India and Singapore have planned "unprecedented" military drills during SIMBEX (Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise) to be undertaken between November 10-21 off Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal as the joint drill completes 25 years. A Defence Ministry release said that SIMBEX 2018 will be the "largest since 1994 in terms of scale and complexity". The initial harbour phase will be held at Port Blair from November 10 to 12 followed by Sea Phase in the Andaman Sea.

Key facts

• In June 2018, there was an implementation agreement between the Indian Navy and the Singapore Navy, which relates to the maintenance and logistics of mutual coordination, naval ships, submarines and naval aircraft.
• With the implementation of this agreement, both countries are sharing their naval resources with logistics and services through each other.
• Through agreement, India and Singapore have agreed to jointly practice jointly with their allies in their shared maritime sector. Earlier, joint military exercises between the two countries were held in South China Sea in May 2017.
• In this exercise, the representation of the Indian Navy is being destroyed by the destroyer vessel Ranveer, INS Satpura, INS Sahyadri, INS Kadmat, INS Kirch, INS Sumedha and INS Sukanya.
• With the convoy of these destroyer ships, Sindhu Ghosh class submarine INS Shakti and INS Sindhu Kirti will also be included. Marine patrol aircraft Dornier 228, P 81, MK 132 Hawk and UH3H and Chetak helicopters will also be in naval exercises.
• In the naval exercise, two stealth destroyer vessel RSS formidable and RSS stadfest, a literary mission vessel - RSS Unity, two ships with missile - RSS wizard and RSS walent, an archer class submarine RSA Golden Commander, deep sea Accelerated rescue vessel DSRV, a marine patrol vessel F-50, S70 B helicopter and unmanned aircraft scan eagle Will.

This version of Joint Naval Exercise, which started from 1994 between India and Singapore, will be the largest. In the initial phase, it will be organized at the port level between the 10 and 12 November in the port of Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.