Difficult geographical terrain at India-China border hampers surveillance: Air Chief

New Delhi, Oct 3 (ANI): Stressing on the intrusion at the border areas, Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne on Monday said the difficult geographical terrain between the Indian and Chinese border impeded the surveillance of the contentious area.

Addressing the annual news conference here, Air Chief Marshal Browne illustrated that though the boundary between India and China was primarily managed by the Indo-Tibetan Border Force (ITBP), the Indian Air force provides support in the effective supervision of the areas.

"As far as the intrusions that you (media) mention about, you (mediapersons) know that these intrusion are bordered with China is manned by ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) and Air force provides the air support to our forward troops across on the LSC (Logistics Support Center) to our positions based there," said Air Chief Marshal Browne.

"So, these intrusions if at all any time important by ITBP, to the army force and also to us and this reports have actually come to us from ITBP itself. If you fully aware of the terrain in that region, the issue of mountain radars is one that we are now looking at and the LLLWR (Light Weight Low Level Radars," he added.

Air Chief Marshal Browne further said that they faced the problem of mountain radars in the high-altitude region. However, the induction of LLLWR radars would help to mitigate the problems.

"As far as the number of squadrons is concerned presently, like I said before, there are number of squadrons which are phasing out and some new ones are coming in. Presently, we have a goal of maintaining 34 squadrons and as the new inductions come up, we will gradually improve, increase them in the twelfth plan, going right up to the 42-squadron limit," he said.

The Indian Air Force has planned to expand the 6,000-foot Kargil runway to enable the base to operate all major transport aircraft such as the Soviet-origin IL-76 heavy lift planes, the newly-ordered C-17 heavy lift aircraft from the US.

The India Air force would also induct six more C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft in the coming days.

The C-130J aircrafts are being acquired under Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme of the US Government. (ANI)