From deploying mules to large transport aircraft, the Indian military has activated its entire logistics network to transport supplies to thousands of troops for a harsh winter along a bitterly disputed Himalayan border with China.
In the past few months, one of India’s biggest military logistics exercises in years has brought vast quantities of ammunition, equipment, fuel, winter supplies and food into Ladakh, a region bordering Tibet that India administers as a union territory, officials said.
The move was triggered by a border standoff with China in the snow deserts of Ladakh that began in May and escalated in June into hand-to-hand combat. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed while China experienced an undisclosed number of casualties.
Photo : Reuters
The countries are negotiating to resolve the confrontation, but neither side has backed down and the Indian military is set to keep troops deployed along the treacherous, high-altitude border through the winter.
Eastern Ladakh, where the flare-up occurred, typically hosts 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, but the deployment has more than doubled with the tensions, a military official said, declining to provide exact numbers.
“We have mirrored the increase in Chinese troops,” the official said, adding the Indian military was well-prepared, but did not want further escalation or a prolonged conflict.
Temperatures in Ladakh can fall well below freezing, and troops are often deployed at altitudes of more than 4,572m, where oxygen is scarce, officials said.
As snow blocks mountain passes into Ladakh at least four months every winter, Indian military planners have moved more than 150,000 tonnes of materials into the region.
“All the supplies that we need have already been pushed to wherever they are required,” said Major General Arvind Kapoor, chief of staff of the Indian Army’s 14 Corps.
On Tuesday morning, a succession of the Indian Air Force’s large transport aircraft landed at a forward base in Ladakh, carrying personnel and materials, as fighter jets roared overhead.
Soldiers were checked for symptoms of COVID-19 at a transit facility, where they awaited further transport.
The materials are stored across a network of logistics hubs.
At storage facilities near Leh, boxes and sacks of ration — including pistachios, instant noodles and Indian curries — stood in tall piles.
At another base near Leh, tents, heaters, winter clothing and high-altitude equipment lay stacked.
From the depots, the materials are pushed to logistics nodes by trucks, helicopters and, in some particularly difficult parts, mules, officials said.
“In a place like Ladakh, operations logistics is of huge importance,” Kapoor said. “In the past 20 years, we have mastered it.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number