INS Tabar to take part in Naval Exercises in Europe and Africa
Indian Navy’s INS Tabar, a frigate of Talwar Class will soon pitch in Africa and Europe for various naval exercises including its participation in the Russian Navy Day celebration which will commence in the last week of July. It will make its port calls at Djibouti, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Along with this, it is set to take part in bilateral exercises like Ex-Indra with the Russian Navy, Ex-Konkan with Royal Navy of the United Kingdom and Ex-Varuna with the French Navy to strengthen military relations in Europe. It will en route through the strategic straits of the Gulf of Aden, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Red Sea and Baltic Sea for maritime surveillance. According to the sources, “These interactions will also offer an opportunity to navies to observe and imbibe the ‘Best Practices’ followed in each other’s Navy,”
INS Tabar is assigned to the Indian Navy’s western command headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is armed with anti-ship cruise and Barak 1 missiles with sensors. In November 2008, INS Tabar was deployed for patrolling in the Gulf of Aden to counter maritime threats. Harking back to the incident near the horn of Africa on November 11, 2008, INS Tabar fought pirates and had rescue two commercial vessels belong to India and Saudi Arabia as they were attacked by a bunch of pirates near Somalia. INS Tabar has successfully thwarted many pirate attempts and contributed a lot to anti-piracy operations.
Source – StrategicAffairs India
