NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) will conduct a major air combat exercise with frontline fighters, helicopters, other aircraft and drones in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and other northeastern states early next month, amid heightened tension in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control due to the 32-month long military confrontation in eastern Ladakh.The command-level exercise will witness the Eastern Air Command, which has its headquarters in Shillong, test its operational readiness from February 1 to 5.
It will include all assets in the eastern sector, including Rafales and Sukhoi-30MKI fighters flying from air-bases like Hasimara, Tezpur and Chabua, a source said.The IAF had also conducted a two-day exercise in the northeast last month soon after the physical clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9.
The forthcoming exercise will be bigger in scale and will include a variety of platforms, including C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, Chinook heavy-lift and Apache attack helicopters, among others, the source said.In eastern Ladakh, China continues to forward deploy over 50,000 troops and heavy weaponry along the frontier for the third successive winter, and has so far refused to discuss troop disengagement at the strategically-located Depsang Plains and Demchok areas.Simultaneously, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has also increased force-levels along the 1,346km stretch of the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
The PLA, for instance, has kept two additional combined arms brigades each has around 4,500 soldiers with tanks, artillery and other weapons forward deployed across the eastern sector even during the ongoing winter.The IAF has also had to scramble Sukhoi fighters as precautionary air defence measures on detecting Chinese aircraft coming close to the LAC in the eastern sector in recent months, as was earlier reported by TOI.The heightened Chinese air activity all along the 3,488km-long LAC is taking place after China has upgraded all its major airbases facing India like Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa and Shigatse with extended runways, hardened shelters and fuel storage facilities for additional fighters, bombers, drones and reconnaissance aircraft over the last two years.Another concern for India is the way the PLA has stepped up its activities and infrastructure development in the Bhutanese territory of Doklam near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction.
The 73-day face-off at Doklam in 2017 had erupted after Indian troops blocked Chinese attempts to extend its motorable track towards the Jampheri Ridge, which overlooks the strategically-vulnerable Siliguri Corridor.The Indian armed forces have taken a series of measures to reduce any threat to the Siliguri Corridor or the Chickens Neck, which is a narrow strip of land that connects the northeast with the rest of India, as well as other vulnerable areas.Several plans are afoot, with full operational preparedness being maintained.
We have enough forces and reserves for any contingency, a senior officer said.
This includes the basing of a squadron of the omni-role Rafale fighter jets at the Hasimara air base in West Bengal, which is close to the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction.