Fukche Advanced Landing Ground reactivated

India has reopened another strategic airstrip along its unresolved border with China in Eastern Ladakh that will give it the capability to rapidly induct troops in the region. The Fukche Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) was reactivated with the IAF landing a AN 32 medium transport aircraft on the newly refurbished airstrip.
The ALG, located at an altitude of 4,200 meters, is barely three kilometers away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC). It was being used as a helicopter base by the Armed Forces and had not seen fixed wing aircraft operations since the 1962 Sino-Indian war .
The reopening of the Fukche airbase comes months after the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) airfield, situated in the same region near the Karakoram pass, was reactivated by the Air Force earlier this year.
While the DBO is the highest airbase in the world and was reactivated for maintaining supplies to the troops posted on the border, Fukche is the second highest landing ground in the world.
IAF says that the airstrip will help carry out humanitarian missions in the region that is known to be prone to earthquakes and would also be used to promote tourism in the area. However, analysts believe that the airfield is a part of a series of steps being undertaken to improve connectivity along the China border.
India has been reviving advanced landing grounds and helicopter bases along the border from Ladakh to the North-East. Armed Forces have conducted status reports on reactivating airbases after directives from the PMO to promote tourism and to increase the reach of the army along the border.
“The airfield will be used for humanitarian relief work and evacuation in case of natural calamities,” Air Marshal P K Barbora, Commanderin-Chief of the Western Air Command said.
Work on the third major airfield in Ladakh along the Sino-India border, the Chushul Advanced Landing Ground, located at a height of over 5,000 m, is still to commence and the ALG is not likely to be reactivated in the near future.