By Our Staff Reporter
Pithoragarh, 1 Mar: Exercise DUSTLIK-2023, a Joint Exercise between India and Uzbekistan is progressing at full steam covering the vast canvas of multi-domain operations in the sub-conventional environment. The exercise being conducted at Foreign Training Node, Pithoragarh, from 20 February will conclude on 5 March. Both the nations share a common goal to exterminate terrorism and bring peace to the world. To achieve the overall aim of maintaining peace and tranquillity at the global platform, both the countries initiated a strong defence cooperation plan in 2019. The maiden exercise was conducted by Uzbekistan in Tashkent.
The exercise between India and Uzbekistan is a platform where the two armies join hands to share and learn tactics, techniques and procedures. This 15 day exercise is primarily aimed at exchanging operational knowledge while enhancing interoperability between the armies of the two nations.
The Commanding Officer of the Indian contingent said that the varied terrain of Pithoragarh provides an opportunity to both the armies to rehearse and execute operational tasks as per the scope of the exercise. Owing to the threat spectrum of both the nations and terrain they inhibit, sharing of tactical drills and skills were the focal point of all the endeavours in DUSTLIK 2023.
The Contingent Commander of the Indian Army added that this exercise is conducted with the aim of achieving inter-operability between both the nations and hence the soldiers of both the Armies were put into exercise for the past one week. Both the troop contingents were put on combat conditioning and tactical training which included firing drills and ‘battle hardening’ work sessions. The Indian contingent took the opportunity to get acquainted with the operational procedures and drills of Uzbekistan Contingent and vice versa. To understand each other’s country, its geography, history, people to people ties and relationships in trade, economics, defence and other sectors, a country presentation was also conducted. The Uzbekistan Army was also introduced to improvised explosive device warfare. Both the armies practiced and shared their skills of conducting unarmed combat, a skill which is an inherent part of practicing anti-terrorist operations. Rock Craft skills, on both natural and artificial rock face, were demonstrated by the Indian Army. The Indian Army contingent also showcased the drills while establishing a mobile check post. Built up area operations forms an inherent part of sub conventional operations. To provide combat firing experience to the Uzbekistan Army, a day-long firing exercise using main assault rifle, Machine Gun and close quarter battle weapon was conducted. The soldiers also practiced special heli-borne operations. The Indian Army demonstrated the methodology of how humanitarian and disaster relief operations are conducted in times of need. A situation wherein a village was completely cut off due to flash flood situation and local population stranded was imagined and it was shown how the Indian army along with civil administration assists in bringing back normalcy by inducting its Engineers, Medical assistance team, special Heli-borne protection teams, and rescue & rehabilitation cell. The joint training will culminate with a 48 hour validation exercise that aims to rehearse and validate the tactical drills in simulated sub-conventional environment.
