Dropping lightweight tanks in Ladakh not enough. India’s forces need to be made more lethal

First time since 1962 that tanks and mechanised elements urgently airlifted to Ladakh” reads a headline in The Tribune of 22 June 2020.

“India’s (sic) shopping for lightweight mountain-friendly tanks post China tussles”, proclaims another eye-catching header in The Economic Times of 15 July 2020.

Evidently, there’s nothing like a crisis on our borders to bring into sharp focus the gaze of Indian defence planners on essentials such as armour, along with other criticalities in war waging hardware.

Especially when it happens to be precipitated by a rising and aggressive neighbour that we’ve been wary of, yet have continued to engage with.



In response to our timorousness, in April-May this year, through a well orchestrated strategy of preemption, it has deployed its own tanks and associated elements of combat power in significant numbers at 4-5 crucial places on the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, showing no signs of restoring status quo ante. We are in for the long haul here is the collective wisdom of strategic affairs analysts.

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