She is also capable of embarking over 1,000 troops, and is fully equipped with extensive medical facilities including four operation theatres, a 12-bed ward, a laboratory and a dental centre.

[4] In 2006, the Indian government announced it would purchase the US Navy's retired Austin-class landing platform dock USS Trenton for approximately ₹228 crore ($48.44 million).

[10] According to the report, the United States obtained an assurance that the naval ship could not be used for any offensive purposes, and had the right to regularly inspect it, under an end-user monitoring agreement that India and the US signed in 2009.

[11][12] A response to this criticism was that the ship was acquired primarily to aid the Navy in gaining vital operational information for expanding its amphibious warfare capabilities.

The Chief of Navy Staff Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma clarified that inspections by the United States are not intrusive, i.e. no boarding of the ship by US personnel is allowed.

[2][13] On 1 February 2008, five Indian Navy personnel were killed, and three others critically injured by inhaling poisonous hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas aboard Jalashwa.

It was a "bilateral tri-service Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise" conducted including Indian Armed Forces, US Army and US Marine Corps in Bay of Bengal.