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Finance ministry nod likely for new Army unit along China border

thestringshredder

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NEW DELHI: The finance ministry is expected to soon approve the revised proposal of the Army to raise a mountain strike corps along the China border. Once the ministry's approval comes through the Cabinet Committee on Security will give its nod, a senior source said.

The ministry of defence (MoD) is not expecting any further objections from the finance ministry over the ambitious proposal to raise a dedicated offensive capability in the north-east border with China.

According to sources, the strike corps is expected to cost Rs 62,000 crore spread over the entire 12th five-year Plan (2012- 17).

The Army has proposed a mountain strike corps, two independent infantry brigades and two independent armoured brigades to plug its operational gaps along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, as well as to acquire offensive capabilities.

India started the catch-up game with the Chinese military and infrastructural capabilities only in the past decade, and is now furiously working to find some kind of parity with Beijing. The mountain strike corps would be a significant step towards that bid, a senior official said.

The raising of the new formations will together cost over Rs 81,000 crore over the 12th Plan period. However, some parts of the entire build up — especially the independent brigades — will spill over into the 13th Plan as well.

The proposed mountain strike corps, with over 40,000 soldiers and headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal, will for the first time give India the capability to also launch offensive action into Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in the event of a Chinese attack. The corps will have two high-altitude divisions for rapid reaction.

India has already raised two new infantry divisions at Lekhapani and Missamari in Assam in 2009-10. They are operationally tasked to defend Arunachal Pradesh.

India is also beefing up its missile and fighter capabilities along the China border in its desperate effort to catch up with a burgeoning People's Liberation Army's military capabilities and highly developed infrastructure up to the border.

The proposal for raising India's first mountain strike corps has been hanging fire for the past few years. The finance ministry has in the past returned the file to the MoD objecting to the huge financial commitments.

Even as India plays catch up, China has built aggressive military and infrastructure capabilities. It has at least five fully-operational airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads along the Indian border. This would allow China to move over 30 divisions (each with over 15,000 soldiers) to the LAC, outnumbering Indian forces by at least 3:1 there.

Link - Finance ministry nod likely for new Army unit along China border - The Times of India
 
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It will be good as soon as it gets approved. But i think dedicated aerial support from IAF is needed more than the transport purposes especially for mountain and strike corps. Atleast for this light attack support IAF should by some 75 tejas mark1 each corps with 15 with 2 DRDO AEW&CS, 3 MRTTS for support . @Abingdonboy @sancho @Skull and Bones @Indian Army. what's your opinion here dudes.
 
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What's the point of having an army when you're too scared to use it when we invade you? It's military is only for parade.
 
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What's the point of having an army when you're too scared to use it when we invade you? It's military is only for parade.

Your army retreated first. You forgot already?
 
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We came, we stayed, we got concessions out of India, then we left.

Strategic victory for China. :coffee:

Yeah.. just like a "strategic" victory china had in 1962, which ended in 722 chinese being killed and the rest going back empty handed.

Down from 80k chinese in 1962 to a "tent" in 2013 !!!!

I believe Indian army should also invest in microscopes ... after this "tent" affair, next time (say in 2025) they will need a microscope to search for the chinese.
 
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It will be good as soon as it gets approved. But i think dedicated aerial support from IAF is needed more than the transport purposes especially for mountain and strike corps. Atleast for this light attack support IAF should by some 75 tejas mark1 each corps with 15 with 2 DRDO AEW&CS, 3 MRTTS for support . @Abingdonboy @sancho @Skull and Bones @Indian Army. what's your opinion here dudes.
Well I've hear that raising these mountain strike corps are going to cost ~$10-15 BN USD initially. Now for a million man army I don't think growing in size is the way to go. The IA/MoD should be looking at ways of meeting the same tactical and stragic goals with exisiting manpower which is is more than sufficient in size. As such the IA should look at how to make its force for reactive and effective in the short run, yes we know about their plans on the Western front with rapidly reduced reaction times and IBGs and the like but the IA is still lacking on the Eastern front. I think the IA should have merely trained a few more divisions in mountain warfare whilst the IAF invested in 30-40 Chinooks and 20-30 C-130j-30s with 15-20 A400 (IAF will also have ~ 16-20 C-17s). It is reaction times that needed to be addressed so this boost in air lift coupled with the setting up of new ALGs and reactivation on if old ones would have aided significantly to this end.


Or conversely I'd have liked to see some of the above steps taken to increase the mobility of exisitng IA units whilst also investing $1-2 BN in the new Indian SOCOM that is being raised. This relatively small investment would have huge strategic gains for India. The Indian SOCOM will get investment but it will be many years before it gets to this kind of level which could be attained overnight if these mountain strike corps plans were scrapped.
 
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What's the point of having an army when you're too scared to use it when we invade you? It's military is only for parade.

You are jealous Pakistani, arent you?:P
 
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What i would like to see is a major troop reduction in the western front and redeployment to the eastern front.And quicken up on the assault rifle and the arty tenders.We can't afford to keep increasing troop numbers.
 
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We came, we stayed, we got concessions out of India, then we left.

Strategic victory for China. :coffee:

well we should say thanks for that move... other wise our MoD wouldn't wake up from hibernation....
 
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Why in the hell do they have to publish everything in the newspapers?

Who is "they"?

The army or MoD does not publish anything. The various media houses report all issues, because that is their job.
 
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