The Indian Navy began the largest nationwide Coastal Defense Exercise Sea Vigil-22 on November 15, 2022. This is the third edition of the ‘Pan-India’ Coastal Defence Exercise ‘Sea Vigil-22’ and will be conducted over two days. In January 2021, the second edition of Sea Vigil was held.
This national level coastal defence exercise was conceptualized in 2018 to validate various measures that have been instituted towards enhancing maritime security since ‘26/11’.
Coastal security being a major subset of the coastal defence construct, the concept of ‘Sea Vigil’ is to activate the coastal security apparatus across India and assess the overarching coastal defence mechanism. The exercise is being undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India. It involves all the coastal states and union territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities.
The exercise is being conducted by the Indian Navy in coordination with the Coast Guard and other ministries entrusted with the task of maritime activities.
The scale and conceptual expanse of the exercise is unprecedented in terms of the geographical extent, the number of stakeholders involved, the number of units participating and in terms of the objectives to be met. The exercise is a build up towards the major Theatre Level Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX), which the Indian Navy conducts every two years.
The two exercises, Sea Vigil and TROPEX, will together cover the spectrum of maritime security challenges. Assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs and other maritime agencies are participating in Ex Sea Vigil.
The Ministry of Defence is not the only facilitator in the exercise, as it is also being coordinated by the ministries of home affairs, shipping and waterways, petroleum and natural gas, fisheries animal husbandry and dairying, customs, and other agencies concerned with the central and state governments.