China border watch

[Rahul M]

.........

kindly do NOT post from the nonsense site strategypage. I'll start handing warnings if people go on doing this.

[rohitvats]

Rohitvats ji , Even I don't agree with the title of the article.But then article is not pointless.If you read the article they have not denigrated our engineering capabilities.Instead they have just laid out the challenges that are ahead.

Although it has not been suggested as such but the situation on ground is an indictment of the politico-bureaucrat nexus which is ruling this country and their defensive mindset because of which road development in Arunachal was not taken up for more than 40 years.

darshan, I'll dissect the article for your benefit. But to begin with, no one is doubting the need for better infrastructure and lack of it which creates problems.

India, alarmed at increasing strident Chinese claims on its northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh over the last few years, naturally decided to increase its military forces in that remote area. India has discovered that this is easier said than done. Moreover, the Indians have discovered that they are far behind Chinese efforts. When they took a closer look, Indian staff officers found that China had improved its road network along most of their 4,000 kilometer common border.

The fact that building infra in those areas is a challenge is not lost on the anyone, not least of all people in BRO or IA. The article makes it seems as if IA is a Johny Come Lately to these challenges or that they were/are unaware of the Chinese infra build-up.

Indian military planners calculated that, as a result of this network, Chinese military units can move 400 kilometers a day on hard surfaced roads, while Indian units can only move half as fast, while suffering more vehicle damage because of the many unpaved roads. Building more roads will take years.

God knows how they've arrived at 400kms per day. 400kms for what? 10 truck convoy or 200 truck convoy or 2000 truck convoy? Please remember, in case of a shooting match in Himalayas, the PLA troops will have to come in from outside Tibet.

Also, roads in Tibet are on a plateau and at level without much gradient change. In our case, the roads lead up from Valley floor to the Himalayas - the gradient is pretty steep and they are more prone to landslide and damage. Something Tibetan roads are less likely to face (at least for most of the stretch).

Check the Xinjiang-Tibet highway snaps here and you'll get to know what I mean:

http://www.google.co.in/images?hl=en&q= ... 59&bih=599

Compare these with Sichuan-Tibet Highway - which brings the traffic upto Tibet Plateau (something like our own access road to Leh from Valley):

http://www.google.co.in/images?hl=en&q= ... 59&bih=599

Also, check the Vertical Section diagram of China-Tibet Railway here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qingh ... iagram.png

For them, the challenge is to get up to the Tibet Plateau. The access roads to Tibet plateau are away from main areas of action while ours will immediately come under assault.

The roads are essential to support Indian plans to build more airfields near the border, and stationing modern fighters there. Once the terrain was surveyed and calculations completed, it was found that it would take a lot more time, because of the need to build maintenance facilities, roads to move in fuel and supplies, and housing for military families

Where is India building fighter bases close to Tibet border? Chabua and Tezpur and Jorhat and Mohanbari have existed for over 60 years now. This is where he completely betrays lack of knowledge about the subject matter.

India is moving several infantry divisions, several squadrons of Su-30 fighters and six of the first eight squadrons of its new Akash air defense missile systems there. Most of these will initially go into Assam, just south of Arunachal Pradesh, until the road network is built up sufficiently to allow bases to be maintained closer to the border.

Well, what does one make of this?

[chackojoseph]

self deleted

[Craig Alpert]

China's Assertiveness in J&K is Increasing : Antony

"We want to develop friendly relations with China...However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that China has been improving its military and physical infrastructure. In fact, there has been an increasing assertiveness on the part of China," he said.

Favouring faster modernisation process for the defence forces, Antony said, "We have to keep abreast with the military modernisation drive in our neighbourbood and keep pace with it to ensure that our nation continues to hold the edge."