A major military exercise involving 30,000 troops across multiple domains to validate the “theatre command concept” was reviewed by Army Chief General MM Naravane on Friday

It entailed air-dropping a sizeable number of troops, vehicles, artillery guns and BMPs to mimic “dropping troops behind enemy lines”.

The air-drop is part of exercise “Dakshin Shakti” that is being conducted across the deserts of Rajasthan, the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and the various creeks that dot the India-Pakistan coast in Arabian Sea.

“The aim is to ensure integrated application of forces in multi-domain operations and upholding the nation’s military aims over the entire spectrum of conflict,” a spokesperson for the Indian Army said.

During the past one week, units and formations of the Indian Army practiced tactical and operational manoeuvres by its infantry, mechanised formations and airborne troops in a fast changing battlefield environment.

The Advanced Light Helicopter with weapons and swarm drones were enmeshed with artificial intelligence to provide a cohesive operational and intelligence picture amalgamated. Meanwhile, the biennial Indo-France military exercise “Ex SHAKTI- 2021” culminated after 12 days in France. It entailed joint military training, exhibiting combat power and dominance over the extremist groups in a counter insurgency/counter-terrorism scenario.

The exercise was conducted in two phases involving combat conditioning and tactical training of counter-terrorism operations culminating with validation of training in semi-urban environment.