Navy gets ready for its biggest naval exercise amid ocean engagements

Subject :IR

Section: International Events

Exercise MILAN:

Exercise Milan is a biennial multilateral naval exercise which began in 1995. It is the largest naval exercise conducted by India.
The next edition of Exercise MILAN is scheduled to be held in February 2024 and is expected to see the participation of over 50 countries.
The last edition was held at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

Navy Day:

Navy Day is celebrated on December 4. This year, it will be celebrated at Sindhudurg Fort on the western seaboard, built in 1660 by Chhatrapati Shivaji. It is located 550 km from Mumbai and about 135 km from naval station at Goa.
December 4 is observed as Navy Day to commemorate the Navy’s daring attack on Karachi harbour during the 1971 War under ‘Operation Trident’.

Indian Naval Exercise and cooperation with other nation:

Since July 2022, the Indian Navy has joined the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Force (CMF), a US-led multi-national naval partnership that aims to promote security, stability, and prosperity across international waters in IOR.
There are 17 multilateral and 20 bilateral exercises that the Navy conducts annually which exemplifies India’s commitment to maintaining strong defence ties.
These exercises are crucial for honing operational capabilities, sharing best practices, building mutual trust, fostering interoperability, strengthening diplomatic ties, and enhancing maritime security.
Indian-built Off-shore Patrol Vessels (OPV) and Fast Attack Craft (FAC) are in service in Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka, facilitated through defence Lines of Credit.
- A fast attack craft (FAC) is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles, gun or torpedoes.
- FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive capabilities to survive in blue water.
In October 2020, India gifted a kilo-class Submarine INS Sindhuvir which was extensively refitted and upgraded prior handing over, to Myanmar (renamed as UMS Minye Theinkhathu).
India also gifted Maldives an FAC and a landing craft.
India gifted an operational Khukri-class corvette, INS Kirpan to Vietnam.