On September 2-4, 2021, the 3 days 28th Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise ‘SIMBEX 2021‘ was held between the Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) in the southern edge of the South China Sea. It was hosted by RSN as ‘at sea only’ i.e. without any physical interactions due to COVID-19.
- Notably, this 2021 of SIMBEX was held during the ongoing celebrations of the 75th year of India’s independence.
Participants:
The India Navy was represented by the following:
i.Guided Missile Destroyer INS (Indian Naval Ship) Ranvijay with a ship borne helicopter,
ii.ASW (Anti-submarine warfare) Corvette INS Kiltan
iii.Guided Missile Corvette INS Kora
iv.P8I Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
Following are the participants from RSN:
i.One Formidable Class Frigate, RSS Steadfast, embarked with an S-70B naval helicopter
ii.One Victory Class Missile Corvette RSS Vigour
iii.One Archer Class Submarine
iv.One Fokker-50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft
v.Four F-16 fighter aircraft
Key Points:
i.The exercise saw live weapon firing and advanced naval warfare serials, including anti-submarine, anti-air and anti-ship warfare drills.
ii.The defence relations between India and Singapore cover collaborations from conventional military-to-military exchanges to HADR (High availability disaster recovery) and cyber security.
- Both navies have a representation in each other’s Maritime Information Fusion Centres (IFCs) and have also recently signed an agreement on mutual submarine rescue support and coordination.
iii.Notably, SIMBEX is the Indian Navy’s longest uninterrupted bilateral maritime exercise with any foreign navy since its initiation in 1994.
Recent Related News:
Defence Officials from India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives participated in a virtual Trilateral Tabletop Exercise 2021 (TTX-2021), ‘Exercise Shield’ on Maritime Security. Exercise Shield was organized by Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai from July 14-15, 2021.
About Singapore:
Capital– Singapore
Currency– Singapore dollar
Prime Minister– Lee Hsien Loong
