All operational ships, submarines and aircraft of the Indian Navy participated

New Delhi: With a two-front war in mind, the Indian Navy undertook a gruelling military exercise along with the Army, Air Force and the Coast Guard, replicating realistic conflict situations in a war game.

The exercise spanned from the northern Arabian sea off the Gujarat coast to the southern Indian Ocean off Sunda Straits near Indonesia.

The two-month-long exercise has been concluded and the Navy will now undertake "extensive debriefings" to identify key takeaways of the exercise and formulate measures to further strengthen contingency plans, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The exercise saw participation of all the operational ships, submarines and aircraft of the Indian Navy along with men and equipment of the Indian Army, all types of aircraft of the Indian Air Force and ships and aircraft of the Coast Guard.

The war game on the eastern seaboard was codenamed Encore (Eastern Naval Command Operational Readiness Exercise) while on the western seaboard it was codenamed as Exercise Paschim Lehar.

The idea behind conducting the exercises simultaneously on both seaboards was the Navy's threat perceptions of a two-front war.

"Greater focus has been accorded to conflict readiness across the spectrum as well as realistic scenarios likely to be faced at sea," the official said.

Also, mission-ready ships are now forward deployed in critical areas of the Indian Ocean region with "inherent capability to respond to emerging threats and benign situations".