Google Earth is a fantastic tool and people wanting to understand military matters should spend some time looking up areas they're commenting upon. Understanding military geography is one of the basic requirement.shiv wrote:<SNIP>I post this in the context of a discussion about why Akash cannot be ported to Siachen and used there instead of air defence guns. The manpower and support required to take such a system up into the mountains can be imagined with a few miliseconds of contemplation.<SNIP>
Coming to Siachen and Missiles - as PAF, I would be more interested in taking out the Siachen base camp, Thoise AFB, disrupt the Khardung La pass and take out other such high value targets. What do I gain by attacking IA pickets on Saltoro sitting on razor edge ridges and which would be extremely difficult to detect in air? Kargil taught us the difficulty of attacking such high altitude targets from a greater height still. An a/c attempting such an action is vulnerable to MANPAD and ZSU-23 which we use on Siachen.
A system like Akash is suited for deployment in the relatively open area of Shyok Valley where it meets Nubra river. From where it can cover the entire sector in 360 degree. Even here, given the distance of Thoise and base camp from LOC (under 80 kms as crow flies) and the fact that Shyok Valley is flanked by very high and very steep mountains, the detection of incoming a/c on time will be a challenge (the light weight radar developed by DRDO would come handy). And reaction time will be very low. A QRSAM is likely to make more sense here.
Link to location of confluence of Shyok and Nubra: https://www.google.co.in/maps/@34.57993 ... a=!3m1!1e3