22 August 2014

News Story: India plans US$10bn mountain strike corps to counter China

General Dalbir Singh Suhag (Image: Wiki Commons)

India is building a new 620-billion-rupee (US$10 billion) mountain strike corps to counter China along the China-India border in the northeastern part of the country, according to a report from the New Delhi-based Hindustan Times.

The report said General Dalbir Singh Suhag, Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army, is set to visit the Kolkata-based Eastern Command before the end of the month to track the progress of the new 17 Corps, which is being set up to counter China's reconnaissance and intelligence along the 4,057-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries. The corps is likely to be operational by 2022, the report said, adding that it is expected to reduce China's combat power advantage over India from the current ratio of 3:1 to 2.1:1.

Singh, who recently completed a tour along the the disputed LAC in the sensitive Ladakh area of India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, has also served as an inspector general in a covert China-centric unit comprising Tibetan soldiers called the Special Frontier Force, the report added.

Read the full story at Want China Times