Thaindian News

Ahmedabad, Feb 9 (IANS) In the background of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attackers using the sea route to enter the country, the three wings of the Indian armed forces Monday jointly conducted one of their largest ever amphibious exercises - Tropez-2009 - at Madhavpur beach in Gujarat.

This is the first time the Joint Doctrine on Amphibious Warfare of the Indian armed forces, formulated last year, was put into practise with its full scope.

The amphibious landing, the most complex of all military manoeuvres was seen on the shores of Madhavpur that also included elements of the Coast Guards.

After pre-assault operations at Karwar, the Amphibious Task Force sailed from Karwar last Thursday landing on the shores of Madhavpur using the newly inducted Landing Platform Dock INS Jalashwa.

Several large tank-landing ships, fleet ships with helicopters, shore-based aircraft and a submarine from the Indian Navy and hovercraft of the Coast Guard were also seen in action.

Troops in waves emerged from the sea and carried out effective assaults on the beach of Madhavpur. The defensive layout depicting the enemy were from the Golden Katar Division of the Indian Army.

The exercise exhibited coordination and synergy between the Armed Forces to carry out such swift military operations in future.

As a precursor, a tri-service landing operation, exercise Triveni, was conducted at Lakshadweep Islands in early January.

The Indian Air Force deployed its Jaguars which carried out rocket attacks with pin-point accuracy on simulated enemy targets. MiG 29s carried out combat air patrol to outmanoeuvre incoming enemy aircraft.

Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and infantry of 91 Infantry Brigade of the Sudarshan Chakra Corps were in both stand-off and hard beaching modes.

Deploying troops in airborne and heliborne modes formed an integral part of the exercise.

AN-32 aircraft dropped paratroopers followed by slithering operations by MI-8 helicopters to deploy troops at the assault area.

The exercise was witnessed by South Western Air Command Air-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief Air Marshal K.D. Singh, Western Naval Command Flag-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief Vice Admiral J.S. Bedi and army’s Southern Command General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Pradeep Khanna.