Army’s war games in hot desert to begin in May

The Indian Army is gearing up for a major war game in the scorching Rajasthan desert, near the border with Pakistan, to keep the troops battle-ready, sources said Tuesday.

The Western Command headquartered at Chandimandir will lead the exercise, which army sources said would begin in the middle of May in the hot desert where the maximum temperature shoots up to 45-50 degrees Celsius in the summer.

The sources denied that the drill was directed against Pakistan. But it is likely that some 15,000 troops, engaged in the war game, would evolve battlefield tactics for a scenario if they come face-to-face in a conventional conflict with their counterparts across the border.

“These are routine exercises by different formations to keep the forces battle-ready,” said a top source in the Army Headquarters in New Delhi.

Defence Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony will visit Jaisalmer ahead of the exercise, early next month, to review the operational readiness of the troops in the desert.