2nd Edition of ‘Sea Vigil’ Exercise

The 2nd edition of India’s largest coastal defence exercise “Sea Vigil” has been started on January 12 at the Mumbai coast. It is a 2-day defence drill that will conclude on January 13.

Key Points

• Se Vigil-2021 will be held along the entire coastline of 7,516 km and the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country.
• The exercise will cover 13 coastal states and UTs in addition to other maritime stakeholders.
• The main aim of Sea Vigil is to check the preparedness and efficacy of safety measures that have been taken to protect coastal routes.
• This has come after the terrorists entered Mumbai through the sea route during the 26/11 terror attack.
• This exercise will provide the real status of strengths and weaknesses in the sea or coastal routes.
• The first edition of the exercise was held in the year 2019.

TROPEX and Sea Vigil

Sea Vigil can be seen as a buildup towards the combat exercise TROPEX. The Theatre Level Readiness and Operational Exercise (TROPEX) is an exercise that will include the Indian Air Force, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. TROPEX is generally held at the starting of the year (January) and it lasts for a month. TROPEX was started in the year 2005 and since then is conducted on an annual basis. The last TROPEX exercise was conducted in the year 2019; however, the exercise was not conducted in 2016.