Malabar exercise to begin with a fewer ships but added punch begins on August 11
The Malabar series of naval exercises involving India, Japan, the US and Australia will get under way off the eastern coast of Australia with a fewer number of warships but will have a ‘focused’ punch on air defence, sea operations, ability to operate together and detect under-sea threats.
The Australian Navy is the host of the 10-day event from August 11 to 21. This shall include a harbour phase at Sydney followed by sea exercises.
Australia will be fielding two warships HMAS Choules and HMAS Brisbane.
Indian Navy is sending INS Kolktata and INS Sahyadri. The US and Japan are sending in a warship each.
Other than Japan, the other three countries shall be fielding Boeing P8I maritime surveillance aircraft of their respective fleets.
Unlike in the past, there will no submarines or an aircraft carrier of any country at the exercise, sources said.
The exercise will have ‘very high-end complexity’, sources said, answering questions on the reduced number of warships at the exercise.
The last chapter of the exercise conducted by Japan had almost a dozen warships besides planes.
The participating platforms – ships and aircraft - will do multiple domains of warfare. This includes operations at sea, under-sea and air operations and air-defence.
The maritime surveillance aircraft will be an important component of the anti-submarine warfare exercises.
The exercise is designed to have inter-operability of platforms, sources said, adding that the exercise was not directed against China and should not be seen as an exercise of Quad countries. The four are also partners in Quad.
The four countries often mention 'free and open Indo-Pacific', a euphemism for opposing Chinese hegemony and attempts to impede traffic at sea and in air.
China in the past has been objecting to warships in open sea of the South China Sea. The Malabar series of maritime exercises commenced in 1992 and have grown in complexity over the years.
The Malabar series of naval exercises involving India, Japan, the US and Australia will get under way off the eastern coast of Australia with a fewer number of warships but will have a ‘focused’ punch on air defence, sea operations, ability to operate together and detect under-sea threat
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