India incursion and Chinese standoff at Dolam, Bhutan

Well now India is facing even stronger PLA Nyingchi encampment close to Arunachal Pradesh. Beside encampment, China built first class Highway and fast track Railroad(2018) making it well supplied and well connected fortress. Also the airport is now upgraded with barrack and Heliport. garage,aviation depot
Basically they convert Nyingchi from rotation and temporary present into permanent present Congratulation India you won!

India’s new headache far from Doklam: Chinese troops seen near Tuting sector incursion
4 January, 2018


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
There are also indications of the presence of 2 additional PLA brigades at Nyingchi town, and a new railway line could start this year.

New Delhi: The incursion and road-building attempt by the Chinese in the Tuting sector in Arunachal Pradesh is a new problem for India as it is backed up by a large presence of PLA troops and infrastructure like in Doklam.

Satellite images accessed by ThePrint show that China has built facilities to accommodate thousands of PLA troops and speedy progress has also been made on a railway link that can quickly bring in reinforcements.

The incursion in the Tuting sector was discovered on 28 December when Chinese workers were found to have illegally built a track 1 km into Indian territory at the point where the Brahmaputra river enters India from Tibet.

An Indian Army patrol later stopped the work and Chinese construction equipment is still lying on the Indian side of the disputed border.

that exclusive satellite images showed that the Chinese had amassed troops near the Doklam plateau even after a bitter, two-month military face-off between the two countries had been peacefully resolved on 28 August. Doklam is in the tri-junction area of India, China and Bhutan.

Exclusive satellite images of the Tuting sector show a similar build-up.
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It is believed that two brigades of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — namely the 52 Mountain Brigade and 53 Mountain Brigade — are located here in the town of Nyingchi in Mainling district. The rugged area has mountains ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 metres, with most towns and villages located along the Brahmaputra, or Yarlung Tsangpo as the river is known on the Chinese side.

While connectivity with Lhasa on the west and Chengdu on the east has been poor in the past, construction of roads and tracks started in the late 1990s. Google Earth satellite images of 14 November 2017 provide a startling insight into the Chinese infrastructure build-up in this remote area.

New garages and accommodation
A large number of barracks, buildings and warehouses have been constructed for the PLA over the past 2-4 years in the Nyingchi area. Recent satellite images reveal new constructions — most likely for the PLA — near the Mainling airport.

There are five large C-shaped three-storey buildings, along with 16 large sheds to accommodate both tracked and wheeled vehicles. These garages and buildings could serve a strength of almost 2 mechanised brigades. The Nyingchi area can easily accommodate a division plus strength.

Considering the Doklam and Nyingchi divisions (if not division plus) of the Chinese PLA, it could require at least four Indian corps level formations to tackle in mountainous terrain if a 1:6 or 1:9 ratio is considered sufficient.

New railway line
China had planned a railway line from Lhasa to Nyingchi along the Brahmaputra, which was supposed to be completed by 2021. There were reports that the line would reach Nyingchi by 2020, a year in advance.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
However, the latest satellite images show an interesting twist. Work on the new railway station is in progress at Bayi in Nyingchi area. The base of the railway station and railway track is complete.

Most of the railway tunnels and bridges are also complete, suggesting that the track will be functional by December 2018, if not by June 2018. It will ensure that a trip from Lhasa to Nyingchi will take just about three hours. Nyingchi, located barely 15 km from the border, poses a serious security threat for India.

New road
The new road from Lhasa to Nyingchi was recently completed, according to reports in the People’s Daily. The road with a length of 410 km passing through areas as high as 3000 m can be covered in less than five hours.

It is a modern four-lane highway, which can carry heavy traffic at speeds of 80 kmph.

New dam
A new hydroelectric dam has been constructed after 2014 on Nyang river, very close to Nyingchi town. The dam has created a large reservoir of almost 6 km, displacing many small villages.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Heliport
The helipad which was once part of British India has been upgraded to a heliport with hangars and hard standings for at least 10 large choppers. A number of large helicopters mostly Mi-171 have been observed at this heliport from time to time.

Recently even attack helicopters have been observed here.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Upgraded airport
A dual-purpose airport was constructed near Nyingchi in 2004 with an airstrip of 3 km in length and 60 m in width. It was mainly used by civil air traffic and sometimes by military reconnaissance aircraft.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Recently, the airport has been upgraded with an additional 200 m x 150 m apron and an arrival lounge. The aviation fuel point behind the airstrip has also been upgraded.

