India, US gained from each other's experience during Yudh Abhyas: US Army official

Army personnel of India and the United States gained from each other's experience in various fields of operation during a fortnight-long joint military exercise in Uttarakhand, a senior US Army official has said.

The annual exercise named - Yudh Abhyas - was held from September 16-29 in Chaubatia in Almora district.

The exercise witnessed participation of an infantry battalion of the Indian Army and the 1st Battalion 23 Infantry Regiment of the US Army.

"We had a series of objectives for this exercise. We split it in two portions: A field training exercise from soldier up to battalion-brigade level.

"The second part of the exercise that ran concurrently was a simulation driven command post exercise. That was at my level and the brigade level," said Maj. Gen. William H Graham, Deputy Commanding General I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in an interaction with PTI.

 

The scenario that drove the command post exercise was a UN-based humanitarian peacekeeping scenario set in a fictional country, he said.

Describing the scenario as "quite complex", he said it tested the ability of the soldiers from both the countries to plan, organise and execute that complex operation.

Narrating the experience, he said, "My staff was half American and half Indian. We mixed the soldiers together in field training as well into combined companies and they did a series of training exercise and demonstrations and the soldiers learnt from each other how to do their war-fighting tasks."

The exercise was the 14th in the Yudh Abhyas series, which started in 2004 under US Army Pacific Partnership Programme.

Exercise Yudh Abhyas helped strengthen and broaden the inter-operability and cooperation between the two armies, the Indian Army said in a statement last week.

"India has a wealth of experience in peacekeeping operations in the northeast and northwest as well as extensive in Africa, particularly in Congo. The United States has extensive experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"It was tremendous to be able to draw at the solider level...different tactics, different techniques, different procedures and how to accomplish the same tasks when they do in a slightly different ways. We learnt a tremendous amount from Indian soldiers and I believe they learnt similar amount from us," it said.