2020 Gave India a Sharp Lesson on the Chinese Military. When Will Indian Generals Take Heed?

[Zarvan]

The reality is that the PLA’s war preparedness cannot be matched by the Indian military embarking on some rapid learning course.

Chinese troops prepare for the arrival of President Xi Jinping at the PLA Hong Kong Garrison during a 2017 event marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British rule. Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Pravin Sawhney



The May 2020 Ladakh crisis marks a turning point in India-China relations, since both sides have crossed each other’s red lines. By grabbing 1,000 square km of Indian territory in Ladakh, China has made it known that bilateral peace and stability will be on its terms. Incapable of evicting the People’s Liberation Army forcefully, and unwilling to accept Beijing’s military coercion, India has become the United States’ de facto military ally to purportedly contain China. Signing the sensitive Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) is the latest step in this direction

In India’s judgment, the possibility of horizonal escalation in the Indian Ocean region with the supposed help of the US would deter China from escalation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The wisdom of this position can only be gauged if the relationship is tested. As of now, what appears more probable is that the disengagement and partial de-escalation of opposing forces in Ladakh, whenever it happens, would be on PLA’s terms.

Since both sides intend to permanently hold the LAC, meaningful de-induction of Indian forces from the northern and eastern theatres is ruled out. Unfortunately, the PLA threat will increase and not diminish in 2021. China’s preparations are focused on intelligentised war and it hopes, in my estimation, to be ready for a conflict against India by the end of 2023.

Being non-contact and invisible, intelligentised war places a premium on Artificial Intelligence and has four distinctive technology features: Dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum; autonomy; drones and unmanned systems; and human-machine collaboration and combat teaming. Such a conflict will not be a border war limited to salami slicing, as the Indian military believes. It will be war of occupation where there would be minimal loss of PLA soldiers’ blood. Given the unbridgeable mismatch between the conventional capabilities of the two sides, India’s nuclear deterrence would be rendered useless.

The Indian military – even seven months into the crisis – remains oblivious about what lies ahead. Under the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, the Indian military is three decades behind the PLA in its war concepts (for campaign); and tactics, techniques and procedures (for battles). While it is preparing for war with ‘human soldiers in the lead’, the war that the PLA will fight would have ‘machines with autonomy in the lead’.

For General Rawat, a war with China would be fought in the physical domains of land, air and sea with the army leading the campaign. For the PLA, the war-winning domains against the Indian military would be the virtual ones – of cyber, electronic and electromagnetic spectrum. General Rawat believes that time, effort, and finances should be spent on creating the organisation for supporting physical domains of war. He is pushing for raising of a joint integrated air defence command, integrated theatre commands and a maritime theatre command by 2023.

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat. Photo: PTI

This is when the PLA would be ready with its de-centralised war where the sensors-to-shooters cycle, now called data-to-decision cycle, would have the human role largely limited to fast decision-making to remain ahead of the enemy’s kill chain. General Rawat believes that speedy infrastructure building on India’s side would help the operational and tactical movement of forces. The PLA, on the other hand, is focused on unmanned systems.

For General Rawat, civil-military fusion implies the marrying of physical assets on the commercial and military side. These include integration of civil-military airports, and getting ISRO commercial satellites to help meet armed forces requirements with inbuilt encryption. For China, civil-military fusion means utilisation of most new disruptive technologies incubated in the civil sector for the PLA. This involves a long experimentation phase, as well as large finances to get the desired assurance level for unmanned systems in war.

https://thewire.in/politics/kashmir-ddc-budgam-district-voting?traffic_source=Connatix
Not to be left behind, retired field commanders in India are suggesting piecemeal technology additives to the armed forces. However, these will do more harm than good by giving a sense of false security. For instance, a former army commander, in a recent article, writes that drone warfare would be a gamechanger. While drones would play an important role in battles, war or campaign would require a mix of many disruptive technologies. In another article, he mentions the need for strengthening Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to build trusted networks. For one, the Indian military is years, if not decades, behind becoming a networked joint warfighting force. For another, PLA’s war would witness the end of traditional battle networks which are prone to cyber and electronic disruptions. Hence, the transformational shift towards autonomy or freedom for weapons from human command and control.

The reality is that the PLA’s war preparedness – underway for three decades, and especially since Xi Jinping assumed the title of commander-in-chief in 2016, with huge finances spent on vibrant military-technology ecosystem and institutions devoted to war concepts – cannot be matched by the Indian military embarking on some rapid learning course. This writer has been saying since the PLA unveiled its 2015 transformational reforms that its Western Theatre Command has a single enemy to fight: India.
Worse, even now, the Indian military is refusing to accept that its 2009 two-front war fighting strategy, predicated on Pakistan being the primary threat, has been rendered irrelevant. Hence, General Rawat’s structural reforms pivoted on the two-front thinking too stand superseded. China is more than a military threat now. If it decides to go to war, Pakistan too will join the war, and the people of Kashmir will not be left behind. Given China’s assessment of India becoming a US ally, all this is real.

