India displays logistics capabilities to support forces in Ladakh

After carrying out airborne combat manoeuvres in Ladakh to showcase its rapid response capabilities, India displayed its prowess to provide logistics support to military deployments in the sensitive sector in the midst of the ongoing border standoff with China in an airlift exercise codenamed Operation Hercules, officials familiar with the development said.

The joint drill by the Indian Air Force and the army was conducted on November 15, the defence ministry announced on Wednesday, two weeks after airborne drills in eastern Ladakh showcased capabilities such as swift inter-theatre movement of troops and weapons, precision stand-off drops and speedy capture of designated targets.

“The aim of this high intensity airlift was to strengthen the logistics supply in the northern sector and to augment winter stocking in operational areas,” the ministry said in a statement. The IAF’s C-17 Globemaster III heavy lifter, IL-76 aircraft and An-32s were involved in the exercise.

India has deployed 50,000 to 60,000 troops and advanced weaponry in the Ladakh theatre to counter Chinese military build-up and the possibility of any misadventure by the neighbour whose belligerent actions triggered the border standoff more than 18 months ago.

Operation Hercules was a real-time demonstration of the IAF’s heavy-lift capability, the ministry said adding that the air force played a significant role “in ensuring the ability to quickly respond to any contingency” during the standoff.

“IAF has demonstrated its surge logistics capability at short notice in the operational sector. There’s a heavy deployment of Indian forces in Ladakh, with logistics requirements going up in winter,” said Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), who heads the Centre for Air Power Studies.

An airborne brigade, consisting of the army’s finest paratroopers, was the centrepiece of the three-day high-altitude combat manoeuvres conducted in Ladakh in early November.

The exercise saw soldiers being inserted into a drop zone at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet, with specialist vehicles and missile detachments transported to the exercise area via US-origin C-130J special operations aircraft and Soviet-origin An-32 medium transport planes from five different mounting bases.

India and China have hardened their positions on the border row in eastern Ladakh, and also Arunachal Pradesh, going by increased military activities on both sides of the boundary, infrastructure development, surveillance and combat manoeuvres by their armies.

Op Hercules came five weeks after military talks with China to cool tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) reached an impasse on October 10.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) did not agree to suggestions made by the Indian Army at the 13th round of talks on October 10. The Indian Army said it made constructive suggestions for resolving the outstanding problems on LAC but the Chinese side was not agreeable and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals, while China accused India of unreasonable and unrealistic demands in an unusually aggressive statement.

Military talks are unlikely to result in a breakthrough and only higher intervention can show the way to resolving the 18-month-old border crisis, experts have said. In a report submitted to the Congress on November 3, the US department of defence said Beijing was taking “incremental and tactical actions to press its claims” at LAC, despite participating in talks to resolve the crisis.

There is no end in sight to the standoff, with army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane stating on October 9 that if PLA is there to stay in the Ladakh theatre so is the Indian Army. PLA has also intensified its activities in sensitive areas across LAC in Arunachal Pradesh after the lingering standoff with India began last year in the Ladakh sector.