Malabar 2017: Photos of US, India, and Japan's war games at the heart of the 'new Cold war' Asia

(US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Cole Schroeder)

Visitors observe flight operations on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), July 16, 2017, in the Bay of Bengal as part of exercise Malabar.

The US, India, and Japan kicked off the Malabar 2017 naval exercises earlier this month in the Bay of Bengal.

Malabar 2017 is the latest in a series of exercises that have grown over the years to address shared threats to maritime security in the Indian Ocean and Asia Pacific and to build interoperability between participants.

While Malabar 2017 is not the series' largest exercise, it is the first to involve carriers from each navy: India's Vikramaditya, the US's Nimitz, and Japan's Izumo, which Tokyo classifies as a "helicopter destroyer."

This year, Malabar has both land and sea portions. The former is based in Chennai and focused on information exchanges, while the sea portion of the drills, taking place from July 14 to 17, has anti-submarine warfare as one of its main components.

While not present, China looms large over the exercises. Beijing and New Delhi have been eyeing each other warily in the Indian Ocean for the last several years, and the two countries are currently involved in one of their most intense border incidents in decades.

Below, you can see photos of Malabar 2017, taking place in what appears to be ground zero for "a new Cold War" in the Indian Ocean.