A Dragon menace lurking below the surface
- July 19, 2024
- Posted by: Col Vinayak Bhat (Retd)
- Category: India
India Today’s OSINT desk dug out satellite images from past two decades, which reveal a possible Chinese missile garrison, not too far from Leh.
This Chinese threat is underground, a missile garrison not too far from Leh.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF), formerly the Second Artillery Corps, has a modern up-and-running missile storage facility barely 250 km from the Ladakh capital.
India Today’s OSINT desk has delved into satellite images, as latest as July 11, for a fair understanding of this secret arsenal.
Location of Underground Missile Arsenal
Its location is close to the Southern Xinjiang Military District (SXJMD), which was raised in 1950 and has been reorganised many times over but retained the same areas under its command — Aksu, Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan.
The area opposite Ladakh, including occupied Aksai Chin or Eastern Ladakh, came under the Southern Xinjiang Military District when Tibet was occupied by China in 1950s and 1960s.
SXJMD, also referred to as Saidullah military training area, lies within the Indian-claimed Jammu and Kashmir state as per the Ardagh Johnson Line proposed during the British Raj.
Strategically, the location provides additional enforcements for the PLA in the event of emergencies because of their presence at the training base.
The underground missile facility, dug out in the Karakoram mountains, is almost three-five km inside the highway connecting Tibet with Xinjiang.
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here are 14 underground tunnels that start at three km south of the road and continue up to two km ahead.
And then there are 12 tunnels on the west of a rivulet, which possibly store operational missiles.
Two other tunnels on the eastern side are connected with various roads, indicating they are administrative and command-and-control tunnels.
The facility has a line of poles probably for electricity supplies to the underground storage tunnels.
Various signatures and other facilities around these tunnels suggest that this facility can store at least 24 missiles, with their tractor-erector launcher (TEL) and other support vehicles.
Support Facilities
The analysis of satellite images over the last two decades indicate that most support facilities are located near the G209 highway.
There is a large garrison with high-bay garages at the road head. There are other garages for support vehicles.
There are at least eight high-bay garages possibly used for checking out vehicles before deployment.
Recently, a new heliport, possibly for the SXJMD aviation brigade detachment, has been built to provide air-defence support to this facility.
The latest satellite images depict a new construction of 15-20 buildings, likely for accommodating additional troops expected in the future.
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The new construction started around November 2019, indicating that the present standoff in Eastern Ladakh might have been planned during Oct/Nov 2019.
A large solar-panel farm is observed for providing electricity to the underground facility and other support facilities around.
Training Area
The training area has a large firing range with motivational slogans written on the mountain behind.
There are four slogans written on the hill slopes:
1- : Don’t be afraid of hardships during training, don’t be afraid of death during combat.
2- : Plateau Brigade towards invincibility!
3- : Tianshan Division decisively fight for a decisive victory.
4-: Learn Dragon’s spirit to beat the pioneers.
The motivational slogans indicate both SXJMD and XJMD are using this training area for regular drills.
There is an artillery and air-defence training area, which shows various methods of gun deployment.
A circularly disposed antenna array (CDAA) is observed on satellite images across the river.
India needs to maintain a close vigil on this PLARF facility, which may have enough storage area for about 24 TELs, and other support mechanisms around.
(Col Vinayak Bhat (Retired) is a consultant for India Today. A satellite imagery analyst, he served in the Indian Army for over 33 years)