What is the way forward?
The Indian military should learn the lesson from the US military which has concluded that 13 years of tactical orientation in Afghanistan and Iraq has left it vulnerable to conventional war threats from Russia, and especially China. It believes that China has a lead in AI autonomy, quantum technologies, fifth generation wireless communications, ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, air defence and missile systems and shipbuilding, commercial and military.

Unfortunately, the Indian military with 30 years of tactical orientation in fighting counter-terror operations, and with little to compare with the US military in terms of annual defence allocations, indigenous military industrial complex, awe-inspiring Silicon Valley technologies, and institutions like the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the newly-raised Joint Artificial Intelligence Centre (JAIC), has an impossible task to accomplish.



Incidentally, China’s Central Military Commission’s Science and Technology Commission formed in 2016 under PLA’s 2015 reforms is the equivalent of the US DARPA. According to the first director of CMC’s Science and Technology Commission, Lieutenant General Liu Guozhi, “Future intelligentized operations are expected to involve prominent employment of intelligent autonomy in weapon systems under conditions of multi-domain integration with command exercised through brain-machine integration enabled by cloud infrastructure.” Most of the building block technologies enumerated by the PLA are not required against a middle level military power like India. They are meant for its main adversary: the US military.

All, however, is not lost. The need is for honest introspection by the Indian military leadership on whether it would be possible to fight on two fronts. If not, it is high time to apprise the political leadership to consider a strategy which minimises the threat from China. A de facto military alliance with the US is certainly not the answer.
Pravin Sawhney is editor, Force newsmagazine.

2020 Gave India a Sharp Lesson on the Chinese Military. When Will Indian Generals Take Heed? (thewire.in)

 

[siegecrossbow]

Au contraire, I actually think that 2020 gave China a lesson on the Indian military:

Sticks and stones may break their bones, but still won't stop them from running.

 

[Capt. Karnage]

Pravin Sawhny? Lol

So Chinese gave India a sharp lesson by getting 40+ of pla slaughtered and then hiding casualties to hide their shame. Great.

 

[notorious_eagle]

Pravin Sawhny? Lol

So Chinese gave India a sharp lesson by getting 40+ of pla slaughtered and then hiding casualties to hide their shame. Great.

Do Indians still believe that rubbish?

We are to believe that IA soldiers slaughtered 40 PLA soldiers when the PLA had taken out the entire command of the Brigade. The Chinese killed the Commanding Officer, and captured another Lt Col along with 3 Majors, that's literally the Command of the entire Brigade.

And we are supposed to believe after that the leaderless Indian soldiers went over butchered 40 PLA soldiers and then peacefully surrendered themselves to the Chinese. Sounds like a very nice Bollywood movie plot.

Au contraire, I actually think that 2020 gave China a lesson on the Indian military:

Sticks and stones may break their bones, but still won't stop them from running.

I think China will continue to dominate India on level engagements.

The Indian Army is quite protected from criticism due to the proliferation of fake news inside India and lack of critical thinking among the masses. As you can see above @Capt. Karnage and other Indians still continue to believe the fantasy that the Indians were able to slaughter 40 PLA soldiers without even critically thinking that the PLA took out the entire leadership of the Brigade.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Do Indians still believe that rubbish?

We are to believe that IA soldiers slaughtered 40 PLA soldiers when the PLA had taken out the entire command of the Brigade. The Chinese killed the Commanding Officer, and captured another Lt Col along with 3 Majors, that's literally the Command of the entire Brigade.

And we are supposed to believe after that the leaderless Indian soldiers went over butchered 40 PLA soldiers and then peacefully surrendered themselves to the Chinese. Sounds like a very nice Bollywood movie plot.



I think China will continue to dominate India on level engagements.

The Indian Army is quite protected from criticism due to the proliferation of fake news inside India and lack of critical thinking among the masses. As you can see above @Capt. Karnage and other Indians still continue to believe the fantasy that the Indians were able to slaughter 40 PLA soldiers without even critically thinking that the PLA took out the entire leadership of the Brigade.

They continue to do so without show any evidence and will continue to claim so in the foreseeable future, like their claim about the phantom F-16.

 

[newb3e]

Pravin Sawhny? Lol

So Chinese gave India a sharp lesson by getting 40+ of pla slaughtered and then hiding casualties to hide their shame. Great.

you frogot and also occupying a large area of india claimed land! 40+ sacrfices worth it! sourmaas gettinf butchered by sticks failed!

