China Topix
Arthur Dominic Villasanta
India’s elite 17th Mountain Strike Corps assembled starting January to lead Indian attacks against the Chinese remains short of money, short of guns and short of full-blooded support from its own military and Delhi.
The goal of the much hyped unit is to stand guard at India’s 4,056 kilometer-long Himalayan border frontier from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east.
The unit is envisioned as an elite attacking force that will be trained and equipped to lead any assault against the Chinese in the event of any Chinese incursion across the LAC or Line of Actual Control.
To attain its lofty mission, the 17th Mountain Strike Corps will consist of two independent infantry divisions and two independent armored brigades equipped with tanks.
The corps’ 80,000 men are supposed to be among the toughest and best equipped in the Indian Army.
But the money that will make the unit India’s “flashing sword of vengeance” is not forthcoming. And without money, the 17th Mountain Strike Corps will become a pitiful tiger cub facing a Chinese dragon thrice its size.
Despite rosy words of peace and offers of increased trade, China has not abandoned its claim to border territories owned by India.
China has actually increased the frequency and depth of its military penetrations, especially in the Daulat Beg Oldi-Depsang Valley area of J and K.
China has also laid claim to the entire Arunachal Pradesh and not only the Tawang Valley. It has the military force to back up its claims and has shown a historic propensity in using this power to exploit Indian weaknesses.
Arrayed against the 17th Mountain Strike Corps is a Chinese force estimated at over 300,000 men. The well-developed road network in the Tibet Autonomous Region means the Chinese will have the ability to outnumber any emplaced Indian force by more than three to one at the start of an attack.
The 17th Mountain Strike Corps was organized to change these odds in India’s favor. It will have the power to fend-off and counterattack any Chinese unit in the high-altitude mountainous terrain along the LAC that will be its battlefields.
Unfortunately for the 17th Mountain Strike Corps, its decisive role as India’s “flashing sword of vengeance” is being compromised by bickering over the money needed to give it muscle.
General Bikram Singh, Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army (CoAS), said in January the government has assured funding for the strike corps. But there’s a catch to Gen. Singh’s reassurance: the funds will depend on India’s economic growth.
In other words, the money’s not there.
A study by the Indian English-language newspaper Business Standard argues that the 17th Mountain Strike Corps will financially damage India’s military more than it could China’s by severely curtailing India’s military modernization.
Some 80 percent of the Indian Army’s budget currently goes for salaries, transportation, training and other non-combat expenditures. This mammoth sum means the army can only spend about 18 percent of its budget to acquire new equipment such as the modern 155 mm ultra-light howitzers from the USA that will arm the strike corps.
The Standard said adding 80,000 more men to the army, which already has 1.13 million active personnel, will balloon payrolls unsustainably and greatly diminish capital expenditures for arms and equipment.
The Ministry of Defense estimates the strike corps will need US$10.7 billion in total funding over the next eight years. It also expects the strike corps to spend at least US$1.3 billion every year for eight years to raise units and acquire its specialized mountain warfare equipment.
Military analysts said this equipment will not be forthcoming any time soon since almost the entire capital budget for the army is committed to procurements made in earlier years.
India’s Ministry of Finance has shown lukewarm support for the strike corps. It was infamously quoted as wondering if the Chinese pose a grave enough threat to India’s security to warrant organizing the strike corps and acquiring the expensive weapons the force will need to fulfill its mission.
An anonymous top army planner was quoted in the media as saying the strike corps “will be yet another immobile, inadequately equipped formation.”
In other words, the strike corps will be just another sitting duck.
