Kolkata, (Samajweekly) In less than a month after Ex Vayu Prahar close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Eastern Theatre, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted yet another tactical drill in the first week of April to validate multi-mode insertion of strategic forces along the Frontier.
Ex Vayu Prahar was a 96-hour multi-domain air-land exercise conducted during the second week of March. It involved insertion and extraction of the Army’s Special Forces at a designated Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) by C-130J Super Hercules and C-17 Globemasters of the IAF.
The latest exercise involved both tactical fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft of the IAF to land/drop Special Forces in designated areas for ‘undertaking kinetic actions to provide surge to ongoing operations by regular land forces’, the Army’s Eastern Command revealed on Thursday.
This exercise is important, keeping in mind the continuing standoff between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Doklam — a trijunction between India, Bhutan and Tibet Autonomous Region close to the Chicken Neck Corridor of North Bengal — and China’s aggressive stance along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh.
China has not only created military infrastructure on its territory close to the LAC but has also renamed certain parts of Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as southern Tibet. India has diplomatically rubbished this attempt by China to rename locations in Arunachal but the military threat from across the LAC continues.
Army chief Gen Manoj Pande and other top officers have maintained that the situation along the LAC continues to be tense.
Both the Indian Army and the IAF is now at a state of full preparedness to meet any challenge from across the LAC.
This involves regular forces of the Army and specialised units from the Brahmastra or XVII Corps under the Eastern Command.
“Such Special Operations Exercises are a mix of conventional/unconventional military actions that are undertaken by specially designated, selected, trained and equipped units. C-17 Globemasters, Chinooks and Mi-17 V5s of the IAF undertook multi-mode insertion into greenfield landing zones with surgical precision. Paratroopers of the Shatrujeet Brigade conducted special heliborne operations with the aim to validate their ability to rapidly deploy into hostile environment using Chinook and Mi-17 V5 helicopters to augment the capability of regular ground forces,” a highly placed source in the Eastern Command said.
“The exercise carried out in designated areas of the Eastern theatre as per a tactical setting, showcased the operational preparedness and synergy of strategic forces and regular ground troops to undertake integrated multi-domain operations in high altitude and mountainous terrain.
“The exercise also demonstrated speed, agility and lethality of the specialised troops showcasing their ability to rapidly deploy into a hostile environment, secure landing zones and engage the enemy with precision and speed as per the tactical setting. Overall the troops displayed exceptional professionalism, competence and synergy while operating in the treacherous mountainous terrain,” he added.
China is certainly watching. While India does not want a military confrontation with her northern neighbour, she certainly wants to push a subtle message through. The message is that India has certain aces up her sleeves and won’t take any aggressive stance from across the LAC lying down.
