KONKAN-26, the India-UK bilateral maritime exercise, concluded off Plymouth, United Kingdom, on 15 October 2026, after running from 08 to 15 October. The Indian Navy was represented by the stealth frigate INS Trishul and the Royal Navy by HMS Sutherland, a Duke-class anti-submarine warfare frigate.
One line in the Ministry's account is easy to skim past and carries most of the meaning: the exercise was conducted by Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) of the Royal Navy.
What FOST is, and why that matters
FOST is the Royal Navy's operational training organisation, based in the Plymouth area, and it is the body that puts British warships and those of many allied navies through their operational readiness assessment before they deploy. Its reputation in the naval world is specific: it is regarded as among the most demanding sea-training organisations anywhere, and ships emerging from its programme are considered worked up to a known standard.
So when a bilateral exercise is conducted by FOST rather than simply with the Royal Navy, the Indian ship is not merely exercising alongside a partner. It is being put through serials designed and umpired by a professional training establishment — which is a different and more useful experience than two ships agreeing a programme between themselves.
For a candidate, the generalisable point is this: the value of a naval exercise lies in who sets the standard, not in how many ships take part. A large showpiece exercise with a loose programme teaches less than a small one run by an organisation whose business is assessment.
The two ships
INS Trishul is a Talwar-class guided-missile stealth frigate. The class was built for India in Russia, derived from the Krivak lineage, and designed with reduced radar cross-section — the sloped surfaces and enclosed fittings that give the "stealth frigate" description its meaning. These ships carry a balanced weapons fit across anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine roles, and have been the Navy's workhorses for overseas deployments for two decades.
HMS Sutherland is a Duke-class frigate, which is the Royal Navy's Type 23 designation. The Type 23 was conceived during the Cold War specifically for anti-submarine warfare in the North Atlantic, and that origin shows in the design: a very quiet hull, a towed array sonar, and a layout optimised for hunting submarines rather than for general-purpose work.
Pairing an Indian multi-role frigate with a British ASW specialist tells you what the exercise was for. The serials listed bear it out.
What was actually practised
The four-day Sea Phase, from 12 to 15 October, covered:
- Advanced seamanship manoeuvres — ships handling in close company, replenishment approaches, station-keeping
- Joint tactical exercises — operating as a single tactical unit under one commander
- Communication procedures — the least glamorous and most consequential item on the list
- Anti-surface asymmetric warfare — defending against small, fast attacking craft, the threat profile of piracy and of militant attacks at sea
- Anti-submarine warfare — the core competence of the British ship
- Weapon firings in a multi-threat maritime environment
The repeated word in the Ministry's description is interoperability, and it is worth defining precisely because it is the examinable concept. Interoperability is not friendship. It is the technical and procedural ability of two navies to operate as one force — compatible communications, shared tactical publications, common understanding of signals and manoeuvring orders, and enough mutual familiarity that an instruction is executed the same way on both bridges.
That is why communication procedures sit in the middle of that list. Two ships that cannot exchange a secure tactical picture cannot fight together regardless of what their weapons can do.
The Konkan series
The Konkan series began in 2004 and has grown in scope and complexity since. It is held in rotation between the two navies, alternating between Indian waters and British waters — which is why the 2026 edition was off Plymouth rather than off the west coast of India that gives the exercise its name. The Konkan is the coastal belt of western India.
Earlier editions mark the trajectory. The 2006 edition involved the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious alongside Indian surface combatants. The 2025 edition was conducted with the British carrier strike group and was reported as the first occasion on which a British and an Indian Carrier Strike Group exercised together.
Against that, a two-ship edition in 2026 looks modest. It is not a downgrade. Exercises of this series swing between large set-piece events and focused professional work, and a frigate pair running ASW serials under FOST supervision is the second kind — less visible, more instructive.
Where it sits in India's naval diplomacy
India's naval engagement runs on three tracks, and all three have been visible this month.
There is coalition work, where the Indian Navy takes an appointment inside a multinational structure — most recently in commanding the Combined Maritime Forces' training task force at Bahrain. There is capability building at home, from new platforms entering service to weapons contracts for torpedoes and satellites. And there is bilateral exercising, of which Konkan is one of the oldest Indian examples with a European navy.
The India-UK defence relationship has been thickening across several dimensions — defence industrial cooperation, carrier aviation, and a trade agreement that entered force in 2026. A maritime exercise is the most visible expression of it, and the least binding. That combination is precisely why navies value exercises: they build the ability to operate together without committing either country to do so.
🔑 Revision block
- KONKAN-26: India-UK bilateral maritime exercise, 08–15 October 2026, concluded off Plymouth, UK. The Sea Phase ran 12–15 October.
- Participants: INS Trishul, a Talwar-class stealth frigate, and HMS Sutherland, a Duke-class (Type 23) anti-submarine warfare frigate.
