Quad navies to kick off Malabar exercise from today

NEW DELHI: India, the United States, Japan and Australia will kick off the latest edition of the Malabar naval drills off the Pacific Ocean island of Guam on Thursday, with the exercise involving destroyers, frigates, corvettes, submarines, helicopters, long-range maritime patrol aircraft and elite special forces elements including the US Navy SEALS and the Indian Navy’s marine commandos, top officials familiar with the developments said on Wednesday.

India is also preparing to conduct its first tri-service exercise with the United Kingdom in the Arabian Sea in October-end, said one of the officials cited above, asking not to be named. The Royal Navy will send a carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth for the drills that will be conducted from October 21 to 27. India has so far conducted tri-service drills only with two other countries --- the US and Russia. The Quad navies had carried out complex naval drills under the Malabar banner in November 2020 in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Two Indian warships, INS Shivalik and INS Kadmatt, will be taking part in the 25th edition of the Malabar exercise along with the P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft and MARCOS.

“A wide range of surface, subsurface and air operations will be carried out by the participating navies during the exercise. Special operations teams --- US Navy SEALS, Indian MARCOS and Special Boarding Units of the Japanese Maritime Self-defence Force (JMSDF) --- will carry out VBSS training and simulated hostage rescue operations,” said a second official.