The Chinese have expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with India over the recent crash of an Indian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Chinese territory.
Reuters said the Chinese have expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with India over the recent crash of an Indian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Chinese territory.
The Indian Army’s official statement has said the UAV was on a training mission and lost contact across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Sikkim area.
According to Republic World, an Indian English-language media outlet,
The defense ministry said the Indian border security personnel, as per standard protocol, immediately alerted their Chinese counterparts to locate the UAV and they later reverted with its location.
“An Indian UAV which was on a regular training mission inside the Indian territory lost contact with the ground control due to some technical problem and crossed over (to) the LAC in the Sikkim Sector,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
On the other hand, China’s defense ministry said in a statement the Indian UAV had crashed in “recent days” but the ministry did not give specifics..
Zhang Shuili, a military official in China’s western battle zone command, said in the ministry statement, “This action by India violated China’s territorial sovereignty. We express strong dissatisfaction and opposition.”
China and India have had deep distrust over their disputed border, which triggered a military conflict in 1962. Just recently, both sides confronted each other between the June and August timeframe this year- at one instance an all-out brawl was caught on video as troops battled each other on the heavily contested border (see: Video Emerges Showing Clashes Between Indian, Chinese Soldiers).
While details are still murky, it is believed the downed drone could have been a Searcher Mk II or a Heron – both imported from Israel. In April, India received its first Heron TP-armed drones from Isreal, giving the country the capability to carry out cross-border strikes.
Avm Manhoan Bahadur, editor of India’s The Print, explains here are four reasons why this loss is worrisome, irrespective of the type of the UAV,
First: it is the loss of an aviation asset that is difficult to come by.
