INS Mysore arrived at Lumut, Malaysia, on 9 September 2026 for the fourth edition of Exercise Samudra Laksamana, the bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Navy, the Ministry of Defence announced on 10 September. The exercise runs in two phases — a harbour phase of cross-deck visits, professional interactions and sporting engagements, followed by a sea phase.
The release places the deployment inside two frames: the MAHASAGAR vision, and the ASEAN–India Year of Maritime Cooperation 2026. It also notes that the visit builds on the 12th India–Malaysia Sub-Committee Meeting held on 1 July 2026.
The name, and the ship
Laksamana is the Malay word for admiral, from the Ramayana's Lakshmana — a small reminder of how far Indic vocabulary travelled across the Bay of Bengal. Samudra is the Sanskrit and Malay word for ocean. The exercise began in 2019, and this is its fourth edition.
INS Mysore (D60) is the second of the three Delhi-class guided-missile destroyers, India's first indigenously designed destroyers, built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Mumbai under Project 15. Her keel was laid in 1991, she was launched in 1993 and commissioned on 2 June 1999. The class — Delhi, Mysore, Mumbai — displaces about 6,700 tonnes, runs on a COGAG propulsion arrangement (combined gas turbine and gas turbine) and carries surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes, rocket launchers and two helicopters. The Delhi class was the design ancestor of the Kolkata class (Project 15A) and the Visakhapatnam class (Project 15B), so a question about "India's first indigenously designed destroyer class" has this answer.
Mysore serves with the Eastern Naval Command, headquartered at Visakhapatnam — the command that faces the Bay of Bengal and the approaches to Southeast Asia. The other two are the Western Naval Command at Mumbai and the Southern Naval Command at Kochi, which is the training command.
Why Malaysia, and why Lumut
Look at the map and the exercise explains itself. Lumut, in Perak on peninsular Malaysia's west coast, is the Royal Malaysian Navy's principal base, and it sits on the Strait of Malacca.
The Strait runs about 800 km between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, narrowing to under 3 km of navigable width at the Phillips Channel near Singapore. Roughly a quarter of the world's traded goods and a very large share of the oil moving to East Asia pass through it. For India it matters twice over: it is the eastern gate of the Indian Ocean, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands sit astride its western approaches — which is why India's only tri-service command, the Andaman and Nicobar Command, was created at Port Blair in 2001. The geography of straits, islands and the ocean floor around them is covered on the ocean relief and islands page.
Malaysia also matters as a claimant in the South China Sea, where its continental-shelf claims overlap with China's, and as an ASEAN member. India's engagement with it runs through the Act East Policy, which succeeded the Look East Policy in 2014.
The Navy's exercise map
Bilateral naval exercises are among the most reliably asked GK items, because each has a distinct name tied to one partner:
| Exercise | Partner |
|---|---|
| Samudra Laksamana | Malaysia |
| SIMBEX | Singapore — India's longest-running naval exercise, since 1994 |
| Samudra Shakti | Indonesia |
| JIMEX | Japan |
| AUSINDEX | Australia |
| Varuna | France |
| Konkan | United Kingdom |
| INDRA | Russia (tri-service) |
| Malabar | United States, Japan, Australia — the Quad navies |
| MILAN | Multilateral, hosted by India at Visakhapatnam |
Two further ASEAN-facing activities complete the picture: IND-INDO CORPAT, the coordinated patrol with Indonesia along the international maritime boundary, and the ASEAN–India Maritime Exercise, first held in 2023.
MAHASAGAR and the maritime year
MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions — was announced by the Prime Minister in Mauritius in March 2025. It is the successor framing to SAGAR, Security and Growth for All in the Region, announced in Mauritius in 2015: SAGAR was about the Indian Ocean neighbourhood, MAHASAGAR extends the same logic to the wider Global South.
2026 was declared the ASEAN–India Year of Maritime Cooperation at the ASEAN–India Summit in late 2025, with an agenda covering maritime security, the blue economy, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. India has been an ASEAN dialogue partner since 1996 and a Comprehensive Strategic Partner since 2022; ASEAN itself was founded by the Bangkok Declaration of 1967 and now has ten members, with its secretariat at Jakarta.
The deployment therefore does three things at once: it trains two navies together, it shows an Indian destroyer in the Malacca approaches, and it puts substance behind a declared year of cooperation. For the wider defence GK this sits in, the NDA study material hub is the base.
