Indo-US Naval exercise to begin

CHENNAI: A 10-day Indo-US Naval exercise, covering land and sea, will commence on Saturday. Called ‘Malabar’, it will be the 16th bilateral exercise of the Indo-US naval forces since 1992. Naval cooperation between India and the US will be beneficial during the ongoing Anti Piracy Operations in the Gulf of Aden and will also assist disaster relief operations.The exercise will be held in two phases. Both navies will participate in a professional seminar to be held at the Chennai harbour from April 7-9. The sea phase will be held in the Bay of Bengal and with exercises ranging from conventional war fight missions to asymmetric warfare. The focus of the exercise will be boarding operations, air defence exercise, helicopter cross deck operations and coordinated anti-submarine warfare.The US navy will be represented by ships from Carrier Task Force and will include aircraft carrier USS Carl vision , guided missile cruiser USS Bunkerhill. The Indian navy will be represented by the indigenously built guided missile frigate INS Satpur,  guided missile  destroyers INS Ranvijay and INS Ranvir Missile Corvette, INS Kulish and Fleet Tanker INS Shakthi, including several other navy aircraft that are scheduled to participate in the above bilateral exercise.