The third edition of the two-day coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil-22, which concluded on 16 November, saw participation from over 17 government agencies from nine coastal states and four union territories of India.
The conceptual and geographical expanse of the 2022 edition of the exercise included contingencies ranging from peace to war-time across the country’s 7,516km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone.
This edition had witnessed the largest participation from all maritime security agencies, with over 500 surface assets from the Indian Navy (IN), Coast Guard (CG), States Marine/ Coastal Police, Customs, Forest Department, Port Authorities and private operators taking part.
The complete coastline was under surveillance by the IN and CG vessels and aircraft.
Helicopters were also put into service to support personnel of the Special Operations operating onboard offshore platforms.
During the Sea Vigil-22 exercise, the security mechanism of the ports was validated and the crisis management plans and their effectiveness was assessed.
The state police teams, Indian Navy marine commandos and commandos from National Security Guard were exercised so that they are well equipped to handle acts of maritime terrorism.
The technical surveillance infrastructure, called the National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence (NC3I) Network, was also validated.
In terms of coordinating the surveillance and information dissemination system, the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurugram and its several points across IN and CG stations were also exercised.
