INS ''Karmuk'' is a , currently in active service with the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

Service history

South China Sea and the North West Pacific

The ships, as part of a battle group of 4 ships began a sustained operational deployment to the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

and the North West Pacific Ocean. The other three ships were the INS Rana, a Rajput class guided missile destroyer,

INS Shivalik INS ''Shivalik'' (F47) is the lead ship of her class of stealth multi-role frigates built for the Indian Navy. She is the first stealth warship built by India. She was built at the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) located in Mumbai. Construction of ...

, a stealth frigate, and INS Shakti, a

Deepak-class fleet tanker The ''Deepak'' class is a class of fleet replenishment tankers of the Indian Navy built by Fincantieri. Two ships were ordered and the first one joined the fleet on 21 January 2011, while the second joined on 1 October 2011. History INS Deepak ...

. This battle group was under the command of

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

P Ajit Kumar, Flag Officer Commanding,

Eastern Fleet Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air L ...

. According to the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

, the two-month deployment, far from India's usual area of operations, along with naval exercises with a number of countries, aimed to demonstrate the Indian navy's operational reach. During the deployment the battle group participated in passage exercises with the navies of the countries visited. The 'Passage Exercises' focussed on maritime security cooperation, which included humanitarian aid & disaster relief (HADR) operations and 'visit, board, search and seizure' (VBSS) drills for anti-piracy operations. These exercises aimed to increase naval inter-operability, enabling the two navies to function together smoothly during possible HADR operations. In addition, during the port visits, the Fleet Commander along with the commanding officers of the ships met high-ranking officials of the Navy, state administration, port management, coastal security organization, police, and other stakeholders of maritime security in the countries visited, to share professional experiences and exchange best practices in areas of mutual interest.

JIMEX 2012

The ship was deployed in the North West Pacific for JIMEX 2012 (Japan-India Maritime Exercise) with the four ship group, and took part in India's first bi-lateral maritime exercise with Japan. The

Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

(JMSDF) was represented by two destroyers, one maritime patrol aircraft and a helicopter. The four ships entered

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on 5 June 12 after visiting Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Republic of Korea. They stayed in Tokyo for 3 days. This visit coincides with commemoration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between India and Japan. Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief

Eastern Naval Command The Eastern Naval Command is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The command is responsible for the all naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocea ...

also visited Tokyo to witness the first JIMEX.

Southeast Asia

After the deployment in the North pacific, the battle group was deployed in the

. As part of India's ''Look East'' policy, the ships visited the

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

port on 13 June 2012, for a five-day goodwill tour. INS ''Shakti'' served as the fuel and logistics tanker to the three destroyers. The ships left the port on 17 June 2012. Before leaving the port, the ships conducted routine passage exercise with the

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...

. After the visits to Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, South Korea and China, the ships visited

Port Klang Port Klang ( ms, Pelabuhan Klang) is a town and the main gateway by sea into Malaysia. Known during colonial times as Port Swettenham ( ms, Pelabuhan Swettenham) but renamed Port Klang in July 1972, it is the largest port in the country. It is l ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. This was the last port call of the battle group, after which it returned to the Eastern Fleet of the Indian Navy, after being on a two-month-long deployment which started in May 2012.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karmuk (P64) Kora-class corvettes Corvettes of the Indian Navy Naval ships of India 2001 ships Ships built in India