The Hindu : Kerala News : Joint military exercises in Lakshadweep

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Joint military exercises in Lakshadweep

G. Anand

Lt. General Noble Thamburaj

Thiruvananthapuram: The Army, the Navy and the Air Force will hold joint exercises in Lakshadweeep and Gujarat in November.

Lt. General Noble Thamburaj, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command, told The Hindu that the exercises would involve amphibious operations and last nearly three months. It was aimed primarily at bettering the coordination among the three arms of the defence forces.

He said it was strategically important for the Army to be a benign but powerful presence in the international region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca. (A third of the world’s trade passes through this region, which is also known for the presence of pirates and armed non-State actors possessing combat capability).

This week, an Ukranian cargo ship loaded with weapons (33 T-72 tanks) for the Kenyan military, was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. A Russian warship with combat units on board had rushed to its rescue. “This is the kind of response we should be prepared for,” he said. The Lt. General inspected the 91st Infantry Brigade stationed at Pangode on Saturday. The brigade is being organised as the “frontline amphibious formation” of the Army.

He said the Army was fast upgrading its amphibious capability and more infrastructure would be added to its training facility at Pangode.

The Army was also inducting the latest equipment needed for amphibious operations. The amphibious forces would exercise with the Navy once every three months.

The Army was in a high state of operational preparedness in the disputed Sir Creek region in Gujarat.

In the South, it was working in tandem with the police forces of nine States (basically collecting intelligence) to combat anti-national forces.

He said the Army was continuously training itself to handle natural disasters. He said Army personnel trained in disaster management and also equipment were on the standby for deployment at short notice near airfields in Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal. The Army had specialised radars for locating survivors under debris, earthmovers, helicopters, inflatable boats and medical teams for undertaking relief work.

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