Malabar Exercise to be held off Guam coast in US from June 7 to June 16

New Delhi: Indian Naval Ships Sahyadri, Shakti and Kamorta will be participating in the 22nd edition of Malabar Exercise off Guam, the US from June 7 to June 16, 2018.

These Naval Ships are scheduled to reach Guam on June 7 for the Harbour Phase of the exercise. This is for the first time the Malabar Exercise is being conducted in the US territory. With the growing defence cooperation with the US, it has recently named its Hawaii-based Pacific Command as the US Indo-Pacific Command.

The Malabar exercise was last held in July 2017 off Chennai and Visakhapatnam. Malabar 2018 will have the participation of navies from India, the US and Japan. Eastern Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, NM, Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Fleet, is currently on an overseas deployment to South East Asia and the Western Pacific.

Over the past 26 years, this maritime exercise has grown in scope and complexity and aims to address the variety of shared threats and challenges to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. Further, the exercise contributes towards increasing the level of mutual understanding, inter-operability and sharing of the best practices between the three navies.

The scope of the Malabar 2018 includes professional interactions during the Harbour Phase in Guam from June 7 to June 10 and the Sea Phase from June 11 to June16 that includes a diverse range of activities at sea including Aircraft Carrier operations, Air Defence, Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Surface Warfare, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS), Joint Maneuvers and Tactical procedures.

Indian Navy will be represented by the two indigenously designed and built ships, the multi-purpose stealth frigate INS Sahyadri and Anti-Submarine Warfare corvette, INS Kamorta, Fleet Tanker INS Shakti and Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft P8I. The US Navy forces will include the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan with its air wing; two Ticonderoga class cruisers, USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville; two Arleigh Burke class destroyers, USS Benfold and USS Mustin; a Los Angeles-class attack submarine and one Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft P8A.

The JMSDF would be represented by a Hyuga class helicopter carrier JS Ise with integral helicopters; Takanami class destroyer JS Suzunami; Akizuki class destroyer JS Fuyuzuki. Japanese Maritime Patrol Aircraft, P1 and a submarine.