On Wednesday, India successfully concluded the second edition of its most extensive coastal defence exercise, Sea Vigil. The two-day exercise covered India’s entire 7,516 km coastline and its Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), which stretches across 13 states and union territories. The exercise saw the cooperation of the Indian navy, the governments of the respective states and several stakeholders, including fishermen, customs authorities and the Coast Guard. Over 100 assets of the Indian Navy, Marine Police, and Coast Guard, which includes aircrafts, helicopters and warships, participated in the exercise.
The first edition of this exercise was conducted in January 2019. The Sea Vigil was established after the 26/11 attack, during which ten terrorists, who had orchestrated the brutal attack, are known to have arrived in Mumbai through the sea. The incident exposed the weakness in the collaboration of India’s intelligence and security agencies.
On Monday, in preparation of the exercise, the Navy released an official statement saying, “The exercise aims to assess India’s maritime security and coastal defence preparedness. It will give a realistic assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, and will help in strengthening our national security.” It also celebrated the exercise for its unprecedented “scale and conceptual expanse” in terms of “the geographical scale, number of stakeholders, objectives to be met and participating units.” While India frequently conducts smaller exercises, such a national-level coastal defence exercise will help it establish a coordinated and expansive system to improve the preparedness of its defence systems.
The Sea Vigil 2021 also comes in preparation of the Tropex – Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise – a biennial maritime security exercise. According to the Indian Navy’s statement, “Sea Vigil and Tropex together cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict.” Apart from these, India also regularly conducts several bilateral exercises such as the KONKAN with the United Kingdom, VARUNA with France and AUSIndex with Australia. It is also a part of multilateral naval exercises, including MILAN and CORPAT.
In its bid to further strengthen its maritime defence systems, the Indian Navy is collaborating with the American Navy, who has agreed to equip Indian warships with American naval guns. India has already agreed to purchase three 127 mm medium calibre guns that are currently in the American inventory. This will be used by Indian warships to counter any maritime and aerial threats. Moreover, the two countries are in talks for a $600 million deal for the purchase of 11 more such systems.
This exercise comes as India’s tensions with its two rival neighbours, China and Pakistan, stand at an all-time high. While China’s aggressive posturing in the Indo-Pacific has been a pressing issue for countries across the region, the Indian Navy has previously expressed concern about the possibility of Pakistan “attempting to open a ‘second front’ to gain advantage.” In light of this, the Indian Navy has been keeping a close eye on Chinese and Pakistani surface ships and sub-surface platforms.