India is strengthening its surveillance capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from Eastern Ladakh to Sikkim with the deployment of new drone units of unmanned aerial vehicles.

These can carry out missions for up to 48 hours. “New drones with advanced surveillance capabilities and longer endurance are being deployed. These will keep an eye on the Chinese military activities in the Eastern Ladakh sector and Sikkim along with the areas around it, ANI quoted defence sources as saying.

While one of the squadrons is deployed close to the eastern Ladakh sector, the other would be closer to the chicken's neck sector in the east, they said.

The new drones have not been equipped with strike capabilities but they have the option of being upgraded to those standards, the sources said.

The Indian forces have acquired these drones with satellite communication links and their sensors are far more advanced than their existing inventory, they said.

The Indian forces have been keeping a close watch on the Chinese military activities across the LAC from Eastern Ladakh to the Arunachal Pradesh area.

They have enhanced their capabilities after the unilateral aggression by the Chinese in Eastern Ladakh starting from the Galwan area in 2020.