Photo 1: Indian Army Soldiers assigned to the 94th Armored Brigade along with U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii charge the uphill range during Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 15.
Photo 2: Staff Sgt. Matthew Hood, Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, reacts to contact during the range training portion of Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 14.
Photo 3: Indian army soldiers leave the parade field after the official ceremony that kicked off Exercise Yudh Abhyas09 in Babina India, Oct. 12.
Photo 4: Soldiers assigned to 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, drive through the Indian Army military base in Babina, India in preparation for Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 10.
Photo 5: Staff Sgt. Jeremy Reynolds, range safety non-commissioned officer, assigned to Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii stands outside the vehicle while Indian army personnel get an inside seat. The Indian army soldiers rode in Strykers during range training for Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 14.
Photo 6: Indian army soldiers and 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division Soldiers share information about vehicles and weapons systems at the static display after the opening ceremony for Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09 at the Babina Indian army base, Oct. 12.
Photo 7: Spc. Timothy Cooke and Sgt. Kyle O’Leary, both assigned to Troop A, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, prepare to shoot the MK 19 or Mark 19 grenade launcher during range training at Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 15.
Photo 8: Indian army Maj. Yajuvendra Singh, range officer, discusses upcoming training with 1st Sgt. Anthony Coates, senior enlisted leader of Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, during Exercise Yudh Abhyas 09, Oct. 14.
The Indian Army is fielding troops and assets from its 7th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, 94th Armored Brigade and 31st Armored Division. Assets used include BMP-2 troop carriers and T-90 tanks.
Photos ©US Army By Staff Sgt. Cristina Yazzie
Picture 5
Staff Sgt. Jeremy Reynolds: How many soldiers does it take to replace a Stryker light bulb.
The Blackhorse regiment of the American Cavalry was during the Cold War the best mechanized unit in the world, bar none. Please Indians, try to keep your eyes on the exercise and learn instead of the sturdy, menacing figures of the broadshouldered Americans. And don't ask for a rupee to clean the vision block of the Strykers.
^^^Anonymous 4:30 PM,
Thats why you ass been kicked by the Taliban in Afghanistan. You come here to learn and we also learn from you. Its not one sided.
You have to learn how to fight a eal combat and we have to lean how to use latest systems. Thats it.
Don't be so smart. We have seen what can your special forces do in previous years at Ladakh, CIJWS etc etc. You took 1 hour to climb a rock that have been done by an Indian soldier in five minutes. As well as other capabilities like jungle warfare and special tactics.
So don't try to be over smart Indians are not beggars lime Pakistanis. Your army understood this and you will also.
Uh-oh, here comes the local Army propaganda officer to furious type out a response on his unbranded keyboard to refute observations that Indian troops look under-equipped and third world, which they do.
If you say, Mr Truth, that Americans are arsekicked in Afghanistan what do you call the performance of the Indians in Kashmir?
Population of Kashmir (7 million) Afghanistan (28 million)
Physical size of Kashmir (1/10 that of Afghanistan)
Losses of Indian troops in last 10 years (at least 5 times that of Americans, who have lost less than a thousand soldiers in 9 years of fighting).
Distance to home country (0 km and 8000 km, at the end of a very long supply line)
There you go, unrefutable facts. You're so silly.
Will it kill you, rank and file soldiers of India, to admit what a backward army you are, and how far behind you are to the West? The Chinese have no fear admitting it, and they are ahead of you in some areas.
These exercises are not to learn from you. What's there to learn from you, swing your rifle like a club when it jams again? The nicety is just to hide the fact that we Americans are TRAINING you to hopefully give you a dose of modern reality.
All you can hurl at me now are urban myths. Woah, Indians skimmied up a mountain in 5 minutes while it took Americans one hour. Seriously? No exaggeration there then? Were the Americans wounded from Iraq? Was it a mountain of wet rice and soggy curry vegetables wrapped in bundle of old newspaper, without a fork in sight, such that only the (South Indian) soldiers knew how to make their way around with their hands? And afterward smoked a cheroot, laid back and read the wrapping for last week's news?
Part of the difference could be counting the fact that the exercise was in your backyard and you know the terrain? It's just like Cope India isn't it, stack the odds in your favor until it is impossible to lose and then crow victory to a bemused world.
If you were more rational (or actually truthful), you can say there are mobility differences between Indian and American troops. For sure. But short forward rushes are not so important today, since it is primarily used to overcome an enemy who is hugging you (in battle terms) and preventing clearing strikes. But today, with everything precision based, it is far more important to have ballistics protection in urban fighting (in rural fighting, enemy gets wiped out in half an hour). Spoken from Army commando experience.
