(THE GIST OF PIB) Exercise Malabar

(NOVEMBER-2025)

Indian Naval Ship (INS) Sahyadri is at Guam in the Northern Pacific for participation in the multilateral Exercise Malabar-2025.

It was started in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between India and US navy.
The first Malabar Exercise in the Bay of Bengal took place in 2007.
It was expanded into a trilateral format with the inclusion of Japan in 2015.
In 2020, the Australian Navy joined the Malabar Exercise, making it a quadrilateral naval exercise.
It takes place annually in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans alternatively.
It has evolved into a key multilateral event aimed at enhancing interoperability, fostering mutual understanding, and addressing shared maritime challenges in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific region.

It involves two phases

Harbour Phase: It will feature operational planning and discussions, alignment on communication protocols, familiarisation visits between participating nations, and sports fixtures.
Sea Phase: Following the harbour phase, all participating units will proceed in this phase, wherein ships and aircraft will take part in naval drills, focusing on joint fleet operations, anti-submarine warfare, gunnery serials and flying operations.