India seeks to boost air defences to match China amid rising border tensions
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh used a visit to Moscow to urge Russia to speed up delivery of its S-400 system, which the PLA already has
- Both sides are building up reinforcements along their disputed frontier in the Himalayas after deadly clash last week
Chinese and Indian military reinforcements are building up along their disputed Himalayan border after soldiers there had their worst clash in decades last week.
As tensions threaten to boil over, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh used a visit to Moscow this week to urge Russia – the country’s biggest weapons supplier – to speed up delivery of its powerful S-400 Triumph air defence missile system, according to Indian media reports.
Combined with India’s aircraft designed for high-altitude combat, the defence system could pose a threat to China’s military, according to observers.
Both China and India have the S-300 system – an earlier and inferior version of the S-400. But China already has the S-400 air defence system, with the last delivery in late 2018.
