Joe Shearer
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
- Messages
- 27,493
- Reaction score
- 162
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So what do we have?
Not their fault; their parents should have sent them to better schools.
- Claim: The PLA numbers are better, because they have moved in two mechanised infantry divisions;
- Existing Indian Army strength deployed as XIV Corps with 2 Infantry Division was first ignored;
- Then avoided carefully, because the facts did not suit the narrative.
- Claim: The PLA has a superiority in armour, as they are deploying their made for the Himalayas light tank;
- No evidence showing any superiority whatsoever;
- Weight was quoted; as it doesn't make a difference, it was quickly ignored;
- Weight was quoted; it was pointed out such a light weight also meant lighter armour, greater vulnerability; point was quickly dropped;
- Weight was quoted; the information available on open sources shows that it was deployed in Tibet due to its light weight, easing transportation and logistics; nothing to do with any operational superiority; point was quietly dropped;
- Engine was quoted; nothing available shows that any design adaptations have been made to enable the engine to work more efficiently at high altitudes, in conditions of low oxygen availability; only mention of 'digital control' that has nothing to do with the engine per se;
- Engine was quoted; there is a 'sidebar' reference to 'electronic control', thus:
Electronically controlled diesel engine with fully-automatic transmission
1,000 hp (746 kW); - Engine was quoted, and the effects of high altitude on diesel engine operation were highlighted, with apparently no consciousness of the fact that all diesel engines are affected by these factors equally, and that the Light Tank does not have an engine that does yoga to fit itself for the task on hand;
- Digital control was quoted, apparently on the assumption that digital control is some sort of in-vehicle homing system that radically improves accuracy of gunfire, rather than it being a digital display of gun bearings (direction, elevation, thence range);
- Digital control was quoted, in flat contradiction of a wise man having elsewhere said that all Indian artillery would miss its targets because Indian Army calibration of its guns had not been done, in spite of being informed that a high-altitude firing range was in operation; however, although this is the first time that the T-15 Light Tank is being deployed in Tibet, it is assumed to have miraculously calibrated itself without the benefit of any long-drawn out calibration exercise as recommended for Indian Army guns; what is sauce for the gun is clearly not sauce for the tank;
- No evidence showing any superiority whatsoever;
- Claim: The PLA has superiority in artillery, because the Indian Army has not calibrated its guns for firing at such low-oxygen, high-altitude conditions; also the Indian Army has no business purchasing precision ammunition (Krasnopol, Excalibur) as it will lose any battle and lose all its artillery resources to the unique PLA mass-launched MLRS, ground attack and counter-battery fire;
- There is a full-fledged firing range (indirectly known to the general public independently of this assertion here, due to it being the venue at which acceptance trials for high-altitude ordnance were conducted) and the Indian Army has used it extensively;
- There is no evidence, not even fan-boy assertions, of the PLA having conducted such calibration trials on its own ordnance, or on the MLRS, or of any ground-attack trials or exercise; again, sauce for the Indian Army gander is clearly not sauce for the PLA goose.
Not their fault; their parents should have sent them to better schools.