Army war drill in n-attack environment near Pakistan border concludes

Over 25,000 soldiers of the Indian Army on Wednesday concluded their month-long military drill, sharpening their combat skills to face all contingencies, including nuclear or biological attacks, and battling above 45-degree heat and sand storms in hot and dry deserts near the Pakistan border in Rajasthan.

An army spokesperson said modern war fighting equipment including tanks, attack helicopters, drones and fighter aircraft were used in the exercise Vijay Prahar by Army's South Western Command.

The drill was conducted in Mahajan Field Firing Ranges close to Suratgrah, some 300 km from the closest Pakistani border post.

The participating formations fine tuned their skills in "fighting dirty and continuing the offensive even after a tactical nuclear, chemical or biological attack by the adversary by our modern chemical, bilogical, radiological and nuclear defense", spokesperson Lt. Col. Manish Ojha said in a statement.

Lt. Gen. Cherish Mathson, who heads the Sapta Shakti command, witnessed the "final offensive of his forces achieving a decisive victory".

"I had laid out unambiguous scope for activities to be carried out and had also bench marked standards to be achieved and I am fully satisfied with in effort put in and result achieved," the Army commander said.

Lt Gen Mathson said the military drill was marked by designing an offensive campaign on the principles of operational art in a deep air-land battle with real time intelligence using space based surveillance.

"The concept of air cavalry employing attack and weaponised helicopters has also been validated.

He said with India's contemporary "just in time" logistics, the Army's "deep thrusts can be sustained effectively".

The commander also complimented the troops who braved the soaring temperatures above 45 degrees and sand storms.

--IANS

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