Indian Fleet Leaves on 'Historic' Trip

Amidst major tensions in the Gulf,a fleet of IN warships has just left for the Pacific to hold exercises with the Russians, the USN and most interestingly with the JMSDF.

The fleet will engage in a small exercise with the Singaporean Navy enroute to the Pacific.

The lead ship is the INS Mysore, is an admirable Destroyer(7000 tons and 16 AShCM/LACM launch tubes). I'm not able to get info on the 4 other ships involved; though one can wager a resupply tanker included.
What will be interesting to see is whether of the Krivak III class frigates will be involved.


Source

No subs I guess but with frenzied speculation about when the Akula IIs will be entering service with the IN, one can only presume that this excursion would serve as a scouting mission for testing these waters for SSN operations.
I do not see any purpose of SSNs in IN service other than to counter the Chinese SSBN capability and prolonged reach in the Indian Ocean.

I would also be willing to bet that PLAN subs would be eager to lurk in the vicinity of these exercise grounds, an enthusiasm they have so publically displayed in the recent past on many occasions.
The IN ASW airborne suite consists of Sea King Mk2B and Ka-28 Helis..

Hold the presses!

This trip involves an exercise with the PLAN as well!!

The Eastern Fleet commander will then split his forces. One group of two destroyers will proceed to Qingdao from 12-16 Apr 07, where they will, on 17 April, exercise with units of the navy of the People's Republic of China.

Source

Now thats puts a Q mark on my forehead!


EDIT:
Ships are Destroyers INS Mysore(Delhi class),INS Rana(Kashin II), INS Ranjit(Kashin II); Corvette INS Kuthar(Khukri) and Tanker INS Jyoti.

[edit on 31-3-2007 by Daedalus3]

Can had recent exercises with the USN recently in the south china sea as well as the AMAN-07 exercises

AMAN-07, or Peace-07, was initiated by Pakistan. During the period, warships and task forces from Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States held joint naval exercises in the North Arabian Sea to display united resolve against terrorism.

news.xinhuanet.com...

What is with all these different countries running joint navy exercises in the last few years anyway?
Are they just having big Keg parties in the middle of the ocean or what?
Maybe we should start running our diplomatic office through the Navy, the various Navies seem to spend more time together lately then the UN does.

Originally posted by chinawhite
Can had recent exercises with the USN recently in the south china sea as well as the AMAN-07 exercises

AMAN-07, or Peace-07, was initiated by Pakistan. During the period, warships and task forces from Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States held joint naval exercises in the North Arabian Sea to display united resolve against terrorism.

news.xinhuanet.com...

Any more info on this?