This video:
It's utter crap. The first half, pretty much 17 min is just him reading out that Global Firepower website.
When he starts talking substance, he immediately assumes India's forces are on the plains and will struggle in the mountains. He also thinks both sides have 100k troops in total. He does not know the publicly known ORBAT, never mind the fact that far more than 100k Indian troops are already forward deployed along the border. We have deployed 10 divisions along the Chinese border, public info, and the entire US Army is also composed of 10 divisions. And then there's the MSCs. Roughly 450k troops, not counting border guards (90k).
On the Chinese side, there's 40k in Tibet, 70k in Xinjiang (granted it's for other borders too), including border guards, but also 4-6 GAs (equivalent to an Indian corps), 2 directly under WTC, and 2 each from STC and CTC. That's about 650k troops. There's also an unknown number of militia that can be deployed, not to mention the PAP (potentially 1-2 GA equivalents deployable against India).
So we are talking about well over a million troops. Talk about being totally wrong.
"Altitude," he says. Doesn't know anything. I guess he's never heard of the word "technology." The natural process of acclimatization has been supplanted significantly by technology. Plus even the graudal process is not that bad. The Chinese are gonna struggle a bit more, but doable.
Air defenses, it's partly true. We defintiely do not have full coverage, most of our defenses are centered around VAs like air bases and massed formations, but it definitely exists. Both IA and IAF can bring to bear about 100-150 batteries.
As for his J-20 comment ("even half as capable relative to the F-22"), those old exercises are no longer relevant due to advancements in sensor and EW tech.
While the J-20 will maintain an advantage over IAF's older jets, the PLAAF is still stymied due to the lack of air bases on their side. They are yet to develop and deploy a lot more resources in case of a war with India. For whatever reason, they have made limited progress on that front. Even Taiwan has 36 airfields. PLAAF has only a handful in Tibet. Basically, they seem to have very little intention of fighting an air war with India at this time. We should start worrying when they climb up to 20+. Otoh, India has a frig load, we have built 10 new ones after 2020.
Clearly, he has no idea what he's talking about. The silver lining is at least his conclusion was satisfactory. This type of war would be a total waste for all parties involved.
Lastly, the decision to switch from 90-jet MII for Rafales to a tender had nothing to do with civilians. The IAF wanted the tender, and this decision was made long before the Joker started cackling through the night. It was GoI that wanted a GTG, which was overruled by the IAF. Even CDS Rawat tried convincing the IAF to buy Rafales in tranches and foregoing the tender. But the IAF wanted the tender because MMRCA was already over a decade old and no longer relevant, and only the tender route is competitive enough to provide new information.
While they would have liked the tender to progress faster, the IAF knows what they are doing. They made a "final" finalization of requirements in 2022 and it's only been 2 years since then. For all we know the approval process for the AoN has already begun. Both AoN and RFP are expected to happen next year.