New Delhi: As tension continues on the Sino-Indian border along the Line of Actual Control (LOC), Indian Navy has swung into action preparing for its major theatre-level exercise TROPEX, which is scheduled for January next year.
The preparations are on in full swing even as additional ships, both from the eastern and the western fleets, have sailed out and continue to remain at sea, defence sources said.
This maritime exercise will further aid an already-alert Navy in preparing for further contingencies. In the current scenario, they added, the exercise is likely to focus on Chinese actions.
TROPEX or Theatre-Level Readiness and Operational Exercise is carried out by the Navy every alternate year, with individual command exercises — Defence of Gujarat (DGX) by the Western Command, and the Eastern Naval Command Operational Readiness Exercise (ENCORE) — held in the intervening period.
It is meant to assess the Navy’s operational preparedness based on fixed contingencies that are kept classified. The exercise goes on for nearly a month and is followed by a debriefing session.
The previous TROPEX was held in January-February 2019, and reportedly involved about 60 Navy ships, 12 Indian Coast Guard ships, and 60 aircraft.
Soon after the exercise, the Navy was immediately deployed in an operational role in the northern Arabian Sea, in light of the tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror attack in Pulwama and India’s retaliatory airstrikes against a terror training camp in Balakot.
Former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash said TROPEX is a large-scale mobilisation of naval forces, where ships, submarines and aircraft, as well as special forces, are deployed in a mock war-like scenario. The entire exercise is geared to test the professional skills of operators and the doctrinal acumen of commanders, he added.
“This year, it is likely to focus on operations involving ‘blockade’ of merchant shipping and ‘trade warfare’ and may include the nuclear attack submarine as well as the P-8I patrol aircraft,” he said.
“The possibility of Pakistan attempting to open a ‘second front’ to gain advantage cannot be ruled out,” he said.
“Under these circumstances, the Indian Navy should prepare itself and remain in full readiness to open a ‘maritime front’ where it can mount surveillance and, if required, pose a threat to the adversary’s Indian Ocean energy and trade traffic via warships, submarines and combat air-power,” he said.
TROPEX is one of multiple exercises that the Indian Navy conducts, including those with foreign navies, such as INDRA with Russia, KONKAN with the UK, VARUNA with France, AUSIndex with Australia, SIMBEX with Singapore, SLINEX with Sri Lanka Navy. It also conducts MILAN and CORPAT, which are multilateral exercises.
