“Which is what?” the PM asked pointedly.
“That this situation at the border spirals out of control and we are faced with a full out border war with China.”
“And why would it spiral out of control?” the PM asked again, but this time Chakri finally leaned forward in his chair and faced him:
“It can happen due to a variety of reasons. Take the incident near Walong two days back. The Chinese are pushing us hard for having killed a dozen of their men even though they were given enough warning from our men to return back to their side. This is like 1959 all over again. If Beijing loses any more control over Tibet than they already have, they may panic and lash out at us to divert the world’s attention from their genocidal activities in Tibet and to seal the border completely for the Tibetan rebels to move through. In this case, we have to be prepared for a robust defense. And with winter coming soon, you can expect whatever plans they have for us to be acted on sooner rather than later.”
“But we have other options with us. As long as we continue the conversation with Beijing, they have no reason for such stupid actions!” the PM retorted.
Chakri sank back into his chair. The Indian leader could not see or perhaps fathom the anger that Beijing was feeling right now at the Indian ambush near Walong two days ago. But then again, he could also not fathom the anger the Indian pilots were feeling for what happened over the skies of Ladakh a month ago and for which there had still not been any response. There was little diplomacy could do to reduce the anger both militaries felt…
“That may very well be, but we have to be prepared for any irrational action that the other side might take on the ground. We have to think about our defenses. If General Yadav wants more troops at the border to feel more secure about that, then I think we should let him do that,” Chakri said a subtle bit more forcefully than before and was relieved to see the PM at least considering the issue.
The PM finally turned to the General Yadav:
“So what kind of mobilization you are thinking about, General?”
Yadav raised an eyebrow in surprise. He understood that the real question was: ‘What is the least that you can do to ensure that you are happy while not antagonizing Beijing?’
“At least a three additional Infantry Divisions need to be moved to the front in Arunachal Pradesh alone. I can have them moving to assist the existing three Divisions there by the end of the day today. That will double our current number of troops in the region and make the Chinese think twice about any rash military actions,” Yadav said after consideration.
“That sounds like a lot of firepower, General,” the PM continued.
“Yes it is, sir. But compared to what the Chinese have deployed in Tibet, it’s still the bare minimum required for a good defense.”
“And you don’t think it will be seen as a provocation by the Chinese given the current situation?”
“It might be seen as provocation, but remember that they have three times that many troops in Tibet at this time engaged in combat,” Yadav continued as he saw that the Indian leader’s views hadn’t changed from a fundamental standpoint.
“For which they have a just cause. What cause do we have for mobilizing these Divisions?” the PM said.
Chakri shared a look at Yadav in silence and then sighed where he sat in silence.
Cause? How about defending our borders? Does that sound like a good enough cause, you idiot?
Yadav said calmly:
“Defending our borders, sir. That’s a just enough cause, isn’t it?”
TWO MONTHS LATER
DAY 1
Four hundred kilometers above the earth, a lone satellite passed silently over the central Asian landmass. It had been going over similar orbits for weeks. And during each pass, its small but powerful optics focused on the landmass below. The real-time imagery it provided was sharp and revealing. If it was daytime in the region the resulting images were in color. If it was dark, as it was right now, the images were seen through infrared optics. The imagery was used by the personnel of the newly organized Indian Aerospace Command, or IASC, who had been keeping a wary eye on the Chinese military bases in the region.
Trying to, anyway.
But the Indian space assets were stretched thin trying to cover a two thousand kilometer front. And there was never really any hope of monitoring such a large landmass on a real-time basis anyway.
The scarce availability of assets meant that the people at the Aerospace Command had been able to maintain a constant vigil only on select high priority targets. Some of these included PLA units and PLAAF airbases in Tibet. But almost exclusively, the targets of focus had included Chinese missile bases and deployed batteries that were capable of lobbing cruise-missiles and ballistic-missiles at Indian targets. The ballistic-missile arsenal, conventional and nuclear exclusively was under the control of the Chinese 2ND Artillery Corps. Their only Ground-Launched-Cruise-Missile, or GLCM, unit was the 821 Brigade. It was deployed in Tibet as of right now. This was not unexpected. The 821 Brigade was the premier unit operating the CJ-10 “Long-Sword” long-range GLCMs. With a massive two-thousand kilometer range, the Long-Sword missiles could be launched from deep inside Tibet and reach most targets in northern India. It was a real and definitive threat. And the 821 Brigade had deployed about fifteen WS 2400 8x8 Transporter Erector Launcher or TEL vehicles along with over seventy five CJ-10s in northern Tibet over the last month. These units were spread out and highly guarded on the ground against Tibetan rebels by large contingents of PLA forces.
With over half of their GLCM force deployed in Tibet, the 821 Brigade had left their remaining force distributed along the Taiwanese and Korean facing coasts. Such a large force deployed specifically against India was obviously meant to be a threat. And there was a question among the Indian side on whether these missiles had been tasked exclusively for the strategic nuclear role alongside other ballistic-missile brigades or whether they carried conventional warheads.
To make matters worse, there was no Indian counter-force weapon with which New-Delhi could respond. The Indian counterpart to the already deployed Long-Sword missiles was the “Nirbhay” cruise-missile. Unfortunately, it was just now entering the first production run after having finished its development and testing phases. This meant that the Nirbhay was not available to the Indian missile forces, which were currently dependent on the highly lethal, but short-legged “Brahmos” supersonic cruise-missiles. With a range around three-hundred kilometers, it was strictly a tactical weapon relative to the Chinese Long-Sword missiles. It was available, however, in air, sea and ground launched versions, unlike the Chinese counterpart. And when launched from a suitably modified Su-30MKI, the missile could reach deep inside Tibet.
The Chinese also possessed a tactical counterpart to the Brahmos missile. In the past month they had deployed in southern Tibet a large number of YJ-62 subsonic cruise-missiles along with requisite number of launcher vehicles. Indian intelligence had also confirmed the presence of these missiles at Wugong airbase near the Qingling Mountains in central China. This was where a significant number of their H-6 long-range bombers, copies of the Russian Tu-16 Badger, were based. But with ranges under three-hundred kilometers, relatively poor navigation and slow speeds, the YJ-62 missiles were easier to shoot down and its launchers easier to target and eliminate. But it added numbers to the Chinese inventory of Tibet based cruise-missiles.