India, Russia to kick off Indra joint combat exercise next week

NEW DELHI: Crack infantry troops from India and Russia will kick-off their joint combat exercise "Indra'' at the Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan from next week , with the two armies honing their counter-terrorism skills. Warships from the two countries are also slated to hold the Indra naval wargames on India's eastern seaboard from December 9 to 12.

Around 250 Russian troops will arrive in India over the weekend for the 10-day exercise to match their combat capabilities with soldiers from the Grenadiers Regiment under the Jaipur-based South-Western Command. "The aim of the exercise is to build interoperability between the two armies to undertake joint counter-terrorism operations," said an officer.

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File photo of Indra exercise conducted in 2013

This comes a day after defence minister Manohar Parrikar discussed several military projects, ranging from the acquisition of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to the leasing of a second nuclear-powered submarine, with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday. The meeting has set the stage for the inking of different agreements during the Modi-Putin summit in Moscow in early-December, as was reported by TOI.



File photo of Indra exercise conducted in 2013


Russia has been India's largest defence supplier for long, notching up military sales worth over $45 billion since the 1960s, but their armed forces do not exercise much together. While the first Indra exercise was held at the Mahajan ranges in Rajasthan in 2005, the second was conducted at Pskov in Russia in 2007 and the third at Chaubattia near Ranikhet in Uttarakhand in 2009. Thereafter, the Indra exercise has been held once every year between the two armies.

The two now also hold their Indra series of naval wargames once a year. Indian and Russian air forces, in turn, held their maiden air combat exercise, Ex Avia Indra, for the first time at the Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea in August-September last year.

In sharp contrast, India and the US have held over 80 joint combat exercises over the last decade. The latest one was the top-notch Malabar naval exercise - Japan was also invited for the manoeuvres -- in the Bay of Bengal last month. The IAF is also slated to participate in the famous Red Flag exercise in Alaska in April next year. Having inked defence deals worth over $13 billion since 2007, the US has also overtaken Russia as India's largest arms supplier in the last four years.

India, of course, has increasingly turned to other countries like France, US and Israel for its military hardware and software since the 1999 Kargil conflict, unhappy as it is with Russia for not sticking to delivery schedules, jacking up costs mid-way through execution of agreements and creating hurdles in the ways of transfer of technology.