The Navy kicked off its second multinational exercise of the week Monday in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of India, in a sign that the unchecked COVID-19 contagion experienced this summer is under control.
The Navy continues to have success flattening it’s COVID-19 curve and has the slowest rate of infection across the military services. As of Wednesday, the Navy had just 1,478 active cases of the military’s 58,968 total cases.
Some seven sailors remain hospitalized, while 11,270 have recovered. The Navy took the sad distinction this spring of having the first active-duty service member to succumb to the virus when USS Roosevelt sailor, Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, died of COVID-19 on April 13.
In all, nearly 1,000 sailors of the Roosevelt’s crew of 4,865 tested positive for the coronavirus in an outbreak that sidelined the carrier for nearly 2 months.
Monday’s start of Malabar 2020 and Sunday’s kick-off of UNITAS off the coast of Ecuador indicate that the Navy has resumed its battery of global exercises under pandemic precautions.
Malabar will include ships, aircraft, and personnel from Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, while UNITAS includes 13 warships and thousands of service members from 11 Latin American nations.
Malabar’s host, India, has been elevated of late as a vital Indo-Pacific partner. Last week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited the country and signed a defense cooperation agreement as a signal to China that America will strengthen its allies in the region in the face of Chinese aggression.
Malabar is a continuation of that show of force.
“Malabar provides an opportunity for like-minded navies, sharing a common vision of a more stable, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, to operate and train alongside one another,” USS John S. McCain commanding officer Ryan T. Easterday said in a Thursday statement.
“A collaborative approach toward regional security and stability is important now more than ever, to deter all who challenge a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added, a reference to aggressive moves in the Pacific by China’s navy.
This year’s exercises will include high-end tactical training to improve interoperability among the participating forces.
The Navy’s 7th Fleet, the Navy’s largest fleet, interacts with 35 other nations in the Indo-Pacific region. It has 50-70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 sailors.