It was very brave rushing and dashing up Tiger Hill but for what? A trail of dead Indian soldiers leading all the way to the top, because your artillery had inadequate shells and your Russian-based air force keep bombing the wrong mountain. So brave and so useless. The Americans would have flattened every bunker in sight through long range attacks and survelliance and then planted troops through helis to mop up the fleeing jihadis.
Even last week, a few special forces advisors and a company of Afghan troops choppered in wiped out a Haqqani nest in Konar. 50 enemy killed and 20 captured. The allied casualties? One Afghan soldier was shot through his hand. These are not even American soldiers performing so well but American trained. Now imagine the Indian commandos doing that. Half the mountain would be on fire, there would corpses from both sides everywhere, and the Air Force would still be bombing Kargil for some reason.
Look at the pictures above. It's like the Raj again, little skinny Indians (Marathas) dashing about with minimum protection. Take your breast armor plate. The reason it has some curvature at the neck line is so that it doesn't abut your chin when you take a knee to fire accurately at the enemy. Seriously, man, equip your troops, so that they don't have to run around the Line of Control looking like the deadbeats they fight and extracting casualties through WW2 improvised stretches bound together with rope and chewing gum.
You're not beggars, but you're arrogant unteachable fools, just like the Pakis. Must be a subcontinent mother thing.
Yeah and how much of that 28 million country do you actually patrol, much less control?
The great american force in Af'stan moves aroundin heavily armoured convoys seeking to control the more urbanized aqreas ( which is just 10 per cent of Afghanistan) and simply makes a yearly visitation to some places.
whenever american forces go in deep they diesw in the tens.
Stop kidding yourself. The Taliban are now launchging massed attacks against yoyr outposts and the casualty figure only shows the scant number of troops you employ and are willing to commit to actual combat in a given sector.
On the other hand,
The Indian Army physically dominates almost all of Kashmir. They turn in every frasking village every now and then.
There is simply no comparison, only western squirmishness at the thought of a world which wis increasingly beginning to "kick" their ass despite the appearances.
@anonymous(Vincent),
"You're not beggars, but you're arrogant unteachable fools, just like the Pakis. Must be a subcontinent mother thing."
>> Customer is the king not the other way around. As a norm any equipment seller would also train how to best use his equipment. For that "teaching", you expect customers to act like your PET DOG!!!!!!!!!!! Are you selling some sensitive F-22 stuff?? You aren't even teaching how to build an AESA so what are you "teaching"? How to press the trigger on your Rifle????
If your condescending and patronizing ego, perpetually in search of pet dogs all over the world, is unhappy then just stick to our neighbour. For the billions Pakistanis get paid to act like a pet dog before your inflated ego they do a splendid job of whooping your behinds simultaneously and playing cat and mouse game with your own money.
At least we know our enemy, you don't even want to know and instead pay them to send even more men at you.
Invading a country(Afghanistan) and solving an insurgency(Kashmir) are very different. In Kashmir we have our own people whereas Afghanistan does not have your own people. We have much more at stake and hence a softer approach involving much more casualty.
You can always throw more money at the everybody around the problem and buy lower casualties.
You get much more done through locals acting as your proxy knocking down whom does not interest your opponents as much. AND casualties of your proxies as well as paid mercenaries(Blackwater in Iraq) are not included in your "losses".
A lot of precision targetting has been due to UCAVs which we do not obviously have, neither claimed to have one and cannot even use on our own people unlike you in Afghanistan.
Stop comparing apples and oranges. And perhaps it was your mother who overfed you on white supremacist theory.
@anonymous(Vincent)
Addendum,
There is NO change you are going to leave in Afghanistan and it will be back to square one once you leave.
The only irreversible thing you are leaving in Afghanistan are the discarded heaps of coke and beer cans with "I was here" signed underneath.
Fat ass yank!
The blubber in his brains must be doin the talkin!
As professional soldiers the US is welcome.Mutual exchange of ideas is good.
But we are not the kind impressed by geardo and mechanical knick-knacks.
I really wonder if this dork has laid off from work.And must be blemaing the 'eeyindians'.
Every one is anonymous here 🙂
Ok I am an Indian but I can't understand one thing that whenever someone tells us this is not right or that is wrong, why do we jump and start complaining before actually looking at the point?
