Yudh Abhyas artillery drills turned the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan into a shared gun line, as Indian Army and US Army troops trained together on a range of weapon systems during Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2026.

The guns in action were the M777 Ultra-Light Howitzer, the Dhanush artillery gun and the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher, the Indian Army said.

L70 air-defence guns and M-LIDS systems also fired during the practice sessions.

What the two armies practised

The main aim was simple. Both armies worked on planning, coordinating and delivering artillery fire as one team, which soldiers call interoperability in fires. According to the Army, this covered the full cycle, from planning a fire mission to carrying it out on the ground.

Observation Post parties at work

Much of the training centred on the Observation Post.

This is a small forward team that can see the enemy and the ground ahead. The guns sit several kilometres behind and usually cannot see their targets at all. The Observation Post is their eyes. It finds the target, tells the guns where to aim, and watches where the shells land.

Observation Post parties from India and the US trained side by side on five tasks, the Army said: landmark indication, target identification, engagement procedures, transmission of fire orders and correction of fire.

In plain terms, the team first points out a target using known features on the ground, such as a hilltop or a road bend. It confirms what the target is and decides how to hit it. It then sends the fire order back to the guns. Once the first rounds land, it checks how far off they fell and sends corrections until the shells are on target.

Each side got a first-hand look at how the other runs its gunnery and its communication drills.

How the Yudh Abhyas artillery drills worked end to end

The integrated drills joined up the complete chain of battlefield fire support. Targets picked out at the Observation Post were passed to different firing platforms and engaged, according to the Army. The training worked on precision, speed of response and coordination between the two contingents, and built a common understanding of the procedures needed for combined operations.

Indian M777 crews had already destroyed all designated targets by direct fire at the same ranges earlier in the exercise.


The weapons on the range

The M777 is a 155 mm towed howitzer that both armies operate, which gives the gun crews common ground from the start. It is light enough to be carried under a helicopter, and the Indian Army deploys it in the mountains along the northern borders. Its deployment drills were shown at Mahajan in a lecture cum demonstration held earlier in the exercise.

The Dhanush is an Indian-made 155 mm towed gun.

Pinaka is a rocket launcher developed by DRDO that fires a rapid salvo of rockets to cover a wide area. It is one of the Indian Army's main long-range fire support systems.

The L70 is a 40 mm air-defence gun in Indian Army service. M-LIDS is the US Army's mobile system for defeating small drones.

About Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2026

Yudh Abhyas is the annual joint exercise between the Indian Army and the US Army, and the 2026 edition is the 22nd. Training is running at Auli in Uttarakhand and at the Mahajan ranges, as set out at the opening ceremony, with the exercise continuing until 28 September. The US Army carries its own coverage of the exercise on its DVIDS feature page.

At Mahajan, the Yudh Abhyas artillery drills also gave soldiers from both armies a chance to exchange operational experience during the joint firing and Observation Post training, the Army said.