Exercise season ahead for Army, Navy

The 8216;Maitree8217; Friendship exercise with Thailand will focus on developing interoperability between the armed forces for possible joint anti-terrorism operations in the future and will involve less than 100 soldiers from each side. The land forces will share experiences in conducting anti-insurgency operations and the engagement is likely to be followed up with a similar exercise in Thailand next year.

Towards the end of September, the Indian Special Forces will hold a counter-insurgency exercise with elite US Marines at the Variangte Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram. The ten-day anti-terror drill will involve nearly 60 US troops and an equal number of Indian soldiers.

The Army will also be providing the land forces component at the biggest ever multi-nation naval exercise hosted by India to be held between September 4 and September 8 in the Bay of Bengal. While there will be minimal Army involvement in the Malabar exercise, as many as 25 ships from India, US, Singapore, Australia and Japan are expected to participate.

A company of battle hardened Indian troops will leave for China in the first week of October for the first joint anti-terror exercise between the countries. The training exercise will involve 60 to 70 soldiers from each side but is designed to pave way for larger interactions in the future.

Planners are debating on the location of the joint manoeuvres but have zeroed down on the mountainous Chengdu Military Region and are also looking at the 8216;general area8217; near Aksai Chin for the training operation.

The Army will once again engage US troops at a high altitude counter insurgency war game in November at an undisclosed location as part of the annual 8216;Vajra Prahar8217; series of exercises.