 

[Capt. Karnage]

And we are supposed to believe after that the leaderless Indian soldiers went over butchered 40 PLA soldiers and then peacefully surrendered themselves to the Chinese. Sounds like a very nice Bollywood movie plot.

You people even believe that the second pilot that you admitted in your military hospital was Indian/Israeli so what's the problem.

you frogot and also occupying a large area of india claimed land! 40+ sacrfices worth it! sourmaas gettinf butchered by sticks failed!

That can't be substantiated but chinese lose some p aksai chin and were beaten back when they tried to retake.

you frogot and also occupying a large area of india claimed land! 40+ sacrfices worth it! sourmaas gettinf butchered by sticks failed!

That can't be substantiated but chinese lose some p aksai chin and were beaten back when they tried to retake.

 

[notorious_eagle]

They continue to do so without show any evidence and will continue to claim so in the foreseeable future, like their claim about the phantom F-16.

I think you're being a bit harsh. You need to pay attention to the Indian mindset and feel free to read @Capt. Karnage response, its very cognizant of what i am stating.

Majority of the Indians suffer from very fragile egos where criticism of any kind of Mother India cannot be tolerated. They have aspirations to be a 'Superpower', a very big scary country that espouses fear from its neighbors and commands the respect of the world powers. This is why any criticism of Mother India will not be tolerated. If you look at any articles that are publisher on NYT, BBC or Bloomberg that are critical of India in any sense, they are lashed on by the Indians. But if those same news organizations publish articles that are critical of China or India, the Indians use that as a gospel. So to conclude, i think we need to be mindful and emphatic to our Indian friends.

you frogot and also occupying a large area of india claimed land! 40+ sacrfices worth it! sourmaas gettinf butchered by sticks failed!

There were no 40 deaths of PLA, Indian Propaganda working as usual. The Indians followed their usual strategy of 2X. First when news came out that 3 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 6 PLA soldiers died. When news came out that in fact 20 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 40 PLA soldiers died, keeping up with Indian policy of 2X fictitious casualties.

 

[hussain0216]

Pravin Sawhny? Lol

So Chinese gave India a sharp lesson by getting 40+ of pla slaughtered and then hiding casualties to hide their shame. Great.

Honestly how much is fantasy and delusions actually going to help India

40 Chinese dead, F16s you just make yourselves look like a bigger joke then you are

 

[rent4country]

Here's what the world saw, versus what the Chinese 'born into servitude,' told what to say/believe in/act/read/listen to from the cradle to the grave by the CCP was telling its citizenry (and hoping the world outside would fall for):

• The 1st lesson was that the one-child Chinese conscript army could only function if the opponent is unarmed, 6X smaller in numbers, and ambushed in peacetime.

• The next lesson was a confirmation of the Chinese character, i.e., it was confirmed that the Chinese military & CCP, not unlike their normal citizens who have been treated as fodder throughout their history, ALSO look upon their soldiers as fodder to be tossed aside, not recognized when they sacrifice their lives.

• Next came a lesson on the Chinese IQ myth. The Indian military and the world saw that the Chinese, who frequently brag about their IQ numbers behind the great wall (outside of it- they are way behind as a people in other countries to other immigrant groups in every success measure), even after surreptitiously ambushing an unarmed 20 man patrol by 150armed Chinese soldiers! AND thereby grabbing advantageous positions - were too damn stupid to sustain it.
  They were hoodwinked, bamboozled, made to look lazy when the Indian soldiers climbed the steepest part of the mountain ridges and took the peaks, vis-a-vis the advantage and exposed Chinese front lines and supply lines.

• The final lesson the world and Indians learned is that AFTER DOKLAM, there comes DOKLUM 2.0,

Every one of the non-Chinese posters here has seen it/read it/know about this behavior/tendency of the CCP.
Historically, the Chinese start fudging or denying their deaths, be it military or when a calamity strikes in China when the numbers are embarrassing BUT NEVER when they think it is to their advantage.

There have been too many accounts and intel coming from outside the CCP/Globaltimes ecosystem where the Chinese deaths have been spoken in numbers close to 40-60. Some accounts have said the Chinese acknowledged 15 deaths (and we know that means probably 2-3X of that number actually died). LOOK- They are hiding an embarrassment, again, and their network of Wumao's are out pushing their propaganda to tide the embarrassment

VIVA INDIA, the QUAD is behind you to support, America is with you ...we are happy that you are getting our intel covering every inch in China thanks to the BECA, COMCASA, and LEMOA agreements.

 

[siegecrossbow]

There were no 40 deaths of PLA, Indian Propaganda working as usual. The Indians followed their usual strategy of 2X. First when news came out that 3 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 6 PLA soldiers died. When news came out that in fact 20 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 40 PLA soldiers died, keeping up with Indian policy of 2X fictitious casualties.

