India and the United States have conducted a bilateral tri-service humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) exercise on Kakinada Beach, as part of ‘Tiger Triumph-24’. A press release from the US Consulate said the exercise done on Friday is aimed at enhancing readiness and cooperation between the two forces and is part of the ongoing partnership between India and the United States.

Teams from the two countries cooperated to perform an amphibious landing and erected a field hospital and a camp for displaced persons as part of the exercise which anticipates the two countries cooperating after a natural disaster, it said.

The exercise improved interoperability for conducting HADR operations and refined Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to enable rapid and smooth coordination between the armed forces of both countries.

Indian Navy ships with helicopters and landing craft, aircraft, Indian Army personnel and vehicles, Indian Air Force aircraft and helicopters, along with the Rapid Action Medical Teams participated.

The United States was represented by US Navy ships with embarked troops of the US Marine Corps and the US Army.

Landing craft, hovercraft and helicopters from the US Navy provided support, the release said. The Humanitarian Assistance Exercise was witnessed by several officials from India and the USA including Jennifer Larson, Consul General, US Consulate General Hyderabad. “The defence relationship between India and the United States has grown immensely during recent years. This is the third Tiger Triumph Exercise, but the current one is magnitude larger and more complex compared to the first two,” said US Rear Admiral Joaquin J Martinez de Pinillos.

He further said operations like Tiger Triumph build trust and confidence in the ability to work together and to respond as an integrated joint force to deal with real world crises.

Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankar said, “I am confident that both countries benefited from this exercise. Tiger Triumph 2024 has added value towards improving capabilities, capacities, processes, and procedures to save human lives and to undertake coordinated relief activities during HADR operations.”

The Tiger Triumph 2024 Exercise began in Visakhapatnam on March 18 and it will conclude on March 31.

Amphibious transport ships – INS Jalashwa of the Indian Navy and the USS Somerset of the US Navy along with other vessels including the USS Halsey, the INS Airavat and the INS Kesari are participating in the Tiger Triumph Exercise, the release added.