With the motive to enhance the ability of Indian and Indonesian Army to undertake joint tactical level operations in a counter insurgency environment under United Nations Charter, the troops from both sides will be participating in joint training exercise 'Garuda Shakti'.
This will be the fourth edition of the joint exercise, which will be conducted for 13 days from March 10 to 23 March 16 at Magelang, Indonesia, in which an Indian Army platoon strength contingent will carry out cross training with a platoon from the Airborne battalion of the Indonesian Army.
The exercise is conducted on a reciprocal basis and its first edition was conducted in the year 2012 in India. The second edition was conducted in Indonesia in 2013 and third in India in 2014.
The selected Indian unit has had varied operational experience in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist operations in the Northern, Western and Eastern theatres.
The Indian Contingent, which will be performing the training exercises, has been put through a rigorous training schedule to prepare it for the exercise which includes combat conditioning, firing, tactical operations, tactical skills and special heliborne operations training.
Moreover, to coordinate with modalities of training, an Exercise Planning Conference was held at Yogyakarta, Indonesia on September 22 and 23 last year.
During the conference, both Armies finalized the modalities of conduct of joint training and signed an Agreement. The operational part of the exercise commenced with individual Armies training in respective countries and this would translate in exchange of expertise during the Joint Training Exercise in Indonesia.
The opening ceremony for the exercise will be conducted on March 11.
The Indian contingent is scheduled to reach exercise location at Magelang, Indonesia, familiarize with the weapons, equipment, tactical drills and orient themselves to the terrain.
The exercise will be conducted as joint Counter Insurgency operations exercise in urban and rural scenario and encompass various facets of tactical Counter Insurgency operations.
The idea behind this is to enhance the ability of Indian and Indonesian Army to undertake joint tactical level operations in a Counter Insurgency environment under United Nations Charter.
The scope encompasses visualization of insurgency related crisis situation in rural / urban setting in Counter Insurgency environment, learn each other's Counter Insurgency doctrines, tactics and share experience of Counter Insurgency operations.
It also includes the ambit of identifying areas of expertise/ specialization of each other, evolution of combat tactical drills for conduct of tactical Counter Insurgency operations and to undertake combined training for neutralization of insurgency threat.
The exercise will culminate with the closing ceremony to be conducted on March 23 and is to be attended by senior officers from both the armies and civil dignitaries.
