Eastern Fleet Ships on Overseas Operational Deployment

• A Task Force of Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet is scheduled to proceed on an Overseas Deployment to South East Asia, South China Sea & Western Pacific from Aug 2021.
• This follows the pursuit of India’s ‘Act East’ policy and to enhance military cooperation with friendly countries
• It underscores solidarity with friendly countries in ensuring good order in the maritime domain & strengthen existing bonds between India & Indo-Pacific countries.

Facts about Deployment:

• The Indian Naval task group comprises Guided Missile Destroyer Ranvijay, Guided Missile Frigate Shivalik, Anti-Submarine Corvette Kadmatt and Guided Missile Corvette Kora.
• The latter three ships are indigenously designed and are equipped with a versatile array of weapons and sensors, and are Made in India by Defence Shipyards.
• During the deployment in the Indo Pacific, the ships are scheduled to participate in bilateral exercises with various countries as follows:

1. Royal Malaysian Navy (Samudra Laxmana)
2. Vietnamese Peoples’ Navy
3. Philippines Navy
4. Singapore Navy (SIMBEX)
5. Indonesian Navy (Samudra Shakti)
6. Royal Australian Navy (AUS-INDEX).
7. Multilateral exercise MALABAR-21 alongside Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy in Western Pacific.

Eastern Fleet

• The Fleet was constituted on 1 November 1971 and is headquartered at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh on the east coast of India.
• It is a Naval fleet of the Indian Navy and is also known as the 'Sword Arm' of the Eastern Naval Command and Sunrise Fleet.
• It is a part of the Eastern Naval Command and is responsible for the naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocean.