Indian army conducts exercise 'Shoorveer' in Rajasthan; DRDO ready to put phase-I of the ballistic missile defence shield in place
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    • According to reports, the Indian Army carried out battle drills in synergy with the Air Force to fine tune war fighting concepts. The Army Chief General V K Singh witnessed the final stages of war exercise 'Shoorveer' in the desert area of Rajasthan. General Singh and other senior Army and Air Force officers witnessed the mechanised predominant battle manoeuvres in which T-90 tanks, infantry combat vehicles, long range artillery gun, air defence weapon system, electronic warfare system and surveillance equipment carried out battle drills. Fighter aircraft of the Air Force, including Sukhoi-30 and Jaguars along with attack helicopters MI-25, MI-17, Unmanned Air Vehicles also participated in the exercise which was based on the integrated theatre battle concept. More than 300 combat vehicles including main battle tank T-90, T-72, long range 150mm artillery guns, multi barrel rockets and about 60000 troops have taken part in this massive exercise in the desert state. Integrated air-land war-fighting machinery and the synergy between Army and IAF was the major highlight of the exercise, said Defence Spokesperson S D Goswami. IAF aircraft --Sukhoi-30, MIG-29, MiG-21 'Bisons', Cheetah, Chetak, MI-25 attack helicopters, transport aircraft such as IL 76 and AN-32 also took part in the exercise. 1

    In another development, according to reports, DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat has said that the organisation is ready to put phase-I of the ballistic missile defence shield in place. India has developed a missile defence shield which can be put in place at short notice to protect at least two cities, bringing the country on par with an elite group of few nations. The shield, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, has been tested successfully and an incoming ballistic missile with the range of up to 2,000 km can be destroyed. The system is to be upgraded to the range of 5,000 km by 2016. DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat stated in an interview, “The ballistic missile defence shield is now mature... We are ready to put phase-I in place and it can be put in very short time,”. 2

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