Saturday, September 24, 2005

This should be good


Starting tomorrow America's giant USS Nimitz will pit itself against India's tiny Viraat (formerly HMS Hermes) light carrier in naval manoeuvres in the Arabian Sea:

The eighth series of exercises, billed the most advanced so far, would not only see the pride of the US seventh fleet, Nimitz, in action, but also bring the carrier-based E2C Hawkeye Air Early Warning aircraft, the Los Angeles class submarines and the F-18/A hornet to Indian shores.
Against such formidable forces, the Indian Navy would pit its lone carrier, INS Viraat, carrier-based Sea Harriers, indigenously-built Delhi Class destroyer INS Mysore, Godavari class missile frigate and Shishukumar class submarines.

-Joshi said during the exercises, in which Indian Navy's ageing vertical take-off Sea Harriers jets would take on the far superior F-18 hornets, India would also field its Russian acquired TU-142m long-range maritime patrol aircraft as well as Seaking helicopters in both their roles - as anti-submarines and ferrying special marine forces.

A Soviet and British equipped military against the world's only superpower. Don't underestimate those Harriers either, like the Argies did!

Update: Here is another article on the war games, called Malabar 05, which goes into depth.