Indian, Russian armies to hold Exercise INDRA

New Delhi: Indian Army troops will proceed to Russia later this year for participating in the annual INDRA series of exercise between the two armies. Moscow had called off the exercise scheduled to be held in June last year in Russia. An exercise between the navies of the two sides was also cancelled after Russia cited the engagement of their ships in rescue operations in Tsunami-hit Japan.[caption id=“attachment_206401” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Training with foreign troops. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] An Indian Army team is in Russia to hold discussions with its counterparts to prepare for the INDRA 2012 exercise planned to be held around the middle of the year there, Army officials said here. During the visit, the Indian team will also see the area where the exercises are supposed to be held, they said. Since 2003, India and Russia have conducted five of the INDRA-series joint ground and naval exercises. The last such exercise was held between the two countries’ army units in India in October 2010. Meanwhile, Indian is also engaging armies of Singapore and Indonesia in war games to learn from each other’s experience of counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations. A platoon-level exercise, consisting 30 troops, would be held with the Indonesian Army at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairangte in Mizoram from 12 February, the officials said. During the 22-day exercise, troops from Indian and Indonesian armies will participate in several joint drills and exercise to hone their skills in counter insurgency and counter terrorism, they added. With Singapore, the Indian Army will conduct its annual round of joint training codenamed as ‘Bold Kurukshetra’ at Babina in Uttar Pradesh in March. The exercise will focus on joint training of mechanised infantry force. Over 500 soldiers from the Singapore Army will participate in the war-games, the officials said. Singapore will send its own tanks at Babina to practise manoeuvring of tanks in Indian conditions which is different from their own landscape, they added. This year India would conduct joint training and exercises with 15 countries including some key developed countries and immediate neighbourhood. Among top global powers, the exercises would be conducted with armies of US, Russia and France while in the immediate neighbourhood Bangladesh will come to India to learn from its over five decades of experience of counter terrorism and urban warfare operations. PTI