Again , look at the contradictions in what you've posted. With respect to the ex CoAS's article, he has in conclusion denied the IA's capacity to take on the Chinese as of the present & restore the status quo ante without explicitly saying so for reasons which are obvious.
He sounds like we have the capacity to do so in a very oblique manner & then goes about proving the entire opposite which is why I asked if you've the ability to read between the lines.
OTOH, you , for reasons you best know have surmised that the CoAS states we do have the capacity to take on the Chinese & restore the status quo ante if the situation so requires implying that his statement matches with your own thoughts but if we can postpone such action till such time as we raise a MC among other things, we should opt for it. This isn't confidence in our abilities . It's just another variation of what Gen V. P. Malik stated at the outset of the Kargil war - We will fight with what we have. Which in turn is another pathetic & perverted variation of what the IA did in 1962 without anyone in the senior leadership of the IS saying so at the outset of the 1962 war. Of course the one who said so was eased out, namely Gen Thimmaya but that's a story for another day.
Not at all. He is very specific when he says kinetic options can be used. The end goal is to obviously restore status quo. If we can't, then he would have directly said what you're trying to say. His main objective in the article regarding forces is to get the govt to create the ability to take the war into China.
I've pointed this out a long time ago, war is for the rich and we should fight only if we are sure of taking the war to Beijing. These two facts will never change. And in that sense, we are totally not ready to fight a war with China. Similarly, the Chinese cannot take the war to Delhi anyway.
The Chinese will also fight with what they have. They are in the same boat as us, just a little bit better when it comes to the widespread use of indigenous tech due to their greater financial clout. Even they are not rich enough to fight India, which is actually why both countries do not want to fight. According to the Chinese, they will be ready to fight a war with any adversary only after 2035.
You are confusing too many things with too many other things. An India and China war is not going to be any different than a championship bout between two top seeded boxers, while the Americans are the literal elephant in the room that even the two of us combined cannot defeat as we are today.
Of all the people I have seen and heard, only those with no military background have said we need external assistance to fight a border war with China. As we are today, the only way for China to gain an advantage over us is if we also end up having to fight Pakistan at the same time.
Which in turn brings me to what I & some other members here have explicitly stated that India can restore the status quo ante but that it's going to be a bloody & long border war of attrition which may well spill over into other realms which may also involve a two front scenario.
If we go to war today, that's how it's going to be. But within 3 years, nope. We will have the ability to bury them in the mountains with the stuff we are getting, hopefully with some more added to the kitty by then. It's far too overwhelming. A combination of air superiority and precision weapons will be absolutely devastating in the mountains.
For example, what I said in post 4808, a full scale attack using a few hundred SAAWs will overwhelm their air defence and wipe out pretty much all the main infrastructure from fingers 4 to 8 at Pangong. All we need is those 12 MKIs. A single attack lasting 10 min or so. This type of an air attack has come into existence only a decade ago. Even if the air defence is advanced and creates some problems, the Rafale can take care of it.
