AKIPRESS.COM - The Japanese Maritime-Self Defense Force (JMSF) will join the Indian and American navies in this year’s installment of the Malabar naval exercise held in the Bay of Bengal, the Business Standard reports.

An announcement will be made shortly  re-designating what had hitherto been officially an Indian-U.S. bilateral military exercise into a trilateral India-U.S.-Japan event, according to the Business Standard.

And while Japan’s participation is not new—the JMSF have joined in 2007, 2009, and 2014 respectively—it will be the first time that the Japanese Navy will not be a foreign invitee but rather a permanent member of the annual trilateral naval drill.

Malabar 2015, held from October 14 to 19, will feature ten warships. The U.S. Navy’s fleet will include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi, and the new littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, as well as a Ticonderoga-class destroyer.