September 8, 2007

WHAT WOULD BE REALLY USEFUL...:

What the US gained from naval wargames (Rediff, September 08, 2007)

The multi-nation Malabar exercise has helped the United States Navy to develop an excellent understanding with other countries, including India, a US official participating in the naval wargames said on Saturday.

One of the key elements of the exercise is to increase interoperability among the five participating nations -- India, US, Australia, Singapore and Japan -- Commanding Officer of USS Princeton Captain Dave Melin said.

"By conducting the boarding exercise, we were able to team up with our Indian and Australian counterparts and get some excellent training and an excellent understanding of each other," Melin was quoted as saying by the official website of Seventh Fleet of the US Navy.


...is for the Indians to train us to seize nuclear warheads.

MORE:
Smells like Asian Nato (SUJAN DUTTA, 9/07/07, Telegraph of India)

The acceptance by India of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) proposed by the US in the lead-up to the exercise meant that the navies could draw up “gameplans” to exploit most skill-sets.

For the first time, manoeuvres like air-to-air refuelling have been possible with US aircraft, officers from Indian ships and from an air force maritime strike squadron said. They were on board the USS Kitty Hawk to observe the arrested landings and catapult shots that launch and recover the US Navy’s aircraft.

“The common procedures for this exercise were worked out in four initial planning conferences between the participants. There are so many navies involved that it was important to ensure that the glitches be smoothened out,” an officer explained.

The evolution and implementation of the Nato-based SOPs are not sudden but are a consequence of the 13 episodes of the Malabar series of exercises between the US and Indian navies. The exchanges intensified over the last five years.

The current war games are the second this year but the first in Indian waters involving 24 ships, a nuclear submarine and more than 200 aircraft from five navies.

The SOPs could signal a paradigm shift for the Indian armed forces that have so far evolved their own practices.

Those rules were traditionally influenced by the erstwhile Soviet Russia-led Warsaw Pact. It was logical because it came with the Russian hardware that has equipped the Indian army, navy and air force for decades.

Nato is essentially a military alliance led by the US against the erstwhile Soviet Russia-led Warsaw Pact. Since the end of the Cold War around 1991, Nato has repositioned itself as a coalition in America’s “global war against terror” and has itself shown eagerness to work with Indian forces.

In the current exercise — Malabar 07-02 — those efforts have begun to mature.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 8, 2007 7:05 AM
Comments

"Smells like Asian Nato" SEATO! I love it!

Posted by: Genecis at September 8, 2007 9:42 AM
« IF THEY WERE WELL-BALANCED EMOTIONALLY...: | Main | VEST THEIR INTEREST IN QUIET: »