India, Japan and the U.S. will hold the annual Malabar trilateral naval war games off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea from June 6-15. The exercise comes at a time of increased friction between China and the U.S. along with the nations bordering South China Sea as Beijing militarises reclaimed islands.
Incidentally the U.S. has just renamed its Pacific command as Indo-Pacific command to underscore its commitment to the region in line with its Indo-Pacific strategy.
“Training will focus on high-end war fighting skillsets, subject matter expert and professional exchanges, combined carrier strike group operations, maritime patrol and reconnaissance operations, surface and anti-submarine warfare, medical operations, damage control, helicopter operations and visit, board, search and seizure operations,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement on Thursday.
Indian Navy is sending indigenous stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, anti-submarine corvette INS Kamorta, fleet tanker INS Shakti and P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft.
However, India’s sole aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which has participated in Malabar earlier, will miss action year as it is currently undergoing scheduled refit.
Japan is deploying its helicopter carrier JDS Ise along with Soryu class conventional submarines and Kawasaki P-1 aircraft maritime patrol aircraft.
The U.S. is sending its aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan along with strike complement of destroyers, support ships and nuclear attack submarines in addition to P-8A maritime patrol aircraft.