🔑 Revision block
The event. INS Mysore at Lumut, Malaysia, 9 September 2026; 4th edition of Exercise Samudra Laksamana with the Royal Malaysian Navy; harbour phase plus sea phase; follows the 12th India–Malaysia Sub-Committee Meeting of 1 July 2026. Name. Laksamana = admiral in Malay; exercise began 2019. The ship. INS Mysore (D60), Delhi class (Project 15) — India's first indigenously designed destroyers; Mazagon Dock, Mumbai; commissioned 2 June 1999; ~6,700 tonnes; class is Delhi, Mysore, Mumbai; ancestors of Kolkata (15A) and Visakhapatnam (15B) classes; Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam. Commands. Western — Mumbai; Eastern — Visakhapatnam; Southern — Kochi (training); Andaman and Nicobar Command — Port Blair, 2001, India's only tri-service command. Malacca. ~800 km between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; under 3 km navigable at the narrowest; a quarter of world traded goods; Lumut is the Royal Malaysian Navy's main base. Exercise pairs. Malaysia — Samudra Laksamana; Singapore — SIMBEX (1994); Indonesia — Samudra Shakti and IND-INDO CORPAT; Japan — JIMEX; Australia — AUSINDEX; France — Varuna; UK — Konkan; Russia — INDRA; Quad — Malabar; multilateral at Visakhapatnam — MILAN. Frameworks. SAGAR 2015, MAHASAGAR March 2025 (both announced in Mauritius); ASEAN–India Year of Maritime Cooperation 2026; ASEAN founded 1967 (Bangkok Declaration), 10 members, secretariat Jakarta; India a dialogue partner since 1996, Comprehensive Strategic Partner since 2022; Act East Policy from 2014.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Exercise Samudra Laksamana is conducted with: (a) Indonesia (b) Malaysia (c) Singapore (d) Thailand → (b).
Q2. INS Mysore belongs to which class of destroyers? (a) Kolkata (b) Visakhapatnam (c) Delhi (d) Rajput → (c) — Project 15.
Q3. INS Mysore was built at: (a) Garden Reach, Kolkata (b) Mazagon Dock, Mumbai (c) Cochin Shipyard (d) Hindustan Shipyard, Visakhapatnam → (b).
Q4. The Strait of Malacca lies between the Malay Peninsula and: (a) Java (b) Borneo (c) Sumatra (d) Sulawesi → (c).
Q5. India's only tri-service command is headquartered at: (a) Visakhapatnam (b) Kochi (c) Port Blair (d) Kolkata → (c) — created in 2001.
Q6. SIMBEX is India's naval exercise with: (a) Malaysia (b) Singapore (c) Sri Lanka (d) South Korea → (b).
Q7. The MAHASAGAR vision was announced in 2025 from: (a) Sri Lanka (b) Maldives (c) Mauritius (d) Seychelles → (c) — as SAGAR was, in 2015.
Q8. The Eastern Naval Command is headquartered at: (a) Chennai (b) Kolkata (c) Visakhapatnam (d) Paradip → (c).
Q9. ASEAN was established by the Bangkok Declaration of: (a) 1961 (b) 1967 (c) 1971 (d) 1985 → (b).
Q10. India's multilateral naval exercise hosted at Visakhapatnam is: (a) Malabar (b) MILAN (c) Varuna (d) Konkan → (b).
Q11. 2026 has been designated the ASEAN–India Year of: (a) Tourism (b) Digital Cooperation (c) Maritime Cooperation (d) Science and Technology → (c).
Q12. Consider the following: 1. Lumut is the principal base of the Royal Malaysian Navy. 2. The Delhi-class destroyers were India's first indigenously designed destroyers. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both (d) Neither → (c).
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Naval-exercise questions come in four shapes. The partner item — matching Samudra Laksamana, Samudra Shakti and SIMBEX to Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, which is the trap, since two of the three names are near-identical. The ship item — which class a named ship belongs to, or which yard built it. The geography item — the Strait of Malacca's two shores, or the choke points of the Indian Ocean. The framework item — SAGAR against MAHASAGAR, and the year each was announced.
The fresh 2026 hook is the fourth Samudra Laksamana and the ASEAN–India Year of Maritime Cooperation, likeliest as "which country is India's partner in Exercise Samudra Laksamana" or a statement pair on the ship and its class. We describe the recurring pattern, not any exact past question.
Preparing for NDA? Exercises, ship classes and choke points are the three highest-yield strands in naval GK. Build the base with our NDA study material hub, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and train with our ex-officer faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col Vijyanat Thakur — Defence & security faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Defence, 10 September 2026. Ship details, exercise history and regional frameworks cross-verified with Indian Navy records and independent sources.