The United States and India held a joint military exercise "Preparation War-2022" 100 kilometers away from the actual control line between China and India has come to an end. The US military said that it gained a lot of mountain combat experience in this military exercise and praised the Indian army's mountain troops as the most experienced mountain troops in the world.
, a joint military exercise called "Preparation War" is mainly engaged in high-altitude mountain combat, and its targetedness is self-evident. In other words, the practical significance of this military exercise is not the distance from the actual control line between China and India, nor how high the US military's evaluation of Indian mountain troops is. This is just a gimmick required for publicity.
The core intention is that through this sensitive joint military exercise held in sensitive places, the United States and India can release how many signals it can on geopolitical , that is, it will send some strong political signals to China.
is a regular polite operation, but these enthusiastic words of praise come from the mouth of the United States, which seems to be somewhat drunk without the intention of drinking. India is using the joint US-India military exercises to facilitate the later border negotiations with China; while the United States' core intention is to open up a rear battlefield on the Sino-Indian border to reduce the pressure of head-on confrontation and put us under the enemy from both sides.
However, when the United States spoke out for India on the Sino-Indian border friction incident, both China and India said it was very clear that the Sino-Indian border issue does not require third-party forces to intervene, and third-party forces will never be allowed to intervene. To put it simply, it doesn’t matter how conflicts between China and India have had nothing to do with others.
Therefore, the United States intends to win over and creates momentum, and ultimately, it is impossible to escape the end of a hot face sticking to a cold butt. After all, who knows the situation on the Sino-Indian border is the most clear and who has the most say. Indian Army knows it better than anyone else in his heart. If I could beat it and gain a little advantage, with India's speculative spirit, how could I have had a patient conversation with China?
The core crux of
is not whether India has ambitions on the Sino-Indian border, but whether the Indian army can eat this tempting "big cake" with its current strength. This is the fundamental reason why there is movement in the Sino-Indian border and seek stability in chaos.
Objectively speaking, the development of Indian Army attaches great importance to the construction of mountain troops, and even pays a little extraordinary attention. It has always provided 14 mountain divisions, which is the world's largest scale. The deployment of 12 mountain divisions troops was placed on the China-India border line alone, which is rare in any part of the world.
The Indian Army has made a lot of preparations for mountain warfare , from the introduction of T-90 main battle tank from Russia, to the United States' CH-47 "Chinnukan" heavy transport helicopters and M777 ultra-light howitzer, to the latest LCH armed helicopters developed by India, etc., almost all the killers are tailor-made for mountain combat.
At present, the troop strength comparison between the Sino-Indian border is very different. The Indian army has deployed seven armies in the 3rd, 4th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 33rd on the front line. The newly formed 17th Mountain Strike Army is used as a second-line mobile reserve team. In recent years, there have been constant frictions between China and India, and India still has the intention to further increase its troops.
. Our army is on the front line. The front line is mainly composed of several border defense regiments belonging to the Tibet Military Region and the Xinjiang Military Region. The troops deployed in the rear are mainly composed of two mountain brigades and a heavy brigade of the Tibet Military Region. They are mainly concentrated in the eastern front of the Sino-Indian border. The front of the western line is still mainly composed of border defense forces .
The reason for the reality of such a huge gap in the deployment of troops on the border between the two armies of China and India is extremely complicated, and the most fundamental reason is the unique battlefield environment in the China-India border area.
From a military geography perspective, India has been at a disadvantage from the beginning. So as early as the British colonization, Britain took advantage of the time when China was too busy to take care of itself and extended its claws to China Tibet. In order to seek to break the traditional northern direction of Indochina in geopolitical terms, otherwise it would be difficult for India to achieve great things northward.
China is not only geographically condescending, but also controls India's two most important water resources faucets.Ganges and Indus River are crucial to India's development. On the one hand, India's rare fertile plains are all in the north, so the capital had to choose New Delhi , which is only hundreds of kilometers away from the China-India escape line.
