7th Fleet Focus: Malabar 2008 News

Sindh Today brings news with details of the participants for the upcoming Malabar 2008 exercise. For those not familiar, Malabar is the annual naval exercise conducted in the Indian Ocean with the US Navy and the Indian Navy. Last year Australia and Singapore both participated, but this year no additional nations have been announced as participants.

Of note, the announcement that INS Viraat (R22) will not be participating, as it currently undergoes refit. Some of the activities are described as:

‘We will engage in anti-submarine operations, submarine to submarine operations, flying operations, cross deck embarcations,’ the officer said.

‘During the exercise, alternating control and command will also take place, under which the Indian fleet commander will take over the command of the US fleet and vice versa.’

The participants as announced are as follows:

US Navy

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)
USS Chancellorsville (CG 62)
USS Gridley (DDG 101)
USS Decatur (DDG 73)
USS Thach (FFG 43)
USS Springfield (SSN 761)

Indian Navy

INS Talwar (F40)
INS Godavari (F20)
INS Brahmaputra (F31)
INS Betwa (F37)
INS Aditya (A59)
INS Shishumar (S44)

The exercise is scheduled to take place between October 15 - 24.