- Conducted by FOST — the Royal Navy's Fleet Operational Standards and Training organisation, which runs operational readiness assessment for British and allied warships.
- Serials: advanced seamanship manoeuvres, joint tactical exercises, communication procedures, anti-surface asymmetric warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and weapon firings in a multi-threat environment.
- The series: began in 2004, alternates between Indian and British waters, named after the Konkan coast of western India. The 2006 edition involved HMS Illustrious; the 2025 edition brought both countries' Carrier Strike Groups together.
- Interoperability means the technical and procedural ability of two navies to operate as one force — compatible communications, common procedures and shared tactical understanding.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Exercise KONKAN is conducted between India and: (a) France (b) the United Kingdom (c) the United States (d) Australia
→ (b) Konkan is the India-UK bilateral maritime exercise, running since 2004.
Q2. KONKAN-26 was conducted off: (a) Plymouth, United Kingdom (b) Goa, India (c) Portsmouth, United Kingdom (d) Kochi, India
→ (a) The 2026 edition concluded off Plymouth on 15 October. The series alternates between Indian and British waters.
Q3. INS Trishul belongs to which class of frigate? (a) Shivalik class (b) Nilgiri class (c) Talwar class (d) Brahmaputra class
→ (c) INS Trishul is a Talwar-class guided-missile stealth frigate.
Q4. HMS Sutherland is a Duke-class frigate, also designated by the Royal Navy as: (a) Type 45 (b) Type 26 (c) Type 31 (d) Type 23
→ (d) The Duke class is the Type 23, designed principally for anti-submarine warfare.
Q5. FOST, which conducted KONKAN-26, is: (a) the Royal Navy's operational sea training organisation (b) a NATO maritime headquarters (c) a joint India-UK defence procurement body (d) the Royal Navy's submarine command
→ (a) Fleet Operational Standards and Training puts British and allied warships through operational readiness assessment.
Q6. The Type 23 frigate was originally designed principally for: (a) amphibious assault support (b) anti-submarine warfare (c) area air defence (d) mine countermeasures
→ (b) It was conceived for anti-submarine warfare in the North Atlantic, which shaped its quiet hull and towed array sonar.
Q7. In naval terminology, "interoperability" refers to: (a) the ability of a ship to operate in any ocean (b) the capacity to switch between diesel and gas turbine propulsion (c) the technical and procedural ability of two navies to operate as one force (d) the exchange of officers between two navies
→ (c) It covers compatible communications, common procedures and shared tactical understanding.
Q8. The Konkan series of exercises began in: (a) 1998 (b) 2004 (c) 2011 (d) 2016
→ (b) The series commenced in 2004 and has grown in scope since.
Q9. "Anti-surface asymmetric warfare" in an exercise context refers to defending against: (a) enemy submarines operating at depth (b) ballistic missile attack from land (c) small, fast attacking craft (d) long-range maritime patrol aircraft
→ (c) It is the threat profile associated with piracy and with militant small-boat attacks at sea.
Q10. The name "Konkan" refers to: (a) a Royal Navy shore establishment (b) a joint India-UK naval command (c) a class of Indian frigate (d) the coastal belt of western India
→ (d) The exercise is named for the Konkan coast, even though editions are held alternately in British waters.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Bilateral exercises are among the highest-frequency items in the NDA General Ability paper, and the question forms are narrow enough to prepare completely.
The first is the country-pairing question, asked almost every cycle. Konkan with the United Kingdom belongs in the same list a candidate should hold whole: Varuna with France, Malabar as a multilateral with the US and Japan and Australia, Indra with Russia, Simbex with Singapore, Ajeya Warrior with the UK on land. Confusing Konkan with Varuna is the classic error, because both are European naval partners.
The second is the venue question, which this edition is ideal for. The exercise is named after an Indian coast and was held off England. A statement that assumes a Konkan edition took place in Indian waters is exactly the kind of plausible-sounding falsehood the paper writes.
The third is the ship-class question. Talwar class for INS Trishul, and Type 23 or Duke class for a Royal Navy ASW frigate. The paper regularly asks candidates to place a named ship in its class, and the Talwar class recurs because so many of India's overseas deployments use it.
A fourth form worth preparing is the purpose question — which warfare domain an exercise emphasised. Here the pairing of an Indian multi-role frigate with a British ASW specialist, under an ASW training organisation, points at one answer.
For a written answer on defence diplomacy, the proposition that lifts a script is about the standard rather than the scale. An exercise run by a professional sea-training organisation delivers more operational value than a larger exercise with a loosely agreed programme, because the participating ship is assessed against an established benchmark rather than simply exercising alongside a partner. Add that interoperability is a technical and procedural achievement rather than a diplomatic gesture, and the answer is analysing the activity instead of listing it.
Preparing for NDA? Exercise questions are free marks if you hold the country pairings cold — build the list once and revise it monthly. Start with our NDA study material, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and train with serving-standard faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col D.N. Sharma — Defence Studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.