Month-long military exercise Vijay Prahar concludes

The month-long military exercise, code-named Vijay Prahar, concluded in Mahajan Field Ranges in Bikaner on Wednesday.

More than 25,000 troops of the Jaipur-based Sapta Shakti Command, along with a massive array of modern war-fighting equipment, including tanks, attack helicopters, drones and fighter aircraft, participated in the exercise.

Army Commander of the Sapta Shakti Command Lt Gen Cherish Mathson witnessed the final offensive of his forces at the firing ranges on Wednesday.

“I had laid out an unambiguous scope for activities to be carried out and had also benchmarked standards to be achieved and I am satisfied with the efforts put in and results achieved,” commented the Army Commander while speaking to reporters.

Gen Mathson stressed on designing an offensive campaign on the principles of Operational Art in a deep air-land battle with real-time intelligence. Surveillance and reconnaissance using space-based surveillance marked the beginning of Vijay Prahar.

The concept of air cavalry employing attack and weaponised helicopters has also been validated. Participating formations are now confident of ‘fighting dirty’ and continuing the offensive even after a tactical nuclear, chemical or biological attack by the adversary by our modern CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) capability, a release from the defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha stated.

With contemporary ‘Just in Time’ logistics, our deep thrusts can be sustained effectively. Effective jointmanship with the Indian Air Force has been validated beyond doubt during the exercise, the release added.

The Army Commander complimented the troops who braved the soaring temperatures above 45 degrees and sandstorms and achieved a very high degree of proficiency.

First Published: May 09, 2018 22:21 IST