By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Nov 5:
The 11 th edition of the annual Joint Military Training (JMT) between the Indian Air Force (lAF) and the Royal Singapore Air Force (RSAF) commenced at Air Force Station, Kalaikunda at Kharagpur in West Bengal on Thursday.
This edition of JMT would be conducted over a period of six weeks. The bilateral phase of the exercise will be conducted from November 09 till November 18 and will see the two Air Forces engage in advanced air combat simulations, an official statement read.
The RSAF is participating in JMT-2022 with F-16 aircraft, while the IAF would field the Su-30 MKI, Jaguar, MiG-29 and LCA Tejas aircraft. The exercise underscores the strong and longstanding relationship between India and Singapore in the domain of defence cooperation. It seeks to provide the participating contingents with an opportunity to share valuable operational knowledge and best practices, while strengthening the professional bonds between the two Air Forces.
The two Air Forces have resumed this training after a gap of two years since the training could not be carried out in the intervening two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Military exercises of India are divided into three categories: Domestic Exercise: The purpose of the domestic military exercise is to improve internal engagements and intra-service and inter-service among all the forces. Bilateral Exercise: These military exercises are held between two countries. Multilateral Exercise: These military exercises involve the militaries of more than two countries.
Some of the exercises are: India and Australia: Army-Austra Hind, Navy-Ausindex, India and Bangladesh : Army-Sampriti, Navy-IN-BN Corpat, Air Force- Table To Ex, India and France : Army-Shakti, Navy-Varuna, Air Force-Garuda, India and Indonesia : Army- Garuda Shakti, Navy-Ind-Indo Corpat, India and Japan-: Army- Dharma Gurdian, Navy-JIMEX, India and Kazakhstan: Army- Parbal Dostyk and India and Kyrgyzstan-: Army- Khanjar.
India and Maldives: Army- Ekuverin, India and Mongolialdives: Army- Nomadic Elephant, India and Myanmar: Army- IMBEX, Navy-IMCOR, India and Nepal: Army- Surya Kiran, India and Oman: Army- Al Nagah, Naseem-al-Bahr, Air Force-Eastern Bridge-IV, India and Russia: Army-Indra, Navy-Indra Navy, Air Force-Indra, India and Seychelles: Army-Lamitiye and India and Sri Lanka: Army-Mira Shakti.
As friendly countries participate in joint military exercises, it leads to positive operational interactions and improves the capabilities of the armed forces in a variety of different war fighting areas. The latest tactical and technological methods, procedures, etc., are exchanged during such joint military exercises. Although this is a continuous process, appropriate action is occasionally made to involve friendly countries and broaden the scope of exercises based on the idea of mutual benefit and the participating country’s strategic needs.
