{"id":33485,"date":"2013-10-31T11:09:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T11:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c79714d0a83ec610628d267d548f57e9"},"modified":"2013-10-31T11:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T11:09:27","slug":"news-story-hms-westminster-trains-with-indian-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=33485","title":{"rendered":"News story: HMS Westminster trains with Indian navy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Royal Navy Type 23 frigate took time out from her busy counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics operations in the Gulf for a workout with Indian navy ship (INS<\/abbr>) Delhi and her company.<\/p>\n

Exercise Konkan is part of the long-term commitment shared by the United Kingdom and India to maintain strong ties and developing the ability to work closely and efficiently together during operations.<\/p>\n

The exercise had 2 distinct phases. The first was conducted alongside in Goa, where Westminster and Delhi berthed together. This presented an opportunity for some friendly inter-nation competitions including football and golf; Westminster\u2019s team winning the football 3-1 but losing the golf 2-0.<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/div>
An Indian naval officer examines a British general purpose machine gun during a tour of HMS Westminster [Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Dan Rosenbaum, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A series of lectures and ship\u2019s tours were also held for some of the INS<\/abbr> Delhi\u2019s crew onboard HMS Westminster<\/a>; the aim being to improve mutual understanding of different equipment and working practices. <\/p>\n

Lieutenant Simon Yates, HMS Westminster\u2019s Flight Observer and the ship\u2019s visit liaison officer, said:<\/p>\n

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The enthusiasm and desire of the Indian crew to understand our practices was clear during the tours.<\/p>\n

There is already a significant crossover of procedures between our 2 navies. Exercise Konkan has deepened that mutual understanding and I would hope to work with the Indian navy again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

HMS Westminster\u2019s Commanding Officer, Captain Hugh Beard, called on Rear Admiral Balvinder Singh Parhar, Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area and Naval Aviation, during the harbour phase.<\/p>\n

The British frigate later hosted an evening reception with ceremonial sunset, which was attended by the Admiral, many of his senior staff, the Mayor of Goa and other local dignitaries.<\/p>\n

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\"Indian<\/div>
INS<\/abbr> Delhi’s Alouette helicopter takes off from HMS Westminster’s flight deck during a cross deck landing exercise [Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Dan Rosenbaum, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second phase of the exercise saw the ships head to sea, putting what was learned alongside into practice in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

HMS Westminster and the INS<\/abbr> Delhi rehearsed gunnery, anti-submarine warfare, boarding operations, close manoeuvring and cross-deck flying. Westminster\u2019s Lynx helicopter landed on the Delhi\u2019s flight deck whilst the Indian ship\u2019s Chetak helicopter hopped across to be hosted by HMS Westminster\u2019s flight crew.<\/p>\n

Captain Beard said he was pleased with how the exercise evolved: <\/p>\n

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The officers and crew of INS<\/abbr> Delhi helped to make this a most successful exercise. Many valuable insights have been gained and the long-standing goodwill reinforced.<\/p>\n

The Indian navy continues to be an invaluable ally at sea and in the air, and a worthy adversary in the field of sport.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

HMS Westminster has now returned to maritime security operations in the Gulf region, where she will remain until early 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HMS Westminster recently visited Goa where the ship\u2019s company trained alongside the Indian navy for Exercise Konkan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}