Is a new mountain corps enough to counter the China threat?

Even with Cabinet Committee on Security’s approval to raise a mountain strike corps along on the Line of Actual Control between India and China, questions still remain over how effective the new force will be. With a budget of over Rs 64,000 crore to be spent over seven years, the move does give sanction to the Indian Army to plug the poor man power situation to a certain extent in the northeast . However, the challenge for the proposed Panagarh-based mountain strike corps lies in making the newly-inducted soldiers ready for battle, equipping them with special weapons for mountain warfare an[caption id=“attachment_964157” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Careful bonhomie. AFP[/caption]d making them adept at handling the inhospitable terrain and climate. As a Times of India report pointed out, India already has two new infantry divisions at Lekhapani and Missamari in Assam since 2009-10 and prepared to defend Arunachal Pradesh if needed. India has also been beefing up its missile and aircraft capabilities along the China border in its effort to catch up with a burgeoning China’s military capabilities and developed infrastructure along the border. The steps taken are often reactive, rather than proactive, as India is left with no other choice but strengthen its military might given China’s continuously increasing border strength and incursions. It is no secret that China considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory and calls it as ‘South Tibet’, a claim that rejected by India. According to a Times of India report, “It (China) 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. China has deployed 13 border defence regiments with around 300,000 PLA troops close to Indian border.” NDTV’s Nitin Gokhale examines how difficult it will be for India to raise the new corps in his piece ‘Mountain corps to counter China needs much more than just money’. “It is further difficult to make that formation capable of mountain warfare. For mountains gobble up troops; they take a heavy toll on man and machine. Living at altitudes upwards of 12,000 feet and going upto 22,000 feet requires extreme fitness levels. The Himalayas - along which the entire 4,000 km China frontier is spread out - is an unforgiving terrain" Gokhale writes. “The new mountain corps will require light artillery which can be easily transported, even airlifted in the highest mountains. Given India’s painfully-slow process of weapons acquisition, empowering the Mountain Strike Corps quickly will be a big challenge.” Getting mandatory clearances from the environment ministry has always proved to be cumbersome and time-consuming thus slowing down infrastructure projects which are of paramount importance to national security. A s the NDTV piece mentions, the Indian Air Force is facing difficulty in upgrading its Advanced Landing Grounds, due to lack of contractors willing to work in such conditions. Whether the force will finally serve its purpose remains to be seen and will depend on a lot more than just merely allocating funds.