NEW DELHI: Soon after India and Australia decided to further crank up their defence ties with an eye firmly on China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific, the two countries are all set to kick off the bilateral ‘AustraHind’ tri-Service combat exercise at Perth from Thursday.Australia has also invited India as an “active participant” in its largest multination biennial exercise ‘Talisman Sabre’ in 2025.India had sent only observers for this year’s edition of the exercise in July-August.Australia, in turn, will take part in India’s multilateral air combat exercise ‘Tarang Shakti’ in Rajasthan in mid-2024.

The major exercise will witness around a dozen air forces from friendly countries, including the US, France and Australia, engage in intensive combat drills with fighters, helicopters, transport aircraft and force-multipliers like midair refuellers and AWACS (airborne warning and control systems).As for the second edition of the AustraHind exercise, which will be conducted at Perth from November 23 to December 6, India has dispatched 60 Gorkha Rifles soldiers from the Army, 20 IAF personnel and an officer from the Navy on a C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft.“The aim of the exercise is to foster collaborative partnership and share best practices between the two sides.

The exercise will also promote interoperability while undertaking multidomain operations in urban and semi-urban terrains,” an officer said.The joint drills will include tactics, techniques and procedures for conducting tactical operations as well as sniper firing and operation of surveillance and communication equipment to achieve a high degree of situational awareness, he added.

The first edition of AustraHind was conducted at Mahajan in Rajasthan last year.