Why in News?

• The joint military training Exercise YudhAbhyas 2018 will be conducted between India and the United States in Himalayas at Chaubattia, Uttarakhand from September 16 to 29, 2018.
• Exercise YudhAbhyas is a series of one of the longest running joint military training and a major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and the US.
• This will be the 14th edition of the joint military exercise hosted alternately by both countries. The two-week exercise will witness participation of about 350 personnel of the US Army and similar strength of Garud Division of the Indian Army.

Highlights of the Exercise YudhAbhyas:

• Exercise YudhAbhyas will provide an opportunity to the armed forces of both countries to train in an integrated manner at Battalion level with joint planning at Brigade level.
•  Multiple scenarios will be rehearsed during the joint exercise with a view to understand each-other’s organisational structure and battle procedures.
•  The exercise is an ideal platform to learn from each-other’s experiences of planning and execution of operations.
• Both the armies will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well-developed operations for neutralisation of threats of varied nature.
• The combined exercise will simulate a scenario where both nations are working together in counter insurgency and counter terrorism environment in mountainous terrain under UN charter.
•  Experts from both sides will hold expert academic and military discussions to share each other’s experiences on varied topics for mutual benefit.