Indian Army Display Firepower, Air Stunts at Zapad 2021

The Indian Army contingent of personnel from the Naga Regiment and Mechanised Infantry and commandos of the Indian Air Force on Monday participated at the multi-nation strategic drills, Zapad 2021, at Nizhniy in Russia.

The Indian Army posted on it official Twitter handle that the contingent carried out a joint rehearsal of the Special Heliborne Operation (SHBO) on Sunday for the final validation of the Zapad 2021 exercise, which will continue till September 16.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the main stage of the Zapad 2021 Russian-Belarusian joint strategic drills at the Mulino testing ground at Nizhny Novgorod earlier in the day, according to Russian news agency TASS.

During the main stage of the exercises, Russian army units, jointly with military contingents from military contingents of the armed forces of Armenia, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia are taking part in practical actions as part of the coalition group of troops, to conduct flexible defense, to deliver targeted fire attack and crush the enemy.

Interestingly, while India showcased its military prowess at the war game, Pakistan and China were among the ‘observer’ nations along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka.

The joint strategic exercise of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus takes place every two years in accordance with the decision taken by the heads of the two states.

The Zapad 2021 exercise is the final stage of joint training of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation in 2021.

A release by the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation said on Monday elaborated on the methodology of performing combat training tasks. It said that the mehodology is based on the experience of recent armed conflicts, as well as new methods of action of troops and forces that have proven themselves during combat training events.

“The draw will use the method of a through attack, which is the most difficult type of training of troops (forces) and requires precise and coordinated actions from the opposing sides. For the first time, reconnaissance and fire support robots Uran-9 multifunctional robotic complexes, prototypes of BMP B-19 infantry fighting vehicles with the Epokha combat module, mixed mobile air defense groups to combat unmanned aerial vehicles will be used,” the Russian military said in the statement.

“In the fire defeat of a mock enemy, all types of aviation equipment in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces will be involved, attack UAVs, artillery, rocket and multiple launch rocket systems as part of reconnaissance, shock and fire complexes, high-precision ammunition, heavy flamethrower systems TOS-1, an engineering reconnaissance and fire complex of engineering systems for remote mining,” it added.

Zapad 2021 will focus primarily on operations against terrorists, the Indian Army said in a recent statement. “The Naga battalion group participating in the exercise will feature an all arms combined task force. The exercise aims to enhance military and strategic ties amongst the participating nations while they plan and execute this exercise,” it further said.

Source:HT