Malabar Naval Exercise 2020 concludes; warfare drills, live weapon firings main highlights

The first phase of the 24th edition of Malabar Naval Exercise 2020 in the Indian Ocean concluded on November 6. Started on November 3 in the Bay of Bengal, Malabar-20 witnessed the participation of navies from the Quad nations. This multinational exercise was conducted as a 'no-contact, at-sea only' exercise in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  The second phase of the exercise is scheduled to be conducted in the Arabian Sea in mid-November 2020. 

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Malabar-20 concludes

Taking to Twitter, the Indian Navy shared an amazing video of the warships from the navies of the Quad nations in formation during Malabar Naval Exercise 2020. In the tweet, the Indian Navy informs that the Warships manage to 'sustain prolonged deployments at sea' after receiving supplies like fuel and ammunition among other things from fleet support ships like INS Shakti which may seem like an easy task, but really isn't. The Indian Navy also shared interesting details of the tasks undertaken along with Royal Australian Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) and US Navy which includes anti-submarine operations, cross deck landing as well as seamanship manoeuvres. 

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The exercise witnessed several other operations including live weapon firings, surface, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare drills along with tactical procedures and joint manoeuvres as the advanced war-at-sea exercise Malabar 2020 concluded. The naval exercise witnessed the participation of two frigates namely long-range frigate HMAS Ballarat from Royal Australian Navy and frigate INS Shivalik from Indian Navy along with three destroyers - the guided-missile destroyer USS John S McCain from the United States Navy, destroyer JS Onami from Japan Maritime Self Defence Force and  Indian Navy destroyer INS Ranvijay. It also included a fleet support ship INS Shakti, one Offshore Patrol Vessel INS Sukanya along with submarine INS Sindhuraj. Several aircraft were also a part of the exercise including long-range maritime patrol aircraft P-8I, maritime patrol aircraft Dornier, Advanced Jet Trainer Hawk along with integral helicopters Dhruv and Chetak. Royal Australian Navy's MH-60 helicopter and JMSDF's SH-60 helicopter were also a part of the naval exercise. Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet Read Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan led the exercise for Indian Navy. 

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Malabar Naval Exercise

Malabar exercise originally began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and US Navy. In 2015, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force became a permanent partner of Malabar. This exercise is a quadrilateral naval exercise that includes Quad nations- India, United States, Japan and Australia as permanent partners. Singapore has participated in the Malabar exercise as a non-permanent partner in 2007. For the first time in 2020, all members of the Quad nations will come together for the Malabar Naval Exercise 2020 as the Royal Australian Navy accepted India's invitation to join the exercise. 

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