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By Y.P. Rajesh

ABOARD USS KITTY HAWK, Bay of Bengal, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The last time the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet came to the Bay of Bengal, in 1971, was to intimidate India as it fought Pakistan in the war that led to Bangladesh's birth.

New Delhi refused to blink and it was an affront India took a long time to forgive, marking one of the lowest points in relations between the giant democracies.

Last week, the Seventh Fleet was back in the same waters, with a second aircraft carrier, a nuclear submarine and scores of fighter jets in the biggest known U.S. naval assembly in the region in 36 years.

This time though, it was for joint war games with India and three other friendly navies -- Australia, Japan and Singapore -- in one of the biggest such peacetime exercises and the largest in a series between New Delhi and Washington.

It turned out to be another stage in the dramatic upswing in ties between the two countries this decade after an estrangement of about half a century.

Anchored under cloudy skies in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which had been involved in the war against Iraq in 2003, lay alongside the INS Viraat, India's lone aircraft carrier.

Indian officers jostled with their U.S. counterparts on the Kitty Hawk's flight deck, swapping notes as U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornets roared off into the sky.

Pairs of Indian Sea Harrier jets and U.S. Hornets flew past as they put on an air display.

Visiting Indian officers, wearing American head-protection gear with VIP stickers on them, inspected U.S. missiles, lounged in the private cabin of the Kitty Hawk's captain and ate in the officers' dining hall.

And the commander for the day of the entire five-navy fleet -- including nearly 30 ships and over 100 aircraft -- was Indian Vice-Admiral Raman Prem Suthan.

ART OF WAR?

During the six-day wargames, an Indian Sea Harrier refueled from a U.S. Super Hornet in mid-air and the United States also dedicated a submarine for the entire duration for anti-submarine warfare, both for the first time.

"I asked Admiral Suthan last night if he paid for that fuel," Vice-Admiral Doug Crowder, commander of the Seventh Fleet, joked in a display of the camaraderie between the two sides. "He didn't commit. I know he didn't pay me."

The Indian navy, Suthan said, got an opportunity to see how the "art" of launching jets with catapults was being sustained as his force had "lost the art" after the retirement of its INS Vikrant aircraft carrier.

"These are different arts," he said. "It's great exposure for us."

India, one of the world's fastest growing economies and its fourth largest military, is enjoying being courted by the world's lone superpower.

Strategic experts attribute this partly to Washington's eagerness to build a strong, democratic counterweight in Asia to a rising China.

And India, which also has concerns about an increasingly powerful China, has been more than a willing partner.

The previous Hindu-nationalist Indian government even considered sending troops to help the United States during its war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the present coalition is risking its survival over a historic nuclear energy deal with Washington.

Privately, some Indian diplomats express nervousness over what they say is the United States' record of being a fair-weather friend. If not for the fierce debate and domestic opposition like the nuclear deal has faced, India could one day become little more than a U.S. satellite, they say.

Others dismiss that idea, citing India's proud record of foreign policy independence and saying the country was only taking care of its self interest.

"Traditionally and culturally, we have not aligned with one side or the other," previous Indian naval chief Admiral Arun Prakash told Reuters. "Today, it is all about looking out for your own interests, keeping your powder dry."

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