Amphibious Operations



VARUNA and IBSAMAR help build capacities


By Vidhi Upadhyay

Following the French participation at Indian Navy’s ‘Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’ (IONS) in February, the two navies conducted the next round of their bilateral exercise Varuna off Vishakapatnam in the Bay of Bengal. Though Indians fielded the newly-acquired INS Jalashwa for the first time in an exercise, the French counterpart, Mistral, the 32,300-tonne assault Landing Platform Dock (LPD) could not participate despite being anchored in the Indian waters close to Chennai. The French wanted to keep it on stand-by, in case they needed to mount relief efforts in Myanmar in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis.

However, the absence of Mistral notwithstanding, the French Navy’s flotilla reached the Indian eastern sea board on May 7 and the war games started on May 8. The Indian Navy was represented by Rajput class guided-missile destroyer Ranjit, guided missile corvette Kirch and submarine Vagli, apart from Jalashwa. The India side also included an element of the Marine Commandos (MARCOS) and an army company from the Madras regiment. The French task force comprised guided missile destroyer Dupleix and a Type-23 frigate, apart from an embedded Royal Navy frigate Westminster. The Joint Task Force for the exercise was commanded by Rear Admiral Alain Hinden of the French Navy. Amphibious landing operations were an important component of Varuna 2008, as the Indian Navy was keen to test Jalashwa. The amphibious landing operations, both combat and relief were carried out off Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

The Varuna series of bilateral exercises, which started in 2001, has grown in scope and complexity over the years. Nine exercises conducted so far have met the underlying aims of facilitating mutual learning and cross-pollination of best practices. For the last few years, the Indian Navy has been laying great stress on enhancing bilateral ties and improving understanding and operability with developed navies through professional interaction. This particular edition of the exercise, in addition, provided an opportunity to build on the Indian Navy’s cooperative capability for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

In addition to the above, intermediate and advanced level anti-submarine exercise, Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO), Visit Board Search & Seizure (VBSS) operations and tactical exercises, apart from cross-deck embarkation exercises, were also conducted during the sea phase of the exercise from May 10-13. The exercise culminated with a harbour phase at Vizag from 14-16 May 2008.

Ex IBSAMAR
India, Brazil and South Africa held a 10-day joint naval exercise in Durban aimed at tackling terrorism at sea from May 5-16 this year off Cape Town in South Africa. IBSAMAR is the maritime component of India, Brazil and South African (IBSA) initiative for increasing interoperability and enhancing understanding and cooperation among the navies of the three nations. This is the first time such an exercise was held.

The objectives for Exercise IBSAMAR-I were to develop common understanding of interoperability and foster mutual trust, respect and co-ordination between the participants. Exercise IBSAMAR-I improved combat compatibility of the participating units, in addition to developing and improving tactics, doctrine and self-operating procedures for surface unit employment. It also helped in exchange of junior officers between navies, apart from conducting simulated offensive operations against surface and sub-surface threats, and conduct seamanship and RAS (Replenishment at Sea) evolutions.