India intends to place fighters farther east
India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands are in a key strategic location astride the western approaches to the Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Ombai Wetar Straits. To capitalise on the island chain’s location near this strategic chokepoint, Delhi has decided to permanently deploy fighters there.
India has been growing increasingly concerned about Chinese naval activity in the Indian Ocean, and this deployment can be construed as one reaction to this.
The Defence Planning Committee has ordered a feasibility study for basing fighters on the archipelago, where assets such as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI could monitor and even interdict shipping and aircraft.
The Andaman
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