The Australian Air Force’s long-range maritime patrol aircraft P-8A arrived at the INS Rajali Naval air station in Tamil Nadu on June 30 for the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) exercise alongside Indian Navy P-8I aircraft. The drills are part of continuous efforts to promote interoperability, particularly in the subsurface area.
Why Such Exercise is Needed?
In the wake of China’s rapid growth of its naval presence in the Indian Ocean region, India, Australia, Japan, and the United States have prioritised Maritime Domain Awareness, Subsurface Domain Awareness, and ASW.
This is the fourth iteration of the drill involving the two Navy’s Boeing P-8 aircraft. Australia hosted the first iteration in Darwin in April 2022, with India hosting the exercise in Goa in April 2022. The third iteration took place in Darwin in April of this year. The Indian Navy has 12 P-8I aircraft that were purchased in two batches.
In March, the Indian Navy sent a P-8I for ‘Exercise Sea Dragon 23’, the third edition of the coordinated multilateral ASW exercise for long-range ASW aircraft conducted by the US Navy at Guam, in which Canada, Japan, and South Korea also participated.
For the first time this year, Australia will host the Malabar multilateral naval exercise, which includes India, Australia, Japan, and the United States, in Sydney. The exercise has grown in scale and complexity, with a special emphasis on ASW tactics. In the midst of the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh, Australia was admitted as a permanent member of Ex. Malabar in 2020. Malabar’s final edition was held in Japan in November 2022. This also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the exercise, which began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States. The acquisition of more military gear by India from the United States has increased platform commonality and, as a result, interoperability among the Quad countries’ militaries.
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