India/US Forces Excercise Near Chinese Border

[Robb]

Indian, US Special Forces begin joint exercise near Chinese border

(snip)Ê

Top Army officials when contacted declined to give details about the exercise, merely saying it was in a "secret location" close to the Karakoram mountains.

The officials said almost batallion strength troops from each side were taking part in the exercises being held at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres.

(snip)

American Special Forces were flown in here in Special C-130 J Hercules aircraft and after staying just an hour in Delhi were ferried to the secret location.

Meanwhile, replying to questions on the exercise, Defence Minister George Fernandes said it was a military joint exercise and it had no political significance.

-----

Note: In the United States army, since April 29, 1898, a battalion consists of four companies, and three battalions form a regiment. Two platoons form a company; say thirty soldiers to a platoon (IIRC), so "almost batallion strength" should be around 200 U.S. soldiers.

[SpiralHawk]

1. This gives me a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach

Teasing the Red Dragon at his tail. Hmmm? Consider the FUBARISH wonders of this cute little "stratergery," as our Vacationer-in-Chief* would term it.


Is this a particularly good idea? No. Is this a particularly good time to flex a little muscle for China's eyes? No. Do you think the Red Dragon might like to play this game? Entirely too frikkin possible.


*Possessed of a shameful AWOL record while duty-bound by solemn oath to be serving with the Texas National Guard in the 1970s; defeated by a clear majority of patriotic and discerning American voters in the 2000 election; appointed to office by the so-called supreme court.

[FormerOstrich]

2. Pardon me, but

:wtf: :wtf:

What is going on? Someone needs to clue me in because I've apparently missed something.

:wtf:

[FormerOstrich]

3. Okay, I sortof calmed down and went to google to answer my

previous question. Of course it makes sense. If was have all of our technology intellectual property, resources, and etc we need to protect our corporate interest. No wonder corporations aren't thinking twice about the stability issues as they ship our jobs away (yes I'm from the IT industry and in dire straights):

Since the last meeting of the DPG in May 2002, the U.S. and Indian defense establishments have continued to expand cooperation. The past year's accomplishments include:

• combined special forces counterinsurgency exercise in Northeast India;
• combined Air Force exercise in Alaska;
• complex Naval exercises on the East Coast of India;
• delivery of "Firefinder" radars to India;
• senior-level missile defense talks; and
• conclusion of a Master Information Exchange Agreement to facilitate cooperation in research and development of defense technologies.

During this year's DPG, the delegations emphasized the long-range strategic concepts that guide the new approach to the U.S.-India relationship. They agreed that the work of the two countries together during the past year and planned activities for the next year are translating that strategic vision into action.

The delegations discussed the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons and technologies of mass destruction, including the risk that terrorists will acquire such weapons. They also discussed measures to combat proliferation.

The two sides agreed to establish a high-level dialogue on defense technology security issues.

They are too good. Too much slips by that we don't notice until it surfaces a little later. Once again I say :wtf: but this time I think we can take out the "What The"

http://www.indianembassy.org/indusrel/2003/dpg_aug_07_03.htm

[salin]

4. Great - lets make both Pakistan and China twitchy

Gephart was right.... Bush has been a miserable failure of a pResident.

[FormerOstrich]

5. kick

:kick:

I'm kicking this because I really was hoping to hear what others make of this. I thought it was sort of a big deal. Anybody else have any thoughts......is this common knowledge and only I didn't know about it???

[Robb]

9. Article from this morning (9/7)

...in the Pakistan Daily Times, talking about Sharon's visit to New Delhi, and Israel's new role to India as arms dealer.

I do believe we've picked a side here... :eyes:

[fujiyama]

16. Which side is that?

Please do explain. After all, we didn't give 3Billion dollars in un accountable aid to India.

We're not even allowing Israel to sell the arrow system to them. Why is that? Oh yeah it's about keeping a "balance" in the region.

[LeftistGorilla]

6. America better watch out...

America is pretty good a beating on third world nations... but China is a diffrent... I hope Bush remembers China is the reason The UN didn't win the Korean war....

[lanlady]

7. I'm so friggin' sick

of all our tax $$$$ going to military this, military that.

[Nottingham]

8. And they wonder why China want to develop its own Windows

Ya it makes me nervous Bush has his sites on China

:bounce:

[MaryBear]

10. Playing with the tiger's tail...

Does Bush think he is toying with a tiger cub? If it is only the tail of a babe that he has, rest assured that the mama is nearby and ready to pounce!

[Johnyawl]

11. Your math is wrong, Robb

Starting at the bottom...

a platoon should be between 40-50 men. 3 squads of 14 men each = 42, plus Platoon commander, platoon Sgt, and possibly a radioman.

say 45 as a nice round number.

There are 3 platoons in a company. That's 135, plus the company CO, company 1st Sgt, company clerk, & radioman.

Say 145 as a nice round number.

A battalian consists of 3 line companies, plus a Headquarters & Supply company. That gives us 435 soldiers in the 3 "line" companies, plus an additional 50-100 in the H&S company. Total battalian strength should consist of a little over 500 men.

When the military says "almost battalian strength", that could be anything over 2 companies, but what they almost always means is that they left behind the battalian office clerks, supply clerks, an Officer, and Staff NCO to run things, and anybody on "light duty", medical restriction, etc, etc, . Probably 10% of battalian strength.

Which still leaves approx 450 US soldiers in this exercise.


On edit I should note that these figures are based on my experiance in the US Marines more that 30 years ago. I know that the US Army was organized along pretty similer lines, and I doubt that there's been any sweeping reorg that would have changed that, but you never know. And Special Forces can sometimes be the exception to the rule. Although at the time of Grenada, and the Panama invasion, a Ranger battalian consisted of approx 600 men.(I think they have a heavy weapons section that inflates the numbers a bit).

Anybody with more recent SF experiance should check my figures.

[Robb]

12. Good catch

And I bow to the credibility of your avatar! :)

...and of course the larger number concerns me even more....

[Nlighten1]

13. A battalion is more than 200 soldiers.

Just one full Infantry company is more than a hundred.

[Nlighten1]

14. Not only that but...

It isn't exactly easy moving an entire battalion and to move them all the way to India...? Maybe we are going to invade Pakistan and finally get back to the "war on terra".

[Johnyawl]

15. Actually Nlighten1...

...a light Infantry battalian is extremely easy to move long distances quickly. The Marines, Army Airborne, and Special Forces are all equiped, trained and set up for rapid deployment. With the massive air transport systems that the US has you can pretty much move one of our front line infantry battalians into a friendly country on a moments notice. They train for that kind of thing.

What is difficult is to deploy them rapidly, and then sustain them in the field under combat conditions for any length of time (as Iraq is proving). Moving heavy equipment (tanks, artillery, etc) and establishing logistics (supply lines) are the truely challenging parts.

I don't think this has anything to do with Pakistan. If India decides to take Pakistan apart, they won't ask for Bush's blessings, nor will they need any help from the US. Joint Indian-American military exercises along the Indian-Chinese border is a political and military message aimed at Beijing. I don't care how much they try to sugar coat it publically, a point is being made.