TROPEX 21: Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise

Context

Indian Navy’s largest war game – the biennial TROPEX 21: Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise, – which commenced in early January, is currently underway with participation of all operational units of Indian Navy including ships, submarines, aircraft as well as units of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard.

TROPEX 21 is currently underway in Indian Ocean Region(IOR).
It is the Indian Navy’s largest biennial Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise.
Image Credit: Financial Express
The theatre-level exercise also aims to validate the Navy’s offensive-defence capabilities in a complex multi-dimensional scenario, safeguard national interests in the maritime domain and promote stability and peace in the IOR.
It is an inter-service military exercise.
It involves the participation of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard.
The conduct of Tropex-21 is being overseen by the Naval Headquarters with participation from all three Commands of the Navy and the Tri-Services Command at Port Blair.

Aim:

To test the combat readiness of the Navy in a multi-dimensional scenario of the current geostrategic environment.
To validate the Navy’s capabilities like offensive-defense capabilities, safeguarding the maritime domain, and promote stability and peace in the Indian Ocean Region.

- In the first phase, the Indian Navy had conducted coastal defense Exercise ‘Sea Vigil’.
- It was followed by a large-scale Tri-Service joint amphibious , Exercise AMPHEX-21.

Significance

The exercise comes at a time when India is facing both Pakistan and China. Tropex-21 assumes great significance amid a threatening security scenario and as India’s role increases in the IOR and the Indo-Pacific.
This exercise aimed to validate the coastal defence set-up of the country, which was entirely revamped after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
Valuable lessons emerging from the exercise are being incorporated in the existing procedures to further fine-tune the coastal defence architecture of the country.
The exercise was aimed at validating India’s capabilities to safeguard the territorial integrity of its island territories and enhance operational synergy and joint war capabilities among the three services.

Way Forward

This large-scale exercise puts to test and validate Navy’s concept of operations in various conflict scenarios, hone its fighting skills, bolster its role towards maritime security in the wider Indian Ocean Region and is in keeping with the theme of being a ‘combat-ready, credible and cohesive force’.

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