Indian Air Force Chief Flies Sortie Near Chinese Border With His Son

India and China on Thursday announced they were withdrawing troops from the contested Gogra-Hot Springs border area in Ladakh. The two have thousands of square kilometers of disputed borderlands between them, from the Ladakh region, which is triangulated with Pakistan's Kashmir claims, all the way to Arunachal Pradesh, east of Bhutan.

Indian Air Force chief V.R. Chaudhari has flown a sortie in a Rafale aircraft with his son Sq. Leader Mihir V. Chaudhari at Air Force Station Hasimara, less than 300 km from the border with China.

The sortie was part of three aircraft combat training missions at the major Indian air base in the eastern sector.

“IAF chief highlighted the need for maintaining high operational readiness round the clock and retaining focus on capability enhancement,” the Indian Air Force said.

The review of the combat readiness in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) came as the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are pulling back military assets and troops from the Gogra-Hot Springs region in Ladakh under the disengagement agreement reached on Thursday.

The eastern sector is the most contested part of the loosely demarcated 3,488 km LAC as China considers Arunachal Pradesh to be part of Tibet and refers to it as South Tibet. New Delhi counters the claim, saying it is an inseparable part of its territory.

The Indian Army is developing helipads at every forward post in the eastern sector to facilitate the landing of US-made Chinook helicopters. It has also deployed US-made M-777 ultra-light howitzers in mountainous regions in Arunachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, in the western sector of the LAC, the Indian Army is expanding military infrastructure, including ammunition depots and surveillance apparatus.