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Army, IAF to showcase might in March
NEW DELHI: After "soft power", it's time to flex the military muscle now. In keeping with its aspirations to be viewed as an emerging superpower, India will showcase its hard military power to an international audience with a huge Army-IAF combat exercise in March.
Defence ministry sources say plans are afoot to call around 150 foreign military observers, including defence attaches based in New Delhi, for the exercise named "Brazen Chariots". It will be held in the deserts of Rajasthan in the third week of March.
"The list of foreign observers is still being finalised but we expect representatives from around 100 countries. They will be taken to the Pokhran field firing ranges for the exercise and firepower demonstration," said a source.
The exercise will be the largest in recent times, with the entire gamut of sophisticated weapon systems and platforms, reconnaissance and command and control systems coming into play in a bid to dazzle the foreign observers.
The message for the foreign observers to take back home will be that India is both an economic and military powerhouse.
India, after all, has spent a whopping $12 billion in the last four years to import military hardware and software.
Moreover, it plans to spend another $30 billion for the purpose during 2007-2012.
The exercise will see the Army's southern command and IAF's southwestern command join hands to demonstrate and practise "synergised air-land operations in a mechanised and digitised environment', with the basic focus being on launching "swift offensive multiple-thrusts" to strike deep behind enemy lines.
The Army and IAF will virtually unleash the entire range in their inventories, ranging from T-90S main-battle tanks and Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems to advanced Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets and Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), apart from combat drills by the elite special forces.
Army, IAF to showcase might in March-India-The Times of India
NEW DELHI: After "soft power", it's time to flex the military muscle now. In keeping with its aspirations to be viewed as an emerging superpower, India will showcase its hard military power to an international audience with a huge Army-IAF combat exercise in March.
Defence ministry sources say plans are afoot to call around 150 foreign military observers, including defence attaches based in New Delhi, for the exercise named "Brazen Chariots". It will be held in the deserts of Rajasthan in the third week of March.
"The list of foreign observers is still being finalised but we expect representatives from around 100 countries. They will be taken to the Pokhran field firing ranges for the exercise and firepower demonstration," said a source.
The exercise will be the largest in recent times, with the entire gamut of sophisticated weapon systems and platforms, reconnaissance and command and control systems coming into play in a bid to dazzle the foreign observers.
The message for the foreign observers to take back home will be that India is both an economic and military powerhouse.
India, after all, has spent a whopping $12 billion in the last four years to import military hardware and software.
Moreover, it plans to spend another $30 billion for the purpose during 2007-2012.
The exercise will see the Army's southern command and IAF's southwestern command join hands to demonstrate and practise "synergised air-land operations in a mechanised and digitised environment', with the basic focus being on launching "swift offensive multiple-thrusts" to strike deep behind enemy lines.
The Army and IAF will virtually unleash the entire range in their inventories, ranging from T-90S main-battle tanks and Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems to advanced Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets and Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), apart from combat drills by the elite special forces.
Army, IAF to showcase might in March-India-The Times of India
