Buy Now on Amazon
The Only Tri-Service Command-All You Need To Know
"With great responsibility you own a great power", that is belief by which we should see the life. Most importantly,we will be talking about the only tri-service command of India, historical facts,force structure and operations. The Andaman and Nicobar command is the first and only Tri-service theatre command of Indian Armed Forces. It is located at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It got establish in 2001 to safeguard the strategic interests in Southeast Asia and Strait of Malacca because of increasing rapid deployment of military assets in the region.
History
It almost consist of a chain of 572 islands and located 1200 kms form mainland India,90 km from Indonesia and 45 km from Myanmar, 160 km from Indonesia and 550 km for Thailand. Indian army initially placed 108 Mountain Brigade in 1990 under the Fortress command. In 1999 ,after the Kargil War FORTAN came under Indian Navy with a joint A&C command. It control the assets of the tri-services and the Coast Guard on the islands. The A&C command got establish at end of September 2001. Vice Admiral, Arun Praksh was first C-in-C of A&C Command and important role is to prevent smuggling, piracy, poaching and illegal immigration especially in the Malacca Strait.
Force Structure
A 3-star rank officer(rank of Lt.General of the Indian Army or equivalent) commands the A&C command who reports directly to the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in New Delhi. The Chief of Staff of the command is a 2-star officer; 1-star officer commands each component (sea, land, air) . Vice admiral Bimal Verma took the charge on 29 February 2016 and the present commander (13th commander). The Naval Command components include missile corvettes,amphibious warfare vessels,landing crafts,offshore patrol vessels etc. Indian Army's 108 infantry brigade, comprising 3 battalions which includes the 21 Bihar, has its location at Birchgunj . AFS Car Nicobar consist of 37 Air Wing, comprising Helicopters from 122 squadron and Dornier Do 228 from 151 squadron.
Operations
It includes various bilateral exercise takes place with the Southeast Asian countries. It consists annual SIMBEX maritime exercises with Singapore, and the biennial Milan multilateral naval exercises. In April 2016, the command conducted an amphibious exercise called 'Jal Prahar' to check readiness and to ensure functional integrity of all three services on the islands. Surface and airborne assets from the Andaman and Nicobar Command took part in the effort to search Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
http://knowindia.gov.in/my-india-my-pride/indian-armed-forces.php
