The 2023 edition of Indian Navy’s major biennial maritime exercise TROPEX, was conducted over a duration of three months from Jan to Mar 23 culminating in the Arabian Sea. Indian Navy, Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard assets took part.
All surface combatants of the Indian Navy including Destroyers, Frigates, Corvettes as well as submarines and aircraft were put through complex maritime operational deployments to validate and refine the Navy’s Concept of Operations including operational logistics and interoperability with other Services.
The overall exercise construct included Coastal Defence exercise Sea Vigil and the Amphibious Exercise AMPHEX.
Set in the Indian Ocean including the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the theatre of operations for the exercise extended approximately 4300 nm from North to South upto 35 deg South Latitude and 5000 nm from Persian Gulf in the West to North Australia coast in the East, spanning an area of over 21 million square nautical miles. TROPEX 23 witnessed participation of approximately 70 Indian Navy ships, six submarines and over 75 aircraft.
The culmination of TROPEX 23 brought to an end an intense operational phase for the Indian Navy that commenced in Nov 2022. As part of the final Joint Phase, the defence minister spent a day at sea onboard the newly commissioned Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant on 6 March 2023. He reviewed the Indian Navy’s operational preparedness and material readiness wherein the Navy demonstrated operational manoeuvers and various facets of combat operations, including deck operations of indigenous LCA and live weapon firings.
