Rafale-M operations, anti-submarine warfare in focus during Indo-France naval exercise

India and France conduct bilateral naval exercise 'Varuna' with focus on ASW operations, enhancing interoperability and maritime security.

India and France deployed aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and Charles de Gaulle for the bilateral exercise named ‘Varuna’, allowing the Indian Navy getting to closely observe, and operate with, the Rafale-M fighter jets, which it is set to contract soon. The maneuvers also focused on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations.

The exercise was held from March 19-22 off the coast of Goa.

“For four days we have been working on every naval warfare domain either below the surface, on the surface, or above the surface, interacting with the Indian submarine, with Migs and Rafales of course working all together,” said Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, Chief of the French Carrier Strike Group, speaking to two Indian media outlets onboard the carrier about 90-100 miles off Goa. “I am just coming back from the debriefing on the exercise on INS Vikrant, and we have been through all the detailed exercises that we just carried out, working all together to improve interoperability, in order to know and trust each other better and to be able to operate [with] each other,” he stated.

On the way forward for the exercise, which has grown in scope and complexity, he said exercise Varuna is building up every time, reaching further in operations between the French and Indian Navies. “This year, we have been working on an Anti-Submarine exercise,” he elaborated. “One Indian submarine was playing aggressor and all frigates, either French or Indian, were protecting the high-value units played by the French oiler Jacques Chevallier. We learned a lot working together and comparing tactics, arranging the different ways of doing things, and building the knowledge to work together,” he added.

ASW exercises provide rigorous training in underwater domain awareness, while surface warfare operations demonstrate synchronised manoeuvres and engagements by the Indian and French fleets, the Navy stated. Maritime patrol aircraft enhance situational awareness, and replenishment-at-sea exercises fortify logistical cooperation, it added, highlighting that this collaboration underscores the “shared vision of safeguarding a free, open, and secure maritime environment.”

The French Carrier Strike Group has been on deployment in the Indian Ocean Region since November 2024 as part of the Clémenceau 25 mission to strengthen ties with its partners in the Indo-Pacific and has engaged in a series of exercises during this period. “After conducting air and naval exercises with Indian forces following the stopovers of French ships in Goa and Kochi in January, cooperation between the two countries continues with the return of the French CSG in the Indian Ocean,” the French Embassy noted in a statement on Thursday.

As a resident nation of the Indian Ocean, France is committed to working alongside its partners in the region to ensure a free, open, and stable Indo-Pacific, notably through the presence of French forces in the United Arab Emirates (FFEAU) and the French Armed Forces in the Southern Indian Ocean (FAZSOI), it added.