Just like the officer in USAF whose youtube video about IAF at red flag made so much news in India. I can't understand why? If there is something wrong then why hide? How will we ever learn if simply start blaming just because the other person pointed at our weakness?
I am a proud Indian but that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye. Kargil point, I agree, we dashed our soliders to die. We simply didn't bother. I mean COME ON, Indian army commander doing something so stupid, can someone explain me why? I still need answers. Indian police – a pathetic force, UP Police needed what some 450 men to kill one bandit. Are we real? Please don't tell me to be proud of that. Mumbai attacks – 3 officers die and get medal. Why? Where in the world do u get medal for dieing?
[All those who are going to shout back, I am not pointing at people who actually worked but 3 famous officers who died doing nothing]
We are creating sub standards and are living in them. We will never improve if we don't fix our problems and here we are shouting at some person – American, Indian or paki I don't know, but we are shouting.
If we ever want to improve then we must learn – from fools and from sages.
Most of the Americans wearing glasses, good.
@Nalin Bakshi,
"Just like the officer in USAF whose youtube video about IAF at red flag made so much news in India. I can't understand why? If there is something wrong then why hide?"
>> Nobody does exercises to get the weak points of their top-end fighter revealed in open media to the rivals as well. And that too mixed up with half-truths & conditional truths.
Feedback works as long as it is in private communication not publicly aired.
Well-intentioned people and organizations have one approach
Feedback in private, Compliment in public.
But Feedback in public = Negative intent & Revealing.
" Kargil point, I agree, we dashed our soliders to die. We simply didn't bother. I mean COME ON, Indian army commander doing something so stupid, can someone explain me why? I still need answers."
>> So now someone making a sacrifice, leading a charge for the nation knowing farely well that chances of his survival are few is called Stupid!!!!!!
"UP Police needed what some 450 men to kill one bandit. Are we real?"
>> How many men and resources has it taken to find one Osama or Saddam?
Finding a needle in a haystack does need more people. That's the reality.
vincent,
one more thing…
those 'skinny' indian troops have balls of steel…unlike yanks…and they can outrun any yank in any fitness test…being a soldier is not about how much u can benchpress..but about how much physical stamina and will power u have….
no yank can even come close in this area..take away their fancy equipment and they'll be peeing in their pants…i guarantee it…
As an American soldier who participated in the excersize I take a different look that the blind comments made here.
Both army's are quite professional fight forces. Both have equipment capable of the varying mission we encounter. Both have soldiers who would lay down there life for their country. Both learned from their experiences during the excersize.
The primary difference between the two armies is the enlisted leadership. The US Army has strong enlisted leadership, The Noncommisioned Officer Corps NCO. US army soldiers do not need the guidance of an officer to carry on in a fight. The NCO is the adaptive, experienced leader in control where the metal meets the meat. Company/Troop level officers in the US army are often younger and much less experienced that the NCO's who work for them. If the platoon leader was the lowest level of leadership, US casualties in afganistan might be similar to Indian casualties in Kashmir.
Indian soldiers will not act without the officers guidance. So what happens when that officer is removed from the fight? Chaos ensues and Indian soldiers DIE! If one thing is taken from this excersize I pray that it is the US Army's use of experienced NCO's!!!
First off, I have to give my respect to Nalin Bakshi. He has the attitude we all should have: a willingness to assess our successes & failures and improve where we can. A nod to you, sir.
Secondly, I also participated in Yudh Abyas '09.
It was a rare opportunity to conduct operations alongside another modern, professional army.
And with the majority of my training and combat experience being focused on counter-insurgency in the semi-desert urban centers of Iraq, it was a pleasant change to return to basic force-on-force maneuvers in a much more rural environment.
Granted, our tactics and equipment differed in some ways, but both were comparable and often complementary. For example, Indian soldiers (lacking night vision devices, but with ample knowledge of the terrain and "old-school" night-fighting techniques) provided close-in security for our observation post while we conducted long-range surveillance through NVG's. My point is that we trained WITH the India soldiers, a far cry from TRAINING, say, the Iraqi army!
And yes, the US military enjoys using technology to our advantage, but that does not mean we are incapable of fighting viciously and skillfully without it. By the same measure, the Indian Army may seem less technologically advanced, but that does not make them more or less capable as soldiers.
If it came to open war between us, who would win? I honestly cannot say, though the death toll on both sides would be staggering.
Instead, I would prefer to enjoy the cooperation that currently exists between our two countries. And know that if we ever went to war together, I would be proud to fight alongside the 7th Mechanized Battalion.