Navy’s Month-Long Exercise TROPEX Started: 7 Key Points

The Indian Navy’s Annual Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) got kicked off on 24 January. This is a month-long exercise and will culminate around 23 February.

Here are 7 Key Points about this exercise:

1. The exercise is being conducted off the Western Seaboard. The last edition of the exercise was conducted in January 2015.
2. The exercise will have ships and aircraft of both the Western and Eastern Naval Commands and assets from the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard.
3. The Indian Navy, Air Force, Army and Coast Guard will be seen exercising together in this exercise.
4. Since it started, TROPEX has grown in scale and complexity over the years and will see the participation of major surface combatants and air assets of the Indian Navy.
5. The Naval assets include aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, nuclear submarine Chakra, Landing Platform Dock (LPD) Jalashwa, the recently commissioned destroyer Chennai, the P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
6. The Naval aircraft will be operating alongside SU-30 MKI, Jaguars, AWACS, IL-78 Flight Refuelling Aircraft of the Indian Air Force and Infantry units of the Indian Army.
7. The exercise will be conducted in various phases, both in the harbour and at sea encompassing the various facets of war-fighting and combat operations.

TROPEX 17 assumes special significance in the backdrop of the current security scenario. The exercise is aimed at testing the combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Indian Navy, and the assets of the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard. It will also strengthen inter-operability and joint operations in a complex environment.