Inaugural edition of Africa-India Joint Field Training Exercise underway

The inaugural edition of Africa-India Joint Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX-19) between 17 African nations and Indian Army is being conducted in Pune under the overall supervision of Headquarters Southern Command.

The exercise commenced on March 18 and will conclude on March 27. The training of the participating nations is being conducted at two locations.

The Humanitarian Mine Action training is being conducted at the College of Military Engineering (CME), Pune and Peace Keeping Operations being conducted at Foreign Training Node, Aundh Military Station.

The Humanitarian Mine Actions (HMA) leg of AFINDEX-19 has been conducted at College of Military Engineering (CME) in four phases.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Defence, the first phase included the 'Training of the trainers' from the participating nations. The second phase involved detailed training of the entire contingent of around 180 trainees on various aspects of the HMA training. The training was structured around the five pillars of mine action which are Mine Risk Education (MRE), demining including manual, mechanical and dog assisted demining techniques, victim assistance, use of anti-personnel mines including a total ban and stockpile destruction.

The third phase of training involved practising the drills on the ground by the contingents under the instructors from the College of Military Engineering (CME), as part of the validation exercise. During this exercise, use of Advanced Light Helicopter was done for simulating mine casualty evacuation. The training on stockpile destruction was conducted by using three methods of detonation, burning and incineration.

The final phase of training was conducted as a static equipment display. The trainees were shown and briefed on the latest equipment in HMA held by College of Military Engineering CME as well as government and non government agencies such as Research and Development Engineers (R & DE), Dighi, Artificial Limb Centre (ALC), Pune and various civilian defence equipment production agencies," read the press release.

The training on HMA has been conducted in a very professional manner by the CME.

It has been highly appreciated by all 17 participating nations from the African continent as well as the observers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Mozambique.