A fleet of 17 foreign ships to slice through Bay of Bengal

Visakhapatnam: Along with the majestic aircraft carriers INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant and a fleet of destroyers, frigates, corvettes, sail training ship and landing crafts summing up to 20, as many as 17 ships from friendly foreign nations will slice through the Bay of Bengal for the largest-ever multilateral naval exercise ‘MILAN-2024’.

From Anzac-class frigate HMAS Warramunga of Royal Australian Navy to castle-class guided missile corvette BNS Dhaleshwari of Bangladesh Navy, Indonesia’s Diponegoro-class corvette KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda to Moudge-class destroyer IRIS Dena of Iran, Italian Bergamini-class Frigate ITS Federico Martinengo to Russian Udaloy-class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov, Sri Lankan advanced offshore patrol vessel SLNS Sayurala to USA’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Halsey and corvette VPNS 20 of Vietnam, 17 ships from foreign countries to exhibit their might at the event.

Along with a host of feats, the ships will showcase their prowess through advanced manoeuvring. The ships, submarines and aircraft will find their way to Naval Dockyard from February 17 to 19, while ROKS Dae Jo Yeong from Republic of Korea will arrive on February 23. With the participation of a large number of navies, MILAN-2024 includes harbour and sea phases.

A health trek from Dolphin House to Yarada beach, bilateral talks, a submarine rescue demo with DSRV, a tabletop exercise, a two-day-long international maritime seminar and an international city parade are some of the events scheduled during the harbour phase from February 20 to 23.

The sea phase of the exercise slated from February 24 to 27 includes a gamut of anti-aircraft firing practice, tactical anti-air warfare, cross deck flying, advance anti-submarine warfare exercise, visit, board, search and seizure exercise, replenishment at sea and exchange of Sea Riders.

With a participation of four navies, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1995, the coveted biennial multilateral maritime exercise has exponentially grown in its magnitude over the editions.

The 12th edition slated from February 19 to 27 in Visakhapatnam under the aegis of the Eastern Naval Command will see the presence of over 55 navies from across the continents.