The Indian Air Force (IAF) will conduct a significant air combat exercise with frontline fighters, helicopters, other aircraft, and drones in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and other northeastern states early next month, amid increased tension with China in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control as a result of the 32-month-long military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Following the physical fights between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, the Indian Air Force also conducted a two-day drill in the northeast last month. The upcoming drill will be more extensive and comprise a range of platforms, such as the C-130J "Super Hercules" aircraft, the Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, and the Apache assault helicopters, among others. For the third winter in a row, China has kept over 50,000 troops and heavy weapons deployed along the eastern Ladakh border, and it has so far refused to discuss army pullout at the strategically important Depsang Plains and Demchok areas.
Along the 1,346 km section of the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has also upped military levels concurrently. Even during the current winter, the PLA, for example, has kept two additional "combined arms brigades"—each with around 4,500 men and tanks, artillery, and other weapons—forward deployed throughout the eastern sector. In the past two years, China has upgraded all of its major airfields facing India, including Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa, and Shigatse, with longer runways, hardened shelters, and fuel storage facilities for more fighters, bombers, drones, and reconnaissance aircraft. This has resulted in an increase in Chinese air activity along the 3,488km-long LAC.