With the military standoff between India and China at the de facto Indo-Tibetan border or LAC in Eastern Ladakh showing no signs of abatement, despite various levels of military and diplomatic talks, India is no longer pushing for diplomacy with China. With the tensions still soaring, even in the winter months, India is thinking about the immediate future, which entails the snow melting in Eastern Ladakh and the Chinese PLA resorting to its previous misadventures. Of course, India is in no mood to indulge the army of sissies in their belligerence and is seeking to deploy jaw-breaking weaponry in the standoff sectors in the coming months.
For the same, India has placed comprehensive orders, particularly for missiles and secure communication systems, with Israel. The ongoing standoff between India and China has served as a much-needed opportunity for the former to ramp up its defence preparedness and stock up on essential, yet thunderous weaponry which can frighten the living daylights out of the Chinese. As opposed to a general sense of lethargy which was prevalent in Indian defence procurement so far, the simmering tensions with China have served as a window of opportunity to scale up the country’s defensive-offence capabilities.
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As per a report by ThePrint and according to a Jane’s Defence Weekly, India has awarded a $200 million contract to Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems for supplying an undisclosed number of SPICE bomb-guidance kits, and between 300 to 320 Spike-Long Range Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs), besides the BNET broadband IP software-defined radios, which are pitched as a system for secure communications during on-the-move tactical operations.
The said orders are slated to be delivered to India shortly, just before the summer months set in throughout the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The orders have been placed under the emergency powers bestowed upon the country’s armed forces by the Defence Ministry. In July last year, India had allowed its armed forces to procure weapons systems of up to ₹300 crores as part of an emergency stockpiling exercise, which was necessitated due to China’s growing belligerence in the Himalayas.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army is actively deliberating upon the prospect of placing an order for Spike-LR (Long Range) ATGMs as an emergency procurement. India’s existing ATGMs are said to have been already deployed at all important heights in Eastern Ladakh. The continued procurement by India’s armed forces of advanced weapons systems shows that they do not expect the conflict with China to be resolved anytime soon, which is why the stockpiling of weapons is being conducted before the summers set in.
Importantly, the focus of India’s strategists has shifted from Pakistan to China, which in itself is a welcome move. Pakistan, as is largely known, is a rabid country which can be seamlessly dealt with by India, while its paymaster – China would require jaw-breaking responses in much greater proportion than it is accustomed to. India ramping up the stocks of its weaponry is an indication that the ongoing standoff is still very much an open game, and will likely not be resolved without a limited military conflict at least.
It is, therefore, only prudent for India to prepare itself so that it is not left wondering about what struck it in the months to come because China will most definitely attempt a misadventure yet again as its soldiers crawl out of their insulated winter camps shortly.