The maiden test-firing of the DRDO-developed, 40km-range Akash-NG E-SHORADS was the culmination of a six-year R & D effort that had begun in 2014 to fulfil an Indian Air Force-specific requirement for a quick-reaction E-SHORADS that not only satisfied the IAF’s demand for a smaller deployment footprint area-wise, but also had a far-longer and cheaper service-life.
Consequently, as sound
common-sense would demand, it was decided at the outset that the
command-n-control and fire-control systems of the Akash-NG would be almost
identical to those of the QR-SAM. In addition, a cannisterised missile (like the
30km-range QR-SAM) was specified, since the existing Akash-1 and Akash-1S
missiles have to be stored separately in pressurised missile-containers and
consequently have to be loaded and unloaded before and after use. This in turn
reduced the service-life of the Akash-1 and Akash-1S missiles.
While the 28km-range Akash-1
and Akash-1S missiles being stored in pressurised containers is acceptable to
the Indian Army (since the Army-specific Akash-1/Akash-1S E-SHORADS are
deployed only during exercises or wartime), the IAF preferred to have cannister-encased
missiles in ready-to-fire configuration (like the Barak-8 MR-SAM and Barak-8ER
LR-SAM) since the IAF’s Akash-NG Squadrons are required to provide 24/7 and
year-round air-defence coverage and hence the usage of fully exposed
Akash-1/Akash-1S missiles becomes maintenance-heavy and costly to maintain in
serviceable condition.
Each Akash-NG Squadron will include the ADTCR acting as the medium-power radar (derived from the Arudhra MPR’s design), the BSR and the BMFR—an arrangement similar to that adopted for the QR-SAM.
The Ku-band ‘Netra’ active radar
seeker and RF-based proximity fuze for Akash-NG has been designed and developed
by the DRDO’s Hyderabad-based Research Centre Imarat (RCI), while
series-production will be undertaken by the KALYANI Group.
From the above, one can safely
infer that for the Indian Army’s E-SHORADS requirement, the QR-SAM will be the
definitiove solutipon, for the IAF’s corresponding SL-QRM requirement, the
Akash-NG will be the preferred choice and will in future join the existing imported
RAFAEL-supplied SpyDer-MR QR-SAM/SL-QRM units.
The MR-SAM requirements of both the Indian Army and Indian Air Force will be met by the Barak-8, while the LR-SAM requirement of the latter will be met by the Barak-8ER. The XR-SAM now under development by the DRDO will be joining the five imported S-400 Squadrons in future.
Either unwittingly or as a result of sheer ignorance about historical realities, India’s ‘desi patrakaars’ have yet again managed to bring to the forefront of national discourse certain glaring and galling judgmental errors of successive Govts of India since the late 1950s that China has since 1987 succeeded in exploiting in pursuance of its own national interests.
The latest in a series of ‘EXCLUSIVE Revelations’ has taken this form:
Now let us begin identifying
the factual flaws in that above-mentioned news-report. Firstly, the news-report
claims that a new township has been built by China approximately 4.5km within
Indian territory. That this claim is ludicrous is proven by the fact that the
news-report relies on GoogleEarth imagery to represent India’s border with
China (i.e. the line drawn in red, which shows the McMahon Line and not the
Line of Actual Control, or LAC). Secondly, the news-report fails to mention
that it was India herself that chose to forego her adherence to the McMahon
Line back in 1993 and instead embraced the term LAC along with its sanctity. It
may be recalled that the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace &
Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border Areas was
signed between the then Prime Ministers Narasimha Rao of India and Li Peng of
China at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on September 7, 1993. This agreement
began by reiterating the five principles of peaceful co-existence, and had stipulated
that the two sides should seek solutions to the border disputes through peaceful
means: the two sides should not use force or threaten to use force; before the
final solution to the border issue, two sides will strictly respect and obey
the LAC; the military strength of reach side in the respective area of the LAC
should be kept at minimum size, which serves to match the relationship of friendly
neighbourhood between the two countries; the two sides should reduce the armed
forces to the limit reached between them in the areas along the LAC, etc. In
1993, for the implementation of the afore-mentioned agreement, a special
working group composed of diplomats and military experts was established. In
1995, China and India agreed to withdraw from the two confronting outposts at
Sumdorong Chu near the LAC and agreed that they would never enter them. This
was followed on November 29, 1996 by the Agreement between the Government
of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of China
on Confidence-Building Measures in the Military Field Along the LAC in the
India-China Border Areas.
