Passage Exercise (PASSEX) 

Passage Exercise (PASSEX) 

Part of: GS Prelims – Defence 

In news: 

• Indian naval ships conducted a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with the U.S. Navy’s  USS Nimitz carrier strike group near the Andaman and Nicobar islands as it is transiting the Indian Ocean. 
• The exercise comes amid a high alert by the Navy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) due to the stand­off with China along the border in Ladakh. 

Do you know? 

• As part of this exercise, four frontline naval ships, Shivalik, Sahyadri, Kamorta and Rana including a stealth corvette, teamed up with carrier USS Nimitz and three other U.S. ships in the eastern Indian Ocean near the islands. 
• On June 27,  JS Kashima and  JS Shimayuki from the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force ( JMSDF) training squadron had conducted a PASSEX with INS Rana and INS Kulish in the Indian Ocean. 
• The Navy is keeping a close watch on the movement in the IOR of Chinese naval ships, whose presence has gone up considerably over the years in the name of anti­piracy patrols. In 2017, China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.