Asia News Desk!!! The Indian Navy has conducted a joint maritime warfare exercise with the French Navy. This joint maritime exercise between the two countries was carried out in the Arabian Sea. INS Sahyadri, an indigenously built Guided Missile Frigate from the Indian Navy, participated in the exercise. French Navy (FN) warships participated in the Maritime Partnership Exercise (MPX) with Mistral class amphibious assault ship FS Dixmuide and La Fayette class frigate FS La Fayette. According to the Indian Defense Ministry, a wide spectrum of evolutionary changes in the field of maritime security were tested in this exercise on 11 March. It included activities like cross deck landing, boarding drills and seamanship development. The smooth conduct of the exercise reaffirmed the high level of interoperability and cooperation between the two navies.
The Defense Ministry said that INS Sahyadri is equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors. This enables it to detect and neutralize air, surface and sediment threats. The warship is a part of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam, under the operational control of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (East). Significantly, the Indian Army has also conducted joint military exercises with the French Army. This was the first joint military exercise between the Indian and French armies. This military exercise jointly conducted by the armies of both the countries was named Fringex-23. According to the Indian Defense Ministry, this military exercise with the French army was also started on March 8 at the Pangod Military Station in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
Sharing more details, the Ministry of Defense said that the objective of this joint military exercise of India and France was to promote interoperability, coordination and cooperation between the armies of the two countries at the strategic level. Joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief were on the agenda of the military exercise. Under this, the armies of both the countries established a special joint command force. In this command post, an exercise was conducted to secure the envisaged area for the purpose of disaster relief. The training to be done here included operations and setting up of Internally Displaced Population (IDP) camps and smooth movement of disaster relief materials. Significantly, this is the first time that the armies of both the countries joined in this format with one company group each from the Thiruvananthapuram-based Indian Army troops and the French 6th Light Armored Brigade. The Defense Ministry says that the joint exercise will further strengthen defense cooperation with France, which is a key aspect of the overall Indo-French strategic partnership.
–IANS
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