Indian and US servicemen in a warship on the first day of Exercise Tiger Triumph – 2024. (Photo: MoD)
New Delhi: India and the United States have begun a bilateral, multi-service exercise – “Tiger Triumph – 2024” – in the Bay of Bengal, on Monday. This two-week exercise, scheduled to continue until March 31, aims to enhance readiness and cooperation between the two militaries during HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief) operations.
This year’s edition of the exercise will see participation from the Indian Navy, Indian Army, and the Indian Air Force. Indian Navy ships with helicopters and landing crafts, along with Army personnel and vehicles, will collaborate with their US counterparts. The US military is represented by warships carrying US Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Army personnel.
The exercise will be conducted in two phases – “harbour phase” and “sea phase”.
The harbour phase will be conducted between Monday and March 25. It will involve training visits, subject-expert exchanges, sports events, and social interactions among personnel from both navies. The sea phase, scheduled from March 25 to March 31, will see participating ships, with embarked troops, undertake maritime, amphibious, and HADR operations based on simulated scenarios.
On Monday, the defence minister, Rajnath Singh, and his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, had a telephonic conversation where they briefly discussed a range of bilateral issues as well as regional security and defence cooperation.
Exercise Tiger Triumph is a part of the ongoing partnership between the two countries and emphasizes enhancing interoperability for crisis response. It is designed to improve interoperability for conducting HADR operations and refine the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to enable rapid and smooth coordination between the armed forces of both countries.
