U.S. Navy to join India and Japan in Malabar 2015

Navies from the U.S., India, and Japan will participate in naval military exercise Malabar 2015 beginning on Wednesday.

Malabar is a complex military exercise that has traditionally been held by the U.S. and India with Japanese forces sitting in as observers. Japan will now be a permanent participant as the country embraces more activist military policies, according to Defense News. The exercises test high-end warfighting and promote maritime cooperation between the participants.

Participants will practice both land and at-sea skills, including carrier strike group operations, maritime patrol, reconnaissance operations, medical operations, and a number of others. The sea portion of the exercise will take place off the coast of India.

The events are designed to improve military-to-military coordination and execution of tactical operations across land and sea platforms.

For the exercise, the U.S. Navy will commit the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy, the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, and a Los Angeles-Class fast-attack submarine. The Navy will also bring a P-8A Poseidon aircraft.

The Indian Navy will bring a Rajput-class destroyer, Brahmaputra-class and Shivalik-class frigates, a Kilo-class submarine INS Sindhudhwaj, and an additional fleet support ship.

Japanese naval forces will bring only an Akizuki-class guided missile destroyer, JS Fuyuzuki.