Eye on China: Nyoma in Ladakh to handle fighter jets soon

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India is now all set to kick off the upgrade of the critical Nyoma advance landing ground (ALG) in eastern Ladakh to ensure it can also handle fighter operations, in the backdrop of China having consolidated all its air bases and military positions during the continuing 33-month military confrontation along the frontier.

The Rs 230 crore upgrade work at Nyoma ALG, which includes extending and strengthening the existing airstrip into a 2.7-km ‘rigid pavement’ runway for all kinds of fixed-wing aircraft for “defensive as well as offensive operations”, will begin in May-June, top defence officers told TOI on Tuesday.

With the Nyoma ALG located at an altitude of over 13,400-feet, and less than 50-km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, it will take “three working seasons” by the Border Roads Organisation to complete the entire upgrade project that also includes dispersal areas, hangars and other allied infrastructure in the forbidding terrain. “So, everything should be ready by mid-2025,” an official said.

China’s rapid infrastructure development, including a new road just across the strategically-located Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal, now allows it to swiftly deploy additional troops there, though India continues to control the crucial ridge-line or high ground in the plateau.

Nyoma is already “a major staging area” for the IAF and Army, bridging the crucial gap between Leh airfield around 190-km away and the LAC. It has been extensively used for forward deployment of troops and heavy weapon systems like tanks since the multiple Chinese incursions into eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.

Heavy-lift Chinook, medium-lift Mi-17 V5 and Apache attack helicopters as well as C-130J ‘Super Hercules’ aircraft, which can land at makeshift airstrips, regularly operate from the Nyoma ALG. The Army, too, has been practicing airdrops of paratroopers in the high-altitude region.

China has ‘slightly increased’ the number of its troops along the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Army chief General Manoj Pande said on Thursday, adding that a “close watch” is also being kept on the stepped-up activities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the crucial

“But there has been a long-felt operational need to make Nyoma capable of handling fighters like Sukhoi-30MKIs and Rafales for both defensive and offensive options,” another officer said. “Operations from Leh and Thoise airfields sometimes get disrupted due to bad weather. The weather in Nyoma is much better throughout the year,” he said.

The IAF also has ALGs at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) and Fukche in eastern Ladakh. The one at DBO, in particular, overlooks the strategic Karakoram Pass and is just a few km from the LAC and the China-occupied Aksai Chin region beyond. “But DBO is at an even higher altitude of 16,600-feet than Nyoma. There is also little scope to extend the runway at Fukche,” he said.

There has been a major spike in Chinese air activity all along the 3,488-km long LAC stretching from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh in recent months, with the IAF even scrambling fighters in a precautionary air defence response.
China has upgraded all its major air-bases facing India like Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa, Shigatse and Lhasa-Gonggar with extended runways, hardened shelters and fuel storage facilities for additional fighters, bombers, drones and reconnaissance aircraft over the last two years, as earlier reported by TOI. (The Times of India)