NEW DELHI: India and Singapore on Thursday kicked off a major naval exercise “SIMBEX” in the contentious South China Sea, where China is locked in diapute with its neighbours.
India has deployed its stealth frigates, INS Shivalik and INS Sahyadri, anti-submarine warfare corvette INS Kamorta and fleet replenishment tanker INS Jyoti as well as one Poseidon-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft, under the overall command of Eastern Fleet commander Rear Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, for the SIMBEX exercise.
Singapore, in turn, has fielded warships Supreme, Formidable and Victory as well as F-16 fighters and Fokker F50 maritime patrol aircraft.
“This year’s edition of SIMBEX, the 24th such bilateral combat exercise, is aimed at further increasing interoperability between the two navies.