Five Nations' Navies Meet for Malabar on INS Viraat
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS070907-17
Release Date: 9/7/2007 4:38:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam York, Kitty Hawk Public Affairs
USS KITTY HAWK, At Sea (NNS) -- Senior Navy officers from the five nations taking part in exercise Malabar 07-2, met on the Indian flagship INS Viraat (R 22) Sept. 4, kicking off the four-day exercise.
Rear Adm. Robin K. Dhowan, commander of the Viraat Carrier Strike Group, hosted the officers, which included USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. Richard B. Wren; USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. John Terence Blake; and leaders from the Singaporean, Australian and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) contingents.
The exercise, which is the second Malabar this year, is taking place in the Indian Ocean’s Bay of Bengal through Sept. 7, and includes 20,000 military personnel in 28 ships and on more than 150 aircraft.
“That gives you an idea of the scale of this exercise along with the ways of our dimension,” said Dhowan. “In the air, on the surface and on the water … this is going to be an enriching and rewarding experience for all the participants.”
Much of the exercise will focus on building working relationships between the nations. These exercises, said Wren, will help in the event the nations are called to work together in real-world operations.
“It’s all about maritime security,” said Wren. “High-end to low-end warfare – and sometimes ‘Mother Nature’ throws an event at us such as earthquakes and tsunamis, and we need to be able to respond.”
Malabar is traditionally a U.S. and Indian exercise, but April’s exercise was held with Indian and the JMSDF off Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean. This year the Indian Navy invited the Australian, Singapore and Japanese naval forces to take part in Malabar, marking an historic first.
“It’s another step toward enhancing the scope and the scale of the exercises,” said Dhowan.
Adding the other nations, said Blake, makes the exercise more complex, but consequently more realistic.
“I would say that it’s a significant level of complexity,” said Blake. “This is [an exercise] that stresses communication.”
Communications, the officials agreed, that will mean for better working relationships in the future.
The USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group is on its summer deployment in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The strike group is the U.S. Navy’s largest and includes the carrier, seven ships of Destroyer Squadron 15, two Aegis weapons system equipped guided-missile cruisers and Carrier Air Wing 5.
The ships operate from Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan, and the air wing operates from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. Together, they serve as the 7th Fleet’s combatant force.
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