The crew of Royal Australian Navy’s Anzac class frigate HMAS Arunta recently took the opportunity to conduct exercises with their Indian Navy counterparts after a port visit to Goa, India.
After a short period alongside that included games of cricket and volleyball, Arunta sailed from Goa in company with the Indian Navy’s Talwar-class frigate Teg for a series of exercises in the Northern Indian Ocean.
Arunta’s officer of the watch, Lieutenant Pat Velu, said the ships completed a series of exercises including maneuvering drills, station keeping, live weapons firings and a photo exercise.
“Exercises like this are a great chance to see how other navies work,” Lieutenant Velu said.
“It is impressive that despite the language barriers, two warships from different parts of the world were able to work together with such synergy, ” he said.
This was Arunta’s second exercise with the Indian Navy in just over 12 months and follows on from the Australian-Indian naval exercise AUSINDEX15 held in the waters off Visakhapatnam, India in 2015.
Arunta will start operational maritime security patrols in the Middle East region as part of operation Manitou at the end of November.
Operation Manitou is Australia’s contribution to counter terrorism, counter piracy, narcotics interdiction and contributes to stability in the region.