The Indian Navy conducted an Joint Tri-Service Amphibious Military Exercise ‘AMPHEX-21’ in Andaman & Nicobar group of Islands from January 21-25, 2021. Defence Exercise ‘KAVACH’ for defence of Andaman & Nicobar Islands was also a part of AMPHEX-21 exercise,
- KAVACH took place in Andaman Sea & Bay of Bengal under the command of Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC), which is the sole Joint Services Command of the Country.
- Both exercises witnessed participation from all service components of Indian Armed Forces – Indian Army, Air Force, Navy & Coast Guard.
i.Objective:
- To safeguard the Territorial integrity of India’s Islands
- Increasing Operational readiness within the Forces
- Demonstrating Air Dominance and maritime strike capability in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)
ii.Participants in the Exercise:
- Corvettes, submarine & amphibious landing ships of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and Amphibious Brigade of Army’s Southern Command.
- Special Forces – Marine Commandos, Para Commandos
- Jaguar Aircraft & Transport Aircraft from Indian Air Force
iii.Activities carried out during the Exercise:
- The forces demonstrated joint capabilities of Intelligence gathering from space, air, land & sea based assets, analyzing & sharing them on a real-time basis to enable quick decision making during battle times.
- The exercises also focused on joint warfighting capabilities & Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for increasing operational cooperation.
- The forces carried multi-domain, high-intensity offensive & defensive moves in the Andaman Sea & Bay of Bengal
- The operations also involved amphibious landing operations, air landed operation, insertion of Special Forces from Helicopters from sea and other tactical operations.
- All the areas covered during the exercise hold strategic significance for India.
- MI-17 V5 Armed Helicopters undertook precision targeting against designated enemy assets at sea and on land.
- 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.
iv.A combined intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance exercise under the control of Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff took place simultaneously to achieve the objective of Maritime Domain Awareness.
- A Large number of sensors were used to achieve Maritime Domain Awareness.
Recent Related News:
i.November 6, 2020, ANC conducted a three-day Tri-Service Combat Exercise code named “Bull Strike” from November 3-5,2020 at Teressa Island in Nicobar Group of Islands.
About Indian Army:
Chief of Defence Staff – General Bipin Rawat
Commander-in-Chief of Indian Armed Forces – President of India (Ram Nath Kovind)
