India's special forces and US Marines will hold their second counter-insurgency exercise in the army's elite jungle warfare school at Variangte in Mizoram next month.
NEW DELHI: India's special forces and US Marines will hold their second counter-insurgency exercise in the army's elite jungle warfare school at Variangte in Mizoram next month.
"This will be a follow-up to a similar exercise held with the Marines last year," a top army official said.
Sixty US Marines and an equal number of crack Indian troops drawn from the Eastern Command will take part in the anti-terrorism drill lasting more than 10 days.
This interaction between the land forces of the two countries will follow the biggest ever multi-nation naval exercise to be held during September 4-8 in the Bay of Bengal, in which frontline warships from both India and the US will take part.
The counter-insurgency wargame at Vairangte is part of the annual 'Vajra Prahar' series of exercises between the land forces of the two countries. It will be followed by a joint anti-insurgency exercise in a high altitude area in the middle of November, officials said.
No venue has been fixed so far for the high altitude exercise, in which airborne elements will also take part, they said.
Last year, the two countries held such an exercise at Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.
Some of the Marines who will participate in the 'Vajra Prahar' exercises would be flying in after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, where US and allied forces are engaged in counter-insurgency operations.
The Marines who earlier participated in an exercise in the Variangte jungle warfare school had described the experience as a "great learning loop".
Besides the US forces, troops from many countries have regularly joined training exercises in the specialised army school.
Under the army-to-army steering group's protocol, Indian and US forces hold the 'Yudh Abhyas' and 'Vajra Prahar' series of exercises every year in venues in the two countries.
Before practising counter-insurgency tactics with the US forces, the Indian Army will conduct its first anti-terror exercise with Thai forces at Ranchi in Bihar in the first week of September.
A company of troops from Thailand will join the manouvres with an equal number of troops from the Sikh Regimental Centre at Ramgarh.
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