In a far-reaching decision to counter China’s military might, the Government on Wednesday cleared a Rs 65,000 crore proposal to raise a Mountain Strike Corps which will be spread all along the line of Actual Control (lAC) from ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
Approving the nearly four-year-old proposal, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave a nod to the Army to raise the corps with more than 50,000 IAF-supported men equipped with helicopters, tanks, artillery guns, armed helicopters.
The corps will also be equipped with ultra light howitzers that can be lifted by helicopters and deployed in inaccessible terrain in Arunachal Pradesh and ladakh.
The Rs 65,000-crore project will be spread over seven years. The strike corps will have its headquarters at Panagarh, West Bengal with troops trained in mountain warfare stationed at all the critical junctures besides a launching pad in Bihar.
The much-awaited
decision came after the Finance Minister gave its approval two months ago for raising the elite corps, the first of its kind in India.
The new corps will also have tanks for operations in valleys in these mountainous States backed by attack helicopters of IAF and the Army’s own armed Dhruv helicopters for destroying any built-up fortifications.
Moreover, the SU-30 fighter jets based in forward areas in the North-East will add to the muscle of the strike corps besides long range C-17 and C-130 J transport planes which can land at unprepared airstrips in remote areas carrying troops, weapons and sustain logistical life line.
Incidentally, the IAF has activated more than eight advanced landing grounds in the North-East besides four in ladakh region for supplying weapons and logistical support to the forward deployments.
Nod for Strike Corps to balance China’s might .The main objective of the strike corps is to attack Chinese defenses in Tibet region in case of hostilities and match up with China’s superior infrastructure, including rail link and roads in that region, source said here on Wednesday.
The strike corps will enable the Army to fight a two-front war at the same time with China and Pakistan, they said.
At present, the Army has three strike corps meant to fight Pakistan in the plain and semi-plain terrain of Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. These corps are based at Ambala, Mathura and Bhopal.
The Mountain Strike Corps is the biggest force accretion plan for the Army, in the past two decades, sources said. The Army created a new corps after the Kargil War of 1999. The 14 corps with headquarters at leh has two divisions in Kargil, Drass and Batalik on the northern stretch of the line of Control (lOC) with Pakistan and the lAC with China in Eastern ladakh besides a brigade for Siachen.