Indian Navy concludes maritime exercise 'Sea Vigil' to strengthen maritime security
Coastal Defence Exercise Sea Vigil 2024 successfully concluded on November 21. The exercise was conducted in two phases, with Phase I extending from November 13 to 19 and Phase II conducted over a 36-hour period across all coastal states and union territories of India.
The exercise demonstrated India's unwavering commitment to strengthening its maritime security and coastal defence mechanisms, spanning the entirety of India's 11,098 km coastline and its Exclusive Economic Zone of 2.4 million square kilometres, according to an official release.
Sea Vigil 24 witnessed the participation of over 21 agencies across six ministries. These included the Indian Navy, Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, State Marine Police, Customs, BSF, CISF, Port Authorities, and Fisheries Department, among others.
The two days of Phase II of the exercise witnessed extensive deployment of more than 550 surface assets from various maritime security agencies and 60 air sorties with flying time of about 200 hours along the entire coastline of the country.
The Coastal Defence and Security Readiness Evaluation (CDSRE) phase of the exercise, conducted over a period of seven days prior to the commencement of the tactical phase, witnessed a comprehensive audit of over 950 critical coastal locations. The audit included Fishing Landing Centres, Lighthouses, Major and Non-Major ports, Coastal Police Stations, offshore assets, Coastal VAs/ VPs and others. Notably, for the first time, officials from the National Security Council
