India’s Trishul Exercise: Strategic Tri-Service Military Mobilisation Along Western Border
Exercise Trishul is a large-scale tri-service military drill by India along its western border with Pakistan, showcasing integrated air-land-sea operations. It evokes the 1980s Brasstacks mobilisation, aiming to test joint operational readiness and display compellence. Pakistan views it with suspicion, warning of calibrated responses, emphasizing mutual deterrence and strategic restraint amid heightened regional tensions.
India's Exercise Trishul, conducted from October 30 to November 10, 2025, is a complex tri-service military exercise involving the Army, Navy, and Air Force, centered along the Gujarat and Rajasthan borders with Pakistan and extending into the Arabian Sea. It aims to enhance interoperability, validate joint operational procedures, and demonstrate India’s capability for integrated multi-domain warfare, including amphibious landings, coastal operations, and expanded maritime presence. The exercise recalls the 1986-87 Brasstacks mobilisation, which escalated Indo-Pak tensions, signaling India’s attempt to operationalise assertive strategies linked to maritime and land domains simultaneously. Pakistan perceives Trishul as a provocation masked as a drill, responding with naval warnings and heightened military alertness, emphasizing calibrated reciprocal actions, asymmetric escalation, and maintaining credible deterrence from Sir Creek to Kandla-Jamnagar. Islamabad stresses restraint and strategic preparedness, warning that any conflict risks severe escalation given the nuclear environment. The exercise also occurs amid India’s policy shifts involving the Afghan Taliban and increased border tensions, interpreted as strategic distractions to divide Pakistan’s focus. Overall, Trishul illustrates ongoing military posturing in South Asia, highlighting the delicate balance of power sustained by readiness and deterrence rather than overt confrontation.
