Chinese air force drones at the Shigatse air base enhance PLA’s intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR), Electronic Warfare (EW), and limited strike capabilities, far surpassing that of India.
As ever the pundits have two opinions. Ine that the drones might not be a devastating force multiplier that would boost PLAAF’s fighter-bomber combat operations against India, experts believe. Another that It would nevertheless be prudent for India not to underestimate the massive tactical impact of these systems on both the air and ground campaigns.
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), one of which is the highly sophisticated WZ-7′ Soaring Dragon’ satellite photos released by Planet Labs of the Shigatse base shows, were spotted at Shigatse two days after Indian and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops clashed at Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang.
China has been operating drones for a long time, and their employment is otherwise not a surprise. But their appearance at a key military air base immediately after the fisticuffs with Indian troops indicates it was expecting an escalation.
