US-India to hold its first tri-military services drill

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Sun, Jul 15, 2018, 06:38 PM

US-India to hold its first tri-military services drill

Washington, July 15: India-US are expected to hold their 1st tri-services military drill later this year and talks to finalize the procedure of the exertion are on, a senior Defence Ministry official has said.

The 3 wings of the armed forces of India and the US hold separate military exercises, but this will be the first time that the 2 countries will have a joint drill of their Army, Air Force and the Navy.

The topic is odds-on to come up for talks in September during the 2 plus 2 Dialogue including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on one side and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis on the other.

Sitharaman and Mattis, during his visit to India last year, had speculated on traversing the additional specialized military drills between the 2 countries. This will be 2nd such international military drill involving all the 3 services.

Last year, an Indian dependent embracing 350 personnel from Army, 80 from Air Force, 2 IL 76 aircraft and 1 Frigate and Corvette each from the Navy participated in a reciprocal exercise, 'Indra 2017', with the Russian forces in Eastern Military District of Russia.

The armies of India and the US also participated in Exercise Yudh Abhyas - 2017 at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, while the navies of India and the US had last month participated in Malabar 2018, a trilateral exercise involving Japan.