India-military expansion of 'strategic footprint' or a defence against a China conflict?

Military to expand strategic footprint

India’s armed forces are re-orienting their strategic reach from the ability to land in, take off from and deploy in countries around the Indian Ocean rim to “wherever India’s interests lie”.

“I expect that at least by 2022, we are capable of taking care of India’s interests not only at home, but also abroad,” Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne said today, setting a 10-year time frame.

“So far, our interest was defined from the Gulf of Aden (in the west) to the Straits of Malacca (in the east) but, as experience in Libya and other countries have taught us, we have to be able to reach wherever we have our interests,” he said.

Reflecting the dichotomy in India’s economic growth story, the military is swinging between the aspirational and the actual: its strategic global “vision” contrasts sharply with its “tactical” domestic and frontier compulsions.
Despite that, the re-orientation of strategic perspective that the air chief disclosed today means the military “perspective plans” that are now being drawn up will focus on acquiring assets that can cover longer distances faster — such as the C17 Globemaster III heavy-lift aircraft — and deployable hardware.

<snip>

Among the domestic security demands that the military is currently trying to meet are mountain radars for the frontier with China, where air intrusions were reported as late as July. Browne said the IAF was currently dependent on the Indo Tibetan Border Police, a paramilitary force, to report such intrusions. The deployment of mountain radars would send out alerts in real time.

[link to www.telegraphindia.com]