Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) A two-day submarine exercise between the British Royal Navy and the Indian Navy will begin off India’s west coast from Wednesday.

HMS Talent, a Trafalgar class hunter killer submarine, of the Royal Navy will take part in the three-day exercise with a Shishumar class submarine of the Indian Navy, Navy spokesperson Commander P.V.S. Satish said.

Meanwhile, the India-UK naval table-top exercise continued for the second day at the Mumbai port.

The seventh edition of the Konkan series of the exercise began Monday.

The Konkan 2010 is being conducted as a table-top exercise at the tactical simulator located at Maritime Warfare Centre in Mumbai.

A table-top exercise is one without actual participation of ships, but with participation of planning staff of both countries.

The aim of this exercise is to exchange operational planning concepts, maritime domain awareness procedures and to test these plans through simulations of a maritime scenario at sea.

Experiences from this exercise will be utilised to refine concepts for future Konkan series of exercises involving ships, submarines and aircraft.

The nine-member Royal Navy team is headed by Commodore James Morse, and the Indian team of 11 officers is headed by Captain M.A. Hampiholi, commanding officer INS Talwar.

The first Konkan exercise was conducted in April 2004 at Chennai, followed by exercises in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

Konkan 2007 was also a table-top exercise conducted at the Royal Navy’s Maritime Warfare Centre at Portsmouth, UK.

In 2009, Konkan was conducted off the southern coast of Britain during the deployment of Indian ships to the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.

The Konkan series of exercises is a part of the continuing and growing constructive engagement process between the two navies, the spokesperson said.