New Delhi: In the wake of the recent clashes between the Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh, Defence Ministry is seeking to acquire a light mountain-friendly battle tank capable of better operating near the country’s northern borders.
This has come as part of a wider trend in the Indian military over the past month towards prioritising acquiring weapons systems with a conflict with Chinese PLA in mind, with the Defence Ministry’s previous priority having been its security challenges in Kashmir and from neighbouring Pakistan to the West.
While India’s tank forces are among the most sophisticated and capable in the world, with the country operating several thousand T-72 and T-90 platforms and having recently placed multiple orders for T-90MS platforms, these tanks are not ideally suited to combat in the extreme conditions of the northern border regions.
Where India lacks a suitable mountain tank, China has developed what is widely considered the world’s most capable platform for such a role, the new Type 15 tank, which is currently deployed in considerable numbers under the PLA’s Western Theatre Command facing India.
An issue for India in seeking a light tank to counter the Type 15 is that few platforms of this kind are currently operational. One option would be to look to North Korea, which has developed tanks heavily optimised for mountain warfare due to its own topography and has exported its armour in the past.
Korea has previously sold arms to potential Chinese adversaries such as Vietnam, and even offered to sell attack submarines to Taiwan, but India’s willingness to purchase a North Korean platform, given the expectation of harsh repercussions from Western powers, remains questionable. One potentially promising alternative which has emerged is the Russian 2S25 Sprut-SD light tank, which though not developed specifically for mountain warfare is light enough to prove useful in mountainous regions.
