india defance

Press Trust of India reports that India and Russia have concluded a major military, counter piracy naval exercise off the Somali coast in the Arabian Sea. Indian and Russian navies hold biennial naval war-games.

-- RIA Novosti confirms that the exercise focused specifically on counter piracy operations.

-- "The second stage of the INDRA-2009 exercise was held off the Somali coast and was primarily dedicated to anti-piracy operations, The Russian and Indian warships that took part in the exercise practiced escorting commercial ships in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden,"" Russian Naval Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as saying.

-- Admiral Vysotsky added that the warships made extensive use of deck-based aircraft to locate and monitor the movements of small boats that could have presented potential threats to merchant vessels. While Indian navy's 'INS Tabar' stealth frigate took part in the drill, the Russian side was represented by Pacific Fleet's Udaloy class destroyer 'Admiral Vinogradov', the Northern Fleet's nuclear-powered 'Pyotr Veliky' missile cruiser, 'Admiral Levchenko' destroyer and several support ships.

-- The first stage of INDRA-2009 was limited to PASSEX type exercise in practicing combat interoperability and communications drills with the involvement of Russian 'Pyotr Veliky' missile cruiser and the guided-missile destroyer INS Delhi as "Admiral Vinogradov" also known as submarine killer could not turn up due to 'technical problems'