India and UK Begin Their 8-day Powerhouse Wargame - Exercise Konkan 2025
British and Indian navies launch high-stakes drills in Western Indian Ocean.
The Indian and British navies have fired up Exercise Konkan 2025, an eight-day powerhouse wargame unfolding across the vast Western Indian Ocean. Headlined by the Royal Navy's mighty HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier and its elite Carrier Strike Group (CSG), the drills signal a bold leap in the two nations' defense alliance, straight out of the playbook of their freshly inked India-UK Vision 2035 roadmap. With stealth fighters screaming overhead and warships slicing through azure waves, this isn't just training—it's a thunderous reaffirmation of a "free and open" Indo-Pacific amid rising geopolitical tempests.
At the heart of the action is HMS Prince of Wales, the 65,000-tonne behemoth that's the jewel of Britain's Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, fresh off a grueling eight-month global odyssey dubbed Operation Highmast. Departing Portsmouth in April, the carrier—packed with up to 36 F-35B Lightning II stealth jets from Nos. 809 and 617 Squadrons, plus Merlin and Wildcat helicopters—has already carved a path through the Mediterranean, dodged Red Sea hazards, and linked up with allies like the U.S., Norway, Canada, and Spain. Now, in Indian waters, it's syncing with India's blue-water fleet, including the INS Vikrant carrier group, destroyers like INS Kolkata, and P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. "We're in an exclusive club of multi-carrier nations, honing our edge in complex, multi-domain ops," beamed Commodore Chris Saunders, the British defense attaché, who called Konkan a "best-practice bonanza" for sharing tactics on everything from anti-submarine hunts to cyber-hardened command.
The exercise kicks off with harbor-phase briefings in Mumbai, where crews swap intel on joint ops, before exploding into sea-phase fury: Live-fire gunnery duels, high-speed maneuvers evading mock submarine threats, and carrier trap simulations under drone swarms. It's all geared to supercharge interoperability—think seamless handoffs between UK's F-35s and India's Rafales, or coordinated strikes against pirate skiffs in the Gulf of Aden.
British High Commissioner Lindy Cameron couldn't contain her excitement: "This CSG tango embodies our Vision 2035 pact, locked in by PMs Modi and Starmer earlier this year. Together, we're scripting a rules-based order that keeps sea lanes humming and bullies at bay." That vision, unveiled in July 2025, swaps the old 2030 roadmap for a bolder blueprint, targeting doubled trade to $112 billion by decade's end, joint AI-driven defense tech, and co-leadership on maritime pillars of India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)—where the UK helms security efforts against illegal fishing and trafficking.
Also Read: India Highlights Pakistan’s Human Rights Abuses at UN Rights Council
Konkan's roots run deep: Since 2004, it's been the annual bilateral bash between these seafaring giants, evolving from simple ship-to-ship drills to tri-service spectacles like the 2021 Konkan Shakti mashup with army and air force units. Past editions have tangoed in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, but 2025's Western Indian Ocean pivot amps up the stakes, mirroring real-world flashpoints like Houthi disruptions and China's string-of-pearls ports. "We're not just flexing—we're fusing capabilities for a stable tomorrow," Saunders added, nodding to shared ambitions in clean energy patrols and humanitarian rescues, like last year's joint cyclone relief off Odisha.
The timing is electric: With CSG25 wrapping its Indo-Pacific jaunt—fresh from Talisman Sabre mega-drills in Australia and port calls in Singapore—this Konkan capstone cements UK-India as Indo-Pacific linchpins. Analysts buzz that it could spawn hybrid carrier ops, with India's growing fleet (aiming for three carriers by 2030) meshing with Britain's tilt east. Social media's ablaze with #Konkan2025 clips of jet blasts and salutes, but whispers of challenges linger: Budget crunches for both navies, plus thorny trade snags in the stalled FTA talks. Yet, as destroyers dance and radars ping, one thing's clear—this wargame isn't play-acting; it's the prelude to a powerhouse partnership steering the world's oceans toward calmer seas. With Vision 2035 as their North Star, India and the UK are charting a course where alliances outgun aggressions.
Also Read: India, Canada Reset Ties as Cooter Meets President Murmu
