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US, India to hold joint war games in October

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-28 07:37

WASHINGTON: The United States and India will hold large joint war games in October, the website of The Defense News reported Thursday.

A joint land exercise named Yudh-Abhyas will be staged in India 's northern military base of Jhansi, while an air exercise named Cope-India will be held in the Indian air force bases in Agra and Chandigarh, according to the report, quoting US and Indian military sources.

The US Army will send 17 Stryker armored vehicles and about 500 soldiers to the three-week Yudh-Abhyas exercise, beginning in the second week of October.

It's going to be one of the largest deployments of such vehicles outside Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly the entire US 2nd Stryker Brigade will be present.

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It will also be the first time that mechanized units of the Indian Army based on Russian-made T-72 and T-90 tanks, BMP-II armored carriers and 155mm artillery guns will share expertise with a foreign army.

The Cope-India exercise will include parachuting operations with transport aircraft from both militaries.

The US air force will field their C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft and Chinook multimission helicopters in the exercise.