The cabinet committee on security (CCS) gave its approval for raising a mountain strike corps along the China border. This would be India’s fourth strike corps, meant chiefly for offensive operations into enemy land, as well as India’s first dedicated corps for offensive mountain warfare.
This ambitious plan requires over Rs.64,000 crore spread over the next seven years.
The proposal has been hanging fire for the last several years, and had been delayed primarily because of financial considerations. CCS is not believed to have discussed the Army proposal for two other independent infantry brigades and two independent armoured brigades to plug its operational gaps along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. If all the proposals are approved it would result in a total financial outlay of over Rs.81,000 crore during the 12th Plan period.
By the time India woke up in the late 90s to China’s modern infrastructure across the LAC, as well as rapidly modernizing military, it was too late to even play a catch-up game. Now, India is trying to build several strategic road links to the border, and to create a formidable military capability that can match up with the Chinese side. Many observers have said that it would take India several years before there is any parity with the Chinese PLA along the border.
The proposed mountain strike corps would be headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal. It would, for the first time, give India the capability to also launch offensive action into the Tibet Autonomous Region. The corps will have two high-altitude divisions for rapid reaction. India has raised two new infantry divisions at Lekhapani and Missamari in Assam in 2009-10. They are operationally tasked to defend Arunachal Pradesh.
This ambitious plan requires over Rs.64,000 crore spread over the next seven years.
The proposal has been hanging fire for the last several years, and had been delayed primarily because of financial considerations. CCS is not believed to have discussed the Army proposal for two other independent infantry brigades and two independent armoured brigades to plug its operational gaps along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. If all the proposals are approved it would result in a total financial outlay of over Rs.81,000 crore during the 12th Plan period.
By the time India woke up in the late 90s to China’s modern infrastructure across the LAC, as well as rapidly modernizing military, it was too late to even play a catch-up game. Now, India is trying to build several strategic road links to the border, and to create a formidable military capability that can match up with the Chinese side. Many observers have said that it would take India several years before there is any parity with the Chinese PLA along the border.
The proposed mountain strike corps would be headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal. It would, for the first time, give India the capability to also launch offensive action into the Tibet Autonomous Region. The corps will have two high-altitude divisions for rapid reaction. India has raised two new infantry divisions at Lekhapani and Missamari in Assam in 2009-10. They are operationally tasked to defend Arunachal Pradesh.
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