The new 17 Mountain Strike Corps will have a strength of around 90,000 soldiers and it will take almost three years to become fully operational. It will consist of two new high-altitude infantry divisions and it will be spread from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladakh along the border with China.
“As far as the Strike Corps is concerned, we already have three Strike Corps against Pakistan and these are for plains that is basically one, two and twenty-one Corps. However, we were not having the Strike Corps in use against Chinese in mountains and hence a 17 Strike Corps for mountains have been raised and it will be fully deployed along the China border. So far we only have a defensive mechanism against the China, however with the Strike Corps coming and being raised, we will also have an offensive mechanism,” Major General (Rtd) AK Siwach, a former head of the Territorial Army, told Sputnik.
“As far as the Chinese are concerned, the threat is real… We should be well-prepared against any contingency,” Major General Siwach added.
Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
