In fairness, most of that wall was built by his predecessors, and usually isn’t manned, like Roman Limes or the Korean DMZ (save in the far, far north in glacier country, which is stupid by the way). It has mobile units stationed to the rear… it’s why I keep reading of Pakistani commando raids on Indian positions, or Maoists not too long ago on positions in the north east… the distribution of armed towers from what I’ve seen of the LOC is pitiful, too far apart to be meaningful.
I can’t hammer Modi too much because he inherited a crappy army and a shitty border, but it can’t contain crap. My base was literally on the Euphrates River, so I know a river can be fortified. Cameras with infared need used, on two circuits, one left and one right of each tower, mounted ever 50 yards, with CCTV cameras ran by a headquarters building for every 10 towers… you can have the current Sargent on guard watching them all and a few big screen TVs, with a radioguy watching it all, doing radiochecks when the Sargent is out, checking the towers or changing out guys.
Concrete slabs, with Rebar, cabable of standing higher than a man can jump and reach the top, needs to completely line that wall… the stuff used to make concrete exists in nature, it exists on military land. Rebar does not, it needs bought. Guard Towers needs to be built, more than you man, and they need to fill triple the space… for every one tower they intend to man, one remains empty. Rotate the soldiers through these towers… except for absolutely crucial points, no tower gets manned over and over again. Have the soldiers when they have downtime make silhouettes of themselves, stick it in the towers at night to confuse the snipers or teams fording the river.
If India does it’s presence on the wall correctly, Pakistani Rangers will have a very hard time infiltrating the defence. Not impossible, just increasingly impractical. You need less guys on stick duty on the streets scaring civilians, and more in guard towers in border areas. Much of the cost of fortification on a top tier, western style defence can be achieved through shovel and ingenuity… cameras (made waterproof… a plastic welder can do this) and rebar cost money. Technically, a tower can be made from trees, but it’s questionable how much free lumber can be found all along the border, and it will eventually rot.
Chain Fence isn’t going to cut it, it just make guys like me scoff, knowing damn well I can break through it. A well fortified border is a different matter, especially if I’m uncertain which positions are manned at any given time, and one false move can cause the enemy command to rush troops out to man every point.
But Modi seems to be trying at times, I’m just… largely unimpressed with the current state of India’s defences. Yeah… I know modernizing is hard, but… some stuff isn’t.
Every battalion should have a basic 3-D printer… it can print parts for new printers (plastic parts at least), you just provide the motherboard. Really old weapons can be upgraded with plastic rail systems, holders for flash lights, for $1 red laser lights… I quite frankly am amazed how willing India is to be ass backwards when it comes to free upgrades. Every Indian police and military battalion needs access to a creap as fuck 3-D printer… period. Old rifles, as long as they aren’t worn out, can be made highly advanced looking and functional to western counterparts melting down plastic trash.
If I saw Modi even had the insight for this, I would be impressed with him. I don’t trust stupid nations that don’t take their defense seriously. Barack Missiles are impressive, a guy hiding in the dark with a poorly maintained, 100 year old rifle behind sandbags in his own station, afraid to leave in fear if being shot is not. Commandos running loose inside your air force bases is not.
If there was a solid defence, the temptation to assault would be substantially reduced. The Roman Army never ceased constantly making new bricks, preparing more forts, more roads, digging more canals. They did this while maintaining a LOC heavily fortified across England, Europe, Asia and Arabia and parts of Africa. No excuse. You might not be able to buy the cameras tomorrow, but you can start digging and fortifying spots with misused troops now. You can start mass upgrades and recycling programs on military bases to collect plastic now. This is achievable by even the poorest nations.