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Naval exercises with U.S. in October

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: India will hold its annual naval exercises with the U.S. in October, off Mumbai, security officials said here on Thursday.

Last year’s exercises, in which some close military allies of the U.S. also participated, set off a political storm and earned all the participating countries demarches from China. This edition of the Malabar series of joint exercises with the U.S. precludes other countries and the venue will be the Arabian Sea instead of the Bay of Bengal.

Japan was keen to participate in this year’s joint exercises with the U.S. for the second consecutive year. But it has been accommodated separately. Japanese warships are now exercising with their Indian Navy counterparts in the Arabian Sea. The Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta is currently visiting Japanese naval bases and meeting their top officials to assure Tokyo of India’s keenness to continue with the security cooperation.

Continuing with its desire to undertake exercises with several countries at the same time, the Indian Navy will involve ships from the French and British navies when it conducts joint exercises in a different maritime theatre next year.

The exercises with the U.S. this year will be of the same scale as the Malabar series last September when over 100 aircraft, a nuclear submarine and several warships participated. India’s sole aircraft carrier INS Viraat will be missing as it is currently undergoing extensive refits to make it sail-worthy for another five to seven years.

Although the Indian armed forces have conducted about 50 joint exercises with their U.S. counterparts in the past seven years, it is still wary of fielding top-of-the-line military platforms.

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