"War at the Top of the World: China v. India" Topic

The South China Sea with the US and the PRC facing each other down catches a lot of media attention, but I think there are other hotspots that really catches China's eye. One place we don't hear a lot about is their ongoing border disputes with India. That really would be a war at the top of the world with Chinese and Indian forces slugging it out over control of mountain passes and valleys. This scenario would really push a conventional force to its limits as tanks and AFVs would face extreme temperatures and crazy terrain.

This article really thinks about what this conflict could look like and how India can face this challenge from the PRC.

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India and China ended up in a short ugly little war over mostly worthless terrain in 1962. "India's China War" is a book well worth reading for background on this long time dispute over borders on the India's northern frontier. Then, as now, all the advantages of communications and terrain favor China. India is very much better prepared this time but fighting a war over terrain man can barely survive in is as foolish now as it was then.

Yeah in '62 the Indians lost more men to altitude induced conditions than they did to enemy action. When you consider how much better equipped and logistically better supported they were than the Chinese the PRC casualties must have been horrendous.

Fatman

GMT's Next War: India-Pakistan goes over a potential war in great detail, including the mountainous borders, which is just one part of a potential larger campaign. The basic game is pretty easy, but the advanced game gets into air squadrons, special forces raids, ballistic missiles, etc., and can get complex in a hurry. There are several scenarios and the advanced games have an international posture matrix which determines if the Russians, Chinese, British, etc., come in one side of the other. A great game if you are interested in this subject.