The IN-USN EOD Exercise concludes at Southern Naval Command, Kochi, with the eighth edition of the bilateral Explosive Ordnance Disposal engagement between the Indian Navy and the US Navy closing out on 14 August. The five-day round, which opened on 10 August, wrapped up with intensive professional interaction, an exchange of best practices and demonstrations by teams from both navies, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The engagement gave specialist diving and EOD personnel from both sides a shared platform to trade knowledge across the many facets of EOD operations.


SMEEs work through IED and mine threats

Subject Matter Expert Exchanges anchored the closing week, addressing real time threats from Improvised Explosive Devices, render safe procedures, mine neutralisation and the employment of unmanned underwater systems. The Ministry of Defence said the exchanges were built around current operational challenges rather than generic instruction, with both navies bringing recent case material into the sessions.

Divers cross train in salvage and specialist gear

The cross training phase carried the exchange from the classroom into the water. Divers worked through wreck location and salvage, handled specialist equipment together and ran slithering operations, a rope based technique for inserting personnel into the water from a hovering helicopter.

Officials described the phase as diverse by design, meant to expose each side's divers to disciplines that do not always feature in single service training cycles. Kochi has hosted a run of multinational and bilateral engagements through the year, including Operation Southern Readiness 26-2 at the same Southern Naval Command in July.

A partnership two decades old

The Indian Navy and the US Navy have conducted joint Salvage and EOD exercises since 2005, with this edition the eighth in the series. Southern Naval Command has previously run the engagement under the informal designation SALVEX, with past editions spanning over ten days of joint training in maritime salvage and EOD operations aimed at interoperability and the exchange of best practices between the two navies' diving teams. The curtain raiser released ahead of this edition had carried the same 2005 start date for the series.

IN-USN EOD Exercise concludes on an interoperability push

The IN-USN EOD Exercise concludes having pushed both sides through structured practical drills rather than parallel, separate programmes, officials said, a design meant to force early contact between the two navies' working methods.

Skill sets sharpened at Kochi

The joint training enhanced the professional competence and skill sets of the diving teams while fostering greater mutual understanding and interoperability, the Ministry of Defence said.

Officials closed the week having taken both navies' divers through mine neutralisation drills, wreck salvage tasks and unmanned underwater system demonstrations together, working the full span of the exercise's SMEE and cross training modules before standing down at Kochi, the same base that received an MH-60R Seahawk delivery last month.