Team News Riveting
New Delhi, April 14
The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) jointly conducted an exercise in the eastern sector to validate plans for carrying out a strategic airlift of special forces.
“#IndianArmy undertook a Joint Exercise with @IAF_MCC to validate execution of Rapid Reaction Capability followed by conduct of Operations in High Altitude terrain,” Indian Army said in a tweet.
The battle tests add significance as it were conducted amid the continuing tensions with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Eastern Ladakh. The exercise witnessed IAF planes and helicopters landing and dropping troops in designated areas for carrying out operations to “provide a surge” to the existing land forces. The Army said the exercise concluded last week.
According to officials, Air Force’s C17-Globemaster planes and Chinook and Mi-17 helicopters carried out the “insertion into designated landing zones with surgical precision”. Paratroopers from the 50th Parachute Brigade (Shatrujeet Brigade) carried out the helicopter-borne operations with an aim to validate the ability to rapidly deploy into a hostile environment as well as the jointness of the Para-Brigade and regular troops of the Eastern Command.
The exercise was carried out in designated areas of the eastern sector, the officials said, adding that such exercises were a mix of conventional and unconventional military actions that were undertaken by specially designated, selected, trained and equipped units of the Army.
