India, Russia Plan Military Exercise

From DefenseNews

Allies India, Russia Plans Air-Land Military Exercises

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NEW DELHI

Military allies Russia and India will hold their largest-ever war games in October with a focus on anti-terrorism combat using airborne commandos and ground forces, India’s defense ministry said Thursday.

They said the joint military exercises would be held in the sprawling Thar desert bordering Pakistan in the middle of October.

The week-long war games involving special forces units of the two post Cold War allies would “seek to strike an inter-operability between land forces for possible future operations under international peacekeeping banners in third countries,” an official said.

‘The war games will entail blitzkrieg-style anti-terrorist commando operations with the use of aircraft and helicopters,” he said, adding a full Russian battalion of 800 commandos and an equal number of Indian special forces personnel will participate.

The announcement comes just days after Russia staged unprecedented military exercises with China.

Despite the 1992 breakup of the Soviet Union, Moscow remains New Delhi’s closest military ally and accounts for more than 70 percent of India’s military hardware.