In an effort to address the problems posed by China’s massive build up of military infrastructure and deployment of force hardware along its border with occupied Tibet, India plans to base six surface-to-air Akash missile squadrons in the North-East, reported the Times of India online Feb 16. The two countries share an unresolved 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC), a result of the Chinese annexation of Tibet.

The report said China was upgrading as many as 14 airfields in Tibet, with at least half of them being now fully-operational. Its Linzi airbase, for instance, is not even 30 km away from the LAC in Arunachal.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is to get eight Akash tactical air defence squadrons by 2015, with the first one becoming operational by 2011 itself. Each squadron will have two ‘flights’ of four Akash launchers. The Indian Army too was reported to be poised to order two Akash regiments, with six firing batteries each.

The Akash missiles have an effective interception range of 25 km with an 88% "kill probability''. The Akash system, with its supersonic missiles and a network of radars, is said to be designed to neutralise multiple aerial targets attacking from several directions simultaneously in all-weather conditions.

Having woken up late to China’s massive build up of arms and force infrastructure across the border in occupied Tibet, India is redoubling its efforts to put in place an effective deterrence. In keeping with this, it is also raising two new specialised infantry mountain divisions and an artillery brigade for Arunachal Pradesh and basing of two Sukhoi-30MKI squadrons (36 fighters) each at Tezpur and Chabua in Assam, the report said.

Source : Tibetan Review