On the other hand, the Ganges River Basin is also one of the birthplaces of Indian civilization, and the Indus River is regarded as the "cradle" and "mother river" by Tibetan . This is particularly important in the field of history and culture, and is related to India's fundamentals.
It is precisely because of this that India dreams of getting this apparent "barren land", which is a battle for China. This also concerns the future of India's destiny as a great and colorful power. If it cannot cross this geographical barrier, India can only conceal itself in South Asia. Dominating South Asia is just a name but nothing can be achieved.
There are actually not many countries in South Asia. The geopolitical strategic value is not very valuable except for surrounding Indian Ocean and adjacent to Persian Gulf estuary and the throat of Malacca. India has always regarded the Indian Ocean as a backyard, but the actual result is that the Indian Navy has no strength to control the Indian Ocean, and it only makes a verbal statement. Otherwise, the first thing India wants to kick out is the US Fifth Fleet.
If India wants to achieve greater development, or to go further, it is not possible to obtain onshore strategy except maritime strategy. Just like walking on two legs, one missing is a cripple, and it is destined to not go far. The sea needs to improve its hard power, while the land needs great wisdom and great strategy as support.
India's land strategy is naturally abnormal, expanding eastward to Southeast Asia. India-Pakistan War India and Pakistan helped Bangladesh to be independent, which is a great achievement. The old enemy to the west, Pakistan , these two goods are not convinced by the other one, and even the gods of Daluo cannot adjust it, which limits the possibility that India can extend its tentacles to the Persian Gulf direction.
The only thing left is to go north, and go north to enter Middle East , Central Asia. The three major mountains of Suleiman, Hindu Kush and Himalayan are an insurmountable barrier. In history, three mountain ranges have made the rise and fall of Indian civilization, and the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas have never touched the Northeast powers.
Sadly, the intersection of the two mountains of Suleiman and Hindu Kush is not strictly closed, leaving a large channel for foreigners to go to the Indian mainland to make achievements. Aryan , Persian , Greeks, Arab , and Turks all ran to India through this Khyber Pass .
India has also made great efforts with great ambitions. Looking at the only thing in the surrounding area is China. Therefore, India provoked the self-defense counterattack on the border of , China-India in the 1960s. Originally, India was better than China in many aspects after working hard to govern, but this battle not only defeated Nehru, but also ruined the achievements of Nehru's efforts to govern, which was equivalent to destroying one of the few rising countries in India.
Although India has been upset for decades, it cannot surpass this northern barrier after all. So India began to stare at the Middle East and finally waited for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan . India followed the United States to make a wrong bet. Taliban was beaten by the United States for 20 years, and all the money India spent in was wasted. Although it did not give up, it was almost dead.
In other words, except for making some progress to the east, India has made no achievements from west to north, but instead puts itself in a state of being "encircled". Especially after China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, India was feeling uncomfortable and felt more and more oppressive. In the end, it chose to lie in the same trench with the United States and give China a geopolitical "anti-encirclement" (the mechanism of the four countries of the United States, Japan, India and Australia).
Whether it is the United Kingdom in the past or the United States in the present, there is a similar comprehensive strategic plan for India, which has exceeded the scope of India's own strategic design.Not only did the UK once extend its claws to China's Tibet, but also the so-called McMahon Line and other landmines left behind, the United States also demarcated the boundary for China. The east of the Himalayas is our range of activities, and we cannot cross the boundary.
We have said so much, which seems to be off-topic, but in fact it is to point out the great geographical environment of India. Only by deeply understanding this great geographical environment can we better understand why India had Chen Chongjun on the front line, and more importantly, it is still not worth it.
The geopolitical environment destined to have no better options for India. In the 1962 self-defense counterattack, the Indian army deeply experienced the PLA's power of interlude; in the past decade, the Indian army experienced the horror of "bombing for me" under the "fire-defeating phobia" of the PLA ( Western Theater Command official Weibo once said: if you are poor, you will be roundabout and interlude, and if you are rich, you will be bombed for me).
