BackIndian Navy teams up with Thailand, Singapore for drill
The maritime exercise included naval manoeuvres, surface warfare exercises and weapon firings
PremiumThe Indian Navy has teamed up with navies from Thailand and Singapore for a maritime exercise in the Andaman Sea that saw advanced warships undertake various drills, including weapon firings.
The two-day exercise which concluded on Sunday follows the Indian Navy’s Malabar series of exercises in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea with its counterparts from the US, Japan and Australia.
Indian naval ships, including the indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare corvette Kamorta and missile corvette Karmuk, took part in the second edition of the India, Singapore and Thailand trilateral maritime exercise SITMEX-20, the Indian Navy said. This year’s exercise was hosted by the Singapore navy. The first edition of SITMEX was hosted by the Indian Navy and held off Port Blair in September 2019.
The SITMEX series “are conducted to enhance mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices between IN (Indian Navy), Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and Royal Thai Navy (RTN)", the Navy added. The RSN was represented by the “Formidable" class frigate Intrepid and “Endurance" class landing ship tank Endeavour, and the RTN by the “Chao Phraya" class frigate Kraburi.
The exercise “highlights growing synergy, coordination and cooperation in the maritime domain between the three friendly navies and maritime neighbours," it said. The exercise included “naval manoeuvres, surface warfare exercises and weapon firings".
Earlier this month, the Indian Navy along with the navies of Australia, Japan and the US took part in the two-phase Malabar exercise—the first time that all the four came together for such manoeuvres. While India and the US began joint naval exercises code-named Malabar exercises in 1992, Japan joined in 2015.
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