The 33rd edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise, SIMBEX-2026, opened at Visakhapatnam on 21 October 2026 and runs until 26 October. The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) frigate RSS Supreme arrived the same day, and the opening ceremony was held on board INS Nilgiri and INS Kamorta, attended by the Chief Staff Officer (Operations) of the Eastern Naval Command and the Fleet Commander of the RSN.
The release states the exercise's origin in one line: it began in 1994 as Exercise Lion King. That is the fact worth building the topic around.
The plan for this edition
The exercise follows the two-part shape that most naval exercises share, the same shape seen in SLINEX with Sri Lanka and in IBSAMAR, which concluded at Simon's Town on 20 October.
| Phase | Dates | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Harbour phase | 21-23 October, Visakhapatnam | Professional interactions, Subject Matter Expert Exchanges (SMEEs), cross-deck visits, sport, planning conferences |
| Sea phase | 24-26 October, Bay of Bengal | Anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface and anti-air warfare drills, seamanship evolutions, tactical manoeuvres |
The sea phase is in the Bay of Bengal, not the Arabian Sea — Visakhapatnam is the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, and the exercise is hosted by that command.
From Lion King to SIMBEX
The RSN's own history of the exercise gives the milestones.
- February 1994 — two RSN Victory-class missile corvettes, RSS Victory and RSS Valour, sailed to the Andaman Sea for the first Lion King with the Indian Navy. The focus was basic anti-submarine warfare.
- The 1990s — the two navies met roughly annually, exercising off Kochi, Visakhapatnam and Port Blair.
- 2003 — RSS Valiant fired an exercise torpedo at a moving target simulated by the Indian submarine INS Vela — the first successful firing of its kind by a Southeast Asian navy.
- 2005 — the exercise was renamed SIMBEX and held in the South China Sea for the first time. The RSN brought a Challenger-class submarine for the first time, and anti-surface and anti-air warfare joined the programme, with RSAF maritime patrol and fighter aircraft taking part.
- 2018 — the silver jubilee edition, marking 25 years, with about 30 assets from both navies, the largest number since 1994.
The edition count tells its own story. Thirty-three editions in thirty-two years is close to an annual rhythm, unusual among India's bilateral exercises. Recent editions have alternated between the two countries: the 31st was held at Visakhapatnam in October 2024, the 2025 edition was reportedly hosted by Singapore, and the 33rd has returned to Visakhapatnam.
Why it began with submarines
The early focus on anti-submarine warfare explains the partnership. Realistic ASW training needs open, deep water and a partner willing to put a submarine in it, and in the 1990s the Indian Navy could offer both in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. India, for its part, was seeking closer ties with Southeast Asia under what was then the Look East Policy, launched in the early 1990s. The exercise served both purposes, and the fact that the 2026 sea phase still lists ASW first shows that the original purpose has not gone away.
The ships
RSS Supreme is the sixth and last Formidable-class frigate of the RSN. The class is a multi-mission derivative of the French La Fayette-class design; Supreme was built by ST Engineering in Singapore, commissioned on 16 January 2009, and carries an S-70B Seahawk naval helicopter.
INS Nilgiri is the lead ship of Project 17A, the Nilgiri-class stealth frigates built by Mazagon Dock in Mumbai and GRSE in Kolkata. She was commissioned in January 2025; the class's sixth ship, INS Mahendragiri, was commissioned in July 2026.
INS Kamorta is the lead ship of Project 28, the Kamorta-class anti-submarine warfare corvettes built by GRSE, commissioned in 2014. Her presence at the opening fits the exercise's ASW origin exactly.
Why Singapore matters to the Indian Navy
The geography is the argument.
- Singapore sits at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca, the narrow passage between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra that links the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the Pacific. It is among the busiest shipping lanes in the world and one of the region's principal chokepoints.
- India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie near the strait's western approaches. The Six Degree Channel, between Great Nicobar and Sumatra, is one of the main entries to the strait from the Indian Ocean.
- A large share of India's trade with East Asia, and much of East Asia's energy imports from the Gulf, passes through these waters.
Two navies that sit at either end of the same sea lane have an obvious reason to know each other well. SIMBEX gives the Indian Navy regular contact with a highly capable Southeast Asian navy, and gives Singapore a partner whose presence in the eastern Indian Ocean balances other powers' growing activity there. The exercise is one of the most visible practical expressions of India's Act East Policy, the 2014 successor to Look East.
India and Singapore: the wider defence relationship
SIMBEX is the naval strand of a broader set of exercises between the two countries, and the NDA paper tests their names.
| Exercise | Service or format |
|---|---|
| SIMBEX | Navy, bilateral |
| SITMEX | Navy, trilateral with Thailand |
| Bold Kurukshetra | Army, armoured forces |
| Agni Warrior | Army, artillery |
Exercise pairings worth holding together
Because the GAT so often tests exercise names in match-the-following form, it helps to hold the Navy's regular partners in one list: SIMBEX (Singapore), SLINEX (Sri Lanka), Varuna (France), KONKAN (United Kingdom), JIMEX (Japan), AUSINDEX (Australia), Malabar (United States, Japan, Australia) and IBSAMAR (Brazil and South Africa).
🔑 Revision block
- The event: SIMBEX-2026, 33rd edition, Visakhapatnam, 21-26 October 2026; harbour phase 21-23 Oct, sea phase 24-26 Oct in the Bay of Bengal.
