IAF carries out 'Aakraman' exercise with Rafales, Navy conducts drill

NEW DELHI: The Indian armed forces are maintaining a high-state of operational readiness amid heightened tensions with Pakistan, even as Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi will visit J&K on Friday and the rival navies conducted firing drills in their own waters in the Arabian Sea.
Gen Dwivedi will review the operational situation along the 778-km Line of Control (LoC) and the counter-terror operations in the hinterland during his visit to the Udhampur-based Northern Command as well as Srinagar and Anantnag, while India keeps several military options open for limited punitive strikes against Pakistan, a senior officer told TOI.
The validity of the LoC itself came under sharp focus on Thursday after Pakistan announced suspension of the 1972 Simla agreement, which had transformed the then ceasefire line into the LoC with both sides agreeing not to alter it unilaterally.

Among the less-escalatory military options for India, if it decides to exercise them, will be to break the ongoing ceasefire with targeted fire assaults against Pakistan Army posts and bunkers across the LoC, as was reported by TOI on Thursday.
The ceasefire had first come into effect in Nov 2003 with an understanding between the rival director generals of military operations but was subsequently blown to smithereens by intense firing duels between the two armies.
After a couple of failed attempts, the understanding between the DGsMO was renewed in Feb 2021 -- after an especially bloody year with as many as 5,133 ceasefire violations -- and has largely held till now.
The fear of Indian cross-border strikes has already led to thinning down of terrorists stationed in the 42 identified “launch pads” along the LoC, which are mostly co-located with Pak Army posts, another officer said.
As the situation along the land boundaries with Pakistan remains tense, the maritime domain is also witnessing some shadowboxing. Pakistan first issued a “NavArea” warning for ships to stay away from specified coordinates in its EEZ in the Arabian Sea due to a live fire exercise by its warships and submarines on April 24-25.
Then, the Indian Navy on Thursday afternoon said its latest guided-missile destroyer INS Surat has successfully conducted a test-firing of its medium-range surface-to-air missile, which has been jointly developed with Israel and has an interception range of 70-km, against a sea-skimming target on the western seaboard.
There is also increased military air activity in Pakistan, with airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft being regularly deployed to keep an eye on India across the LoC and gather ELINT or electronic intelligence, while military alertness levels have been stepped-up across the board.
The IAF, in turn, is also currently honing its combat skills with the annual “Aakraman (attack)” exercise, with different fighter jets led by the omni-role Rafales as well as other aircraft, over central India.
The number of ORPs (operational readiness platforms) at IAF air bases has also been increased. An ORP usually includes two to three fighters being kept combat-ready in blast pens adjoining the runway at an airbase for immediate take-off whenever an alarm is sounded.