India and France are going to hold their largest ever naval exercise with aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines and fighters during the next month. This joint exercise is dubbed as ‘Varuna’, which will onset from May 1 off Goa and Karwar. This exercise will be held as part of the expanding ties of both the countries, amid the opposition slugfest over Rs 59,000-crore contract for 36 Rafale jets. Indian defence sources said the two countries will be deploying their aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya with its MiG-29K fighters and FNS Charles de Gaulle with its Rafale-M naval jets and other warships for this exercise. France has dispatched destroyers, FNS Forbin, FNS Provence and FNS Latouche Treville, nuclear attack submarine FNS Amethyste and tanker FNS Marne, Rafale-M fighters, E2C Hawkeye early-warning aircraft, AS-365 Dauphin and other helicopters for this joint naval exercise whereas India has deployed 44,400-tonne INS Vikramaditya, with its integral MiG-29K fighters and helicopters, diesel-electric submarine INS Shankul, guided-missile destroyer INS Chennai, stealth frigate INS Tarkash, tanker INS Deepak, P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft and Dornier-228 planes for it.

 

 

 

Apart from this, the trilateral high-voltage “Malabar” exercise with the US and Japan is slated to be held later this year.