INDRA NAVY is a joint, biennial military exercise conducted by India and Russia starting in 2003. The exercise is tasked with boosting cooperation and interoperability between the Russian and Indian navies. The word INDRA is a portmanteau of the participants' respective countries. [1] The exercise involves live firing drills, as well as air defence and anti submarine operations. Additionally, counterpiracy, terrorism and drug smuggling operations are carried out. [2]
The end of the Cold War which brought greatly reduced defense budgets saw a collapse in ship building and naval activity in Russia throughout the 1990s. During this time, the Russian navy had no presence in the Indian Ocean. This changed in 2001, when a contingent of naval ships, including anti-submarine warfare vessels and a tanker docked at Mumbai. [3] In April 2003, nine warships of the Russian navy departed from their bases at Sevastopol in the Black Sea and Vladivostok for the Indian Ocean. These units engaged in a number of exercises with the Indian navy. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov proposed joint naval exercises to be held later that year.
The 12th edition took place in the Volgograd, Russia from 1st to 13th August 2021. An Indian Army contingent from Mechanised Infantry Regiment also took part in the regiment. The contingent from both the nations consisted of 250 personnel each. [4]
The 13th edition was hosted in Bay of Bengal by India in November 2023. Russia had sent two destroyers from its Pacific Fleet including Admiral Tributs and Admiral Panteleyev . [5]
The Russian Navy is part of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates significantly in the Persian Gulf Region, the Horn of Africa, the Strait of Malacca, and routinely conducts anti-piracy operations and partners with other navies in the region. It also conducts routine two to three month-long deployments in the South and East China seas as well as in the western Mediterranean sea simultaneously.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy or Iranian Navy, officially abbreviated NEDAJA, is the naval warfare service branch of Iran's regular military, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh). It is one of Iran's two maritime military branches, alongside the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
INS Rana is a Rajput-class destroyer in active service with the Indian Navy. She was commissioned on 28 June 1982.
Pyotr Velikiy is the fourth Kirov-class battlecruiser of the Russian Navy. She was initially named Yuri Andropov after Yuri Andropov, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, but the ship's name was changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Russian designation for the type is "heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser", but Western defense commentators have resurrected the term "battlecruiser" to describe them, as they are the largest surface "line of battle" warships in the world. Pyotr Velikiy is the flagship of the Northern Fleet.
INS Tabar (F44) is the third of the Talwar-class frigate of the Indian Navy. The frigate was built by Baltiyskiy Zavod in St. Petersburg, Russia. The frigate was commissioned on 19 April 2004 in Kaliningrad, Russia with Captain Biswajit Dasgupta. As of August 2024, the current Commanding Officer (CO) of INS Tabar is Captain MR Harish.
Exercise Malabar is a naval exercise involving the United States, Japan and India as permanent partners. Australia rejoined the exercise in 2020. The annual Malabar exercises includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through maritime interdiction operations, anti-submarine warfare, diving salvage operations, amphibious operations, counter-piracy operations, cross–deck helicopter landings and anti–air warfare operations. Over the years, the exercise has been conducted in the Philippine Sea, off the coast of Japan, the Persian Gulf, in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. It is conducted by the Asian and the North American Commands.
Russian cruiser Varyag, formerly Chervona Ukraina, is the third ship of the Slava-class of guided missile cruisers built for the Soviet Navy now serving the Russian Navy.
Admiral Panteleyev is an Udaloy-class destroyer of the Russian Navy. She is named after Yuri Aleksandrovich Panteleyev.
Marshal Shaposhnikov is a modernized Udaloy-class destroyer of the Russian Navy commissioned in 1985. The vessel serves in the Russian Pacific Fleet. Her namesake is Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov.
Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Gorshkov is an Admiral Gorshkov class frigate of the Russian Navy and the lead ship of the class.
INS Talwar (F40) is the lead ship of the Talwar-class frigates of the Indian Navy. Its name means "Sword" in Hindi. She was built in Russia, and commissioned into the Indian Navy on 18 June 2003.
