Context: 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.

About Sea Vigil 2021

• It is a biennial exercise that began in January 2019.
• The exercise will be undertaken along the entire 7,516-km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
• It will involve all 13 coastal states and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities
• The exercise is a build-up towards the next step and level exercise called ‘Tropex’
• It is coordinating by Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, Shipping, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Fisheries and Customs, state governments and other agencies of Centre and state.

Assets

• All the assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs and other maritime agencies will be participating in SEA VIGIL.
• The conduct of Sea Vigil is also being facilitated by major ministries including of Defence, Home Affairs, Fisheries, Customs, Shipping, Petroleum and Natural Gas, State Governments and other agencies of Centre/ State.

Importance

• Exercise ‘Sea Vigil-21’ is expected to provide a realistic assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and thus will help in further strengthening maritime and national security. 
• The exercise is being coordinated by the Indian Navy. The entire coastal security set up was re-organised after the 26/11 terror attack at Mumbai which was launched using the sea route.
• Assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs and other maritime agencies will participate in the exercise.
• Several smaller scale exercises are conducted in coastal states on regular basis and these include the combined exercises amongst adjoining states.
• When an exercise is conducted at a national level it helps in assessing the preparedness in the maritime security and coastal defence.

How will the drill be conducted?

• There will be simulated attacks on vital installations and assets along the coastline. Also, a wide range of contingencies are planned and this will help in assessing the response, coordination and information sharing between agencies.
• There will be multi-agency teams deployed in coastal districts which will be undertaking security audit of different vulnerable locations like Fish Landing Centers, and also major, minor and intermediate ports, lighthouses, coastal police stations, control rooms and operations centres.

Additional Information
Mobile Coastal Batteries

• For the maritime security and Coastal Defence, the DAC has already given approval for the induction of Next-Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (Long Range) or, NGMMCB.
• These units will be equipped with supersonic BrahMos anti-ship missiles and will operate as a cluster of Surface to Surface missile (SSM) complex along with a Command & Guidance mobile unit.
• They help directly in enhancing the Coastal defence capabilities of the navy’s existing Mobile Missile Coastal Battery (MMCB) Squadrons, which carry an older version of SSMs.