India, US to carry out joint military exercise

Armies of India and the US will carry out a military training exercise in the foothills of the Himalayas at Chaubattia from September 16.

Yudh Abhyas 2018 is one of the longest running joint military training exercises and a major bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and the US, a defence press release in Dehradun said.

This will be the 14th edition of the joint military exercise hosted alternately by both countries which will conclude on September 29.

The combined exercise will simulate a scenario where both nations are working together in counter insurgency and counter terrorism environment in mountainous terrain, the release said.

The two-week exercise will witness participation of about 350 personnel of the US army and similar strength of Garud Division of the Indian Army.

The exercise curriculum is progressively planned where the participants are initially made to get familiar with each other's organisational structure, weapons, equipment, confidence training and tactical drills.

Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein the battle drills of both the armies are coherently unleashed.

The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a fictitious but realistic setting, the release said.