The Pacific Fleet is the Russian Navy fleet in the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1731 as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the fleet was known as the Okhotsk Military Flotilla (1731–1856) and Siberian Military Flotilla (1856–1918), formed to defend Russian interests in the Russian Far East region along the Pacific coast. In 1918 the fleet was inherited by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, then the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the Soviet Navy, being reformed several times before being disbanded in 1926. In 1932 it was re-established as the Pacific Fleet, and was known as the Red Banner Pacific Fleet after World War II as it had earned the Order of the Red Banner. In the Soviet years, the fleet was also responsible for the Soviet Navy's operations in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Red Banner Pacific Fleet was inherited by the Russian Federation as part of the Russian Navy and its current name was adopted.
INS Shakti (A57) is a Deepak-class fleet tanker in service with the Indian Navy. She was built by Fincantieri, an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste. She is the second and final ship of her class. Shakti, along with her predecessor Deepak, is one of the largest ships of the Indian Navy.
INS Jyoti (A58) is the third of four Komandarm Fedko-class replenishment oilers. She was modified for naval use and is now being operated by the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy. Jyoti was the largest ship in the navy until INS Vikramaditya (R33) was commissioned in November 2013. Its primary role is fleet replenishment and sustaining blue-water operations. It was later fitted with close-in weapon systems for self-defence.
Admiral Tributs is a Project 1155 Large Anti-Submarine Ship of the Russian Navy. Known in the west as an Udaloy-class destroyer, the ship is named after admiral Vladimir Filippovich Tributs. Launched in 1983, Admiral Tributs serves in the Russian Pacific Fleet, and has taken part in operations alongside the naval forces of other nations like China, India and Japan, and as part of a peacekeeping force in the Middle East between 1992 and 1993.
Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) is an inter-service military exercise involving the participation of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard. The exercise generally commences at the beginning of each year and lasts a month. It is generally carried out in three phrases: independent workup phase, joint workup phase and tactical phase.
Admiral Oktyabrsky was a Project 1134A Berkut A -class cruiser of the Soviet Navy, which briefly became part of the Russian Navy. The sixth ship of her class, the ship served mostly during the Cold War, from 1973 to 1993.
Vasily Chapayev was a Project 1134A Berkut A class cruiser of the Soviet Navy named for the naval commander Vasily Chapayev. The Project 1134A vessels were envisaged as a counter to the attack and ballistic missile submarines operated by the members of NATO. To that end, they were equipped with two KT-106 quadruple launchers for eight 85R anti-submarine missiles in the URPK-3 Metel system. The ninth ship of the class, Vasily Chapayev was launched in 1974 and served during the Cold War with the Pacific Fleet. Based at Vladivostok, the ship travelled extensively in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, visiting a large number of friendly ports in Angola, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique and Yemen. In 1978 and 1979, the vessel formed part of a Soviet flotilla, including the Project 68bis cruiser Admiral Senyavin, that supported Vietnam in the aftermath of the Sino-Vietnamese War. In 1982, Vasily Chapayev was allocated to support the BOR-4 spaceplane programme, and two years later, the vessel participated in a search for a US Navy submarine that was suspected of being near the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. In 1985, the ship took part in a simulated joint operations attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor that involved the coordinated use of aircraft, ships and submarines. During the following year, the vessel took part in first joint exercises that involved both the Soviet and North Korean Navies. Taken out of active service in 1992, Vasily Chapayev was decommissioned and transferred to be broken up in 1993.
Vladivostok was the second Soviet Navy Project 1134 Berkut Large Anti-submarine Ship also known as a Admiral Zozulya-class guided missile cruiser or by the NATO reporting name Kresta I. Launched in August 1966, the ship was reclassified a Large Rocket Ship in August 1978 to reflect the wide-ranging capability of the vessel. Serving primarily in the Pacific Fleet during the Cold War, Vladivostok took part in exercises and tours that demonstrated Soviet naval power in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The ship played a part at a number of points of potential escalation in the Cold War, including the Indo-Pakistani War of December 1971, the Mozambican Civil War in 1980 and the collision between the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and the submarine K-314 in March 1984. Vladivostok was taken out of service to be modernised and updated in September 1988 but there were insufficient funds to complete the work. Instead the ship was decommissioned in April 1990 and, the following January, sold to an Australian company to be broken up.
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