India-Russia joint military exercise in Rajasthan this month

MOSCOW: India and Russia will hold a joint military exercise, Indira 2013, in Rajasthan this month to enhance interoperability between the two armed forces.

According to an announcement made by the Russian military, the bi-annual exercise will be conducted at the Mahajan field firing range in the western state from October 18 to 28.

It will involve 250 Russian paratroopers of Russia's Eastern Military Command formation and as many servicemen from Indian forces, state-run ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Russia's Eastern Command spokesperson, Alexander Gordeyev, as saying.

Around 250 Russian servicemen from the Eastern Military District are already set to join Russo-Indian joint ground and naval drills at Indra-2013.

The military hardware including T-72 tanks, and BMP-2K and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles would be provided by India, he said.

The two countries have already conducted six Indra-series joint drills since the first exercise conducted in 2003.

In year 2012, The Indo-Russian Joint Military Exercise Indra 2012 was held from August 7-16, at Burduny training range in the Siberian republic of Buryatia in Russia and had involved over 500 servicemen and 50 Russian combat vehicles.