Major Exercises of Indian Army

Major exercises of Indian Army

1. Operation Brasstacks: Operation Brasstacks was launched by the Indian Army in November 1986 to simulate a full-scale war on the western border. The exercise was the largest ever conducted in India and comprised nine infantry, three mechanised, three armoured and one air assault division, and included three independent armoured brigades. Amphibious assault exercises were also conducted with the Indian Navy. Brasstacks also allegedly incorporated nuclear attack drills. It led to tensions with Pakistan.
2. Exercise Ashwamedha: Indian Army tested its network centric warfare capabilities in the exercise Ashwamedha. The exercise was held in the Thar Desert, in which over 300,000 troops participated. Asymmetric warfare capability was also tested by the Indian Army during the exercise.
3. Exercise Yuddh Abhyas: Exercise Yuddh Abhyas is part of an ongoing series of joint exercises between the Indian and United States Armies since 2005, agreed upon under the New Framework of India-US Defence Relationship. Commencing at the platoon level, the exercise has graduated to a command post (CPX) and field training exercise (FTX).
4. Exercise Shakti:  Exercise Shakti is an ongoing series of joint exercises between the Indian and French armies since 2011. Exercise Shakti is conducted to practice and validate anti-terrorist operations and drills in snowbound and mountainous areas. The theme of the exercise is to conduct platoon level joint counter insurgency operations in high altitude mountainous terrain under the UN Charter, thus emphasizing the shared concerns of both countries about global terrorism. An added aim of the exercise is to qualitatively enhance knowledge of each other’s military procedures thus increasing the scope for interoperability and better responsiveness to a common threat. The twelve day exercise with France Army is scheduled to be conducted in multiple modules in order to achieve complete integration between the two contingents at every stage.
5. Exercise Shoorveer: On first week of April 2012 Indian Army has launched a massive summer exercise in the Rajasthan desert involving over 50,000 troops and several hundred artillery guns and infantry combat vehicles as part of its efforts to shore up its battle worthiness on the western front with Pakistan. The exercise, code-named “Shoorveer”, is being conducted by the Jaipur-based South Western Command and will end in the first week of May. This is the largest ever exercise conducted by Indian army since 1947.
6. Exercise Rudra Akrosh: In May 2012 Indian army start testing the preparedness level of its units and to validate new age technology, battle concepts, organizational structures and networked operations, Western Army Command is conducting its summer training exercises in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, Codenamed Exercise Rudra Akrosh, the war games are aimed to validate the operational and transformational effectiveness of various formations under the Western Army Command. It includes various summer training maneuvers where approximately 20,000 troops tested battle skills with state-of-the-art weapon systems in complete integration of the fighter and transport aircraft pitched in by the Indian Air Force. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and attack helicopters were also coopted in the operational scenario.
7. Exercise Nomadic Elephant: The Indian Army has been conducting training exercises with the Mongolian Army. The first exercise took place in 2004, and these exercises have since been taking place every year. In 2012, the exercise took place in Belgaum, and in June 2013, they were held in Mongolia. The aim of the exercises is to enhance counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations, and conduct peacekeeping operations under the mandate of the United Nation.

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 Tashi Mishra, Editorial Team

She is a defense aspirant from Varanasi completed her BCA. She has attended SSB Interview at 1 AFSB Dehradoon and has more SSB coming up. She is confident about joining Defence Forces one day. Here, she is sharing her views and experience. Mail us to join our editorial team now.