• Indian Armed Forces conducted a large-scale joint military exercise ‘Kavach’ along with ‘Amphex-21’ (amphibious exercise) in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal with an aim to further enhance their operational convergence. 

Highlights of the exercise:

• The exercise was conducted under the aegis of Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) with participation of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and Army Southern Command (SC) involving assets of Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. 

• The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) is the only tri-services command of the country.

• The exercise involved participation and deployment of all forces of ANC, elements of Amphibious Brigade of Army’s Southern Command along with corvettes, submarine and amphibious landing ships of Navy’s Eastern Fleet and Marine Commandos.  

• Jaguar Maritime Strike and transport aircraft from Indian Air Force and assets of the Coast Guard also participated. 

• The training exercise culminated with the beach landing operations by elements of Amphibious Brigade of Southern Command from INS Jalashwa, Airavat, Guldar and LCU MK-4 class of ships with 600 troops along with tanks, troop carrier vehicles and other heavy weapons. 

• The logistic team demonstrated and validated the joint logistic system and its capabilities to respond to dynamic changes in operational situations and combat missions. The areas in which the exercise was conducted holds strategic significance for India.

• The exercise also validated joint capabilities of intelligence gathering from space, air, land and sea based assets, its synthesis, analysis and near real time sharing to achieve battlefield transparency for quick decision making. 

• The joint force executed multi-domain, high intensity offensive and defensive manoeuvres in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. The exercise fine-tuned joint war fighting capabilities and Standard Operating Procedures towards enhancing operational synergy.   

Additional reading: Indian Armed Forces

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