Thirdly, the news-report fails
to mention that the construction of such settlements by China all along the
India-China Border Areas as well as along the Bhutan-China Border Areas had
commenced as far back as 2016. Beijing had at that time mandated that all
existing villages in such areas be transformed into Townships at a cost of 100
million Yuan (US$14.5 million). Since then, several such townships have sprung
up in Cona County and Lhunze county in the Shannan prefecture of Tibet
Autonomous Region (TAR), as well as in the Gongzhangpu in Luoza County along
the Bhutan-China frontier. Townships already under habitation in Cona County
include Le, Lebugou, Jiba, Gongri, and Menba. Cona covers a total area of
34,979 sq km, of which 10,094 sq km runs along the LAC. The lengths of Cona’s
borders with India and Bhutan are 213km and 55km, respectively. The 2016 plans
called for Cona to relocate 3,222 people of 960 families to the state-built
townships on a voluntary basis, with the distances between the relocation
destinations being less than 2km in a straight line and 5km on the ground. The
relocation project is also for dealing with the problem of a weakening border
force, caused by the outflow of residents throughout the past decade.
In Le Township, people between
18 and 65 years old patrol the border areas once or twice a month, covering
more than 100km and spending three or four days each time. For them, herding is
patrolling and living is guarding the frontier. While the mountains, water and
cloud has not changed for decades and their responsibility to safeguard the
country’s land remains, their lives are undergoing fundamental changes.
Seventy-two villagers from 24 households in Le moved from their old wooden
houses to modern Tibetan-style buildings and houses in 2018. It is a stark
contrast from the villagers’ dwellings several years ago. The new houses have
water, electricity and internet access. The biggest house in the township
covers more than 200 sq meeers and the dirt-road has been transformed to an asphalted road. A plaza, tourists’ reception centre (only for local tourists, since
foreigners are barred from entry) and commercial zone have also been built.
To date, 134 people from 40 households in three other villages with harsh natural conditions to Menba Township. Also located in Shannan, Yumai village in Lhunze County was China’s least populous administrative village, with only 32 people of nine families there in 2017. Now, there are been 191 people from 56 households settling in this upgraded Township since the relocation project started there in 2017. Including Lhunze and Cona, the four border counties in Shannan prefecture are all actively promoting the relocation project, which involves some 6,000 residents in total. The prefecture is also planning to relocate people from non-border counties to its border ones. The latest such effort is a Township located on the banks of the River Tsari Chu, with 101 homes. At the end of 2019, construction material had reached Zari. In April 2020, work began on clearing the ground and by mid-August, the township was ready for habitation. By 2018, Beijing was claiming that all 12 counties in Shannan prefecture had been lifted out of poverty, and border villages like Le and Simu were prospering with tourism and Tibetan handicrafts industries.
Gongzhangpu in Luoza County was once just a pasture. Since March 2017, 20 people from 10 families have voluntarily moved to the Township. Gongzhangpu is 4,674 metres above sea level. The climate is very harsh and winter is the only season. The residents have to overcome the cold and lack of oxygen to patrol the area. They always patrol around and write ‘China’ with brushes and red paint on some mountain-walls and stones. Some people also use stones to make five stars or sickles and axes of the Communist Party of China’s emblem, and paint all the stones red.
Construction of similar Townships is now underway along the LAC in areas opposite Asaphila, Bishing, Menchuka, Walong and Yangtse.
