Continued Delayed Procurements Will Hurt India's Preparedness Against China

As India and China stare down each other in various locations in Ladakh and across LAC, it is all about how well the Indian tiger is prepared to take on the Chinese dragon. Not only is China is numerically at an advantage against India, in terms of troops but its weapons systems are also vast and numerically more than that of India.

Situation

Add to that the psychological advantage of having captured over 38000 sq. km of Indian territory in Aksai Chin and being gifted 5200 sq. km of territory in the Shaksgam valley Karakoram tract by Pakistan. Not to mention the slow creeping capture of territory in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim by first sending in the nomads to graze cattle and sheep and then moving in the troops to permanently capture the grazing lands.

However, none of these make China 9 feet tall, India has the resolve and its troops have the capability to inflict not only serious damage but actually seize territory inside China-occupied Tibet and China-occupied Xinjiang (https://rbt-defense.blogspot.com/2023/03/zorawar-light-tank-named-after-zorawar.html on Zorawar Singh who marched 550 miles into Tibet) proves if calculated and well calibrated offensive operations are launched we can give real bloody nose to China. But to affect that, India needs to equip its Army and Air Force with the latest weapons and systems we lack.

Glaring Lack of Critical Weapon System

India needs to equip its Air Force and Army with numerous types of weapons and systems whose procurement plans have not been started yet. These are: -

1) Plans for IAF to procure 11 AEW & CS platforms.

2) Plans for procuring 10 MRTTs.

3) plan to procure 814 155mm/52-cal MGS (Mounted Gun Systems).

4) Replace Prithvi SS-150 SS-BSMs with Pralay SS-BSMs.

5) Procure ULH (Ultra-Light Howitzers) in large numbers (at least 350-400) that can be transported by helicopters.

 6) Procure single-engine LUHs for both IAF & IA.

7) Procure 9-10 belly-mounted SAR-equipped ISTR platforms.

8) Procure turbofan-powered HALE-UAVs capable of operating on LAC.

9) Procure up to 150 attack helicopters & up to 60 CH-47F-type heavy-lift helicopters.

10) Procure troop transport planes in large numbers (Airbus C 295 yet to be rolled out).

11) Upto 250 Tejas Mk II are planned, but we are yet to see a rollout of 1st Tejas Mk 1A (total 180).

12) Upto 300 AMCA Mk I/II, as things stand Mk1 itself is unlikely to come out only by 2040, clearly meaning India/IAF will miss the 6th generation bus.

Option - https://rbt-defense.blogspot.com/2023/08/can-india-use-yf-23-as-base-for-its-6th.html

13) Procure at least 40-50 medium-lift transport aircraft (Embraer C 390 may be).

14) Procure at least 20 more heavy-lift transport aircraft.

Option - 

https://rbt-defense.blogspot.com/2023/06/iaf-heavy-freighter-problem-part-1-go.html

https://rbt-defense.blogspot.com/2023/06/iaf-heavy-freighter-problem-part-2.html

Summary

All these procurements should have been completed by 2020 or some at least started by 2020. However, only a couple of them have been started that too in small numbers to be effective. Add to it the building of new cantonments & ALGs (Advanced Landing Grounds) in Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand to house troops of IBGs (Integrated Battle Groups) that are actually part of MSC (Mountain Strike Corps) and specialize in high-altitude plateau warfare have yet to start.

The absence of these critical weapons or delay in their procurement can hinder India’s defense preparedness and the prospects of India mounting a credible and effective offensive or counter-offensive campaign inside China-occupied Xinjiang and China-occupied Tibet. Hopefully, all these procurements will be started by 2025 and completed by 2030 only India can think of putting a war-fighting machine to counter China in the 2030s. Let's hope for the best. Already the DBO ALG and DSDBO are now virtually useless. https://rbt-defense.blogspot.com/2023/05/dsdbo-road-and-dbo-alg-are-now-useless.html