TROPEX 21 Exercise

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The largest war game of Indian Navy - Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX 21) that started in early January will culminate in the third week of February.

About

It is a biennial exercise that has 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.

This exercise is being conducted in the Indian Ocean Region and its adjunct water with the aim of testing Indian navy’s warfare preparedness in an intricate multi-faceted plan set in the context of the current geo strategic environment. This exercise also aims to validate Navy’s offensive-defence capabilities, protect national interests in the maritime domain and encourage stability and peace in the Indian Ocean Region. Naval Headquarters with participation from all three Commands of the Indian Navy and the Tri-Services Command at Port Blair supervises the conduct of TROPEX exercise.

TROPEX is being is conducted in many phases to test Navy's transition from peacetime to hostilities. In the first phase, the Indian Navy had conducted coastal defence exercise ‘Sea Vigil’ along the entire coastline and Island territories of India on 12-13 January 2021. This exercise directed to authenticate the coastal defence setup of the country that was completely overhauled after the 26/11 terror attacks at Mumbai. The exercise witnessed large-scale participation from Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Police of 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other stakeholders in the maritime domain.

Exercise Sea Vigil was followed by a large-scale Tri-Service joint amphibious exercise AMPHEX-21, which was held in the Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands from 21-25 January. The amphibious exercise focused at validating India’s ability to protect the territorial integrity of its island territories and strengthen its operational synergy and joint combat strategies amongst the three Services.

The Weapon Workup Phase of TROPEX, witnessed several ‘on-target’ ordnance deliveries including missiles, torpedoes and rockets from frontline warships, aircraft and submarines and displayed the lethal firepower of the Indian Navy and assert the Navy’s capability to carry out long range maritime strikes in the Indian Ocean Region, an ability that is primary to meeting operational challenges and ensuring safe seas and secure coasts.

This exercise bolsters 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’.