India has begun the process of strengthening its offensive capability against China in the North East with the Central government providing sanction to the Army to raise a new 50,000-men potent Mountain Strike Corps at a cost of nearly Rs 65,000 crore.
The Government Sanction Letter (GSL) was issued early November, a full three months after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for the new formation on July 17, government sources said here on Tuesday. On receiving the GSL, the Army has started the process of raising the new Strike Corps with posting of officers to its headquarters and setting in motion the process of selecting its chief from among the Major Generals, who had been approved for promotion as Lieutenant Generals soon.
The new formation will be called the ‘17 Corps’, but it will be the 14th Corps in the Army. It will be only the fourth Strike Corps and the only one facing China, as the other three — one Corps based in Mathura, two Corps at Ambala and 21 Corps at Bhopal — are focused on Pakistan.
China already has a vast rail and road network, and five air bases in Tibet with which it could easily mobilise 30 divisions to its borders with India in case of a conflict.
“The whole process of raising the corps would take about a year and it will have in it specialist mountain warfare equipment, artillery guns, infantry weapons, and air support elements in the form of attack helicopters, weaponised and transport choppers,” a senior Army officer said here.
The cost for raising the new strike corps would be spread over a seven-year period till 2020, with funds flowing during both the 2012-17 12th plan and 2017-22 13th plan periods under its Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP), sources said.
Though the Army had mooted the new Corps in 2009-10, the proposal reached the CCS in July after diligent assessment of the requirement, both in terms of operational need and financial feasibility, by the military commanders and the bureaucracy, including a Finance Ministry vetting. The need became apparent after the armed forces incorporated the possibility of a two-front war with Pakistan and China in its doctrines.
The Mountain Strike Corps will be headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal, though the raising of the formation has begun in Ranchi, Jharkhand, and its units will be spread in Arunachal, Assam and other eastern and northeastern states. The Corps will have two Divisions with headquarters in Bihar and Assam. Apart from this, the Army has also mooted two new ‘independent’ infantry brigades and two ‘independent’ armoured brigades with battle tanks, though the plans in this regard are yet to be finalised. An additional `19,000 crore is likely to be the cost of the new brigades.
50 thousand strong force to take on China -The New Indian Express
India gives China taste of its own medicine by resorting to aggressive patrols
The Pangong Tso Lake is now witnessing a marked change in India's approach towards China, with New Delhi upping the ante by carrying out regular boat patrols in the water body in Ladakh where the Chinese had earlier resorted to aggressive intrusions.
In a series of protests over the past few weeks, Beijing has complained that the Indian Army was resorting to aggressive patrols - coming too close to the Chinese boats and engaging them. Besides handing over protest notes at the border personnel meeting, the Chinese have also conveyed the message at diplomatic level.
Chinese protests emanated following their assessment that the Indian Army's newly acquired American patrol boats have considerably reduced their tactical advantage on the strategic lake, located at 14,500 ft in Ladakh, official sources said.
The 135 km-long Pangong Tso Lake, which is nestled between India and China, had previously become a playing field for the Chinese PLA's dominance on the waterways. It became a potential crisis point in 1999 when Beijing built a five-km permanent track into the Indian territory along the lake, as India was engaged with Pakistan in the Kargil war.
But now the sleek high-speed patrol boats from the US have become an irritant for China. More than a dozen boats procured by the Indian Army have been deployed on the lake whose one-third area falls in India and the remaining portion in China. The vessels, measuring 37 ft long and 10 ft wide, have a speed of 40 knots and come with GPS and night vision devices. Equipped with machine guns, the new Indian boats can carry 10 soldiers at a time.
The Indian patrols were chased away by their better equipped Chinese counterparts. In 2000, the Chinese had rammed into Indian patrol boats in the area and over 20 Chinese boats had made a 10 km deep incursion on the Indian side of the lake in April this year. China had a stronger military presence on the lake, and continued with its aggressive patrolling to stake claim on the water body. The Chinese operates close to 22 armed patrol boats - mostly smaller vessels with high-speed and capacity for five to seven soldiers - on the lake.
