Two C-17 carrying 66 tonnes of aid: How India mobilised its army to help quake-hit Venezuela

Within 48 hours of the deadly earthquake that struck Venezuela, a 41 member team of the 60 Parachute Field Ambulance, a storied medical unit, left for South America. The air force sent two C-17 transport aircraft, that took 23 hours to reach half the world away, carrying 66 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including over 35 tonnes of relief supplies, medicines and medical equipment, under the banner of Operation Amistad, which means friendship in Spanish. The Indian contingent will be working in coordination with the Venezuelan authorities. Social media has been flooded with visuals of locals thanking the contingent.The army medical detachment, which includes nine officers, is equipped to provide emergency medical care, trauma management, surgery and critical care. The members of India's medical contingent have hit the ground running and have provided immediate relief to those affected. Even Prime Minister Modi has lauded the efforts made by the medical team. The Indian Army has been at the forefront of medical rehabilitation work in areas affected by natural calamities as part of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) work, both in India and abroad.BHISHM cubeThe medical contingent is also carrying with it two Bharat Health Initiative for Sahyog Hita & Maitri (BHISHM) cubes. The BHISHM aid cube, developed under India’s Aarogaya Maitri project, is an AI-enabled, modular medical support system designed for rapid disaster response in war and humanitarian scenarios. Comprising 72 easily transportable parts, it can be deployed by hand or drone and made operational within 12 minutes, offering scalable care from basic aid to advanced surgical support during mass casualty events. Its integration of data analytics allows real-time monitoring, coordination, and efficient medical management in the field.The deployment of a medical team and 66 tonnes of relief material half the world away demonstrates the ability of the Indian armed forces to deploy for out of contingency operations in a very short duration of time and be then able to effectively execute the task at hand.