India, Brazil Warships Arrive in South Africa for Exercise Ibsamar IX
Warships from India and Brazil have arrived in Simon’s Town for Exercise Ibsamar IX, the ninth edition of the trilateral India-Brazil-South Africa maritime exercise that runs from 8 to 21 October and is led this year by the Indian Navy.
Photo: File photo of the South African Navy Valour-class frigate SAS Amatola, part of the fleet hosting Exercise Ibsamar IX. Credit: David Holmes, U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
South Africa is hosting the exercise in and around Simon’s Town and False Bay in the Western Cape, with harbour and sea phases built around training serials and joint maritime activity, defenceWeb reported, citing statements from the South African and Indian navies. The South African Navy says the drill is meant to build interoperability, professional cooperation and maritime security cooperation among the three forces.
The ships and forces involved
Brazil has sent the Inhauma-class corvette CV Barroso (V34), which arrived in Simon’s Town on 8 October. Launched in 2002 and commissioned in 2008, Barroso displaces more than 2,300 tonnes at full load and carries Exocet anti-ship missiles, Mk 46 torpedoes, a 114 mm Vickers Mk 8 gun and a single 40 mm Bofors gun, plus a flight deck and hangar for one Super Lynx helicopter. The ship previously visited South Africa for Ibsamar IV in 2014 and Atlasur IX in 2012.
India’s contribution is the Teg-class stealth frigate INS Tarkash (F50), commissioned in 2012 and armed with the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile, a 100 mm main gun, a 30 mm close-in weapon system, torpedoes and rockets. Tarkash sailed to Simon’s Town via Kenya, where it called at Mombasa from 29 September, held staff talks with the Kenyan Navy from 5 to 7 October and ran a passage exercise with the Kenyan ship Jasiri — the Indian Navy’s second visit to Kenya in 2026 after INS Trikand in April. Tarkash also embarked a Chetak helicopter and a special forces detachment for Ibsamar IX.
A biennial fixture with South Africa as the fixed host
First held in South Africa in 2008, Ibsamar rotates its lead nation every two years while South Africa remains the permanent host because of its position at the junction of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The previous edition, in October 2024, brought together INS Talwar, SAS Amatola and the Brazilian frigate Defensora. As part of the welcome for this edition, 21-gun salutes were fired from Lower North Battery on 8 and 11 October, with residents of Simon’s Town, False Bay and Fish Hoek notified in advance.
Why it matters for Africa
Ibsamar is one of the few recurring multinational naval exercises hosted on African soil by African initiative rather than by a single external power, and it gives the South African Navy — whose surface fleet has shrunk to a handful of serviceable frigates — a reason to keep crews current on manoeuvring, boarding and joint-task procedures alongside two of the Global South’s more capable navies. For a service that has struggled with maintenance backlogs and reduced sea days, exercises like this one are also a practical test of how much of the fleet can actually be made ready to sail at short notice. The India-Brazil-South Africa format additionally reinforces a maritime security relationship outside the Western alliance structures that dominate most other exercises in African waters, at a time when India in particular has been expanding naval engagement up and down the continent’s eastern coastline.
Sources
- defenceWeb: “Foreign warships arriving in South Africa for Exercise Ibsamar IX”
- DefenceMENA: “Frigates and Corvettes of African Navies: Who Operates What”
- DefenceMENA: “South Africa’s Military Has Advanced Hardware It Can Barely Keep Running”
