SOURCE: ABHOY ROY / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
Earlier this year in January, People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) started conducting its regular high altitude combat training exercise at Roof of the World from its Tibetian Airbases facing towards Indian border. Two Week Combat training exercise for the first time saw the deployment of China’s first Stealth aircraft J-20 practicing beyond-visual-range air combat with other frontline fighter aircraft’s like J-10C and Shenyang J-11.
India-centric Air Force training by China was largely seen as their attempts to take control of the skies, which will be pivotal in case of a possible India-China conflict. PLAAF in the recent years was able to convert its forwards bass in Tibet into all whether airbases which allowed them to maintain their presence near Indian border all year along, which lead to Indian counter moves with the deployment of frontline aircraft like Sukhoi-30s and Mig-29s along with an installation of long ranged Radars to monitor their activities .
Once Two-week operations were conducted by PLAAF, In March this year IAF said that China’s new J-20 fighter jet is not stealthy enough and the Indian Air Force (IAF) has the capability to tackle the threat posed by it,Indian Air force officer also went to link purchase of S-400 from Russia as one of the important component in enhancing IAF’s Capabilities in tracking and destroying J-20 stealth fighters if they ever cross Indian borders to target Eastern Indian Cities .
The Revelations made by Senior ranked IAF officer was largely seen as brainstormed facts coming straight out of IAF’s Internal In-depth threat assessment which was carried out on specifically on J-20 and its capabilities and how it can affect its operations in the Eastern sector and How IAF’s Su-30MKIs deployed in the region will be able to handle them in case of a war in the region .
IAF of lately has increased its High-altitude training in the region and recently in Indian Air Force’s biggest ever and almost real war game, Exercise Gaganshakti, IAF’s combat aircraft’s including Su-30MKI practiced hitting at targets at high altitude areas along the border with China.
After IAF concluded Exercise Gaganshakti, IAF Chief while again speaking on the Chinese J-20 Stealth aircraft may have confirmed what many in Indian and Western Intelligence agencies believed for years now that Chinese Stealth aircrafts are nowhere as stealthy as they claim and can be detected not with use of any special dedicated Stealth Radars but also can be tracked using existing radars technology at disposal .
IAF Chief also added that ” Sukhoi’s Radar can detect them ” so deployment of J-20 doesn’t shift the balance of power in the region. While he never confirmed claims he was making was backed by hard facts or were more a rhetoric in nature but it did raise many eyebrows in Western Intelligence agencies who have been very keen on collecting data on J-20 program.
Did J-20 deployed at unspecified airports on the Tibetan plateau region were flown close to the Indian border to gauge detection and tracking capabilities of India in the region? , was Secretive J-20 deployed by PLAAF to explore and exploit entry points in the region for possible conflict scenarios? , IAF which becomes super active in the region every time PLAAF conducts air exercise near its border able to track and detect them? , Frontline Su-30s which are tasked to monitor such air exercises by PLAAF were able to sniff J-20 in the area? Well we might never get straight answers to this questions from both sides but it will be assumed that China will be very keen on deploying this jets permanently in the region once they produce enough of them in their services and IAF always will be very keen on collecting further data on this jets to always remain ready to take them on in possible conflict scenario in the future .
