Aircraft participating in the maiden UK-India bilateral tri-services exercise ‘Konkan Shakti-21' fly in formation over the UK Royal Navy carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth during the military manoeuvres. (Royal Navy)
The armed forces of India and the United Kingdom have concluded their first bilateral tri-service exercise, ‘Konkan Shakti-21'.
During the exercise, which concluded on 27 October, air, surface, and subsurface assets from both defence forces worked through a series of multi-service combat drills across all domains of maritime operations.
The maritime phase of the exercise was conducted between 21 and 27 October in two stages: a harbour phase, held in Mumbai between 21–23 October, and a sea phase, was conducted off the Indian west coast from 24–27 October.
The Royal Navy (RN) was represented by the UK carrier strike group (CSG), led by the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and including the Type 45 Daring- class air-defence destroyer HMS Defender , the Type 23-class frigate HMS Richmond , the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) vessel Fort Victoria , and the Royal Netherland Navy frigate HNLMS Evertsen . Participating Indian Navy assets included three Kolkata (Project 15A)-class guided-missile destroyers, two Talwar (Project 1135.6)-class frigates, the tanker Aditya and one of its new Scorpene-class submarines, INS Karanj .
The group exercised and simulated various scenarios and operations, such as transiting through a war-at-sea area; replenishment at sea approaches; induction of army troops by a joint command operations centre; air direction and strike operations; cross control of helicopters; gun firings; and advanced anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises involving an RN-controlled expendable mobile ASW training target.
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