- Ships: RSN RSS Supreme; Indian Navy INS Nilgiri and INS Kamorta; hosted by the Eastern Naval Command.
- Origin: began February 1994 as Exercise Lion King in the Andaman Sea, focused on anti-submarine warfare.
- Renamed: SIMBEX in 2005, when it was first held in the South China Sea; first RSN submarine participation the same year.
- Milestones: 2003 — RSS Valiant's exercise torpedo firing against a target simulated by INS Vela; 2018 — silver jubilee edition, about 30 assets.
- RSS Supreme: sixth and last Formidable-class frigate (derived from France's La Fayette class), commissioned 2009.
- INS Nilgiri: lead ship of Project 17A, commissioned January 2025. INS Kamorta: lead ship of Project 28 ASW corvettes, GRSE, commissioned 2014.
- Geography: Singapore at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca; Six Degree Channel between Great Nicobar and Sumatra.
- Other India-Singapore exercises: SITMEX (trilateral with Thailand), Bold Kurukshetra, Agni Warrior.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. SIMBEX is a bilateral maritime exercise between India and: (a) Singapore (b) Sri Lanka (c) Saudi Arabia (d) Seychelles
→ (a) It is the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise; SLINEX is the Sri Lanka exercise.
Q2. SIMBEX began in 1994 under the name: (a) Exercise Varuna (b) Exercise Malabar (c) Exercise Lion King (d) Exercise Sea Dragon
→ (c) It was renamed SIMBEX in 2005, the year it was first held in the South China Sea.
Q3. The sea phase of SIMBEX-2026 is being conducted in the: (a) Arabian Sea (b) Bay of Bengal (c) South China Sea (d) Andaman Sea
→ (b) The exercise is hosted by the Eastern Naval Command at Visakhapatnam, and its sea phase runs from 24 to 26 October in the Bay of Bengal.
Q4. The original focus of Exercise Lion King in 1994 was: (a) amphibious landings (b) humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (c) mine countermeasures (d) anti-submarine warfare
→ (d) The first editions concentrated on basic anti-submarine warfare, and ASW still leads the 2026 sea-phase programme.
Q5. INS Nilgiri, on board which the SIMBEX-2026 opening ceremony was held, is the lead ship of: (a) Project 17A stealth frigates (b) Project 15B destroyers (c) Project 28 corvettes (d) Project 75 submarines
→ (a) Project 17A, the Nilgiri class, is built by Mazagon Dock and GRSE; Project 28 is the Kamorta class.
Q6. RSS Supreme of the Republic of Singapore Navy belongs to the Formidable class, which is derived from a frigate design of: (a) the United Kingdom (b) France (c) Russia (d) the United States
→ (b) The Formidable class is a multi-mission derivative of the French La Fayette-class frigate.
Q7. The Six Degree Channel separates: (a) the Lakshadweep Islands from the Maldives (b) Little Andaman from Car Nicobar (c) Great Nicobar from Sumatra (d) Sri Lanka from the Indian mainland
→ (c) It is one of the main entries from the Indian Ocean to the Strait of Malacca; the Ten Degree Channel separates the Andamans from the Nicobars.
Q8. SITMEX is a maritime exercise involving India, Singapore and: (a) Thailand (b) Indonesia (c) Malaysia (d) Vietnam
→ (a) SITMEX is the Singapore-India-Thailand trilateral maritime exercise.
Q9. Which of the following is an India-Singapore army exercise? (a) Mitra Shakti (b) Yudh Abhyas (c) Shakti (d) Bold Kurukshetra
→ (d) Bold Kurukshetra is the armoured exercise with Singapore; Mitra Shakti is with Sri Lanka, Yudh Abhyas with the US and Shakti with France.
Q10. Singapore is strategically important to India's maritime interests mainly because it: (a) hosts India's only overseas naval base (b) lies at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca, linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea (c) controls the Sunda Strait (d) is a member of the Quad
→ (b) Its position on the Malacca chokepoint is the basis of the naval partnership; Singapore is not a Quad member.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Exercise questions in the NDA GAT follow a narrow, predictable set of forms, and SIMBEX supplies material for all of them.
The first is the partner question: "SIMBEX is a joint exercise between India and..." The distractors are almost always other countries beginning with S — Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles — which is why the full expansion, Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise, is the safest thing to remember.
The second is the matching grid, with SIMBEX, SLINEX, Varuna and Malabar against four partners. A candidate who keeps a running table of exercises answers these in seconds.
The third is the service-and-format question: is it naval, army or air; bilateral or trilateral. SITMEX, with Thailand as the third partner, is the trilateral that catches people out, and Bold Kurukshetra and Agni Warrior are the army exercises with the same country.
A fourth, which reaches into geography, is the channel question. The Six Degree Channel (Great Nicobar-Sumatra), the Ten Degree Channel (Andaman-Nicobar) and the Nine Degree Channel (in Lakshadweep) are perennial, and a SIMBEX item gives the examiner an easy route to them.
For the SSB lecturette or group discussion on India and Southeast Asia, the point to make is that the relationship began with a practical training need and grew into a strategic partnership. Lion King was about submarines; SIMBEX is now about the security of the sea lane that connects India to East Asia, and that progression is a good illustration of how Look East became Act East.
Preparing for NDA? Exercise names are among the most reliable marks in the GAT — keep one table of every exercise, its partner and its service, and add to it each week. Build the base 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.