The Cold War In Ladakh

As the India-China standoff near winter, the armed forces ramp up abilities to sustain themselves through it. Who will win the game of logistics?

- Sandeep Unnithan

Agrey IAF CH-47 Chinook begins taxiing down the runway at Leh’s Khushu Rimpoche airport, its distinctive twin rotors furiously chopping through the thin mountain air to generate lift.

Inside the belly of this US-built chopper are neatly packed cardboard cartons of high-altitude clothing, winter boots, canned tuna in oil and special chocolate milk that ground crew has offloaded from another American workhorse, a Boeing C-17 heavy lifter that flew in from Chandigarh. The recipients—thousands of Indian soldiers parcelled out on posts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in eastern Ladakh to face off with the PLA. This is the closest the two armies have been to a military confrontation in over three decades. With the stand off entering its fifth month with no détente in sight, the focus has now shifted towards logistics, ensuring that over 40,000 freshly transferred soldiers are fed, clothed and sheltered through the approaching winter. Leh, the capital of the newly established Ladakh Union territory, is the fulcrum of a colossal military effort. The Kushok Bakula Rimpoche Airport is one span of an air bridge stretching 700 km south into the Indian hinterland. Flights of Soviet-built IL-76s and USbuilt C-17s fly nonstop daily sorties from Chandigarh to here ferrying essential supplies. From here, the cargo is offloaded into helicopters and flown or trucked to the army’s forward posts. This logistical exercise unfolds under a military sky ballet that begins unfailingly at the break of dawn—MiG-29s, Sukhoi Su-30s and Mirage-2000s from bases across north India pinwheel around the azure blue skies in combat air patrols and Apache helicopter gunships clatter around the airport like angry dragonflies.