chinese installations.

Eat your heart out China.

WitH so many fights with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philipines, Vietnam; and an old fight with India, China is risking a huge amount of its prestige. If all these nations form a loose alliance then all China's advantage of huge military mostly equipped with copied weapons is neuterlized.

 

[COLDHEARTED AVIATOR]

China cannot afford to fight a bloody war with India considering the number of enemies it has made.