ITANAGAR: The boom of big artillery guns echoed in Arunachal Pradesh as the Army conducted a high-voltage combat exercise in the eastern theatre at high altitude.
Amid heightened tensions with China, this drill was aimed at honing the fighting capabilities and synergising contingency operations of the army in war-like conditions in the eastern theatre.
The integrated surveillance and firepower training exercise named “Buland Bharat” was conducted in the crucial high-altitude Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Among other heavy weapon systems, the drill saw the Army use 155mm Bofors howitzers, 105mm field guns and 120mm mortars, according to sources on Wednesday.
It has been four years since the military confrontation with China’s People’s Liberation Army after it made multiple intrusions into Indian territory in eastern Ladakh. This has led to the deployment of a wide array of artillery weapons being along the entire 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The artillery deployed includes the old 105mm field guns and Bofors, retro-fitted Dhanush and Sharang guns, Pinaka and Smerch multi-launch rocket systems, new M-777 ultra-light howitzers and K-9 Vajra self-propelled tracked guns adapted to winter conditions.
China has also upped the ante along the Sikkim-Arunachal Pradesh frontier, which resulted in the clash between the rival troops of Indian Army and PLA at Yangtse in the Tawang sector on December 9. Since then, the Army and IAF have been undertaking a series of exercises to test battle-readiness in the eastern sector to thwart any such attempts in the future.
The Buland Bharat exercise involved the synergistic application of surveillance and firepower capabilities of the artillery and the infantry in close coordination with the Special Forces, aviation elements and Central Armed Police Forces, sources said.
According to sources, the exercise had been validating plans for using high-volume firepower, coupled with firing by artillery guns and fire support components of the infantry in synchronicity with radars, to destroy designated targets.
The Indian troops and equipment were tested in simulated war conditions during the exercise, after a month-long training in the high-altitude areas under extreme weather conditions.
Only last month, the Army and IAF had also conducted drills for “multi-mode rapid insertion” of Special Forces using strategic airlifters like C-17 Globemaster-IIIs as well as Chinook and Mi-17 helicopters, along with specially-designated and equipped units on the eastern front.
The IAF has also deployed the new Russian-origin S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system in the region, apart from positioning of Rafale and Sukhoi-30MKI fighters at Hasimara, Chabua and Tezpur. The S-400 Triumf missile system can detect and intercept hostile fighters, strategic bombers and missiles at a range of 380-km.
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