Indo-Bangla Navies undertake coordinated patrol

The second edition of Indian Navy –Bangladesh Navy Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) commenced in Northern Bay of Bengal on Thursday.

INS, Ranvijay, a guided-missile destroyer, and INS Kuthar, an ingeniously built missile corvette are participating in the CORPAT along with BNS Ali Haider, a Type 053 frigate, and BNS Shadinota, a Type 056 stealth guided missile corvette.

The two-day CORPAT will be followed by the maiden edition of the Indian Navy –Bangladesh (IN_BN) Navy Bilateral Exercise at Visakhapatnam from Friday till October 16.

The IN-BN CORPAT which commenced in 2018 is aimed at upgrading to a bilateral exercise with the navies engaging in seamanship evolutions, flying exercises with integral helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft at sea.

Additionally, exercises entailing the development of mutual communication and sharing of best practices would also be undertaken, adding a new dimension to the Indo-Bangla maritime relations.

With a common territorial boundary of over 4,000 km and a maritime boundary, navies of both the counties aim to practice and hone their mutual cooperation whilst patrolling near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) during the current edition of CORPAT.

The sea phase would be followed by harbour phase that would include professional interaction between the navies, visits to the Indian Naval training and maintenance facilities at Visakhapatnam.

The exercise would also include air familiarisation of Bangladesh Navy aircrew towards a better understanding of MPA operations at INS Dega and a ten-day training exercise between Indian Navy Marine Commandos and Bangladesh Navy SWADS.