New Delhi, Aug. 16: The US is deploying its largest warship, the USS Nimitz, off the coast of Goa to showcase the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft that Washington has offered to sell to New Delhi. The nuclear-power attack carrier with a flight deck the size of nearly two-and-a-half soccer pitches will lead a battlegroup in the latest edition of the Malabar series of exercises with the Indian navy in the last week of September.

The Indian navy’s only carrier, the INS Viraat, three of which can fit into one Nimitz, will also lead a battlegroup for the drill. Last year, the US deployed the USS Carl Vinson carrier for the exercise.

The 2005 edition of the Malabar series is being graduated for combat drills over mid-sea, anti-submarine warfare and electronic counter-measures. About 28 ageing Sea Harrier aircraft make up Viraat’s strike arm.

The Nimitz can accommodate 36 Super Hornets, 20-F14D Tomcats, four E-2C Hawkeye surveillance aircraft and two helicopter squadrons.

Navy sources said the Nimitz-led battlegroup will comprise a nuclear-powered submarine and two destroyers.

The USS Nimitz, one of the carriers in the US Pacific Command, has been active in the Iraq war and it was the launchpad for strikes from the Persian Gulf after it replaced the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The carrier will exercise off the Malabar coast for eight days with the Indian navy. It cannot dock at any Indian port because there are no berthing facilities for such a huge vessel.

The Indian and US navies have been steadily intensifying interaction. The two sides are also understood to be discussing a proposal to post two naval officers at Pacific Command headquarters for liaisoning.

Last month, another US carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, hosted two Indian naval officers in a midshipman exchange programme. Sub Lieutenant Pranav Anand, 22, of New Delhi, and Sub Lieutenant Braj Kishore, 22, of Patna, India, were the two candidates chosen to represent the Indian navy in the Kitty Hawk as it departed from Sydney, Australia. The Kitty Hawk Strike Group is the largest carrier strike group in the US Navy.