India Narrative

  Two US aircraft carrier groups are conducting training drills in the South China Sea (SCS) even as the Chinese flew 39 aircraft into Taiwan's Air Defence Zone. US Navy's aircraft carriers—USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by other battleships began exercises in the SCS on Sunday. A statement by the US Navy said that the carrier groups “will engage in joint operations to include enhanced maritime communication operations, anti-submarine warfare operations, air warfare operations, replenishments-at-sea, cross-deck flight operations and maritime interdiction operations to strengthen maritime integrated-at-sea operations and combat readiness". The statement by the Department of Defence said that the training will be conducted in accordance with international law in international waters. The two aircraft carrier groups had earlier conducted naval exercises in the Philippine Sea with the Japanese Navy. These exercises were conducted southeast of the Japanese

  The Philippines has emerged as the maiden buyer of BrahMos supersonic missile systems, jointly produced by India and Russia, amid China's aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea (SCS) region. Both sides were in an advanced stage of negotiations for a number of years and would have struck the deal earlier had not the Covid-19 pandemic intervened and hit the Philippines exchequer. Manila has now agreed to buy BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missiles from India for US $375-million to shore up its defences in the disputed SCS. The acquisition is the newest of a number of similar capacity enhancements for the Philippine Army unveiled in contemporary weeks. In December, Philippine Protection Secretary Delfin Lorenzana made public the acquisition of six patrol ships from Austal for $600 million and two corvettes from Hyundai Heavy Industries for $550 million.  The acquisition of the BrahMos, said to be the world’s fastest cruise missile, “marks a breakthrough in efforts to upg