US and Indian Air Force C-130 aircraft conducted simulated supply drops during the event, while a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft participated with a data gathering flight over the operation area.
Visakhapatnam: The Indian military and the US forces exhibited their amphibious landing drill on Kakinada Beach on Friday as the culminating event in Exercise Tiger Triumph 2025.
The event represented a humanitarian assistance and disaster response scenario in which the joint combined forces were tasked with securing space in a coastal area, as well as setting up a field hospital and supply distribution site there following a notional natural disaster.
In a statement, the US Consulate General of Hyderabad, Jennifer Larson, said she was proud to be witnessing these exercises for the second time.
“Every year this exercise builds on the previous one and breaks new ground,” she said. The amphibious landing concluded the sea phase of the exercise, which was preceded by a weeklong harbour phase in nearby Visakhapatnam, consisting of operation planning, unit-level training, subject matter expert exchanges and cultural events.
A closing ceremony aboard the US Navy’s Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Comstock (LSD 45) is scheduled to take place in the coming days to officially end the exercise.
Rear Admiral Greg Newkirk, Commander, Task Force 70 and commander of the US joint forces said the Tiger Triumph 2025 beach landing was the result of substantial gains in their level of integration with the Indian Armed Forces at all levels of the joint forces, and in all domains, as well as wringing out effective combined forces.
It highlights the very real strength of two highly professional forces coming together, placing a high premium on interoperability, to achieve a complex objective that only militaries can bring to bear, he said.
The landing force included US Marines from the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion aboard Assault Craft Unit (ACU) 5 Landing Crafts Air Cushion (LCAC) launched from Comstock; as well as Indian Army personnel from the 4/8 Gurkha Rifles Infantry Battalion, 91st Infantry Brigade, aboard Landing Crafts Mechanized (LCM) launched from the amphibious transport dock INS Jalashwa (L 41).
Additional supporting personnel included soldiers from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division, plus joint combined Army-Navy medical, legal and civil affairs teams, as well as Special Operations Forces contingents from both countries.
US and Indian Air Force C-130 aircraft conducted simulated supply drops during the event, while a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft participated with a data gathering flight over the operation area.
Beginning with an opening ceremony aboard Jalashwa on April 1, this is the fourth time the US and Indian forces have come together for Tiger Triumph, an annual joint India-US amphibious exercise. Overall, the exercise involved approximately 3,000 personnel and at least four ships and seven aircraft from the two countries.
US 7th Fleet is the US Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
