Hello, Warriors! To strengthen its ties with international countries and to tackle terrorism, India is frequently engaged with bilateral military exercises with its friendly nations.
India has held many military exercises with various countries this year. The latest being Hand-in-Hand 2015 with the People’s Liberation Army of China.
Well, guess who is going to be India’s new guest for this now?
Not surprisingly, it’s an old friend, Russia.
India and Russia will begin their joint army exercise ‘Indra’ focusing on counter-terrorism operations this week.
Here are the key points of this exercise which, we, as defence aspirants must acquire:
- The seventh Indo-Russian joint training exercise INDRA-2015 has commenced at Mahajan field firing range in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
- The Russian contingent from an Independent Motorised Brigade comprising 250 Military personnel along with supporting staff landed at Bikaner directly from Russia.
- Participating from India is the soldiers of the Indian Army’s Infantry Battalion.
- The two contingents of India and Russia presented a parade before the senior officers in the opening ceremony with unfurling of the National Flags of both the countries.
- The 14-day training schedule is focused on training on ‘Counter-Terrorism Operations in the backdrop of Desert terrain under a United Nations Mandate’.
- Both the sides would initially acquaint themselves with the approach to such operations, Command and Control systems as well as arms and equipment of each other.
- The joint training would also focus on ensuring a high degree of physical fitness, tactical drills, techniques and procedures. A comprehensive training programme for a period of four weeks has been worked out for the same.
- During the exercise, participants will engage in a variety of missions including joint planning, cordon and search operations, search and rescue, joint tactical drills and special arms skills.
- The exercise would be conducted in two phases, namely ‘Combat Conditioning & Tactical Training’ and ‘Validation’ phases.
The broadened and unprecedented scope of the exercise to be witnessed by senior Indian as well as Russian Generals stands as a testimony to the deep and mature, people to people as well as military to military ties between Russia and India.
