Defence News
Indo-US joint military exercise ‘Vajra Prahar’ to be held in Seattle.
IN line with the increasing military cooperation between India and the US, yet another edition of the joint military exercise ‘Vajra Prahar’ will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle, in which a 45-member Special Forces team from Indian Army’s Southern Command will train alongside US soldiers in the third week of January.
‘Vajra Prahar’ is a Indo-US Special Forces joint training exercise conducted alternately in India and the US.
Though the exercise began in 2010, there was a gap of three years between 2012 and 2015. The last edition was held in Jodhpur in March 2017.
This edition’s Indian Army team is from the Pune-headquartered Southern Command.
“The fact that a team from the Special Forces is participating takes the effort to a different level, as these forces have very special skill sets and training methods.
This sends a very strong message about Indo-US relations to other countries,” an Army officer said.
“The aim of the exercise is to promote military relations between the two countries by enhancing interoperability and mutual exchange of tactics between Special Forces.
The objectives of the joint training is to share the best practices between the two armies and to develop joint strategies by sharing expertise of conducting operations in a counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment, while capitalising on the rich repository of experiences of each other armies,” said another officer.
The exercise will mainly focus on special operations in urban areas.
