The 2021 edition of the exercise involves participation of 12 Eastern African countries, US, UK, India and various international organizations

INS Talwar has joined the multinational maritime exercise Cutlass Express 2021, being conducted from July 26 to August 06 in Kenya.

This facilitated Indian Navy Marine Commandos(MARCOS) team, during the ship’s harbour phase from July 26 to 28 at Mombasa, to impart training to personnel from navies of Kenya, Djibouti, Mozambique, Cameroon and Coast Guard of Georgia

According to the Ministry of Defence, the MARCOS shared the best practices in executing visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operations with the participating foreign Navy sailors during the exercise, which was held at the Bandari Maritime Academy at Mombasa.

Exercise Cutlass Express is designed to improve regional cooperation, maritime domain awareness and information sharing practices to increase capabilities between the US, East African and Western Indian Ocean nations to counter illicit maritime activity in the Western Indian Ocean.

Indian Naval Ship Talwar is participating in the multinational maritime exercise CE 21 being conducted from 26 July to August 6 in Kenya.

The 2021 edition of the exercise involves participation of 12 Eastern African countries, US, UK, India and various international organizations like International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), Critical Maritime Routes Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) and EUCAP Somalia. Indian Navy is participating in the exercise in a ‘trainer role’.

The exercise focuses on East Africa’s coastal regions and is designed to assess and improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promote national and regional security and increase interoperability between the regional navies.

As part of the exercise, the Indian Navy, together with other partners, is undertaking training of contingents from various participating countries in various fields across the spectrum of maritime security operations.

Information sharing and information flow between various partner countries with respect to maritime domain awareness is also a key focus of the exercise and participation of India’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) would contribute in achieving the same.