Quad kicks off 4-day Malabar wargame

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26

Maritime forces from India, US, Australia and Japan began the first phase maritime exercise ‘Malabar’ in the Philippine Sea on Thursday.

A statement from the US said “It demonstrates the commitment between like-minded nations to upholding a rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific”. This year’s exercise is being hosted by the US Navy and will be in two phases.

The first phase is an opportunity for the four Indo-Pacific navies to operate together to strengthen their skills in combined maritime operations, anti-submarine warfare operations, air warfare operations, live-fire gunnery events, replenishments-at-sea, cross-deck flight operations, and maritime interdiction operations.

An Indian Navy statement said the exercise would witness complex anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare drill, and other manoeuvres and tactical exercises. The Malabar exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. Japan became a permanent member of the exercise in 2015.