CORPAT & EX-BONGOSAGAR
Context:
The navies of India and Bangladesh engage in Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) and Exercise BONGOSAGAR.
Relevance:
GS-03 (Security)
Main Highlights:
- The 4th edition of BONGOSAGAR-23, a bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and the Bangladesh Navy, along with the 5th edition of Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT), took place in the Northern Bay of Bengal over two days in November 2023.
- Indian Navy Ships Kuthar, Kiltan, and Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) Dornier participated in the exercise.
- Both navies jointly patrolled along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and conducted maritime exercises to enhance interoperability.
- Exercise Bongosagar, initiated in 2019, aims to foster inter-operability and joint operational skills through a diverse range of maritime exercises and operations.
- Bongosagar and IN–BN Corpat align with the government’s vision of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region).
Indian Navy Ships:
- INS Kuthar: An indigenously built guided-missile Corvette.
- INS Kuthar is a Khukri-class corvette, currently in service with the Indian Navy.
- It was designed by Indian naval architects and built at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai.
- INS Kuthar was part of Western Naval Command till 1998 later it moved to be part of Eastern Naval Command.
- INS Kiltan: An indigenously built anti-submarine Corvette.
- INS Kiltan (P30) is an anti-submarine warfare corvette of the Indian Navy built under Project 28.
- It is the third of four Kamorta-class corvettes.
- The ship was built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, launched on 26 March 2013, and commissioned on 16 October 2017.
- Kiltan represents a leap forward in the Navy’s attempts at localisation with as much as 90% of its content drawn from India
