The sea phase of exercise Malabar has begun off the eastern coast of India. The navies of India, Australia, Japan and the United States are taking part in the annual exercise which had first begun in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States. The participating navies in the Malabar wargames will cover a variety of complex maritime operations that cover the surface, sub-surface, and air warfare domains.
State of the art ships such as the USS Dewey, and Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer of the U.S. Navy, HMAS Stuart and ANZAC class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy and JS Ariake a Murasame class destroyer of the Japanese Navy are taking part in the exercise. A US Navy P8A Poseidon is also taking part in the exercise.
The Indian Navy is represented in the exercise by the Delhi class destroyer INS Delhi, Talwar Class frigate INS Tabar, Kamorta class corvettes INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt, fleet oiler INS Shakti, a submarine and P-8I maritime patrol aircraft.
Special Forces of all the four participating nations are also taking part in the Malabar exercise. The aim of the exercise is to increase mutual understanding and cooperation with the overall aim of operating seamlessly as a part of a Combined Task Force at sea. All the QUAD members are dedicated to maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The Indian Navy too sends its combat units for exercises to its QUAD partners.
India has participated in Exercise RIMPAC in the U.S., Exercise Kakadu 24 in Japan and Exercise Jimex with Japan, preceding Malabar this year. In the exercise held on October 5-6, the navies of both countries deployed aircraft carriers. India deployed INS Vikramaditya for the wargames while the Italians deployed the carrier MM Cavour. Air wings of both carriers took part in the exercise
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
