Most of the Chinese aims that run counter to U. In addition, Beijing has recently taken a number of steps to cooperate with the United States on security matters: signing the Chemical Weapons Convention and nuclear test ban treaty, terminating its assistance to nuclear facilities in Pakistan, pledging to cut off ballistic missile transfers to Pakistan as well as nuclear and anti-ship cruise missile trade with Iran, and quietly restraining the North Koreans.
It faces enormous challenges in its agricultural, environmental and banking sectors, which its arteriosclerotic central government is ill-equipped to address. Looking at these facts, the new commander-in-chief of U. Pacific forces, Admiral Dennis Blair, has declared that China will not represent a serious strategic threat to the United States for at least twenty years. Raw size is deceptive. Then, too, the Pentagon estimates that only about 20 percent of those ground forces are even equipped to move about within China.
A still smaller number possess the trucks, repair facilities, construction and engineering units, and other mobile assets needed to project power abroad. Morrison Even at the higher estimates, China spends less than 25 percent of what the United States spends on defense, while supporting a force twice as large.
This basic disparity will not change anytime soon. First, as noted, China faces enormous economic challenges that limit its ability to fund a military expansion. Second, even if China begins to close the gap with the United States, it starts from a position of marked inferiority.
China is in no position even to attempt this scale of effort. B Bates Gill Michael E. As Congressman Barney Frank has sardonically observed, China did recently acquire its first aircraft carrier. But it then immediately anchored it in Macao and transformed it into a recreation center.
More detailed assessments of Chinese military capability and readiness tell a similar story. The rest rely on s or even older technology. By contrast, all of the U. Two additional factors render an even bleaker assessment: supporting equipment and overall military readiness. It acknowledges that Chinese troops are generally patriotic, fit and good at basic infantry fighting skills, but then goes on to say:.
Ground force leadership, training in combined operations, and morale are poor. The soldiers, for the most part, are semi-literate rural peasants; there is no professional NCO [non-commissioned officer] corps, per se. Military service, with its low remuneration and family disruption, is increasingly seen as a poor alternative to work in the private sector. Even that will leave them twenty years behind the American curve—and the remaining 90 percent of the force more obsolescent yet.
Some would argue that this type of analysis misses the point in any case. There is a kernel of truth in this concern—militaries, after all, routinely seek to exploit the weaknesses of their adversaries. But it is only a kernel. India has significant experience in sub-zero, high-altitude warfare, particularly in the Siachen Glacier in northern Ladakh, and understands the serious logistical difficulties in supplying armed forces and sustaining them at that altitude.
Helicopters can only carry a fraction of their load due to the thin atmosphere. The cost soars as helicopters have to fly many more missions in order to keep troops fed. This would be almost impossible to achieve with a much larger force in a high-intensity conflict, consuming far greater amounts of food and ammunition.
To get around this, the Indian army has been stockpiling military supplies, deploying an extra 50, troops, including a specialised, high-altitude mechanised corps — heavily armed and mobile units — to forward areas of eastern Ladakh high up on the strategically vital Depsang plains. At 4, metres, right on the Line of Actual Control, the plains lie between Siachen Glacier and Aksai Chin and would be one of the focal points in any potential conflict between the two countries. But war, once started, would not just be fought on the frigid heights of the Karakoram but also in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, with naval power being vital in tipping the balance of any conflict between the two superpowers.
The Indian navy is in the middle of restructuring itself with a focus on projecting its combat power beyond its coastal waters, centring around the creation of three aircraft carrier groups and the aircraft they would carry.
While this sounds impressive, it is unlikely to happen any time soon. The service has seen its share of the defence budget shrink from 18 percent in to 13 percent in It currently has just one aircraft carrier, the ex-Soviet INS Vikramaditya, with a second, the INS Vikrant entering sea trials and due to be inducted into the navy in early Costs for both have spiralled out of control and a third carrier — the INS Vishal — remains in the conceptual stage.
There is also a growing debate in India, echoed around the world, that aircraft carriers are costly white elephants with limited use in any future conflict, in which smaller, swarmed, networked ships, drones and hypersonic missiles would be used.
Having also built up two aircraft carrier fleets of its own, the Chinese navy has also focused on small, fast, heavily armed and networked vessels that would form an integral part of any future battle plans.
A vulnerable choke-point for China, it has sought to protect itself and diversify its supply routes. This route provides a much-needed alternative to the easily disrupted choke point in the Malacca Strait, a narrow stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra that acts as a major shipping channel between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
As such, China has built up massive infrastructure and port projects throughout the Indian Ocean, in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. China has lost its battle for influence over the Maldives, where a pro-Indian president was recently voted in. Pakistan is deeply tied to China not just economically but also with its military.
Cooperation in aircraft manufacture has led to the development of the JF Thunder, a relatively low-cost yet capable fighter jet, of which now serve in the Pakistan Air Force, with more on the way. Its performance record is so successful, it is now being considered for export.
Aircraft all types India: China: Image source:studychacha. Attack Helicopter India: 19 China: Airports serviceable India: China: Image source:Tanks Encyclopedia.
Mine Warfare Craft India : 6 China: 4. Towed Artillery India: China: Image source:The Economic Times Submarines India: 14 China: Image source:India.
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