NEW DELHI: India has concluded Exercise Trishul, a major tri-service drill involving 30,000 Army personnel, multiple fighter aircraft and 25 naval ships and submarines.In a display of joint operational strength, top commanders from the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth, Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan and Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor, boarded aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the Saurashtra coast to review a live multi-domain operation. They witnessed “carrier-borne flying operations and underway replenishment” on Wednesday night, officials said.“The joint presence of the three Commanders-in-Chief onboard INS Vikrant symbolizes a strong step towards unity and integrated functioning among the services,” the Western Naval Command said on X, adding that the exercise would “significantly boost jointness and interoperability.”Full-spectrum operations across land, sea and airOver the past two weeks, coordinated maneuvers were carried out from the Thar desert to the Kutch region under the overarching framework of Exercise Trishul. The mega exercise culminated on Thursday with an amphibious landing off Gujarat’s coast, led by the Southern Command’s amphibious forces.Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth said operations under Exercise Trishul “validated new weapons, military equipment and procedures,” while the Southern Command called it a “benchmark in jointness, integration and interoperability.”The Ministry of Defense earlier said the tri-services exercise aimed to “strengthen integrated readiness across multiple domains,” covering areas such as electronic warfare, cyber defense, counter-drone operations, intelligence and surveillance.From the desert to the Arabian SeaThe defense ministry described Trishul as a comprehensive tri-services effort led by the Indian Navy, conducted jointly with the Army and Air Force. It spanned operations across the desert and creek sectors of Rajasthan and Gujarat, extending to large-scale maritime missions in the northern Arabian Sea.A ministry statement said the exercise validated “joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Electronic Warfare (EW) and Cyber Warfare plans,” and featured Indian Navy carrier operations conducted jointly with the Indian Air Force’s shore-based assets.It added that the exercise “highlighted the effective employment of indigenous systems and demonstrated the absorption of the tenets of Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” reaffirming India’s growing self-reliance in defense capability and innovation.
