Maverick_27

* Air force chief says India working to enhance air force’s capability

NEW DELHI: India’s air force is just a third the size of rival China’s and far short of the aircraft required to meet the security challenges it faces, the country’s air force chief said Wednesday.

“Our present aircraft strength is inadequate. Aircraft strength is one third that of China,” said Air Chief Marshal PV Naik was quoted as saying by the CNN-IBN website Wednesday. “The government of India is doing a lot to augment air force capability,” he said in a speech in Gandhinagar, capital of India’s western Gujarat state. The comments come against the backdrop of media reports about Chinese army and air “incursions” into India in the past several weeks that have been denied by both New Delhi and Beijing.

The Asian giants and economic rivals have yet to agree on their more than 4,000 kilometre border, the dispute over which dates back to a brief but bitter conflict in 1962 that exposed India’s military vulnerability.

India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of its territory, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres or the whole of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Naik said there were two ways to counter China’s reported incursions. “One way is to take up weapons and go to the border. The other way is to build systematic weapons capability to tackle the threat,” he said.

Naik’s remarks follow similar ones by former navy chief Sureesh Mehta, who last month said India could not compete with China on defence spending and warned Beijing was “creating formidable military capabilities”.India has begun trials of the world’s leading fighter jets as it prepares to place an order for 126 planes in a contract worth 12 billion dollars. afp

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\24\story_24-9-2009_pg20_2

i think china superiority is open secret..........

Prince_of_Lahore

He is just admitting what the whole world already knows...China has the most powerful army, airforce and navy in whole of Asia. India lags far behind in all the 3 wings, Indian capabilities are comparable to Pakistan, certainly not China. Another was with China will surely cut India to size.

Slickstar

All standing armies are bad no matter what.

mercenary2k

India can only dream of challenging China militarily. Indian military budget is like 20 billion while China is more than 100 billion.

Marasi_Dee

Just read the article.
Was there a war between india and China in 1962?
india must have won that war and occupied Chinese territory. Why else indians be gloating about 1962?

Will some indian tell us about that war? Thanks.

Maverick_27

i dont know exactly but i read some indian writer's book. indian captured 1/3 land of china but then left the terrtority conquered as a gesture of goodwill ......... lols

i m nt sure about it. lets have some other member comment in this regard

Marasi_Dee

Will some indian confirm this?
Did india occupy Chinese land in 1962 and beat the hell out of Chinese?
This is at least what most indians seem to believe.

So any indian please?

mo293

Indians have grand wet dreams w.r.t. both China & Pak. Just read and laugh it off..

Jalaluddin

I don't think so. on the contrary everything I was taught / read in India said we lost territory in the war with China in the sixties though I don't remember the exact year.

China is lot more advanced in weaponry and weapon-making than India _ I'd say about 10 years ahead. India is just beginning to catch up but a long way to go. But our hope is that with our electronic and software competencies we can catch up within 5 to 7 years on sections that matter

Reason

Do you believe India can ever catch China, given that it will always have a far larger economy and hence more resources to devote to military spending? Personally I think China will be the dominant superpower in 40-50 years with the US a strong second and India a distant third in a three superpower world. Brazil will be the next strongest nation but far weaker than the other three and not strong enough to be considered a superpower.

Marasi_Dee

So in other words india is good only in bullying smaller neighbors..

Thanks, that explains.

Slickstar

Indian government bullies its own people.

Lets face it, all these arms are built to protect the ESTABLISHMENT. NOT TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE. PERIOD.

Jalaluddin

Size, Resources, Technology and Stability (political & economic) are in my opinion the factors for national power.

The USA tops in 4 categories - so I cannot understand why anyone would think it will lose its super power status, temporary mismanagement aside.

Russia has the first 3.
China has first two.
Japan, Germany, France have 3 & 4
India and Brazil have a secondary position in 1,2 & 3 and good 4.
Australia has 2,3,&4 but not 1 (not enough people!!!)

Objectively speaking all these have a chance to become more powerful than they are today but I just cannot see anyone topping the USA.

China & Russia - if they manage to usher in a better form of government can challenge the USA; otherwise they will continue to play secondary but powerful influence.

India will need some scientific miracle to be a super power in that same sense as USA. But then like in so many other ways, the Indian sense of super-powerhood will be very different from the rest

Slickstar

citation needed

mabdullah

whatever machines they can build, wherever they can fulfill their requirements but they morons certainly need 'PILOTS' not just despaired 'flying machine operators'. They are men of flying machines not SHAHEENS!!!!!!

Jalaluddin

citation for what?

Slickstar

thaat

Jalaluddin

"India will need some scientific miracle to be a super power in that same sense as USA. But then like in so many other ways, the Indian sense of super-powerhood will be very different from the rest"

Indian sense of happiness is different from the stereotypical western sense. While taking stock, they give more weight to spiritual and ethical factors more; most Indians will feel quite happy with what they have even if it is little.

Indian sense of economic well being is different as well. Their mode of development is internal economy focussed and only to a small extent exports based.

Indian sense of justice is different as well; they are perfectly happy to concentrate power on respective community leaders (some call it caste politics) and then these community leaders are the representatives who duke it it out for resources in the democratic totem pole of power. In the west caste based power allocation will be considered illegal and discriminatory.

Without getting into the good or bad of these things, suffice to say Indian sense for things are markedly different. Hence my forward looking statement that what will make the Indians feeling of super-power will also be different. It won't simply be measured as superiority in terms of fighter jets, number of bombs or GDP.


And I'd argue, rightly so. After all the US with the highest counts on both has not been able to avoid the massive down turn whereas Indians have.

May be it's because we have less to lose or may be it's because the USA is a 20 years ahead of us in systemic maturity and so we're able watch and not ape everything!

d-tox..ed

I think as long Chinese are good friends of Pakistan we shouldnt take sweat from India....infact everyone should be friends in ideal conditions...

Jalaluddin

^ look, I consider Pakistan and India equally dumb. But if Pakistan even for a minute think there is some special bond o friendship with China ..well, pak would have then won that race