Govt turns down IAF's request to joint Malabar exercise

The government has recently turned down Indian Air Force's request to take part in the India-United States bilateral naval exercise Malabar.

The bilateral exercise involving the navies of the two countries was held off the coast of Chennai in the Bay of Bengal earlier this month.

The IAF was earlier part of the exercise but later on it was decided by the government that they will not be part of it, Navy sources said here without elaborating.

The IAF wanted to deploy the maritime attack squadron of its Jaguar aircraft for the exercise and test them in an exercise with the US Navy aircraft on board the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Apart from the USS Carl Vinson, the American side fielded its Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey.

The Indian Navy's assets included INS Satpura, destroyers INS Ranvir and INS Ranvijay, and the corvette INS Kulish along with the replenishment oiler INS Shakti.