Originally Posted by smartascarrots

Meanwhile, HERE's a quick peek behind the curtain. India's a paper tiger. True, you can still get a nasty cut but it's not exactly a strategic threat to anyone but the Pakistanis.

You linked to a pakistani blog which has pics of sadhus posted in the article as evidence of indian poverty. You deserve the oxygen thief tag.

Originally Posted by 1140_Sqn

After reading those links, China spends £35 billion on defence compared to the UK's £34 billion........

The UK has around 174,000 members in the Armed Force while China has well over a million...... so the fact they spend more on defence doesn't mean anything to be honest!

However with the cost of living in China being so much lower than the UK's their salary and pension costs per soldier are much lower than ours. It would be interesting to see how that £35 billion breaks down between things like salaries, training, infrastructure, equipment - both personal and the large stuff like tanks and jet aeroplanes etc. to get a more realistic idea.

Originally Posted by Sepulchrave

You linked to a Pakistani blog which has pics of sadhus posted in the article as evidence of Indian poverty. You deserve the oxygen thief tag.

Which quoted Indian government figures and the chairman of an Indian government commission. I notice you don't try and rebut the claims, merely try and throw mud at the source of the article.

There was a thread about google earth that had the co-ordinates for the biggest model i've ever seen (via satellite). IIRC, it was in China and showed some part of the China / India border. I assume it was one of the disputed regions!

Searching now for the thread.......

Originally Posted by Biped

Well, they've already had one in the 1960's, but it was very conventional - just ground troops. India lost.

There's two more disputed areas, both at great height. India and China have both, and are both increasing their spending on arms dramatically. Within the next 10 years, India will spend more on defence than the UK does - China already does, and by 2020 will be spending around 5 times as much as the UK on defence.

China and India both see Asia as their markets, and China is making no bones about it's political and military manouvering in the area - one of which is to effectively surround India with poltical enemies AND military forces.

At some point within the next 20 years, I foresee that China IS going to have a pop at Taiwan, and is VERY likely to have a pop at both of the disputed regions bordering India.

China has been for time been cosying up to Pakistan to cover one side of India, and will continue to do so, including building a deep-sea port in the Indian Ocean, and another well equipped port and fleet on the other side of India to the North East.

China and India are both acquiring nuclear and conventional submarines.

I imagine by 2020 Pizza Hut will spend 5 times as much as the UK on defence.

If it's the one I'm thinking of it was. IIRC the theory was they built it to help train their helicopter pilots to get an idea of the terrain. Here's an El Reg article with pictures showing the scale and detail of it all.

Originally Posted by Brick

However with the cost of living in China being so much lower than the UK's their salary and pension costs per soldier are much lower than ours. It would be interesting to see how that £35 billion breaks down between things like salaries, training, infrastructure, equipment - both personal and the large stuff like tanks and jet aeroplanes etc. to get a more realistic idea.

PLA has just recently gone to a professional model - that's automatically more expensive than conscripts. The savings in manpower costs by cutting numbers are more than offset by paying off and pensioning superfluous officers and senior ranks, as well as through funding the higher wages, pensions and better living conditions needed to attract volunteers. A large part of the recent spending increases have been on HR costs, high tech weapons and C3 come next and the costs of supporting increased peace-keeping/support ops make up a fair chunk too.

I think it would be fair to say that the current Chinese mindset is a slightly Israeli-esque 'never again' one. They're not quite so belligerent, but they're going to let Western powers or the Japs trample them again either.

Yeah - thats the one. I remember it being mountainous with a few lakes thrown in as well. Wish i could make a model that well!!!!!

Originally Posted by Sepulchrave

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

Meanwhile, HERE's a quick peek behind the curtain. India's a paper tiger. True, you can still get a nasty cut but it's not exactly a strategic threat to anyone but the Pakistanis.

You linked to a pakistani blog which has pics of sadhus posted in the article as evidence of indian poverty. You deserve the oxygen thief tag.

Indeed I did. It's interesting to see what that side of the border make of the Indian situation, but most importantly most of the sources of information quoted were official Indian ones. Spin that how you like.

Gets better and better
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2957578/India-targeting-Chinas-oil-supplies.html"

john

Palpable tosh; if the Indians were daft enough to try to plug the Straits, the PLAN would have to get in line to have a pop at them; the ASEAN members would be at the front of the queue, with the Spams and the RN backing them up. I don't know if you are familiar with the SLOCs around Singapore, but they're like hydepark corner at rushhour, only with ships; a very large proportion of the world's shipping funnels through those straits and any attempt to stop it would likely be welcomed with a fairly robust naval response.

Typical journo walting about something he doesn't appear to know much about. I notice that it's a general who comments about blockading the strait; says it all really, I always ask admirals when I need advice about army issues.