The Indian Navy is gearing up to hold Sea Vigil, a massive coastal security exercise covering, for the first-time, the entire coastal mainland and the island territories, in January next year. “It is 10 years since 26/11 and numerous measures have been taken since to enhance our maritime domain awareness and bolster coastal security. There’s now a network of coastal sensors and a specialised force that patrols coastal waters. Automatic Identification System has been made mandatory for vessels of over 300 tonnes, with other identification mechanisms in place or being progressively introduced for smaller vessels. “We have white shipping agreement [for sharing information on commercial vessels] with 18 countries. We have spoken with States and all coastal security stakeholders to mobilise all the resources for this massive exercise which will test the security mechanism down to the wire so as to validate the existing apparatus and procedures,” said Vice Admiral G. Ashok Kumar, Deputy Chief of Indian Navy.