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Malabar CY 07-2 Undeterred By Criticism

Syed Ali Mujtaba, Ph.D. - 9/2/2007

The largest-ever war game hosted by the Indian Navy, codenamed MALABAR CY 07-2, kicks off in the Bay of Bengal from September 4 to 9, 2007. However, this has stirred a hornet’s nest in the country. Opinions remain divided for and against New Delhi’s military engagement with the Washington.

Twenty four warships from five countries would take part in the Malabar series of naval exercises at 100 nautical miles west of Andamans and 500 miles east of the Indian shores in the Bay of Bengal.

American Nuclear Carrier USS Nimitz and Nuclear-powered Submarine Chicago would be the highlight of the exercise erasing the memories of USS Enterprise in the Bay of Bengal during the Indo-Pak 1971 conflict.

However, in the run up to the exercise things are not as smooth as seems to be. The Left parties in India are gearing up for a major protest against this multinational naval exercise. It’s critical that any strategic pact with the United States would be fraught with dangerous implications.

The left is of the view that such exercise would give the U.S. an opportunity to achieve its long-cherished hegemony in the Indian waters and serve its agenda to make India a military base for its operations in Southeast Asia.

The left also thinks that the multilateral naval exercise is an attempt to co-opt India into the Israel-U.S. axis. It further suspects the experience US gain from such an exercise could be passed on to Pakistan.

The left parties’ therefore have decided to organize rallies across West Bengal to highlight the "dangerous implications" of the multilateral naval exercise. It wants to awaken people that India is on way to become another pawn in the hands of the imperialist America.

Even as the Left prepares for a major protest against the 'Operation Malabar' the Indian government has made it clear that it’s going ahead with the September 4 naval exercise.

The government views the event as relating to country's defense and strategic importance. It clarifies that political positions have not been factored into the decision relating to the services since armed forces in the country is apolitical.

The government takes naval perspective that views the Bay of Bengal as its backyard and is all for playing a crucial role in protecting the sea-lanes of communications via the Malacca Straits. It is also seems conscious of the Chinese efforts to reach out to the Indian Ocean via Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

India's naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has come out with a statement that in the past Indian navy had conducted similar exercises with the navies of Britain, France, Russia, Sri Lanka and China and such naval exercises been extremely successful.

Mehta adds; “We have worked with Chinese Navy in March this year. We did some work basically in search and rescue aspects, the common thing we do to start with such exercises. And from there onwards, we graduate to major exercises."

"Indian Navy stands to benefit a lot from exercises that we do with various navies, including the US navy. It is quite an experience for our sailors and officers as they get a chance to acquaint with the top of the shelf technology and weapons systems".

Mehta says; “It is a quite experience if you have 40 different types of aircrafts operating in an air battle environment ... ships to go...get battle ready. I don't think we can have such an environment with just one country."

The Naval Chief made it clear that it was in the interest of national security that the Indian navy engages navies of different countries across the world so that our sailors and officers get a chance to operate in a battle environment.

There is little doubt that twenty four warships from India, the US, Singapore, Australia and Japan that are going taking part in the four day naval exercise would have unique experience at Malabar CY 07-2.

Indian Navy goes into the war games with its surface combatants including INS Viraat, country's sole aircraft carrier. It will be assisted by two Rajput class, one Delhi class, two Godavari class, one Brahmaputra class and four missile corvettes. Others HDW 209 and Russian Kilo class submarines have also been detailed for the exercise. Indian navy will also operate its shore-based TU 142 long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and Jaguars fighters.

The US will have major presence in the exercise with participation of its 13 warships including nuclear powered submarine USS Chicago, USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk. While Nimitz (CVN 68) is nuclear-powered, Kitty Hawk (CV 63) is gas turbine-charged. The two aircraft carriers carry a total of 170 aircrafts, which is one-third of the Indian Air Force operational strength.

Australia is fielding Frigate Adeliade and tanker ship Sirius. The long-range escort frigate with its supply ship will be the first naval exercise with India since 2004.

The Japanese self-defence ships Oonami and Udachi will be seen in action. This will be the third engagement with Japanese ships this year. The destroyer Suzunami made a port call at Mumbai earlier this month and carried out a small exercise on its way out

Singapore’s Frigate Formidable, the brand new French origin frigate was inducted earlier this year and is considered one of the most advanced vessels in its class.

Malabar CY 07-2 will be an air-defence exercise involving over 200 aircraft operating from both land and sea. The scenario to be played out during the war game will be operating combat ships in an air-dominated environment.

With close to 40 types of aircraft participating in the manoeuvres, planners have worked out scenarios like dissimilar air combat, interception of shore-based aircraft and air defence of war ships towards the end of the exercise.

A group of vessels are also scheduled to play out an anti-submarine operation to hunt the USS Chicago using air assets. The exercise will also involve cross deck helicopter operations to develop inter-operability for disaster relief and rescue missions.

So far, the Malabar series of the Indo-US exercises have always been conducted off the western coast of India. It is for the first time that the ‘Malabar CY 07-2’ has been planned in China’s backyard. The exercises, near the Andaman Islands, will be held close to China’s monitoring stations at Coco Islands and near the strategic Strait of Malacca.

Analyst feel China may unlikely to take the exercise too well. It is already wary of an emerging NATO-like quadrilateral security engagement between India, Australia, US and Japan and sees it as a ‘strategic encirclement’ of the country.

Some other equate ‘Malabar CY 07-2’ with 'MILAN 2003' (11-15 February 2003) a confluence meeting of navies from Indian Ocean countries. Warships and naval delegates from several nations (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore) participated in the event. The mascot of MILAN 2003 was a dolphin, symbolizing friendship and a desire for reaching out for peaceful co-existence.