Warships of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet on Thursday arrived at Guam to participate in the 22nd edition of Exercise Malabar 2018 to be held off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea from June 7 to June 16.
The three ships—Sahyadri, Shakti and Kamorta—of the Eastern Fleet are under the command of Rear Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi who is flag officer commanding, Eastern Fleet, and are currently on an overseas deployment to Southeast Asia and the western Pacific region.
The scope of Malabar 2018 includes professional interactions during the harbour phase in Guam from June 7 to June 10.
The sea phase will be held from June 11 to June 16, which 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 manoeuvres and tactical procedures.
Exercise Malabar, which started as a bilateral exercise between the US Navy and the Indian Navy in 1992, has evolved over the years with the participation of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) from 2007.
Over the last 26 years, this maritime exercise has grown in scope and complexity and aims at increasing the level of mutual understanding, interoperability and sharing of the best practices between the participating navies.
The Indian Navy will be represented by two indigenously designed and built ships, the multi-purpose stealth frigate INS Sahyadri and anti-submarine warfare corvette INS Kamorta and also by fleet tanker INS Shakti and long-range maritime patrol aircraft P-8I.
The US Navy's 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 P-8A aircraft.
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, a submarine and the Japanese P1 maritime patrol aircraft.
Exercise Malabar 2017 was held in July last year on the eastern seaboard of India, off Chennai and Visakhapatnam.
It is for the first time that the exercise is being conducted off Guam, a major US naval base in the western Pacific.