With an eye firmly on China, the Indian Air Force (IAF) last week landed its heftyIlyushin Il-76MD, known as 'Gajraj', at Nyoma in eastern Ladakh, 13,629 feet up and barely 30 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The IAF says it is the highest-ever aircraft landing anywhere in the world. The airbase sits close to the Demchok sector and the south bank of Pangong Tso, both flashpoints in the 2020 military confrontation.
What makes the record all the more unique is the size of the aircraft. It is roughly as long as a 15-story building tall, and its wingspan stretches wider than half a soccer field.
But the landing comes as the six-year-old standoff in eastern Ladakh remains unresolved, and the PLA steadily expands its air power across the LAC. China has built or upgraded 37 airports and heliports in Tibet and Xinjiang since 2017, and now rotates its J-20 stealth fighters through them. In sharp contrast, the IAF has a reduced number of fighter squadrons, and the tender to replace its four-decade-old An-32 transports was floated only in August.
TIMELINE
1962: Nyoma built as an advanced landing ground during the war with China
2020: Galwan clash; IAF airlifts over 68,000 troops, 90 tanks and 330 infantry combat vehicles to Ladakh
May 2024: J-20 stealth fighters spotted at Shigatse, opposite Sikkim
November 2025: Rs 218-crore Nyoma airbase becomes operational
August, 2026: ₹1 lakh crore tender floated for 60 medium transport aircraft.
November 7, 2026: IAF announces IL-76MD landing at Nyoma
Why is the Nyoma landing a big deal?
The landing, announced on November 7, matters because it lets the IAF do more in a crisis. Troops, tanks, guns and supplies used to be flown into Leh or Thoise, over 200 km away, and then trucked over high passes. They can now be airlifted almost to the frontline, cutting deployment and reaction times against the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
What matters is less how much the IL-76 can carry to Nyoma than the fact that it can get there at all. At that height, the thin air saps engine thrust and wing lift, so aircraft need longer runways and can lose nearly half their payload. The higher airstrips at Daulat Beg Oldi and Fukche cannot, in their present state, take strategic airlifters such as the IL-76 or the C-17. That makes Nyoma the most forward base along the LAC in Ladakh that can.
Nyoma was built as a landing ground during the 1962 war and then left largely unused for decades. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) upgraded it for Rs 218 crore, and it became operational only last November.
The urgency stems from the 2020 Galwan crisis, during which the IAF airlifted over 68,000 troops, 90 tanks and 330 infantry combat vehicles into Ladakh. Airlift today is less about rushing in reinforcements than about sustaining a large force at super-high altitudes, winter after winter.
What has China built across the LAC?
China has built a dense and increasingly hardened air network along the frontier. According to the US think tank CSIS, all five of Tibet's existing airports, each dual-use, have been upgraded, while three new ones at Lhuntse, Ngari-Burang, and ShigatseTingri lie less than 60 km from the border. Shigatse now has a 5,000-metre runway and QamdoBamda a 5,500-metre one.
The PLA has also been hardening these bases. Lhasa added a new runway and at least 30 hardened aircraft shelters by 2023, and Lhunze, opposite Arunachal Pradesh, was reported to have 36 by late last year.
The sharpest edge of this build-up is the J-20, which entered service in 2017, making China only the third country to field an operational stealth fighter. Independent estimates now put the fleet at 300 to 500 jets, while India has none.
The jets have been turning up ever closer to India. Six J-20s were spotted at Shigatse, opposite Sikkim, in May 2024, and at least 14 by March 2026. Satellite imagery from June and July showed seven at Hotan and four at Damxung. Hotan is 245 km from Daulat Beg Oldi and Damxung 344 km from Tawang. These appear to be rotations rather than permanent deployments, showing that Beijing can switch jets from Taiwan contingencies to the Himalayas at will.
Does India still hold the edge in the air?
It does for now, though the margin is shrinking. Harvard's Belfer Center estimated in 2020 that fighters taking off from Tibet's high-altitude bases can carry only about half their design payload and fuel. IAF jets flying from the plains do not face that handicap.
China has been steadily blunting that advantage. Longer runways ease take-offs, and hardened shelters protect aircraft on the ground. More airfields also allow the PLA to disperse its jets, so that no single base is decisive. Former IAF vice-chief Air Marshal S P Dharkar has warned that India's traditional geographical advantage is being lost.
Nyoma itself does little to change this equation. IAF fighters operating from that height would pay the same thin-air penalty as PLA jets in Tibet. Nyoma's real value lies in forward airlift and dispersal.
Why does the timing matter?
The landing comes as diplomacy and military posture pull in different directions. India and China held "constructive" border talks in May and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited New Delhi for the BRICS summit. Yet an estimated 50,000-60,000 troops remain deployed on either side in eastern Ladakh.
Friction persists further east too. Last month, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief confirmed that face-offs with the PLA in Arunachal Pradesh were continuing, including one during Xi's visit. The Nyoma landing came a week after Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit took over as IAF chief. It is as much a signal to Beijing as a logistical milestone, and Pakistan will be watching too.
Can India's military modernisation keep pace?
On current timelines, it will struggle to, and the transport fleet shows why. At the top are 11 C-17 Globemasters, each able to lift 77.5 tonnes, and the ageing IL-76s. The middle has just 12 C-130J-30s, carrying around 19 tonnes each. The bulk sits at the lower end: 16 C-295s that carry about nine tonnes each, and around 105 An-32s with a 6.7-tonne payload and airframes over 40 years old.
Around 120 of these roughly 160 aircraft therefore carry under 10 tonnes each, leaving a gap in the 18-30-tonne class. The first made-in-India C-295 flew in June, but it replaces the Avro-748 rather than the An-32 and has missed its September delivery timeline. Nor can the heavy end be expanded. Boeing delivered the world's last C-17 to the IAF in 2017 and a CAG audit found that IL-76 serviceability averaged just 38 per cent in 2010-16, against the 70 per cent required.
Where does India's transport fleet fall short, and how soon can it be strengthened?
The defence ministry floated the ₹1 lakh crore tender for 60 medium transport aircraft (MTA) only in August, two months after an An-32 crash at Jorhat killed five personnel.
The MTA must carry the 25-tonne Zorawar light tank, M777 howitzers and BrahMos missile canisters, and operate from short, rough airstrips. Embraer's C-390 and Lockheed Martin's C-130J-30 are the frontrunners. But first deliveries are due only within three years of the contract, which is yet to be inked.
Is the modernisation shortfall confined to transport aircraft?
The fighter fleet is in worse shape. The IAF is down to 29 squadrons against a sanctioned 42.5 and it is yet to receive a single Tejas Mk1A. That is even though 180 have been ordered, with deliveries originally due to begin in early 2024. The 114 additional Rafales await contract signing and the fifth-gen flagship Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) stealth fighter is more than a decade away.
On the ground, the BRO's capital budget for 2026-27 went up by a modest 3.5 percent to Rs 7,394 crore, against a 15 percent hike in the overall defence budget. Nyoma shows that India can push airlift right up to the LAC. But until the MTA, the Tejas Mk1A, the Rafales and the AMCA actually arrive, the 'Gajraj' touchdown will remain more a statement of intent than a shift in the balance.