India buys air defense missiles amid border tensions with China
From The China Project News Briefing for January 11, 2023
India will buy portable air defense missiles due to “recent developments along the Northern borders,” per a statement from India’s Ministry of Defense. Tensions with China have grown increasingly fraught following a clash between their troops in the western theater of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last month.
- “There is a need to focus on effective Air Defense weapon systems which are man portable and can be deployed quickly in rugged terrain and maritime domain,” according to the statement.
- On January 10, the Defence Acquisition Council approved “three capital acquisition proposals, amounting to Rs 4,276 crore [$523.88 million]” for the missiles.
- Since December, Delhi has responded to renewed Chinese activity by scaling up its troop deployment and planning a more than 1,000-mile road on its side of the contested border.
