Eye on Indo-Pacific: Indian & UK Navies in war games

PANAJI: After completing its first ever deployment in the Indo-Pacific region since 1997, the Royal Navy’s carrier strike group has arrived at Mumbai and Goa for the week-long Konkan Shakti wargames that will go on till October 27.
While a large part of the UK carrier strike group is deployed just off the coast of Mumbai, a Type 23 frigate, HMS Richmond, has arrived at Mormugao Port Trust for a port visit after which she will sail off to participate as an adversary in the war games.
The HMS Richmond and two Indian naval warships will act as the Red Force, whose mission objective is to sink or cripple the UK’s fifth generation aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
“The design of the objective is still being worked out, but essentially the mission is to ultimately get a constructive kill of the aircraft carrier. And if successful it will be professionally challenging and rewarding if we get it right,” said commander Hugh Botterill while speaking to reporters at MPT.
Konkan Shakti is a simulated tri-services war game, and the HMS Richmond will not be using any live missiles or ammunition rounds when it stalks and hunts for the HMS Queen Elizabeth. However, the exercise will help the crew of HMS Queen Elizabeth hone skills to ward off adversaries in hostile waters.
UK’s fifth generation aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth recently completed its first deployment where it sailed through the Taiwan Strait, which is part of the contested South China Sea. HMS Richmond also participated in a UN sanctions monitoring and enforcement mission to enforce sanctions imposed on North Korean. The frigate collected evidence of vessels violating United Nations (UN) sanctions enacted against North Korea’s ballistic missile programme and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The short operation was the first occasion since 2019 that a Royal Navy ship has supported UN sanctions monitoring and enforcement activity.Speaking about the passage through the Taiwan straits, Botterill said that the Royal Navy wanted to demonstrate and reinforce the United Nations Convention for Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). “What we subscribe to is the international rules-based community and what HMS Richmond alongside the carrier strike group did was demonstrate our exercising, our rights under UNCLOS,” the commander said. Botterill said that as the UK looks for a greater role in the Indo-Pacific region’s security dynamics, the Royal Navy is keen to ramp up its presence in the area, particularly deployment of its carrier strike group. The British carrier group’s deployment in the Western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean Region is the first since 1997.
The Royal Navy has also started a permanent forward deployment of two off-shore patrol vessels, the HMS Spey and HMS Tamar in the Indo-Pacific region. The five year deployment aims to bolster Britain’s presence in the region.