Wow they can build fast. A democratic China would never have been able to achieve this kind of organisation.

ougoah said:

Wow they can build fast. A democratic China would never have been able to achieve this kind of organisation.

Click to expand...

Political system has nothing to do with it. Majority of the country on earth, democratic or not, will not be able to do it

ougoah said:

Wow they can build fast. A democratic China would never have been able to achieve this kind of organisation.

Click to expand...

Well the road and railway has been in the work for number of years now. The railway should be ready at the end of the year. But the new facilities at Manling airport and other upgrade are new I guess they fast track the construction

New trouble for India: China occupies North Doklam, with armoured vehicles & 7 helipads
17 January, 2018
The good colonel found another monster underneath his bed


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
New visuals show PLA deployment is close to last year’s face-off point and hasn’t thinned down as Indian Army chief Gen. Rawat claimed last week.

New Delhi: Almost five months after India and China agreed to end their tense military face-off in the Himalayan region of Doklam, Beijing has almost completely taken control of the northern side of the disputed plateau, latest satellite images accessed by ThePrint show.

The new images show concrete posts, seven helipads, new trenches and several dozen armoured vehicles close to the point where the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops were locked in a 72-day confrontation last year.

The discovery comes days after Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that China continues to have troops in North Doklam but also added that the deployment had thinned down recently.

However, new satellite imagery accessed by ThePrint from 10 December 2017 shows that the Chinese side is now well entrenched in the area, with heavy road building machinery still present close to the stand-off point.

The face-off was triggered last June after Indian troops prevented Chinese workers backed by the PLA from completing a road that would have given them fast access to the south Doklam area. The Doklam plateau is contested between China and Bhutan, with India also having a strategic interest in keeping the area demilitarised.

These are first images that show the extent of the Chinese deployment at Doklam – and indicate a likely permanent PLA deployment, retaining the capability to construct the contested road at short notice.

Troop strength

The PLA has occupied almost every nook and corner, if not every inch, of the northern side of the plateau. Google Earth imagery clearly shows a large number of troops and equipment in semi-permanent structures under camouflage.

There is at least one complete mechanised regiment of possibly ZBL-09 IFVs or infantry fighting vehicles. There is also a strong possibility of another mechanised regiment under camouflage nets.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Two major parking areas have been observed for tank transporters of smaller size, suggesting their use for mechanised vehicle transport. There are, in total, two regiments’ worth of tank transporters on the Doklam plateau.

There are more than a hundred large troop/equipment-carrying vehicles, or what the military calls ‘B-vehicles’.

At least four large bulldozers and four tippers have also been observed. This indicates a clear intention of pursuing the construction of the road beyond the contested point.

A large number of troops seem to have been kept in tents under very good camouflage, but certainly not good enough for satellite imagery not to spot them.

The observation tower

There is a very tall observation tower, at least two storeys high, constructed with cement concrete less than 10 metres from the most forward trench occupied by the Indian Army.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
The elevation profile of this tower suggests that it can observe the entire Gnathang Valley from Kupup to Zuluk. The entire movement of the Indian Army beyond Kupup can also be very clearly observed by the PLA.

New posts

A large number of fighting posts have been created on almost every hillock on North Doklam plateau. These posts consist of double-layered communication trenches prepared for all round defence.

Numerous areas have been dug out, possibly to accommodate troops under camouflage at a later date. One of the dug-out areas is quite large, suggesting that the PLA will construct an extremely tall observation tower very soon.

Helipads

At least seven new helipads have been constructed with permanent cemented round bases. The diameter of the helipads is 25 metres, suggesting that the largest helicopters in the PLA inventory will be able to land here.


Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Road construction

New roads have been constructed to cover the North Doklam plateau. Work is in progress to widen existing roads. Most of the roads have communication trenches running along them.

China is fortifying Donglam.

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After Doklam, China making use of fabricated fortifications on border with India: Sources
Zee News' Manish Shukla reports that intelligence reports have shown how PLA along Sino-India border is making use of the new fortifications to make its troops more mobile and yet with better aggressive and defensive abilities.
By Zee Media Bureau | Updated: Jan 16, 2018, 21:35 PM IST

New Delhi: Months after the Doklam crisis when Indian and Chinese soldiers came eye to eye, the People's Liberation Army has begun making use of advanced technology all along the Sino-India border. Indian military intelligence has revealed that the latest additions are fabricated fortifications specially designed to shelter arms, equipment, personnel and observation stations from both plain sight and enemy attacks.

