As early as around 2020, India had deployed 20 divisions in Kashmir, some of which were close to China.
There are about 13 divisions deployed in the middle of the Sino-Indian border between Nepal and Bhutan, as well as in the southern Tibetan sector, and the total strength of the Indian army on the Sino-Indian border is about 180,000.
Comparison of the military strength of China and India
By March 2024, India will increase its troops to the Sino-Indian border area by more than 10,000, bringing the total size of the Indian army on the Sino-Indian border to 200,000.
Indian Army on the Sino-Indian Border
However, India has not stopped the process of increasing troops on the border, and it is reported that the Indian Army's Central Command is preparing to form a new force to be deployed in the Barelli district of Uttar Pradesh, India.
The planned force is tentatively numbered the "18th Army" and has a total size of about 100,000 men.
If India does deploy this force, it means that 300,000 Indian troops are coming across the border, which is already beyond the size of the vast majority of countries in the world.
India's deployment of so many troops on the Sino-Indian border is nothing more than a battle formation so that it can take immediate action in the future.
Compared with India, China has deployed much fewer troops on the Sino-Indian border, with a total of only about 50,000 troops.
The main reason why China has deployed only a small number of troops in the border areas is that China has an advantage in weapons.
In terms of the Air Force, China has the J-20 fifth-generation aircraft, and the most advanced fighter on the Indian side is only the Su-30.
And India's Su-30 also has logistical maintenance problems, and the name of Hindustan Aeronautics' "widow maker" is known all over the world.
In addition, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the supply of Su-30 parts provided by Russia to India has also been cut off, resulting in a further reduction in the completion rate of India's Su-30.
Therefore, in the event of a war between China and India, China can easily gain air supremacy.
Air supremacy is also the core element of modern warfare, and it can be seen that the mainland has a great advantage in this respect.
The second is that China has more powerful long-range firepower. Since the Galwan Valley clash in 2020, China has been stepping up its long-range firepower along the Sino-Indian border, and many long-range artillery pieces have been deployed to the Sino-Indian border to prepare for war.
The most representative of these is the Continental's PHL-191 long-range rocket artillery. The biggest advantage of this gun is its modular design, which allows the use of a wide range of shells.
Depending on the shell, the PHL-191 long-range rocket launcher has different ranges, which can hit shells of 60 km or 150 km.
PHL-191 long-range rocket artillery
thereinto
India's capital New Delhi is only about 300 kilometers away from the Chinese border, which means that when the PHL-191 long-range rocket launcher is deployed on the Sino-Indian border, it can directly hit the Indian capital, which is far more firepower advantage than India.
The Sino-Indian border is not suitable for the deployment of too many troops
In fact, in terms of the terrain of the Sino-Indian border, it is not suitable for the deployment of too many troops.
On the one hand, the length of the border between China and India is too long, reaching about 2,000 kilometers.
Even the deployment of a million troops on such a long border is not enough, so it is not cost-effective to deploy too many troops on the Sino-Indian border.
On the other hand, the terrain on the Sino-Indian border is too complicated to deploy too many troops.
The right thing to do is to deploy a small, but very elite and highly mobile force.
And combined with powerful air power and long-range firepower, it suppresses the direction of the enemy's possible attack.
This is reflected in China's deployment along the Sino-Indian border, with a small but elite synthetic force on the border and a strong air force in Lhasa and Chengdu to support the border areas at any time.
Synthetic troops
Closer to the flatter part of the front line, there is also a strong long-range firepower deployed, which can also suppress the border area at any time.
But the situation is very different between India and China, where too many forces are deployed. The core reason behind this is that India does not have highly mobile and elite troops.
This highly mobile and elite unit requires an extremely high armor rate and requires a fairly high degree of synthesis.
However, these are things that the Indian army does not have, and India has not been able to localize even the most basic equipment, and it does not have a set of modern ideas for army building, and its troops are still at the stage of relying on a single weapon and equipment to enhance their combat effectiveness.
It can be said that the Indian army is a completely fancy army, and its greatest significance is to let the outside world know that India also has an army.
Indian Army
For China, India has brought greater military pressure to the mainland. But on the other hand, China has also made India feel enormous military pressure.
With this kind of pressure, India needs to find a way to respond to military pressure from China. Coupled with the fact that the Indian army cannot be as modern as the Chinese PLA, it will have to rely on quantity to make up for the qualitative gap.
Why India keeps building up its troops
As for why India has continued to increase its troops on the border over the years, it has a lot to do with the current international situation.
The events in the Galwan Valley in 2020 were a turning point. After this incident, the border dispute between China and India gradually came to light, and then India began to continuously increase troops on the border and constantly provoke China.
In 2022, with the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the entire international situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the international system has a tendency to reshuffle.
Russia-Ukraine conflict
In this context, many countries want to take advantage of this opportunity to pursue their own geopolitical interests that have been suppressed in the past and cannot be resolved, and the same is true for India.
Therefore, in the past two years, India has continuously increased its troops on the Sino-Indian border and strengthened military cooperation with the United States, clearly hoping to take advantage of the reshuffle of the international situation to take a bite from China.
In India's eyes, China is now facing greater external pressure than it is. After all, China now has to compete not only with the United States militarily, but also with the United States in terms of economy and global influence.
As a result, China needs to use all its resources, and the slightest carelessness could lead to a catastrophe in this game.
Therefore, from India's point of view, China does not have the energy to take care of India, so it is okay for India to make some small moves. In the past two years, India has continued to provoke China, just because it is sure that China will not do anything against it.
However, there will be geopolitical dependence on such a thing as a diplomatic game, and India will not do anything if it sees itself as a man, so the action will naturally become bigger and bigger, and then it will lead to a loss of control.
Historically, Japan's invasion of China was due to the strong policy inertia, which made it impossible for everyone to stop hoping for constant foreign aggression.
The Japanese army invaded China
If India's attitude towards China does not change, India will one day do something out of the ordinary.
Resources:
[1] China News Network, "India has deployed 10,000 new soldiers on the China-India border, China's Ministry of Defense responds"
[2] People's Political Consultative Conference Network "India's 180,000 soldiers are difficult to make up for the weakness of infrastructure and are separated by mountains into stragglers"