The Navy will coordinate the second edition of the coastal defence exercise on January 12 and 13. It will be undertaken along the entire coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
The Navy said Sea Vigil 2021, a biennial exercise that began in January 2019, “will be undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India and will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities”.
The Navy said in a statement on Monday that 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, it said, “is a build up towards the major Theatre-level exercise TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise)” conducted by the Navy every two years.
“Sea Vigil and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict,” the Navy said, and added that “assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs and other maritime agencies will participate” in Sea Vigil, and its conduct is “also being facilitated by the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, Shipping, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Fisheries, Customs, State Governments and other agencies of Centre/ State”.
The Navy stated that while…
