Navy’s massive Sea Vigil exercise begins Wednesday

CHENNAI: Indian Navy will launch ‘Sea Vigil’, one of the massive coastal defence exercise, off the Indian coast on Wednesday. The two-day exercise, first of its kind, is being conducted along the entire 7,516.6 km of coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India and includes all 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with maritime stakeholders, including fishing and coastal community.

The scale of the exercise is unprecedented and it is a build up towards the major theatre level tri-service exercise TROPEX conducted by Navy. Sea Vigil and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security, including transition from peace to conflict, a defence release said.

The exercise is being facilitated by Ministry of Defence, Home Affairs, Shipping, Petroleum and Natural Gas,  Fisheries, Customs, State governments and other Central and State agencies.

Exercise Sea Vigil aims to comprehensively and holistically validate the efficacy of measures taken since 26/11. Seaward monitoring during exercise will entail patrolling off coast, in Offshore Development Areas and off islands by Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard supported by State Marine Police.

The exercise will evaluate critical areas which include inter-agency coordination, information sharing and technical surveillance.

While smaller exercises are conducted in coastal States regularly, the security exercise at a national-level reflects the distance that has been covered since 26/11. It will further help in strengthening the maritime security, the release said.