India, US plan biggest-ever war games in January

In a step up of service-to-service engagement, India and the United States will conduct the biggest-ever army level exercises near Ranikhet in Uttaranchal in January, as American officials on Friday indicated that Washington was working to open doors to high-technology transfers.

A company force of the US army will conduct joint exercises with a thrust towards anti-insurgency operations in the mountainous terrain near Choubhatia, US officials said adding that, in the coming year, armed forces of the two countries would participate in 'more complex, patterned war games'.

"The US Pacific Command wants to expand its military-level innteraction with India over a broad front to enable the two armed forces to share experience in doctrines and higher formation-level exercises," officials said.

Officials said though Indo-US defence trade stood at $ 287 million, they expected a big jump in arms sales through major deals with the Navy, special forces and Air Force in the offing.

They said American armament giants like Boeing and Lockheed Martin were in the reckoning for India's plan to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft, spy planes and mine-hunter ships and Sea Hawk Helicopters for the Navy.

India will also buy specialised armaments worth $ 29 million for special forces to enhance its counter-terrorism capabilities.

In a long term perspective, India is one of our best hopes as a regional (and population) superpower to help keep China in check. I just get this creepy feeling that we really should learn from History in regards to creating monsters that either turn on us, or drift from loyalty 'once the child has grown big enough to leave home'.

Ranikhet, Uttaranchal State, India.

Hmmm, let's see. high-altitude mountain warfare training...the Himalayas...China across it. What's dangling at the end of this chain?

As you may or may not remember, a while back, China and Russia had an extensive series of wargames, all in which they defended from and targeted a 'third country' that would have multiple aircraft carriers, stealth bombers, dual-role infantry landing ships, and attack submarines. I'd bet you can all guess who they meant by the 'third country'.
That article is :
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/07/11/china.moscow/
but I basically explained what it is about.

Now, to my satisfaction, the United States is planning the "biggest ever US-India" wargames. Remember, India is the second-most populous country and a democracy. Statisticians project that in the next half-century, India will surpass China in population. In addition to practicing a little together, the US military is going to sell high-tech weaponry, including planes and the like, from Boeing and Lockheed. With that alliance, China and Russia would be deterred from thinking that they had any arrogation power. Russia is a lost cause and China would be likely cancelled out by India and teh United States if a war was to take place. Additionally, nuclear weapons would not likely be a factor, because all four nations have them (or enough to cause nuclear winter). It is about time that somebody checked the arrogance of the Chinese communists by giving them a taste of their own medicine.

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