Indian Navy to take part in multilateral exercises

New Delhi, Aug 01: The Indian Navy will be taking part in a series of bilateral and multilateral exercises beginning this August with a host of countries including the United States, France and the United Kingdom off the eastern as well as western seaboard of the country.

Ranging from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden to the Bay of Bengal, the upcoming exercises will see the Indian Navy's Western and Eastern Fleets taking part in succession in the month-long 'constructive engagements' which will see the return of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitiz to the Bay of Bengal to participate in the 'Malabar' multilateral exercise.

The six-day Malabar exercise beginning September 4 will have participating as many as three aircraft carriers two from the US, the Nimitiz and Kitty Hawk and one from India, INS Viraat.

The navies of Japan, Australia and Singapore will also be taking part in the mammoth Malabar exercise that would comprise more than a dozen ships crisscrossing the Bay of Bengal honing their skills to prepare themselves to face any 'multi -threat scenario'.

One of the new manoeuvers to be adopted in this exercise is the Air Defence component in which the Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force and P3C Orions from Japan and the US will be taking part.

That the multilateral exercise was in no way targeted at any specific country was amply made clear today by Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff Rear Admiral Pradeep Chauhan during an interaction with mediapersons here. ''There is no such motive the Indian Navy is India-centric.'' China, expressing concern over the multilateral Bay of Bengal exercise, had recently alleged that a quadrilateral arrangement comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia was being formed directed against it.

The Malabar exercise apart, the Indian Navy will also be taking part in the Varuna bilateral exercise during the second week of September with the French Navy off the Gulf of Aden where three Indian ships- Rajput, Beas and Jyoti - will be taking part in an anti-submarine exercise with the French 'La Motte Picquet'.

And preceding this, five Indian ships Rajput, Beas, Betwa, Delhi and Jyoti will be visiting the Persian Gulf to take part in a series of 'passage-level exercises' with Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. During these exercises, the ships sailing together would try to interact and fine-tune inter-operability.

UNI