The fabricated fortifications are designed in a way that helps PLA erect them quickly and double up as a designed battlefield engineering support system. Its composed of the main frame with reactive projectile resistance and electromagnetic shielding systems. It can be assembled and dismantled multiple times, say sources in the Indian intelligence unit.
A Military Intelligence Report accessed by Zee News further reveals that The Defence Engineering Research Insitute of Academy of Military Science (AMS) of PLA has developed these special fortifications which have four major categories: a) Observation center, b) Shooting Command center, c) Personnel sheltering and d) Equipment sheltering.

Army reports say these fortifications have lightweight components, have a small size, are convenient for mobile transportation and have a flexible design construction.

That the Chinese Army has begun using these possibly show that while calm may have returned to the border, the PLA is still actively looking to enhance its operational ability on the Sino-India border.

ougoah said:

Wow they can build fast. A democratic China would never have been able to achieve this kind of organisation.

Click to expand...

Eminent domain is not an issue in areas with sparse population. In China by definition all land is owned by the State and some of them are borrowed to the private citizens and companies. In these areas I can't think of any resistance.

Well we know what will be the outcome of this stand off. Where before there is none now China built permanent garrison in Doklam and the road building will continue only this time it will be escorted by the army. No this guy Brahma Chellaney who crow India has won maybe crow too fast


China’s troop buildup in Doklam means India can’t protect Bhutan
18 January, 2018


Representational image | Getty Images
The Chinese buildup at Doklam signifies that encroachment and road-building will accelerate, and India cannot protect Bhutan, because it doesn’t have a plan.

Thanks to diligent hard work by , the Indian public knows the result of our Doklam adventure last summer. Anyone studying China’s national security policy knew the Chinese would return, with force. Nonetheless, I underestimated the Chinese buildup, expecting an additional border battalion.

Instead, Col. Bhat estimates that infrastructure for 4,000-5,000 troops, an entire brigade, is under construction, in addition to improvements in the Yadong salient that might house a division, where I expected a new brigade.

Responding to continued Chinese border provocations in the 2000s, the Indian Army requested seven to eleven additional mountain divisions, according to Mandeep Singh Bajwa, the leading expert on the Indian and Pakistani armies. , two divisions were raised in 2008, followed by a two-division strike corps.

The government of India went wobbly after the first raising, with the Ministry of External Affairs warning against provoking the Chinese, and the Ministry of Finance saying we didn’t have the money. Neither is true, but that’s another discussion. Consequently, the raising of XVII Strike Corps was stretched out, and plans to go beyond four divisions dropped.

The Chinese had no reaction to this major increment to Indian strength. From 1963 itself, they have been remarkably indifferent to the post-1962 buildup, where we added eleven divisions to the China border. Today, they have only six border regiments and three regular brigades in Tibet. China believes, correctly, that India has no will to attack Tibet. The new buildup saw India add six brigades to Ladakh, Himachal and Uttarakhand, plus four divisions, plus four more brigades to the strike corps (two of these may not have been raised yet).

One reason for China’s non-reaction has been the phenomenal expansion of its road and rail network in Tibet, permitting the rapid arrival of reinforcements. In the 1986-87 confrontation over Sumdorong Chu in the east, it moved eight divisions plus independent regiments opposite the Eastern Command in eight weeks. Today, it speaks of the first division reinforcement arriving in 36-48 hours.

The Chinese have become the world’s best engineers, replacing the Americans. Since 2000, they have built a railroad to Lhasa and Shigatze with a spur to Yadong, to be completed in 2018, aim to complete Shigtaze-Gyirong (on the Nepal border) by 2020, begun studies for an extension to Kathmandu-Pokhara and then to the Indian border, are building an east-west line paralleling the Arunachal border to Nyangtri in the east (also for 2020 completion), and begun work on linking Nyangtri to Chengdu.

From the Chengdu end, 350 kilometres of railroad will be completed by 2018; the whole will be operational by 2030. They are working on two lines to better link Xinjiang and central China. This will permit rapid transfer of troops from Xinjiang and central China’s strategic reserves to our eastern border. In the west, they have opened a new railroad Kashgar-Hotan, which eventually will ease their logistic problems on our Northwest front.

They now have the second largest navy in the world, are ridding themselves of obsolete combat aircraft, and have reorganised their entire army for information-driven mobile warfare.

