Multinational Malabar Naval Exercise 2024 Start in the Bay of Bengal

The 28th edition of the multi-national Malabar Naval exercise, hosted by the Indian Navy, commenced in the Bay of Bengal on 8 November 2024. The exercise will be held from 8 to 18 October 2024. The Opening ceremony of the Malabar Naval exercise was held onboard the Indian Naval Ship Satpura at Visakhapatnam on 9 October 2024.

The Royal Australian Navy hosted the 27th edition of the Malabar Naval exercise in August 2023 near Sydney.

Malabar Exercise is now a Quad Naval Exercise 

The Malabar Exercise started as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and United States Navy in 1992. Japan joined the Malabar exercise in 2015 and has been participating regularly.

Australia joined the Malabar exercise in 2007 and, since 2020, has regularly participated in the exercise.

The 28th edition of the Malabar exercise is the fifth time that all four nations have participated in the collective planning, integration, and employment of advanced warfare tactics between participating nations.

These four countries—India, Japan, Australia, and the United States—are members of the Quad group. The 6th Summit meeting of the Quad countries was held in the United States in September 2024 and attended by the leaders of the four countries.

Quad's prime objective is to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region for navigation and security. The Indo-Pacific region includes the entire Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean.

The annual Malabar exercise helps foster a cooperative regional security and stability approach.

The Malabar exercise and its location are now annually rotated amongst the member countries.

Naval Ship Participation 

The Malabar exercise will be held in two phases- Sea and Harbour. The sea exercise is a combat exercise, while the Harbour exercise aims to promote fraternity among the participating countries' naval personnel.

This year, around Eight Naval ships and 12 aircraft have been deployed by the four Navies.

• The Indian Navy has deployed its guided-missile destroyer INS Delhi and four other support ships. It has also deployed long-range maritime patrol aircraft, P-8I Poseidon. 
• The United States Navy has deployed its P-8 Poseidon aircraft and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey.
• The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force is represented by the Murasame-class destroyer JS Ariake.
• The Royal Australian Navy has deployed its  Anzac-class frigate HMAS Stuart and a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.