New Delhi: Due to the legacy factor and in the backdrop of the upcoming China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and recent developments in Afghanistan that have led to further bonhomie in the traditionally close ties between ‘iron brothers’ China and Pakistan, the spectre of a two-front war facing India indeed gets stronger.
But on Tuesday, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari—five days after he took over as the IAF chief—made it clear that while there was not much to fear from a relationship between two partnering nations, India is well-prepared to face the two-front conflict but the main concern was something else—it was the strong possibility that western military tech knowhow and tactics may land in Chinese hands via Pakistan.
Answering a pointed query, ACM Chaudhari said: “This is purely a relationship between two partnering nations there is nothing to fear from it, the only issue are concerns of dissemination of western techniques and western technology which passes hands from Pakistan to China.”
For decades, Pakistan had partnered the US in the south Asia region and had equipped its military with US and western platforms and assets. The US-Pak military relationship got another fillip with the onset of the war on terror unleashed by the US in Afghanistan since 2001.
The US-led western nations endured Pakistan because of the latter’s indispensability and influence in conflict-torn Afghanistan although Pakistan’s covert support to the Taliban, Al Qaida and the Haqqani terror network was a badly-kept secret.
The May 2, 2011, raid and ‘taking out’ of Osama Bin Laden by a US special forces team from the terrorist leader's safe-house in Pakistan’s Abbottabad, without keeping Pakistan authorities in the loop, deepened that schism much more than before.
Pakistan has posted its military officers in China’s PLA central and western theatre command headquarters respectively in Beijing and Chengdu for closer cooperation.
Already, China is equipping the Pakistan military with army, air force and naval platforms that include fighter aircraft, submarines, and frigates. On the other hand, China can draw on the geo-strategic advantage that Pakistan offers including access to the sea besides undertaking efforts to reverse-engineer Western military platforms and products.
On the other hand, what should be worrying India is the long gestation periods taken by planned platforms for their eventual deployment. Just to cite an instance, the desirable fighter squadron strength to fight a two-front war which is about 42, would not be possible in the next 10-15 years. The current fighter squadron strength is about 31. “It will be about 35 (squadrons) in this decade,” the IAF chief said.
A pertinent point that the IAF chief made was his pronounced emphasis on multi-domain operations which he said would be the future of warfare.
