Key Highlights
- Sixth edition of the bilateral drill, held from 16‑28 April 2025 at Pune’s Foreign Training Node.
- 60 Indian troops, mainly from the JAT Regiment and the Air Force, partnered with Uzbek army personnel.
- Focus on multi‑domain sub‑conventional operations in a semi‑urban terrorist‑scenario, including raids, heliborne insertions and counter‑UAS measures.
- Establishment of a battalion‑level Joint Operations Centre to synchronize air, land and drone assets.
- Exchange of tactics, techniques and procedures to deepen strategic trust between the two forces.
Detailed Insights
Exercise DUSTLIK‑VI commenced on 16 April 2025 at the Foreign Training Node in Aundh, Pune, and will conclude on 28 April. The drill alternates yearly between India and Uzbekistan; the preceding edition unfolded in Termez, Uzbekistan, in April 2024. The primary intent is to forge tighter operational links, allowing both armies to rehearse coordinated counter‑terrorism actions within a simulated semi‑urban environment where militants have seized a defined sector.
Participants practiced a spectrum of missions: rapid raids, search‑and‑destroy sweeps, population‑control protocols, and special heliborne operations (SHBO). Air assets comprised helicopters for insertion/extraction and drones for real‑time surveillance. A dedicated Counter‑Unmanned Aerial System (C‑UAS) suite was deployed to neutralise hostile drone incursions. The Indian contingent, drawn largely from the JAT infantry regiment and supported by Air Force logistics, worked alongside Uzbek ground forces to operate a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) at the battalion level, ensuring seamless command‑and‑control across domains.
The exercise also served as a conduit for the exchange of TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures), fostering mutual confidence and laying groundwork for future collaborative security initiatives.
Key Concepts
- Sub‑Conventional Warfare: Conflict that falls below the threshold of full‑scale war, often involving insurgency, terrorism or irregular tactics.
- Joint Operations Centre (JOC): A centralized hub where representatives from different services coordinate planning, execution and logistics of combined missions.
- Special Heliborne Operations (SHBO): Tactical insertion or extraction of small teams using helicopters, typically in hostile or confined urban terrain.
- Counter‑UAS Measures: Technologies and tactics employed to detect, track and defeat hostile unmanned aerial systems.
- Multi‑Domain Operations: Integrated employment of land, air, cyber and electromagnetic capabilities to achieve a unified objective.