Joint Military Exercises: Purpose and Potential in Future Context
India was one
of the founding members of non-aligned movements (NAM) and has remained neutral
since then which has adversely affected Indian armed forces and limited India's
military contact with other nations. But with the changing world and regional
scenario in regard of military the Indian government has changed its stance and
has took steps to meet the demanding situations. One of them is to have joint
military exercises with other countries. This is a significant development
towards making the forces more dynamic and better prepared for future
challenges. Military exercise means to create war like scenarios and maneuver
war plans to test their effectiveness. Though Indian armed forces carry out
exercises on routine basis but why there's the need for military exercises with
other armies? Armies around the world have faced numerous wars which are different
from each other in means of resources they fought with, terrain in which they carried
out operations and the time needed to accomplish the objectives. Indian armed
forces have their share of experiences but as India is neither the member of
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) they have not operated or trained with each other as the members of these
organizations are.
To provide
the Indian Armed forces with the first hand experience against World’s renowned
Forces and to ensure its preparedness India started the process of joint
military exercises and is carrying out various joint military exercises with
US, UK, Russia, Israel, China, Japan, Australia, Malaysia and many other
countries. The United States has fought numerous wars since WW II and its navy
has played crucial role in it where as the Indian Navy have been passive except
the Bangladesh Liberation war. With the advancement in naval technologies and
hardware it is necessary to insure its effectiveness and utilization of this
advancement in the time of peace and war. The Exercise Malabar with the navies
of US and Japan underline the India's effort to hone their Navy's skills
against these advanced navies. The US fleet included aircraft carrier, nuclear
submarines and destroyers. India is new in the club of nuclear submarines and
these kind of first hand experiences will significantly lead to better
operability and understanding of these complex systems in war like situations. Also
these exercises had lead to better coordination among these Navies whose
practical implications can be seen in Gulf of Aden which is facing the threat
of piracy and Indian Navy with other forces is working in tandem to ensure the
security of region and has successfully foiled many attempts of piracy. The
purpose of joint military exercises is to be benefited by each other’s
expertise in respective fields. The counter terrorism exercises had helped the
Indian forces to better understand the urban warfare and Indian forces has
effectively implemented these tactics in Jammu & Kashmir and North-East and
has significantly minimized the human and property loss. In joint military
exercises the Indian armed forces are put against their counterparts and chalk
out their combined plans for dealing with variety of scenarios. This gives opportunity
to each side to better understand each other's working methods, way of
conducting operation and is leading to better coordination.
India is
rising on the world stage and having the ambition of playing significant role
in shaping the world of tomorrow. It has become necessity for India to have
plans to support its ambitions. As India is looking for greater role in
Afghanistan and in South China Sea it is essential to have joint military
exercises on regular basis for better collaboration with friendly nations so in
the time of need our army can work jointly with other armies to address
nation's interest. The joint exercises provide chances to look into the working
structure of other forces and even the smallest detail can be of vital
importance in time of need. In 1976 the Air France plane was hijacked and taken
to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The Israeli Defense Forces(IDF) have previously
worked with Ugandan Army and was aware of the fact that Ugandan Army personnel
was fearful of their President Idi Amin. The IDF used this fact as advantage
and while the operation began they used convoy like that of President Amin,
disguised the Ugandan Army personnel and was nearly able to keep the element of
surprise and saved the hostage. As the world scenario is changing there is a
possibility of Indian Armed forces working with other armies. So these
exercises will keep armed forces in good shape and prepared for future
challenges.
