INS Tarkash Sails for IBSAMAR IX Exercise in South Africa

The correct answer is South Africa. INS Tarkash, a frontline guided missile stealth frigate of the Indian Navy, has been sent on an overseas deployment to South Africa to join the ninth edition of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime Exercise. The host navy has fielded SAS Amatola, SAS King Sekhukhune I, SAS Adam Kok III and the submarine SAS Manthatisi for the drill. Option A, Brazil, is wrong: Brazil is one of the three participating countries and has sent BNS Barroso with an integral Lynx helicopter, but it is not hosting this edition. Option C, India, is wrong for the same reason; India has sent a ship abroad rather than received the other two fleets, and the Indian presence is INS Tarkash with a Chetak helicopter. Option D, Namibia, is wrong because Namibia has no part in the IBSAMAR series, which belongs to the India-Brazil-South Africa grouping alone.

The correct answer is 2008. IBSAMAR has been held once in two years since that year, under the India-Brazil-South Africa framework, and has become a settled platform for joint training and for sharing operational practices among the three navies. Because the series runs on a two-year cycle from that starting point, the ninth edition falls in the current year, which is a useful cross-check for aspirants. Option A is wrong because the naval exercise series had not yet begun then. Option C is wrong because by that year the exercise was already several editions old; counting back from the ninth edition on a biennial cycle rules it out. Option D is also ruled out by the same arithmetic, since a start in that year could not produce nine editions by now. The grouping behind the exercise, IBSA, is the one formed by India, Brazil and South Africa.

The correct answer is Stronger Together Towards a Shared Future in the Maritime Domain. This is the declared theme of the ninth edition of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime Exercise, which aims at collective maritime security and at preparing the three navies to deal with challenges at sea. The edition is significant for cooperation and security in the Indian Ocean Region. The other three options are plausible-sounding slogans of the kind used for naval events, but none of them is the theme of this exercise, and a candidate should match the theme to the edition number rather than to a general phrase about the sea. The drills in this edition span surface warfare, anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, naval air operations, maritime interdiction, Visit Board Search and Seizure, anti-piracy operations, search and rescue, and damage control and firefighting.