Thenortheasttoday.com
November 17, 2015
India and China fought a bitter border engagement in 1962, with Chinese troops penetrating deep into what was then North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and inflicting heavy casualties on Indian troops. Arunachal Pradesh which shares a 1,030 km unfenced border with China and this borderland is defined by the McMahon Line, a notional boundary that is now known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
What is more surprising is that, the Chinese have never recognised the McMahon Line, claiming 90,000 sq km or almost all of Arunachal Pradesh. This time the Indian Air force has taken the responsibility to step the tempo and balance the theatre of international relations along the border.
The Indian Air Force is on the verge to fully operationalize seven Advanced Landing Grounds(ALGs) in Arunachal Pradesh, a major move which promises to boost the country’s operational reach and capability.
In recent years, the IAF opened three Advanced Landing grounds (ALG) in Jammu & Kashmir’s Ladakh region at Daulat Beg Oldi, Fuk Che and Nyoma, close to the Line of Actual Control with China.
The Rs 720-crore project to develop ALGs got an impetus in 2013, when the State government and the forces witnessed massive construction and development on the Chinese side along the 1,080-km border. “All seven ALGs, except Tawang will be developed by December this year,” Air Marshal SB Deo, commanding-in-chief of Western Air Command briefed newsmen. Of the seven ALGs, the one in Walong was inaugurated last month and the rest include ALGs in Mechuka , Vijoynagar, Tuting, Passighat, Ziro and Aalo.
On August 20, 2013, a C-130J Super Hercules of the IAF touched down at Daulat Beg Oldie, the world’s highest airfield at a height of 16,614 feet within 10 km of India’s de-facto border with China. Since then, there have been regular C-130J flights to the airfield. An ALG is being developed at Tawang, a border town in Arunachal Pradesh at the core of the Sino-Indian territorial dispute, for landing of transport aircraft and helicopters.
The ALG in Tawang is yet to reach completion, but once it does it will allow for the landing of C-130J Super Hercules. These ALGs are equipped with night landing capabilities which would in turn help forces especially near the borders.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha had last month said at a conference that the upgradation of ALGs would enhance the economic development of the Northeastern region.
Activating airbases and landing sites in Arunachal Pradesh is seen as a clear message to China that it is actively fortified.
