One of those "cool story bro" moments. They forget China isn't sabre rattling in Indian Ocean or challenging them or even initiating any sort of tensions there with India. This Indian Ocean topic is all from India itself telling itself that it has the option of blocking a few straits from China gaining commercial shipping access. Another example of India setting up some huge goals on its own field while the opposition team isn't even around. Scoring imaginary, self-constructed goals. China never even entertained or dignified India's one sided shit talking about being able to block Chinese commercial shipping.
Frankly, a single Type 055 with a handful of 052C, 052D, 054A, two 093B, can probably exceed the firepower of the entire Indian navy and do it with electronics several generations ahead of what the Indian navy uses (with the exception of Israeli ones onboard only two or three active IN warships). There are more HHQ-16 and HHQ-9 missiles in that group than there are Brahmos in all of India. How many IN warships have Barak missiles in active service? Yep and how many Barak missiles carried? Only a few Israeli AESA units in the entire IN. Block Indian Ocean? Even ignoring the fact that multiple nations will oppose India in such a stupid action, a fraction of PLAN should be able to handle the IN with ease. The nation that takes a decade to build one obsolete warship. Looks like the Indian bragging only applies to events that can never happen.
Got to wonder why they feel inadequate and insecure enough to need this sort of ego soothing stuff all the time. It's so pathetic but its Modi nation and distractions are needed along with narratives of adversaries that are constantly doing ill to India while its own commit the real sins.
No, I think this whole thing, ever since Doklam standoff was a grand strategy by China to put India into a pocket.
I've always thought it very strange: why on earth would India even want to challenge China on land. The forefront of China/India is geo-strategically in China's favor: the border is no more than 500km away from New Dehli and right next to the heavily populated northern plain of India.
India is the vulnerable party in this confrontation: the cheapest, most numerous and shortest range land attack missiles ( and even large rocket artilleries) in China's arsenal could wreak havoc on India economy and population center. Yet, India will need to use their most expensive and long range missiles and even nuclear weapons in order to retaliate in equal damage. What's worse is that India don't even have nearly enough of those to effectively cause equal damage, short of triggering a nuclear war which will see India destroyed. This kinda reminds me of the state of things in the Korean peninsula, where North Korea is a lot weaker than the South on paper, but they are still in a dominate position because Seoul is so close to the border, that North Korea can effectively cause more damage with just front line artillery to South Korea in terms of dollars, than what the entire North is worth in terms of dollars.
It is also historically evident: Tibet being a region much less densely populated and without a powerful military force ever since 840AD. And yet, none from the subcontinent ever even seriously considered invading Tibet from south, not even the Moghuls. This is because it is physically and economically not feasible. Unlike in the north, where time and time again, even defeated Mongol tribes could ride deep into Tibet through Xinjiang and Qinghai and endeavored to turn Tibet a home base to reestablish their only little "Mongol Yuan second dynasty". This is not to say that Moghuls are weaker than Mongolic tribes/Khanate like the Dzungar (the reality is quite the contrary). It's just that the geography is literally a big wall that shuts out the sub-continent from going north.
Therefore, it is not in India's interest to compete in a region where it would take them much much more resources to make meaningful territorial gain than it would take China to defend it, especially when India is materially, economically and industrially inferior to China by several times. It will be a place where China can literally bleed India to death, with very little cost. And there is actually very little meaningful gain for India even if she wins, and it will be detrimentally difficult to hold position when India's supply lines are literally right over the highest and steepest elevation difference on earth. It will be very simply for China to regain that territory coming from Qinghai, Xinjiang and Sichuan.
This means that it would be in China interest to provoke and lure India into spending her preciously little resources on a meaningless front, and thus effectively draining resources that India could have put in an elsewhere more geostrategically advantageous to India. I posted earlier that India should have swallowed their vain pride and don't react (at least not with her own resources). And instead, put money and resources on her navy and confront China in India Ocean, where the two of them have a more equal overall footing.
Yet it is evident that India being a populist democracy now, they will walk right into the trap.
