Indian Navy started a series of mega coastal defence exercises.

The Indian Navy, in association with the Indian Coast Guard, have taken a series of exercises on the Indian coasts to increase its security response to terrorism. This took place ten years after a terrific terror attack, launched by Pakistani terrorists, in which 166 people died.

INS Kolkata at DIMDEX 2018 in Qatar (Picture source : Navy Recognition)

These exercises, that took place 10 years after the Mumbai terror attack (terrorists who came in through the sea), reunited the Navy and the Coast Guard covering the entire 7,516 km-long Inidian coastline (including island territories) with nearly 150 vessels and 40 aircraft. All stakeholders including marine police of various coastal states and fishermen were also involved in the exercise. In addition to all these forces, the Navy has also used its surveillance network, which includes 42 radar stations linked to a control centre.

This "Sea Vigil" exercise had, as primary objective, to evaluate the efficiency of the Indian's maritime security and surveillance and the velocity of the Indian naval forces to take care of any threat. The two-day exercise was unprecedented in terms of its geographical extent, the number of stakeholders involved and the number of units participating.

"Exercise Sea Vigil will provide a realistic assessment of our strengths and weakness and this will certainly help further strengthening of maritime security and in turn national security," said Capt. Sharma.