Since the India-China border clash in June 2020, there have been concerns about which of the two sides is stronger or weaker. A recent analysis by the British “army-technology” (army-technology.com) compares the strengths of the two armies.
The Indian Army is the largest ground army in the world, with 1.4 million active soldiers. The Chinese Communist Army has a slightly smaller active component of 975,000.
The Chinese Army, with the exception of its tanks, has invested more developmental effort than the Indian Army. However, the Indian Army has experience in highland combat and receives support from Russia and the United States in the form of sophisticated equipment.
The regular army of the Chinese Communist Party consists of 13 groups of combined arms brigades, each with a maximum strength of 5,000 soldiers. The groups include armored, mechanized infantry, infantry and motorized infantry, artillery, and amphibious assault divisions. Brigade units consist of mechanized and motorized infantry brigades, armored brigades, artillery brigades, anti-aircraft artillery and missile brigades, and the Army Aviation Corps.
The CPC Army is equipped with main battle tanks, light tanks, armored infantry vehicles, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled and towed artillery systems, rocket launcher systems, and surface-to-air missile systems. The main battle tanks include Type 99A, Type 99, Type 96, Type 96A, Type 96B MBT and Type 15 light tanks. The armored vehicle fleet consists mainly of ZBD-09 IFV, ZBD-04 IFV, ZTD-05 and ZBD-11 amphibious assault vehicles. Anti-tank weapons include the PTL-02 wheeled assault gun system, and the HJ-8, HJ-9, and HJ-10 anti-tank missile systems.
Field and anti-aircraft artillery systems include PLZ-05, PLZ-07, and PLZ-83 self-propelled howitzers, PHL-03 self-propelled rockets, PP-87 and PP-89 mortars, PGZ-04 and PGZ-07 anti-aircraft artillery, and HQ-7B anti-aircraft missile systems.
The service rifle of the Chinese Communist Army is the Type 95, also known as the QBZ-95 automatic assault rifle.
The Indian army is equipped with main battle tanks (Russian T-72, T-90 and locally made Arjun tanks), Russian BMP series infantry fighting vehicles, fast reconnaissance vehicles, anti-tank missiles (e.g. Indian-made Viper anti-tank missiles), self-propelled artillery, multiple rocket launchers (Russian 9K58 300mm Cyclone and 9K57 220mm Hurricane self-propelled multiple rocket systems, Indian-made Panaka 214mm and BM-21 122mm rocket systems), and anti-aircraft missile systems (e.g. Russian SA and French AS series).
The standard service rifle of the Indian Army is the INSAS assault rifle.
The Chinese Army’s air power consists mainly of Harbin Z-19 reconnaissance/attack helicopters, Z-9WA and Z-10 attack helicopters, Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-26 transport helicopters, and Shaanxi Y-8, Shaanxi Y-9 and Xian Y-7 military transport aircraft.
The Indian Army’s aviation equipment includes domestically produced Polaris helicopters (HAL Dhruv), Chetak unmanned and Cheetah helicopters, and attack helicopters (HAL Rudra). Currently, India has begun acquiring and equipping American Apache 64E helicopters, the world’s most famous multi-role, all-weather attack helicopters.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China is the world’s second largest military spender, spending $261 billion on defense in 2019. India, on the other hand, will spend $71.1 billion on defense in 2019. Over the past decade, China’s cumulative military spending was $2.07 trillion, while India’s cumulative defense spending for the same period was $5.9 trillion.
The British media have compared the military capabilities of the Chinese Communist Party and the Indian Army in various aspects.
The Chinese side has 3,500 main battle tanks, down from 4,200 on the Indian side, and both sides have third-generation weapons. The Chinese side has 33,000 armored vehicles, more than four times as many as the Indian side (8,000).
For example, the Chinese Army has 3,800 sets of self-propelled guns, 3,600 sets of towed guns, and 2,600 sets of rocket launchers, while the Indian Army has 230 sets of self-propelled guns, 4,000 sets of towed guns, and 270 sets of rocket launchers.
The Russian S-400 Triumph is the cornerstone of China’s air defense missile system; however, India has also signed a contract with Russia to deploy the S-400 system as an effective anti-air attack weapon against air attacks.
The British media summarized the capabilities of the two sides and pointed out that the Chinese Communist army has a huge stockpile of weapons compared to the Indian army. However, in the event of war, troop preparedness will play a key role, as the Chinese military has not fought a major war since the 1962 Sino-Indian and Sino-Vietnamese wars, and the brief border war with Vietnam in 1979.
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