New Delhi: In a major boost to India’s preparedness to take on the Chinese on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Indian Army has received the initial consignment of extreme cold weather clothing from the USA for its troops deployed on the China border.

“An initial lot of extreme cold weather clothing from American defence forces have been received and are being used by our troops there,” government sources said.

The sources said that the Indian Army maintains a stock of 60,000 of these extreme cold weather clothing sets for troops deployed in entire Ladakh including both western fronts in Siachen and Eastern Ladakh sector.

This year, there was an additional requirement of around 30,000 of these sets as close to 90,000 troops are deployed in the region in view of the aggression by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the LAC.

The emergency acquisition of the extreme cold weather clothing will help the Indian Army troops to get through the harsh winters in the Ladakh sector.

The Indian side has deployed two additional divisions on the LAC that have been brought to the sector from plains and a mountain division which has been training for high-altitude operations for many years now.

India is getting a lot of equipment from America including a number of assault rifles for the special forces as well as the SiGSauer assault rifles for the infantry troops.