The stealth frigate INS Shivalik steaming past the Roosevelt. Picture taken from Roosevelt flight deck
Posted on 10/17/2015 7:50:28 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
On board the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Bay of Bengal, Oct. 17: An Indian warship played "shotgun" for this US super-carrier during an air defence drill last night, about 150 nautical miles east-southeast of Chennai during the latest edition of the Malabar war games, which also include a Japanese destroyer.
"The 'shotgun' role will be shared by the Indians and the Japanese in this exercise," said Captain Craig Clapperton, commanding officer of the carrier.
On Sunday, an Indian fleet tanker is expected to pull alongside and feed the carrier in a hostile scenario described as "opposed replenishment at sea".
In scenarios that change daily, and sometimes several times during the day (and night) in Malabar 2015, Indian warships, commandos and aircraft combine with the Japanese and other American assets "to function as part of a strike group" for contingencies, war game directors and Clapperton told The Telegraph.
"Shotgun" means a bodyguard in US navy lingo. In the carrier strike group of which the USS Theodore Roosevelt is the centrepiece, the regular "shotgun" is the USS Normandy guided missile cruiser. This afternoon, it was leading a steam past of ships along the carrier.
But in last night's drill, the Normandy's role was assigned to an Indian warship and partly to the Japanese destroyer, the Fuyuzuki. This afternoon, the INS Shivalik stealth frigate and the INS Betwa destroyer of the Indian navy were also part of the steam past.
Clapperton could not immediately confirm which of the Indian ships was his "shotgun" in the night game. But he did not rule out the possibility that can be described thus: "Shotgun" Shivalik carries "the big stick" for the Rough Rider.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt, named after America's 26th President, is also called "The Big Stick" and the "Rough Rider". Roosevelt is reported to have said: "Talk softly but carry a big stick. You will go far."
Following the night "air defence drill", a Seahawk helicopter from the carrier flew out to the Shivalik early this morning. When it returned, it was to disembark on the flight deck a detachment of Indian Marine Commandos (Marcos), specifically a unit of the "explosive ordnance disposal" (EOD), led by a lieutenant.
Their task was to de-mine the waters around the carrier. This they carried out alongside an American EOD team. It was the first of its kind for the young Indian commandos.
"There's a lot of difference," the lieutenant later said while waiting to be returned via helicopter to the Shivalik. "The equipment used is very different."
There was a suggestion to take along some of the Japanese in the Fuyuzuki destroyer. Another officer said that since time was short, and there were language problems in communicating details to the Japanese, some of the drills had to be cut short or abandoned.
This US carrier is at the centre of nearly every drill in the Malabar war games. Often, daily targets are set. Commodore Fred Pyle, the commander of Desron 2 (destroyer squadron 2), which is part of the strike group, said there were anti-submarine exercises with India's Russian-origin kilo-class submarine, the INS Sindhughosh, every day.
"We get rare opportunities to do this, so we want to maximise it," said Pyle. To explain one drill, he sketched a scenario on this reporter's notebook.
In that scenario, the carrier is at the centre and is ringed by three ships - one US, one Indian and one Japanese. The Indian submarine is suspected to be lurking somewhere to the southwest of this ring. An anti-submarine helicopter patrols the area between the ring and the zone where the boat might be.
The submarine's task is to get within torpedo-striking range (not missile-striking range) of the ring. The task of the carrier's protectors is to search and destroy the submarine.
Asked what the score was so far, Clapperton replied diplomatically: "We are still in practice mode."
Apart from the commandos, the carrier also had on board 10 officers from the Indian navy, headed by Captain Anil Kumar, director of aircraft carrier projects in the defence ministry.
Kumar sported a patch of the "light combat helicopter", being put through its paces by the defence research establishment, on his chest.
This edition of the Malabar war games is aimed at building unit-to-unit coordination, said Rear Admiral Roy Kelley, the strike group commander. The annual Malabar war games began in 1992 but have increased in complexity since 2006.
Sunday's drill - "opposed replenishment at sea" - will illustrate the complexity. A carrier is thought to be most vulnerable to attacks while it is being replenished in mid-sea.
In tomorrow's drill, as the INS Shakti, one of the Indian navy's feeder vessels, pulls alongside the Theodore Roosevelt, "the bad guys will be trying to hit us at our most vulnerable", explained Clapperton.
This scenario leads to the inevitable question: is Malabar a rehearsal for "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the South China Sea where Indian and Japanese ships could be part of a US-led strike group?
"Exercise Malabar isn't aimed directly at any country," Kelley said. "The basics are very important. We have to have a level of trust. We want to be comfortable from this exercise about how we operate."
The stealth frigate INS Shivalik steaming past the Roosevelt. Picture taken from Roosevelt flight deck
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