NEW DELHI: The 10-day-long Operation Malabar, which will take off on Monday in the Bay of Bengal, besides being the most complex version till date, holds out strong promise of staging a “cat and mouse game” like no other versions of the 20 preceding it. While the US, Indian and Japanese Navies will together field at least 15 ships in the exercise focused on submarine detection and adopting counter measures, Beijing will deploy high tech surveillance ship CNS Neptune besides Yuan class submarines and satellites in the sky to keep watch over the unfolding mega exercise. The “Chongming Island” submarine rescue ship is also likely to be present in the region during the time of the exercise.
Chinese experts, like military commentator Chen Guangwen, believe Malabar 2017 is aimed primarily at countering underwater threats. “This time by the India-led ‘Malabar’ joint military exercise is to find a way to deal with Chinese submarines,” Mr Chen has said. Malabar 2017 is of unusual significance amid seething tension between India and China with troops of both the countries engaged in a standoff in a tri-junction near the Chumba Valley across Sikkim. Besides CNS Neptune (also known as Haiwangxing), the PLA Navy’s snooping fleet comprises a fleet of five more sophisticated electronic reconnaissance vessels.
