Indian Navy joins exercise in South China Sea with US, Japan among 40 countries

India Navy has joined a multi-nation submarine-rescue exercise in the contested waters of the South China Sea. Uniquely, the US and Japan are among the 40 participants while China has a role as one of the ‘observer countries’.

India, US, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are among the countries which have sent either their submarines or submarine rescue ships for the exercise named ‘Pacific Reach-2025’. India has sent in INS Nistar, its newly commissioned specialised submarine rescue vessel.  

The Indian Navy said “the sea phase of the exercise would witness INS Nistar the engaging in multiple intervention and rescue operations with participating assets in South China Sea”.

Exercise Pacific Reach 2025, being hosted by Singapore will see participation of more than 40 nations as active participants or as observers.

Sources said China was one of the ‘observer countries’ meaning it has not sent a sea-going asset or an air asset. Military exercises have ‘observers’, the source said explaining the oddity. China has unilateral over-lapping maritime claims in the South China Sea with Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.  

The exercise will be conducted in two phases — the harbour and sea phase.

The week-long harbour phase started today will involve in-depth discussions on submarine rescue systems, medical symposium and cross deck visits between the participating nations.

The Singapore Navy today said, “We look forward to exercising with our partners to share best practices, strengthen interoperability, all with one goal — to enhance the safety of our submariners at sea.”

Indian Navy's latest indigenously designed and constructed Diving Support Vessel, INS Nistar reached the port of Changi, Singapore yesterday.

INS Nistar, commissioned in July this year, will play the role of mothership for ‘deep submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV). India inducted two DSRVs in 2018-19 that are capable of rescue operations till depths of 650 meters of depth.  The DSRV’s can either be deployed on ships or airlifted to the nearest mobilisation port for rapid deployment to distant seas.

One of DSRV’s will be operating from the INS Nistar for the ‘Pacific reach’ exercise, a biennial feature.