New Delhi, Jul 15: A US Navy aircraft carrier and its accompanying ‘strike group’ undertook a maritime partnership exercise with warships of the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea.
The Indian Navy said on Monday that the “warships INS Aditya and INS Visakhapatnam were part of the exercise with US Naval Carrier Strike Group comprising USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Daniel Inouye in the Arabian Sea on July 12”.
The US Central Command headquartered at Bahrain had earlier on July 12 put a post on X saying the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) arrived in the US 5th Fleet area of operations on July 12 to deter “aggression, promote regional stability and protect the free flow of commerce in the region”.
The US said the joint maritime activity with the Indian Navy advances interoperability between the two major defence partners and underscores their shared commitment to upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The US and Indian military forces are focused on improving shared maritime domain awareness and information sharing; enhancing replenishment at mid-sea and interoperating with logistics of each other while improving combined air-to-air capabilities.
The Indian Navy routinely participates alongside US Navy units in multilateral exercises across the Pacific, including Southwest Asia and littoral Africa. In addition to the group sail, the Indian Navy is also operating in leadership roles with the US Navy and other allies and partners in the ongoing Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 exercise in Hawaii.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) is currently operating in what the US defines as the area of its 7th Fleet which is the US Navy’s largest forward-deployed fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