On our side, we’ve cut the defence budget to 1.56 per cent of our GDP. This has added to a 30-year equipment modernisation backlog. We’ve depleted our war reserves for the new raisings, and are struggling to rebuild ammunition and parts restocks to be capable of 10 days of combat.

The air force is losing squadrons every year because of faulty procurement decisions. In terms of blue water ships, the Chinese now have three times as many as India, and are stepping up new warship construction to make it six times as many by 2030-35. We are sitting on the sidelines as China is taking over Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

In Pakistan, they are investing $90 billion in power and infrastructure, equivalent to 30 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP. It is like $1 trillion in India. Their Navy now exercises in the Baltic, the North Pacific, and has even sent a five-warship task force to America’s doorstep off the Aleutians. China’s GDP is $13 trillion to our $3 trillion, and US’s $20 trillion. In 1978, India and China’s GDP was about the same.

At Doklam, we humiliated the Chinese. We had no choice, because they are out of control not just against India, but against the US in the China Seas, South-East Asia, Japan, and South Korea. What New Delhi failed to understand is that our success was only the start of confrontation, not the end. The Chinese buildup at Doklam signifies that (a) encroachment and road-building will accelerate, and (b) India cannot protect Bhutan. Bhutan’s best interest is in accepting China as its new overlord. As usual, we have no plan to counter.

Ravi Rikhye has written about 16 books on defence,and coauthored about ten others. He is completing a book which examines the two-front war question in detail.

Preparing for a Rematch at the Top of the World
(Stratfor)


China and India faced off last year in a tense on the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) high in the Himalayas. Although the impasse was temporarily resolved in late August through a negotiated drawdown, it has been clear all along that the LAC will remain a contentious border because both countries will continue to seek an advantage in .

Recent reporting, particularly in the Indian press, has highlighted how India and China are along the LAC, including through the stationing of additional ground units near the plateau. Satellite imagery acquired by Stratfor working with its partners at AllSource Analysis helps illuminate the scope of these developments by looking at the air and air defense aspects of this strengthening of forces. Specifically, the analysis looks at four critical air bases, two Chinese and two Indian, that are within range of the Doklam Plateau. The imagery confirms that both China and India are pursuing a wide-ranging strategic buildup that has only accelerated in the wake of the Aug. 27 agreement.



The View From India
On the Indian side of the border, imagery of the Siliguri Bagdogra air base and the Hasimara Air Force Station depicts how India has moved to reinforce its air power close to the Doklam Plateau. Siliguri Bagdogra normally hosts a transport helicopter unit while Hasimara was the base for MiG-27ML ground attack aircraft until they were retired at the end of 2017. Since the Doklam crisis of mid-2017, however, the Indian Air Force has greatly increased the deployment of Su-30MKI warplanes to these air bases as can be seen from the imagery. The Su-30MKI is India's premier fighter jet, and it will soon be capable of striking land targets with the advanced BrahMos cruise missile. Furthermore, Indian reports indicate that a squadron of the recently purchased Rafale multirole fighters may soon be home-based at Hasimara. The dispatch of these top-of-the-line Indian jets and airfield improvements at both stations highlight India's determination to improve its force structure near the Doklam Plateau.




On the Chinese Side
An even greater level of activity is visible from imagery of the Chinese air bases near Lhasa and Shigatse. This expansion may indicate a greater buildup by the Chinese, but it could also reflect the more advanced facilities at these bases. Furthermore, unlike India, China's lack of air bases close to the LAC forces it to at these airports.

Imagery of the two air bases shows a significant presence of fighter aircraft (which peaked in October) and a notable increase in helicopters, as well as deployments of KJ-500 airborne early warning and command aircraft, components of the HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile system and Soar Dragon unmanned aerial vehicles at Shigatse Peace Airport. The Chinese made a number of major airfield upgrades at Shigatse immediately after the end of the crisis. A new runaway was constructed by mid-December, nine aircraft aprons measuring 41 meters by 70 meters were built along the main taxiway and eight helipads were set up in the northeast corner of the airfield. This construction, along with the deployment of new equipment in greater numbers, highlights how China has undertaken a serious effort to improve its capabilities close to the LAC.

Hendrik_2000 said:

Ravi Rikhye has written about 16 books on defence,and coauthored about ten others. He is completing a book which examines the two-front war question in detail.

Click to expand...

How do you write 'about' 16 books and co-author 'about' ten books... lol