The Indian Navy’s major Operational level exercise TROPEX for the year 2023, conducted across the expanse of the Indian Ocean, over a duration of four months from November 2022 to March 2023, culminated this week in the Arabian Sea. The overall exercise construct included coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil and the amphibious exercise AMPHEX, the Navy said, which also saw significant participation from the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard.
“Set in the Indian Ocean including the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the theatre of operations for the exercise extended approximately 4,300 nm from North to South, up to 35 degee South Latitude and 5,000 nm from the Persian Gulf in the West to North Australia coast in the East, spanning an area of over 21 million square nautical miles,” the Navy said in a statement. TROPEX-23 witnessed the participation of approximately 70 Indian Navy ships, six submarines and over 75 aircraft.
The culmination of TROPEX-23 brings to an end an intense operational phase for the Indian Navy that commenced in November 2022, the Navy said. As part of the final Joint Phase, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spent a day at sea onboard the newly commissioned indigenous aircraft carrierVikrant on March 6, during which he reviewed the Navy’s operational preparedness and was given a demonstration of the operational manoeuvers and various facets of combat operations, including deck operations of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and live weapon firings.
