INDRA 2013 INDO-RUSSIAN MILITARY EXERCISE

Troops of India and Russia are engaging each other in war games codenamed exercise "Indra" at the Mahajan range under scenarios and situations resembling South Sudan where Indian troops are presently deployed as part of UN peacekeeping mission and face similar challenges. 

The joint field exercise between troops of the two countries began on October 22 and plans to carry out an anti-terrorist operation, involving the destruction of illegal armed formations. Russian troops will be using Indian military equipments, including the T-72 and BMP-2.

"The essence of the exercise was under the UN peacekeeping environment. When we thought about this exercise, it was something akin to South Sudan which is where we are still operating," Brig VM Chandran, commander of the 6th Independent Armoured Brigade said. 

Elaborating about the current terrain, he said the Chidasa village here was made to resemble places in South Sudan. 

        "This village has always been used for such exercises and we planned and constructed the houses in such a way that it s akin to buildings of South Sudan," he said. 

 "This is for the first time that a joint exercise is pitched at the Combat Group level," said defence spokesperson Col S D Goswami. 

In year 2012, The Indo-Russian Joint Military Exercise Indra 2012 was held from August 7-16, at Burduny training range in the Siberian republic of Buryatia in Russia and had involved over 500 servicemen and 50 Russian combat vehicles. Over 250 Indian Army personnel and a equal number of Russian Army personnel participated in the exercise, which involved joint battle reconnaissance and simulated destruction of an illegal armed force.

It is worth mentioning here that that the two countries have already conducted seven Indra-series joint drills since 2003 (2003-2013).

He said that the Mahajan field firing range, under control of the headquarter of the South Western Command (Jaipur), has a world class training infrastructure developed during last 2-3 years, which is utilised for carrying out joint international exercises with friendly foreign countries like Russia, USA, UK, France, Thailand and Kazakhstan. 

A combat group of Russian Army personnel and an equal complement of Indian soldiers from South Western Command will witness integration of their tactical and technical skills in a UN peace enforcement scenario involving mechanised forces. 

Goswami said that the Indian side will be led by Colonel Rajesh Nambiar, the Combat Group Commander while the visiting Russian contingent will be led by Lt Gen Vladimir G Tzilko. 

State of the art equipment for surveillance and target acquisition specialist weapons for close quarter battle, explosive and IED detectors, as well as the latest communications equipment, has been fielded for the joint exercise. 

        Both sides will jointly plan and execute a series of well integrated tactical drills for neutralisation of threats that may be encountered in UN peace operations. 

In April, a Lt Colonel was among the five army personnel killed when their 32-member convoy came under attack in Gurmuck in the volatile state of Jonglei, South Sudan. Four others were injured in the attack. 

There are around 2,200 Indian army personnel operating in Sudan.