Biggest War Game

SOURCE: TNN/IDRW

The Army’s biggest war game Sudarshan Shakti has begun in the Thar desert. Lt General A K Singh, the Southern Army Commander, visited various units on Saturday.

The exercise is to test the operational effectiveness of the Pivot and Strike Corps of the Southern Army and validate certain new concepts. ThePivot Corps training manoeuvres are underway with the Strike Corps manoeuvres following closely on its heels.

The Army commander was briefed on the progress of training by Lt General Sanjeev Langer, GOC, Strike Corps. He also witnessed day and night training manoeuvres. A large demonstration would be organised on November 23, in which Army and Air Force senior officers and journalists would attend.

Another interesting outcome of the joint exercise will be the integrated air-land war-fighting machinery which will assess and highlight the synergy between the Indian Army and IAF. Hence, IAF aircraft, including Sukhoi-30, MiG-29s, MiG-21 ‘Bisons’, Cheetah, Chetak and Mi-25 attack helicopters, are also taking part in the exercise.

Source said ‘The Southern Army is working towards ‘Capability-based approach’ based on series of transformational initiatives spanning, concepts, organizational structures and absorption of new age technologies, particularly in precision munitions, advance surveillance system, space and network-centricity, under the overall guidance of the Indian Army, for which the Army chief and the Southern Army Commander were the main proponents. The unique feature is the joint exercise between the Southern Army and its counterparts in the Air Force and Navy. Defence sources said approximately 30,000 troops, over 200 tanks and many Fighter aircraft are participating in the exercise.

Bhopal based sudarshan chakra 21 Strike Corps& 12 Desert Corps of Jodhpur are participating in the exercise. The military exercise has become very important as being seeing the current scenario & also participation of two Corps has made that even more relevance. With over 30,000 troops participating in the exercise, this is the biggest military manoeuvres being conducted so far in history of Indian Army. The exercise will continue till end of December. The dynamic process of operations, both offensive and defensive, integrating and validation of concepts of modern warfare that have emerged during the transformation studies of Indian Army, network centricity, testing and evaluation of new equipments are some of the objectives to be achieved in the exercise. 

The exercise aimed at rapid mobilization involved several mechanized operations towards offensive operations. Battlefield transparency and operational plans based on real-time situational awareness was enhanced using intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) inputs from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and satellites.With air assets to play a decisive role in future battles, the increased air assets of the Army and Air Force would be employed in an integrated manner in the exercise.