Exercise Mountain Guardian 2026 is a joint military exercise between India and which country?

The correct answer is 92. The Ministry of Defence stated that a total of 92 personnel are taking part in the exercise, with the Indian Army and the UAE Army represented in equal numbers. The Indian contingent is drawn from a Bhairav Battalion and the Emirati contingent from a Mountain Infantry Battalion, and women officers and combatants from both armies have been included in specialist roles. Option A, forty-five, is wrong because that would describe only one contingent at best and does not match the figure given. Option C and option D both inflate the strength; exercises of that size do take place, but this particular drill at the Foreign Training Node in Chaubatia was announced with a combined strength of ninety-two. Candidates should remember that the number is shared equally, which is a detail examiners like to convert into a question about each side’s strength.

The correct answer is a Bhairav Battalion. According to the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Army contingent at Mountain Guardian 2026 comprises troops from a Bhairav Battalion, while the partner contingent from the United Arab Emirates comprises troops of a Mountain Infantry Battalion. The pairing is deliberate, because the drill is designed around operations in difficult mountainous ground and includes rock climbing, obstacle training, surveillance grids and drone operations. Option B is incorrect; Rashtriya Rifles units have a counter-insurgency role and were not named for this exercise. Option C is a distractor drawn from the airborne forces, which are not cited in the announcement. Option D is likewise wrong, since Assam Rifles is a central armed police force under a different chain of command and does not figure in this bilateral drill. Remember both unit names together, as either can be asked.

The correct answer is the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter and the Prachand Light Combat Helicopter, both indigenous rotary-wing platforms named in the announcement as the users of the growing Shakti engine output. The second line at Koraput, set up with an investment of Rs 218 crore, exists to meet their rising requirement. Option A lists fighter aircraft, which use different engines altogether. Options C and D name transport and unmanned platforms that are not tied to the Shakti engine in this announcement. The wider point the ministry makes is that building propulsion systems at home is what moves India from being a buyer of defence equipment to a designer, developer and manufacturer of defence systems, since an engine import dependency can hold back an otherwise indigenous aircraft.

The correct answer is Rs 218 crore. That is the investment behind the second Shakti engine production line being highlighted at the Koraput event, and the added capacity is intended for indigenous helicopter platforms, named in the announcement as the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter and the Prachand Light Combat Helicopter. A second line matters because output from a single line sets a ceiling on how many engines can be delivered in a year, and helicopter production cannot run ahead of its engines. The other three figures are not from this announcement. Keep the two numbers of the day apart: two thousand is the count of engines delivered since the plant began, while two hundred and eighteen crore rupees is the money put into the new line.

The correct answer is the Koraput division, which is in Odisha and has been building aero-engines for close to six decades. The two-thousandth engine from this plant is being handed over on 6 October 2026, with the Raksha Mantri inaugurating the event and the Chief Minister of Odisha among those attending. The same occasion marks a second production line for Shakti engines, set up with an investment of Rs 218 crore to meet the growing requirement of indigenous helicopters. Options A, C and D are genuine Hindustan Aeronautics Limited locations, each with its own product lines, which makes them tempting; but the aero-engine milestone belongs to Koraput. Candidates should link the plant, the state and the engine in one go: Koraput, Odisha, Shakti engines.