The sources said the Chinese are irked by the fact that Indian area dominating patrols are now giving a fitting response to them by catching up with the Chinese boats, if they enter the Indian side. Although the change in approach is localised, it marks a shift in India's approach that traditionally has been a cautious one when it came to the eastern neighbour. New Delhi has earlier buckled down on many instances under the Chinese pressure on the 4,057-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Read more at: India gives China taste of its own medicine by resorting to aggressive patrols : North, News - India Today
The Government Sanction Letter (GSL) was issued early November, a full three months after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for the new formation on July 17, government sources said here on Tuesday. On receiving the GSL, the Army has started the process of raising the new Strike Corps with posting of officers to its headquarters and setting in motion the process of selecting its chief from among the Major Generals, who had been approved for promotion as Lieutenant Generals soon.
The new formation will be called the ‘17 Corps’, but it will be the 14th Corps in the Army. It will be only the fourth Strike Corps and the only one facing China, as the other three — one Corps based in Mathura, two Corps at Ambala and 21 Corps at Bhopal — are focused on Pakistan.
China already has a vast rail and road network, and five air bases in Tibet with which it could easily mobilise 30 divisions to its borders with India in case of a conflict.
“The whole process of raising the corps would take about a year and it will have in it specialist mountain warfare equipment, artillery guns, infantry weapons, and air support elements in the form of attack helicopters, weaponised and transport choppers,” a senior Army officer said here.
The cost for raising the new strike corps would be spread over a seven-year period till 2020, with funds flowing during both the 2012-17 12th plan and 2017-22 13th plan periods under its Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP), sources said.
Though the Army had mooted the new Corps in 2009-10, the proposal reached the CCS in July after diligent assessment of the requirement, both in terms of operational need and financial feasibility, by the military commanders and the bureaucracy, including a Finance Ministry vetting. The need became apparent after the armed forces incorporated the possibility of a two-front war with Pakistan and China in its doctrines.
The Mountain Strike Corps will be headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal, though the raising of the formation has begun in Ranchi, Jharkhand, and its units will be spread in Arunachal, Assam and other eastern and northeastern states. The Corps will have two Divisions with headquarters in Bihar and Assam. Apart from this, the Army has also mooted two new ‘independent’ infantry brigades and two ‘independent’ armoured brigades with battle tanks, though the plans in this regard are yet to be finalised. An additional `19,000 crore is likely to be the cost of the new brigades.
50 thousand strong force to take on China -The New Indian Express
India gives China taste of its own medicine by resorting to aggressive patrols
The Pangong Tso Lake is now witnessing a marked change in India's approach towards China, with New Delhi upping the ante by carrying out regular boat patrols in the water body in Ladakh where the Chinese had earlier resorted to aggressive intrusions.
In a series of protests over the past few weeks, Beijing has complained that the Indian Army was resorting to aggressive patrols - coming too close to the Chinese boats and engaging them. Besides handing over protest notes at the border personnel meeting, the Chinese have also conveyed the message at diplomatic level.
Chinese protests emanated following their assessment that the Indian Army's newly acquired American patrol boats have considerably reduced their tactical advantage on the strategic lake, located at 14,500 ft in Ladakh, official sources said.
The 135 km-long Pangong Tso Lake, which is nestled between India and China, had previously become a playing field for the Chinese PLA's dominance on the waterways. It became a potential crisis point in 1999 when Beijing built a five-km permanent track into the Indian territory along the lake, as India was engaged with Pakistan in the Kargil war.
But now the sleek high-speed patrol boats from the US have become an irritant for China. More than a dozen boats procured by the Indian Army have been deployed on the lake whose one-third area falls in India and the remaining portion in China. The vessels, measuring 37 ft long and 10 ft wide, have a speed of 40 knots and come with GPS and night vision devices. Equipped with machine guns, the new Indian boats can carry 10 soldiers at a time.
The Indian patrols were chased away by their better equipped Chinese counterparts. In 2000, the Chinese had rammed into Indian patrol boats in the area and over 20 Chinese boats had made a 10 km deep incursion on the Indian side of the lake in April this year. China had a stronger military presence on the lake, and continued with its aggressive patrolling to stake claim on the water body. The Chinese operates close to 22 armed patrol boats - mostly smaller vessels with high-speed and capacity for five to seven soldiers - on the lake.
The sources said the Chinese are irked by the fact that Indian area dominating patrols are now giving a fitting response to them by catching up with the Chinese boats, if they enter the Indian side. Although the change in approach is localised, it marks a shift in India's approach that traditionally has been a cautious one when it came to the eastern neighbour. New Delhi has earlier buckled down on many instances under the Chinese pressure on the 4,057-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Read more at: India gives China taste of its own medicine by resorting to aggressive patrols : North, News - India Today
