The Chinese military has published photos of recent air force drills that at least one expert quoted in ruling party media identified Tuesday as a direct message to neighboring India.
It was a message because the J-10 and J-11 planes were deployed to Chinese bases in Tibet.
China considers large chunks of Indian territory as "southern Tibet," essentially, viewing even visits by India's prime minister to that region as unacceptable.
India has been slow in fixing their weakness in air power. At the beginning of the decade I said that buying new planes was the most important defense decision India had this decade.
That decision still isn't finalized and really started.
Will India make and implement this decision this decade? Even as China continues to put actual hardware in play?
UPDATE: Jane's describes how declining budgets, procurement bureaucracy, and internal organizational shortcomings are harming India's efforts to modernize their military in the face of China's growing capabilities.
I suppose India could afford their horrible bureaucracy when smaller Pakistan was the threat that could be overwhelmed regardless of inefficiencies. China is a different matter altogether that requires a little sense of urgency in India.
