Indra 2018: Tri-service joint India-Russia military exercise to be conducted in India

The tri-service joint military exercise Indra-2018 between India and Russia will take place at Indian military base in second half 2018. In this regard, Russian military delegation visited India to discuss logistics of the exercise.
In this edition of exercise, combined military units of Russian Eastern Military District will participate in military drills. Members of Indian defence forces were also involved in planning of the exercise which included practical operations of units besides consumer services, catering and medical support for Russian units. In addition, they also agreed on procedure for receiving and servicing of military transport aircraft in India.

Background

INDRA military exercise was launched in 2003 as bilateral exercise between India and Russia to boost cooperation and interoperability between navies of two countries. The name of the exercise INDRA has been derived from INDia and RussiA. Till 2016, the bilateral exercises under INDRA were undertaken between respective Armies, Navies and Air Forces of India and Russia by separately engaging with each other without concurrent participation from other services. This exercise was transformed into tri-services military exercise in 2017 and was for first time held successfully in October 2017 at Vladivostok, Russia. It was India’s first joint tri-services exercise and also first between Russia and India. It was also first time Russia has hosted tri-services military exercise on its soil.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2018