Malabar Naval Exercise 2020: Phase 2 commences in Arabian Sea from November 17

The second phase of the 24th edition of Quad navy exercise, Malabar 2020, is set to commence from November 17 onwards in the Northern Arabian Sea. Phase 2 of Malabar 2020 will witness joint and coordinated operations aimed at increasing complexity between the Quad Navies which is centred around Indian Navy's Vikramaditya Carrier Battle Group and US Navy's Nimitz Carrier Strike Group. Earlier, phase one of Malabar 2020 was conducted in the Indian ocean from November 3 to 6. 

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Phase 2 of Malabar 2020

The second phase of this exercise, navies of the Quad nations - US Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) along with Indian Navy, will engage in several high-intensity joint Naval operations from November 17 to November 20. Indian Navy's aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya along with its fighter and helicopter air-wings, indigenous destroyers INS Kolkata and INS Chennai and stealth frigate INS Talwar with fleet support ship INS Deepak and other integral helicopters will be a part of Malabar Naval exercise. Indian Navy will be led by Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, Rear Admiral Krishna Swaminathan.

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US Navy's supercarrier USS Nimitz, cruiser USS Princeton, destroyer USS Sterett along with maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8A will be a part of Malabar 2020. HMAS Ballarat of Royal Australian Navy along with its internal helicopter and JMSDF will be a part of this four days long exercise. Indian Navy's indigenously built submarine INS Khander along with maritime patrol aircraft P8I will also participate in Phase 2 of Malabar Naval Exercise 2020 along with other ships, submarines and aircraft of the participating navies. 

The aircraft of the Vikramaditya Carrier Battle Group and Nimitz Carrier Strike Group will engage in cross-deck flying and advanced air defence operations. MIG 29K fighter of Vikramaditya, as well as F-18 and E2C Hawkeye from Nimitz, will participate in this Naval operation. This exercise will also witness several other advanced surface and anti-submarine warfare ops along with live weapon firing and seamanship evolutions aimed to further inter-operability among the navies of the Quad nations.

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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. Malabar 2020 is aimed at 'enhancing maritime safety and security for free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific'.

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