• The Indian Naval ships Shivalik and Kamorta will participate in the four-nation Malabar Exercise scheduled to take place off Yokosuka from November 8 to 18. 

• The 26th edition of the Malabar Exercise among the navies of India, Japan, the US and Australia is taking place amid rising global concerns over China’s increasing military muscle-flexing in the South China Sea and East China Sea regions.

• Besides the two ships, the Indian Navy is set to deploy some other assets, including P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

• While INS Shivalik is a multi-role guided missile stealth frigate, INS Kamorta is an anti-submarine corvette and both of them are part of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam.        

• The exercise will witness high-tempo drills in multiple domains as well as complex surface, sub-surface and air operations, including live firing drills.

History of Malabar exercise:

• Malabar is an annual maritime exercise that enhances planning, training and employment of advanced warfare tactics between the Indian Navy (IN), US Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and  Royal Australian Navy (RAN) which demonstrates the commitment between like-minded nations to upholding a rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific.  

• 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. This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.

• Following India’s invitation, Australia participated in the Malabar Exercise in 2020 that effectively made it a drill by all four member nations of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition.    

• In 2020, the exercise was hosted in two phases in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Last year, the mega wargame took place off the coast of Guam in the Western Pacific.

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