Four years after the standoff in the Galwan Valley between China and India, Modi said in an interview with Newsweek in mid-April that the border issue between China and India should be resolved as soon as possible. But one thing is said in words, and another is actually done. In March, he also inspected the disputed area on the eastern line of the Sino-Indian border.
At the same time, the Indian army has also strengthened its military deployment on the Sino-Indian border, newly established a number of division-level troops to deploy on the Sino-Indian border, and the strength of the Indian army's first and second lines has reached nearly 300,000 troops in seven armies.
Since the two Sino-Indian border confrontations, India has stepped up the deployment of heavy military groups on the border, how can the PLA achieve all-round suppression of India?
Our army suppressed the Indian army in two major directions, east and west
Confronting captured Indian troops in the Galwan Valley
The length of the Sino-Indian border has reached more than 1,000 kilometers, and due to the low degree of mechanization of the Indian army, the ability to provide logistical support, and the topographical limitations of the Sino-Indian border, the Indian army has adopted the offensive and defensive idea of piling up people to the front line.
Taking the 14th Army of the Indian Army deployed in the Ladakh area of the western section of the Sino-Indian border as an example, it has a huge strength of nearly 60,000 people, including the 8th Mountain Division, the 70th Brigade, the 114th Brigade, the 81st Mountain Brigade, the 118th Independent Infantry Brigade, the 14th Independent Armored Brigade, the 254th Independent Armored Brigade, the 14th Artillery Brigade and two Army Aviation Squadrons, with an establishment of nearly 60,000 people, which is equivalent to the 38th Army and the 39th Group Army, the main forces of our army before the military reform.
Situation map of the western section of the Sino-Indian border
In the face of the aggressive posture of the Indian army on the Sino-Indian border, especially after the Doklam confrontation in 2017 and the Galwan Valley confrontation in 2020, our army realized that it was necessary to strengthen the deployment of military forces in the Sino-Indian direction.
Judging from the strategic deployment of our army, in view of the geopolitical situation on the Sino-Indian border, the PLA Army has adopted a pattern of containment on the east and west fronts and echelon deployment of troops on the front and rear lines.
The two lines are the east and west sections of the Sino-Indian border, the western section of the border is under the responsibility of the Xinjiang Military Region, and the eastern section of the border is under the responsibility of the Tibet Military Region.
The Tibet Military Region is different from other provincial military districts in the hinterland, and its ground assault force is composed of a plateau mountain heavy composite brigade, a light composite brigade, and a mountain motorized composite brigade, and the entire army has given priority to equipping Type 15 light main battle tanks to strengthen its interdiction capability in the Siliguri corridor. After strengthening the military region's army aviation brigade, special operations brigade, intelligence and reconnaissance brigade, artillery brigade, air defense brigade, and other arms, it will have the ability to independently carry out campaign offensives.
Almost all of our army's advanced weapons and equipment can be seen in the plateau combat units, such as the Hongqi-16 medium-range air defense missile of the air defense brigade and the Z-20 general-purpose transport helicopter of the army aviation brigade.
Hongqi-16 missiles equipped with PLA air defense brigades are being hoisted
In the western section of the Sino-Indian border, the composite division of the Xin-Tibet Military Region of our army came to support the defense operations in the Aksai Chin area; after the military reform, the PLA group army no longer has a division-level combat unit, but the Xinjiang Military Region has retained four division-level combat units that are fully manned, and on the basis of the motorized infantry division and the mechanized infantry division, division-level composite combat units have been successively formed, and the composite division is composed of a light composite regiment / a medium composite regiment / a heavy composite regiment + a fire regiment + a support and support regiment.
The heavy composite regiment of the composite division of the Xinjiang Military Region first reequipped with Type 15 tanks, and later equipped with the latest 99A heavy main battle tanks to strengthen our army's assault capability against the Indian army.
Due to reasons related to military secrecy, we cannot disclose the specific deployment and number of personnel of the PLA, but such a large number of troops deployed in the two front-line military regions will certainly not be less than 100,000 troops.
China still has a heavy hand
The Western Theater is a strategic military group set up by our army in the western direction, and there is no armed group that can pose a military threat to China's northwest and southwest hinterland, and the Western Theater has to undertake more offensive and defensive tasks in the overseas direction. The 76th Army, deployed in the northwest, is concerned with the Central Asian direction and the western sector of the Sino-Indian border, and the 77th Army, deployed in the southwest, is concerned with defensive operations in the Indochina Peninsula and the eastern sector of the Sino-Indian border.
The two major armies are deployed in the northwest and southwest hinterlands, and in wartime they quickly move to the Sino-Indian border through multiple strategic corridors to support the frontier regiments and mountain combat units deployed on the front line.
After the military reform, through measures such as reducing the level of command and enriching the front-line combat units, the combat strength of our army's group armies has increased by a large margin, and 5-6 composite brigades and corresponding arms brigades have been generally formed.
Some of our army's heavy composite brigades equipped with 96 series tanks have been replaced with 99A tanks and 15 light main battle tanks, and the number of medium-sized composite brigades equipped with 8X8 wheeled infantry fighting vehicles has steadily increased, and a large number of motorized infantry brigades have begun to transform into light and highly mobile composite brigades, and they have been replaced with CSK-181 "Warrior" protective assault vehicles, which are several times stronger than traditional motorized infantry brigades, and their mobility and informatization level have been rapidly enhanced.
In order to strengthen the group army's mobile assault combat capability, the specialized arms units under the group army have rapidly expanded their establishment and updated their weapons and equipment; after the military reform, the size of our army's army aviation brigade has almost doubled, all army aviation brigades have been equipped with Z-10 armed helicopters, and most of the army aviation brigades have replaced Z-9 armed helicopters with Z-19 armed helicopters, thus greatly enhancing the air strike capability and accompanying firepower.
After the military reform, all members of the PLA air defense brigade were equipped with Hongqi-16 medium-range air defense missiles, and Hongqi-7 field air defense systems and PG99 antiaircraft guns were transferred to the composite brigade to provide effective medium-range regional air defense for combat units.
In the face of the elite ground combat units of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), what does India rely on to move north, and does it rely on traditional infantry?
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Part of the information in the article: Indian Prime Minister Modi went to the so-called "Arunachal Pradesh" to attend the unveiling ceremony of the Sera Tunnel and other projects Beijing Daily