India-Russia joint military exercise in Rajasthan this month

[Bhai Zakir]

India-Russia joint military exercise in Rajasthan this month


MOSCOW: India and Russia will hold a joint military exercise, Indira 2013, in Rajasthan this month to enhance interoperability between the two armed forces.

According to an announcement made by the Russian military, the bi-annual exercise will be conducted at the Mahajan field firing range in the western state from October 18 to 28.

It will involve 250 Russian paratroopers of Russia's Eastern Military Command formation and as many servicemen from Indian forces, state-run ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Russia's Eastern Command spokesperson, Alexander Gordeyev, as saying.

Around 250 Russian servicemen from the Eastern Military District are already set to join Russo-Indian joint ground and naval drills at Indra-2013.

The military hardware including T-72 tanks, and BMP-2K and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles would be provided by India, he said.

The two countries have already conducted six Indra-series joint drills since the first exercise conducted in 2003.

In year 2012, The Indo-Russian Joint Military Exercise Indra 2012 was held from August 7-16, at Burduny training range in the Siberian republic of Buryatia in Russia and had involved over 500 servicemen and 50 Russian combat vehicles.


India-Russia joint military exercise in Rajasthan this month - The Economic Times

 

[Tshering22]

Excellent.

We need to engage with the Russians more seriously than just defence deals alone. For being BRICS partners, we don't engage with them in counter-terrorism at all at the level with which we cooperate with other countries.

I was always wondering; why Russian air force doesn't hold aerial exercises with IAF at all?

 

[[Bregs]]

Counter terrorism units Russians are awful in planning n execution though far better armed, other exercises with Russia must be regular

 

[vicky sen]

great... we need 2 have more such exercises with russians...de r better friends than america..

 

[COLDHEARTED AVIATOR]

Why desert...why not a mountainous area where Russians have the expertise?

 

[The_magnificent]

Why desert...why not a mountainous area where Russians have the expertise?

Because they want to practice and learn desert warfare keeping syria in mind .

 

[faithfulguy]

great... we need 2 have more such exercises with russians...de r better friends than america..

That would be in the past. India need to think beyond this and open up the possibility of joining the western alliance. Its always good to have an open mind and change the alliance if it suits India.

 

[Bang Galore]

That would be in the past. India need to think beyond this and open up the possibility of joining the western alliance. Its always good to have an open mind and change the alliance if it suits India.

Maybe you should read up on the number of exercises that the U.S. & India carry out. Especially the navies. India couldn't be playing its cards better.

 

[faithfulguy]

Maybe you should read up on the number of exercises that the U.S. & India carry out. Especially the navies. India couldn't be playing its cards better.

India would be a great help to US on certain scenarios. Such as fighting the pirates.

 

[jaunty]

Counter terrorism units Russians are awful in planning n execution though far better armed, other exercises with Russia must be regular

How did you figure that out? Just curious.

 

[[Bregs]]

How did you figure that out? Just curious.

infamous Moscow theater hostage crisis and many other crisis they did resolve but at the causalities much more then British, Israeli or us commandos forces would normally have done

even Indian counter terrorism force is better

 

[Abingdonboy]

Excellent.

We need to engage with the Russians more seriously than just defence deals alone. For being BRICS partners, we don't engage with them in counter-terrorism at all at the level with which we cooperate with other countries.

I was always wondering; why Russian air force doesn't hold aerial exercises with IAF at all?

Despite being very close defence partners the military-military relationship between India and Russia is actually very limited. India conduct more exercises across all 3 services with the US then it ever has with Russia. There are bound to be factors on both sides that have led to this.

 

[jaunty]

infamous Moscow theater hostage crisis and many other crisis they did resolve but at the causalities much more then British, Israeli or us commandos forces would normally have done

even Indian counter terrorism force is better

BS. Do you know how many terrorists were there in Moscow? close to 50. They took hostage of 800-900 people and 100+ died along with all the terrorists. I don't think any other special force would have done a better job. See what happened in Mumbai it took us 3 days to clear up the whole mess and 160 people died. It's easy to pass judgement on the internet, but the real life is not that easy. Just to add to that most people that died in Moscow were from a gas attack.

 

[janon]

...
I was always wondering; why Russian air force doesn't hold aerial exercises with IAF at all?

Because India's tactical fighters were much more advanced than Russia's, in the past decade. India's MKIs outclass Russia's early model flankers. Russian military is undergoing a major transformation now.

An Enduring Partnership: Russian-Indian military cooperation (Part 3: joint projects and future prospects) | Russian Military Reform

In addition, the Russian air force has so far refused to conduct joint exercises with India, possibly because of fears that Indian pilots flying Russian-built aircraft would outperform their Russian counterparts.

Apart from the issue of superior aircrafts, the Russian pilots were also not able to put in enough flight hours due to the budget cuts post soviet collapse. They were in a deplorable state, until Putin took charge. The best among the Indian pilots (who would be selected for these exercises) were much better trained than their Russian counterparts.

Also, for us it was much better value for money to exercise with and against force flying American planes like the F-teens. In an air war with Pakistan, the F-16 would be our biggest threat, so learning to fly against that is far more important than flying against Russian pilots flying the same planes as us. Hence our numerous exercises with USA, Israel, Singapore etc.