By Akshay Dongare, Manjeet Negi, Anupam Mishra: In the first week of April, the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force jointly conducted a multi-domain exercise in the Eastern Theatre. The exercise was carried out to validate joint plans for strategic airlift of Specialised Forces employing IAF fixed and rotary wing platforms by landing/dropping in designated areas for undertaking kinetic actions to provide surge to ongoing operations by regular land forces.

Such special operations exercises are a mix of conventional or unconventional military actions that are undertaken by specially designated, selected, trained and equipped units.

C-17 Globemasters, Chinooks and Mi-17s undertook multi-mode insertion into designated greenfield landing zones with surgical precision. Paratroopers from the Shatrujeet Brigade conducted special heliborne operations with the aim of validating their ability to rapidly deploy into hostile environments using Chinooks and Mi17 helicopters to augment the capability of the regular ground forces.

The exercise carried out in designated areas of the Eastern Theatre as per a tactical setting, showcased the operational preparedness, and synergy of strategic forces and troops of Eastern Command to undertake integrated multi-domain operations in high altitude and mountainous terrain.

The exercise also demonstrated the speed, agility and lethality of the specialised troops, showcasing their ability to rapidly deploy into a hostile environment, secure landing zones and engage the enemy with precision and speed as per the tactical setting.