The UK Royal Navy and the Indian Navy have begun a two-day exercise in the Arabian Sea to test their naval capabilities.

The Indian Navy spokesperson Commander PVS Satish said HMS Talent, a Trafalgar Class hunter killer submarine from the UK, will participate in the exercise with a Shishumar Class submarine of India.

Both the countries have already started their annual KONKAN series of wargames as a table-top exercise at the tactical simulator located at Maritime Warfare Centre in Mumbai.

KONKAN 2010 is the seventh iteration of hte exercise and is being carried out without actual participation of ships, but with just the planning staff of both countries.

The exercise was aimed at exchanging operational planning concepts, maritime domain awareness procedures and test those plans through various maritime simulations.

The table top exercise will enable the countries to further develop the training concepts for future KONKAN exercises involving ships, submarines and aircraft.