The Indian Army is set to buy additional combat vehicles with anti-tank missiles to bolster operation capabilities of the armed forces amid the continuing Chinese threat along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

Sources in the defence ministry said these combat vehicles would be acquired soon and deployed along the LAC in Ladakh where the Chinese army has strengthened its military positions.

“The Chinese military build-ups are particularly strong in the Depsang Plains where the Chinese are entrenched 18km inside India-claimed lines,” said a defence ministry official.

The order for more combat vehicles, the official said, has been placed with an Indian company. “These indigenously developed wheeled armoured vehicles have better manoeuvrability for functioning in the tough terrain at a height of over 14,000 feet and will bolster the operational capabilities of the armed forces,” he added.

The new armoured indigenous vehicles to be inducted include quick-reaction fighting vehicles, infantry-protected mobility vehicles, ultra-long-range observation systems and multi-role protected armoured vehicles.

The army had in June this year inducted around 15 infantry-protected mobility vehicles. These wheeled vehicles are deployed in Ladakh for quick-reaction forces of the army and can be used even at night.

Sources in the security establishment said a recent ground assessment suggested the Chinese army was continuing to strengthen its position at several ingression points in Ladakh.

“The Indian Army has also been deploying enough men and machines amid the Chinese army’s massive build-up across the Line of Actual Control in the region and its unwillingness to disengage from Indian territory,” said an Intelligence Bureau official attached to the Union home ministry.

India, he said, has also been strengthening its positions on the frontier but not in the massive way the Chinese have been doing.

Over the past two years Indian and Chinese armies have been locked in standoffs at multiple points in eastern Ladakh, and the People’s Liberation Army is said to have altered the unmarked LAC at several friction points and is estimated to have taken over close to 1,000sqkm of India-claimed territory.

So far, the Chinese have disengaged “partially” in the Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Springs while remaining well within India-claimed lines, but have refused to disengage from the Depsang Plains.