War exercise on to counter enemy (with photo)

Jagraon, Punjab, May 19 (UNI) From de-contaminating the environment vitiated by chemical weapons to building pontoon bridges using night time vision devices, the largest military exercise since ''Operation Parakram'' is on to prepare for swift, short and intense blitzkreig wars of the future.

Codenamed Sanghe Shakti, the five-day war games that began on the night of May 16 over a 45 km radius farmland here are being conducted by the Corps, the most crucial of the Army's three-strike formations.

Chief of Army Staff Gen J J Singh was among those who witnessed the exercises.

''As many as 21,800 army personnel, 350 T-72 and T-90 tanks and 70 aircraft are involved in the exercise, designed to cater to short, intense wars in realistic environment,'' Lt Gen K D S Shekhawat, ii corps commander told visiting reporters amid the display of army's might.

These equipment include a real time satellite and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), besides the mobile joint operation and information room that receives inputs about the enemy from the UAV and sends it to the fighting vehicles and soldiers on the ground.

''This is for the first time that the strike corpse are practising in network- centric operations in terms of forces, space and time management,'' Lt Gen Shekhawat said.

Displaying their might and manouvering tactics, three T-90 tanks moved menacingly across the field, changing from one far position to another.

''Under the new tactics of jockeying, the tanks seldom charge head-on but move from one far position to another,'' said Col M S Tomar, Commandant of Pune Horse Armoury Regiment.

A few kilometres away, the de-contamination of equipment and soldiers were taking place. It took about 80-120 minutes for de-contaminating the entire area.

The same drill was followed for de-contaminating areas vitiated by biological weapons.

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