If you apply actual logic to the situation, like you did in an earlier post, then it is obvious that the Indians did not inflict 40 casualties on the PLA. They held the downstream of the Galwan River but failed to obtain even a single body, which they would've immediately publicized as evidence of victory to the press. Not only that but they don't even have the names of the PLA casualties. The only supposed evidence is that there were "a lot of helicopters flying to and from the area" and that a US News reported that 34 Chinese soldiers died according to unnamed sources, with no further corroboration.

They also claimed to have captured PLA soldiers but given the media fanfare around the capture and return of a PLA soldier who got lost searching for a Yak in September, the fact that they kept it under wraps makes it highly suspect. Their own news, however, reported the return of one lt col and three majors the day after the 15th. At a minimum their entire command structure was obliterated during the confrontation.

I personally believe that most of the deaths were not caused by the PLA. Babu and two others were killed on the spot and the LT col and majors were captured early during the confrontation, which caused the rest of the soldiers to flee. The terrain surrounding the area was inhospitable and in their panic, many Indian soldiers fell into the icy Galwan River and died from hypothermia.

 

[newb3e]

Here's what the world saw, versus what the Chinese 'born into servitude', told what to say/believe in/act/read/listen to from the cradle to the grave by the CCP was telling its citizenry (and hoping the world outside would fall for):

• The 1st lesson was that the one-child Chinese conscript army could only function if the opponent is unarmed, 6X smaller in numbers, and ambushed in peacetime.
• The next lesson was a confirmation of the Chinese character i.e. it was confirmed that the Chinese military & CCP, not unlike their normal citizens who have been treated as fodder throughout their history, ALSO look upon their soldiers as fodder to be tossed aside, not recognized when they sacrifice their lives.
• Next came a lesson on the Chinese IQ myth. The Indian military and the world saw that the Chinese, who frequently brag about their IQ numbers behind the great wall (outside of it- they are way behind as a people in other countries to other immigrant groups in every success measure), even after surreptitiously ambushing an unarmed 20 man patrol with a 150 person strong, and armed Chinese soldiers, AND thereby grabbing advantageous positions- were too damn stupid to sustain it. They were hoodwinked, bamboozled, made to look lazy when the Indian soldiers climbed the steepest part of the mountain ridges and took the peaks, vis-a-vis the advantage and exposed Chinese front lines and supply lines.
• The final lesson the world and Indians learned is that AFTER DOKLAM, there comes DOKLUM 2.0,

ohh you forgot to add!

yindooos are easy to occupy! your kind is something even after your media your govt the world has accepted the fact that china has occupied indian claim territory here you are thumping your boobies and denying all the facts!!!

i smoke hash/weed i become delusional but i never deny facts but you guys must be high on gas stright out of Modis g! buhut ajeeb kisam keh annoying chot*a ho!

I think you're being a bit harsh. You need to pay attention to the Indian mindset and feel free to read @Capt. Karnage response, its very cognizant of what i am stating.

Majority of the Indians suffer from very fragile egos where criticism of any kind of Mother India cannot be tolerated. They have aspirations to be a 'Superpower', a very big scary country that espouses fear from its neighbors and commands the respect of the world powers. This is why any criticism of Mother India will not be tolerated. If you look at any articles that are publisher on NYT, BBC or Bloomberg that are critical of India in any sense, they are lashed on by the Indians. But if those same news organizations publish articles that are critical of China or India, the Indians use that as a gospel. So to conclude, i think we need to be mindful and emphatic to our Indian friends.



There were no 40 deaths of PLA, Indian Propaganda working as usual. The Indians followed their usual strategy of 2X. First when news came out that 3 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 6 PLA soldiers died. When news came out that in fact 20 Indian soldiers died, the Indian media started quoting 40 PLA soldiers died, keeping up with Indian policy of 2X fictitious casualties.

i know man was just playing along with yindoo baboons!

 

[GamoAccu]

Pravin Sawhny? Lol

So Chinese gave India a sharp lesson by getting 40+ of pla slaughtered and then hiding casualties to hide their shame. Great.

It is hard to believe after seeing the Indian soldiers performed in battles. They ran away.

 

[siegecrossbow]

It is hard to believe after seeing the Indian soldiers performed in battles. They ran away.

View attachment 695580

You hit the nail on the head. As video one of the display indicates, Indian soldiers are somewhat competent and throwing rocks from an advantageous position. Once the PLA has closed in, however, they scattered in a rag tag fashion without mounting even the least bit of resistance in hand to hand. This puts the story of a single Jawans throwing 16 PLA soldiers over the cliff in doubt, to say the least.

 

[Capt. Karnage]

It is hard to believe after seeing the Indian soldiers performed in battles. They ran away.

View attachment 695580

Chinese pla going to lac

Indian soldiers going to lac