India, US To hold Military Exercises Near China border

India and the US have set to conduct joint military training exercise, ‘ Yudh Abhyas 2016’ in a China border state of India, from September 14 to 27.

The exercise at Chaubattia of Uttarkhand was being conducted by the headquarter central command. "It is a series of one of the longest running joint military training and a major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation endeavours between India and the US.

The 12th edition of the joint military exercise is aimed at stimulating a scenario where both nations were working together to counter insurgency and terrorism in mountainous terrain under UN charter. The tactical part of the exercise will include “raid, cordon and search” operations, with the emphasis on equipment for surveillance, tracking and identification of terrorists, using specialist weapons, sensing and neutralising IEDs and establishing effective communications.

The two week exercise will witness participation of about 225 personnel of the US Army and similar strength of Congo Brigade of the Indian Army.

The exercise curriculum is planned where the participants are initially made to get familiar with each other's organizational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills.

Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein the battle drills of both the armies are coherently released.  The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a fictitious but realistic setting. Yudh Abhyas, the first India-US exercise since LEMOA came into existence.  

“Yudh Abhyas will be an opportunity for US and Indian forces to share tactics, techniques, procedures and operational experiences. Yudh Abhyas is also an opportunity to broaden US-India military cooperation and enhance interoperability.” an official from the US embassy told The Sunday Guardian.

Yudh Abhyas has been strategically planned by the Ministry of Defence keeping in mind the features of the Line of Control, which India shares with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control, which India shares with China.

The exercise will be conducted in the heavily forested areas of Chaubattia, where the heights range from 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet.

The exercise will begin with a difficult march of approximately 6 km with complete battle loads of almost 30 kg on each soldier.