Soldiers with the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and the Indian Army’s 3rd Paramilitary Special Forces Battalion exchange jump wings during the Vajra Prahar closing ceremonies, Oct. 25, 2019. Since early November, nearly 100 American Green Berets and Indian Special Forces have been training together at the Orchard Combat Training Center in Idaho as part of this year’s Exercise Vajra Prahar — which roughly translates to “hammer attack” in Hindi. (Ryan Hohman/U.S. Army)
(Tribune News Service) — A desire to counter China’s influence has pushed the relationship between India and the U.S. to “new heights” in recent years, most visibly with Indian President Narendra Modi’s official state visit to Washington, D.C., in 2023, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace.
India’s “deepening relationship” with the U.S. adds it to “the bulwark of nations committed to countering Beijing’s malign influence,” according to a report by the institute.
This month, part of that relationship-building is taking place in Ada County. Since early November, nearly 100 American Green Berets and Indian Special Forces have been training together at the Orchard Combat Training Center, a combined arms training site about 20 miles south of Boise. The nearly 200,000-acre training site provides “some of the best training ranges in the world,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Borders, a public affairs officer for the Idaho National Guard.
The environment in Southern Idaho “resembles a lot of the areas where the U.S. military and our partners have operated over the last couple of decades,” he told the Idaho Statesman by email. Just this year, this training environment has drawn forces from Singapore, Canada, Poland and Germany to train with Idaho National Guardsmen at the Orchard Combat Training Center and the nearby Mountain Home Air Force Base, Borders said.
This year’s Exercise Vajra Prahar — which roughly translates to “hammer attack” in Hindi — is the 15th held between the U.S. and India’s Special Forces, alternating each year between sites in each country. This year’s training focuses on counterinsurgency operations, urban raids and the use of unmanned aerial systems, said Prakash Gupta, India’s consul general in Seattle, and exercise organizers, whose comments Borders shared by email.
More broadly, the training helps both forces prepare to fight together, building relationships, enhancing “interoperability” and ensuring each side is familiar with the other’s approach and operating procedures, organizers said.
“This training has allowed both forces to be ready to operate, fight, and thrive in austere, rugged, and divers(e) environments, ensuring a free and open IndoPacific,” they said.
The exercise is set to run through Friday. Organizers said Ada County residents were unlikely to see or hear anything unusual during the training, given forces’ use of small arms. The exercise’s culminating missions were set to involve helicopters at the Idaho Air National Guard’s Gowen Field and Mountain Home Air Force Base.
The U.S. Department of Defense predicted in 2023 that India would be a “critical strategic partner” of the U.S. given both countries’ involvement in a “strategic security dialogue” with Australia and Japan.
India’s involvement “demonstrates a new and growing willingness to join the United States to protect and advance a shared vision of a free, open and rules-based global order,” according to an official Defense Department publication.
Gupta said the U.S. partnership with India was on “firm ground” with bipartisan American support.
“India and the U.S. have to work together no matter how geopolitics looks,” he said.
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