Most of the Indian Army's troops are deployed in areas with lower altitudes, that is, at the foot of the mountain. The capital is only a few hundred kilometers away from the actual control line. To protect the safety of the capital and the grain bags, the Indian Army must have sufficient troops to deploy in a staging manner to avoid the 62-year front line collapse and allow the history of the People's Liberation Army to be interspersed in depth.
Only by deploying enough troops on the border can the Indian government in New Delhi fall asleep with peace of mind.
The fundamental reason why the PLA can win more with less is often the active position, on the one hand, it is related to the historical inheritance of the troops we deploy on the front line, whether it is the mountain brigade of the Tibet Military Region, the two Red Army divisions deployed in southern Xinjiang by the Xinjiang Military Region, and the two armies of the strategic assistance 77 and 76. These troops have a long history and are known for their ability to conquer and fight well. They are not comparable to those of the Indian army's employed troops who make money to support their families.
On the other hand, in recent years, the People's Liberation Army has focused on strengthening the improvement of combat power in the western direction. A large number of new equipment has been installed in the Western Theater Command, the "local tyrant" heavy synthetic brigade of the 76th Army, and the fully equipped new equipment such as 15 light tank , Far Fire, 155 truck gun . Whether it was the Doklam standoff in 2017 or the Galwan Valley standoff in 2017, the People's Liberation Army's front-line standoff, and the joint military exercises in the rear caused great shock to the Indian army, such as our public display of the Far Fire assault.
In addition, the People's Liberation Army has been silently deepening the construction of logistics infrastructure over the past few decades, from the three connections of front-line border posts to the road construction at the rear to the frontier of the border, as well as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway , the Southern Xinjiang Star Express, etc., which greatly improved the troops' mobility speed and logistical support efficiency. In this long confrontation between the Sino-Indian border since 20 years, it is clear at a glance who is better and worse.
In other words, from the quality of the troops, the level of weapons and equipment, to the efficiency of logistics supply, the People's Liberation Army has an overwhelming advantage over the Indian army. Under such a background, only the Western Theater Command is more than enough to ensure the security and stability of the western border, and India's intention to open the rear battlefield to benefit was shattered by reality.
has a deeper connotation at the strategic level. The huge gap in military strength between China and India has brought about an inconspicuous direct consequence. The huge difference in military expenditures between the two armies of China and India, which completely constrains India's development from the strategic level. You should know that India's heavy troops on the border, and this alone can account for nearly 40% of India's military expenditure.
only maintains normal daily expenses, which is equivalent to the fact that in order to guard the border, India has wasted a large amount of white silver on the bumpy road ammunition and supplies. The PLA's elite troops invested far less money on the border than India in combat, and the money saved is to buy equipment, engage in infrastructure, and improve personnel welfare.
This has led to the Indian Army eating too much military expenditure on the front line of the border, which has affected the overall situation of coordinated development of the Indian army and restricted the development of the Indian navy and air force. The final result is that both Indian sea and land are basically lame.
In this situation, even if India has the largest mountain troops in the world, what's the benefit of 300,000 troops on the border? The most prominent combat feature of high-altitude mountains is channel combat, and a large number of troops cannot be expanded at all. At best, it is a staging deployment and an increase in defense depth.
Defensive depth is very deep, in the face of the PLA's long-range firepower of hundreds of kilometers, this depth does not play much role, let alone the most advanced box-type long-range fire installation, which can directly threaten the Indian capital New Delhi. Therefore, the entire border defense system of the Indian army is more just to seek a kind of "peace of mind".
can strategically restrict the overall development of the Indian army. We use the three front brigades on the border to restrain hundreds of thousands of Indian army's 12 mountain divisions. No matter how you calculate this account, you will make sure to make a profit. What the Indians in 1962 have not understood in , , and I still can't understand today. Whether it is India's speculative ambitions or the United States' overall strategic calculations, it can only be a waste of money.
