Malabar wargames: India, Japan, US navies in the Pacific

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Navies of India, the US and Japan will kick off their trilateral Malabar naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean from Thursday.

The "highly complex" wargames in the north-western, in the area adjacent to the East China, are being held ignoring Chinese objections.

India has sent three warships INS Ranvijay, INS Shivalik and support tanker INS Shakti under the command of Real Admiral Atul Kumar Jain to test skills against the US and Japanese navies. Among the US ships taking part in the wargames is its latest aircraft carrier USS George Washington, destroyers USS Shiloh and John S McCain and nuclear submarine USS Columbus.

Japan has also fielded its destroyers, JS Kurama and JS Ashigara, besides US-2i ShinMaywa amphibious aircraft.

The naval wargames will begin with the harbour phase of drills in Sasebo city of Japan and then move to high seas in the Pacific Ocean for the sea going phase of the drills. India and the US have held 17 editions of the Malabar-series wargames since 1992 and had involved Japan along with Australia and Singapore in 2007 in the Pacific Ocean after which the Chinese government raised objections. The last exercise involving Japan was held in 2009.

The Indian warships taking part in Malabar wargames had taken part in a similar exercise with Russia off Vladivostok earlier this month.