Navy's war games on 'tactical pause'

Indian Navy has put its war games, Theatre-Level Operational Readiness Exercise (Tropex), on “tactical pause” for the time being. It is assessing the results obtained from the first phase of the largest naval exercise, which involved all maritime stakeholders including the coastal authorities.

Tropex was to be conducted from January-end to early March, with the participation of over 70 warships and combat aircraft. However, there has been little official word on the exercise since the first phase that happened in late January. ET has learnt that at least some scheduled events have either been delayed or put off for now.

While there was speculation that the exercise was called off in the Pulwama aftermath, officials said that Tropex, which happens on both the eastern and western coasts, would begin after a “tactical pause.” Government sources insisted that the exercise will be happen as per schedule and the second phase will commence soon. Sources explained that during routine “tactical pause”, all participating warships are spread on the high seas and go silent for a few days before regrouping for the final phase of a simulated naval battle. All operational ships, submarines and aircraft participate in this exercise.


Tropex is the biggest war games that the Navy conducts and it involves the participation of the Army and Air Force as well. The purpose is to test integrated tri-services capabilities. Tropex is expected to provide realistic assessment of the strengths and weakness of the coastal defence and has been conducted to evaluate changes made since 26/11.