New Delhi: More than 5,000 troops of the Indian Army's Mountain Strike Corps will conduct joint military drill along with the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Arunachal Pradesh in October where forces will be deployedto practice real war-like situation on the eastern front of the country.

The exercise will be the first of its kind along the border with China by the newly-raised 17 Mountain Strike Corps which has been preparing for it under the Eastern Command for the last five to six months now."As part of the war games, the troops of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps will be deployed at a high altitude location to defend their `territory` while abrigade-sized force (over 2,500 troops) of the 17 Mountain Strike Corps would be airlifted by the IAF to `launch an offensive` against them," Army sources told

The IAF will airlift the troops using its latest transport aircraft including the C-17, C-130J Super Hercules and the AN-32 from WestBengal's Bagdogra and deploy them close to the `war zone` in Arunachal Pradesh,they said.

The troops of the 17 Mountain Strike Corps would be from the59 Mountain Division and will include armoured regiments including battle tanksand infantry combat vehicles along with light howitzers and strike elements. Tomake the 17 Mountain Strike Corps more effective during wartime in amountainous region with China, the fighting formations under it are beingconverted into Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs) as part of Army Chief GeneralBipin Rawat's restructuring process.

Once the IBGs are formed, the formations will be convertedinto leaner and more efficient fighting units with the ability to strike deeperand faster against enemy targets, the sources said. An IBG, which will be alittle smaller than a division, will integrate the existing elements of infantry,tank regiments, artillery, engineers and signals. It will comprise sixbattalions of these elements and will be directly under a Corps. Once the Armyconverts all its required fighting formations into IBGs, it would lead to the elimination of the brigades in the fighting structure.

The first IBG is coming up under the 9 Corps which looks after parts of Jammu and Punjab border with Pakistan. Two more IBGs are readyfor conversion under the 17 Mountain strike Corps and 33 Corps which are bothtasked to fight wars on the Chinese front in the Northeast.