Article Posted on : - Oct 22, 2011

ndian and French soldiers in action during their joint exercise Shakti 11 in a village near Ranikhet in Uttarakhand on Friday. Photo: PTI.

RANIKHET (PTI): The joint exercise of Indian and French armies, aimed at improving their counter- terrorism and counter-insurgency skills, culminated here on Friday with a series of operations in the hills of Chaubatia.

The 15-day-long first-ever Indo-French military exercise, 'Shakti 11', ended with French Army showing its Indian counterparts how paragliding could be successfully implemented to launch offensive against enemies, silently.

"The aerial attacks (using paragliders), if implemented, cut time to move troops from one place to another in hilly terrains," Maj Gen Rajesh Shah Arya, GOC 6 Mountain Division, said.

This technique is often used by the French Army to launch offensive at unsuspecting hideouts of terrorists, Brig Gen Herve Wattecamps of the 27 Mountain Infantry Brigade said.

French Army personnel, too, had a lot to take home considering Indian Army's experience in all kinds of terrains.

"My men would take forward what they had learnt from here to train the Afghanistan National Army in the future," Brig Gen Wattecamps said.

The mission was jointly prepared by both the armies as the troops effortlessly glided their way through the mountainous region as part of the mission.

The search and destroy mission included clearing and destruction of a terrorist hideout, employment of Quick Reaction Teams (QRT) to neutralise the escaping terrorists in dense forest.

The activities conducted during the training included familiarisation with weapons and equipment of both the countries, introduction to the organisation, concept and basic tactics at the company and platoon level.

Tactical moves aimed at enhancing combating skills, inter-operability between the two forces and most importantly, sharing each other's experiences in mountain warfare which could be used successfully in any anti-terror and anti- insurgency operation in the world, Maj Gen Arya said.

The participating contingents are 60 French troops of the elite 13 Mountain Battalion and an equal number of personnel from 2 Bihar Regiment, under the aegis of 99 Mountain Brigade.

"Since both armies are quite familiar with hilly terrains, the exercise would go a long way in enhancing combat tactics of both the armies," Arya said.