After years of preparation, the Indian Navy has finally ushered in a historic era. It formed a two-ship formation of the "Vikrant" class native aircraft carrier and the Russian "Super Sun King" class aircraft carrier to participate in the "Milan 2024" multinational joint military exercise.
India's "Economic Times" said on the 21st that from February 19 to 27 this year, India's maritime military exercise will be conducted from February 19 to 27 this year, with a total of more than 50 countries participating, which is the largest maritime military training in India's history, and the Indian side dispatched nearly 20 ** and more than 50 fighters of various types.
The U.S. Naval Academy's webpage says the report mentions the number of participants from 39 countries in 2022, an increase of more than 50 countries, 35 **, and 50 warplanes compared to last year. At the opening ceremony, Indian Navy Commander Kumar singled out that the training was "not only large-scale, multi-faceted, but also highly complex." ”
US ** ship "Halsey".
According to the Indian side, both the United States and Russia are involved in the "Milan 2024" multinational joint military exercise, which is extremely rare in history: the United States sent "Halsey" and "Arleigh Burke" destroyers, while Russia sent "Varyag" and Admiral Shaposhnikov of the cruise class. Also participating in the exercise were the destroyer USS Ripple of the Japanese Marine Corps, the destroyer USS Valabanga of the Anzac type of Australia, and a number of other countries.
And the protagonist of this military exercise is naturally India. Milan 2024 is the first performance of the Indian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in an international military exercise, the report said. With a total weight of 45,000 tons and is scheduled to enter service in 2022, the Indian aircraft carrier is expected to install French Dassault Rafale-M fighters. However, judging by the training announced by India, this aircraft carrier is still using a Russian-made Mickey-29 K aircraft carrier, which is the same as the "Super Japanese King" class.
This is not the first time that the Indian Navy has built two aircraft carriers, but unlike the previous old aircraft carriers, the combination of the two aircraft carriers "Chaori King" and "Vikrant" is more combat-effective, because both aircraft carriers are equipped with a MiG-29 K, which can cooperate in a war, which is also a sign that India has two aircraft carriers. Some Indian news outlets also said the two aircraft carriers were a highlight of the joint exercise.
It is reported that the name of the "Milan" military exercise comes from the Hindi word "unification". Since 1995, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand as well as Indonesia have been welcomed by various countries. Since then, New Delhi has been operating more and more on the ocean, and the range of training for this sequence has gradually increased. While India claims that 58 countries around the world have been invited to participate in the "Milan" series of military training, China has not, according to the United States. It is worth mentioning that the "Milan" military action plan, which lasted until 2020, is located in the strategic Andaman Nicobar next to the Strait of Malacca, demonstrating the importance of the Indian Navy to this military operation. Due to the rapid increase in the number of navies of the countries participating in the training, India changed the training site to a seaport city near Visakhapatnam, which is home to the Eastern Naval Command. The United States said that India is cautious about the Chinese ship "attempting to cross the Strait of Malacca into India's backyard", and the "Milan 2024" plan is clearly aimed at the goal.