Exercise Konkan 2025, the latest iteration of the long-standing bilateral naval engagement between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy, commenced on October 5, 2025, off India’s western coast.

This year’s edition marks a major step in consolidating India-UK strategic maritime cooperation under the India-UK Vision 2035. The exercise underscores a shared commitment to maintaining open, secure, and rules-based maritime domains across the Indo-Pacific and Western Indian Ocean regions.

The UK’s Carrier Strike Group (UK CSG 25), led by HMS Prince of Wales, is spearheading the British participation. The task force also includes accompanying naval units and aircraft from partner nations such as Norway and Japan—enhancing the multinational scope of the engagement.

The Indian Navy is represented by its carrier battle group centred around the indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, supported by destroyers, frigates, submarines, and maritime air assets. Their joint operations reflect a growing level of interoperability between advanced naval platforms.

The exercise, scheduled from October 5–12, is being conducted in two distinct phases: harbour and sea. The harbour phase involves professional exchanges, cross-deck visits, cultural programs, and sports fixtures, alongside Joint Working Group meetings and expert-level discussions. These onshore interactions are designed to deepen personal and institutional bonds, facilitating smoother coordination during operational drills.

The sea phase features a series of complex maritime combat scenarios, including anti-submarine, anti-surface, and anti-air warfare drills. Flying operations—such as carrier-based sorties, refueling, and air interoperability tasks—are also key highlights. Both navies aim to enhance tactical efficiency in coordinated fleet operations, communications, and joint command structures, ensuring readiness for multilateral maritime contingencies.

Exercise Konkan has evolved considerably since its inception over two decades ago, progressing from basic passage exercises to high-intensity naval warfare and interoperability training. The inclusion of NATO partners like Norway and Indo-Pacific partner Japan in UK CSG 25 demonstrates a convergence of democratic maritime powers in ensuring freedom of navigation and maritime stability in the Indo-Pacific.

For India, participation alongside such major navies reinforces its role as a security provider in the region and expands operational synergy with technologically advanced naval forces.

Following the sea phase, the UK fleet led by HMS Prince of Wales will make ceremonial port calls to Mumbai and Goa. These visits will further the cultural and diplomatic dimension of the engagement, providing avenues for public interaction, training exchanges, and discussions on future cooperation in maritime technology and security.

Exercise Konkan 2025 stands as a comprehensive maritime engagement—blending geostrategic partnership, operational interoperability, and cultural exchange. The simultaneous deployment of India’s INS Vikrant and the UK’s HMS Prince of Wales not only represents naval power projection but also signals a mutually aligned vision for a stable and free maritime order across the Indo-Pacific.

Based On ANI Report