INDIAN NAVY TO COORDINATE FIFTH EDITION OF PAN-INDIA COASTAL DEFENCE EXERCISE 'SEA VIGIL-26'

1. At a Glance

• Sea Vigil is India's national coastal defence exercise. The Indian Navy is the lead agency and the whole government takes part. It tests maritime security preparedness along the entire coastline and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) [1].
• It was conceived in 2018 to check the coastal security measures introduced after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks [1][3].
• Its value is an apex-level check of national preparedness. It joins the Navy, Coast Guard, Coastal Security Police, Customs, several ministries, coastal States/UTs and fishing communities [1].
• UPSC relevance: GS-III internal security (security challenges in border and coastal areas, and coordination among multiple agencies). Prelims also tests exercise names, editions and dates.

2. Why in the News

• The Indian Navy is coordinating the fifth edition, 'Sea Vigil-26', from 11 to 19 November 2026 (Ministry of Defence) [1].
• It has two phases: the CDSRE phase (11–17 Nov 2026), then the Sea Phase (18–19 Nov 2026) [1].
• It serves as a build-up to TROPEX, the Navy's biennial theatre-level operational readiness exercise [1].

3. Background & Evolution

• Before Sea Vigil: the Coastal Security Scheme Phase I was approved in 2005 for five years. It planned 73 coastal police stations, 204 boats, 153 jeeps and 312 motorcycles, and was completed on 31 March 2011 [8].
• After 26/11: the Indian Coast Guard was made responsible for coastal security in territorial waters, including the waters patrolled by State Marine Police [8][9].
• Phase II was approved for five years from 1 April 2011 and sanctioned 131 coastal police stations, which a Coast Guard gap analysis had recommended [9].
• Exercise timeline:

Edition	Dates	Notable features
2018	—	Exercise conceived; first one described as the "largest ever coastal defence exercise, ten years after 26/11" [3]
1st	22–23 Jan 2019	All 13 coastal States/UTs took part; about 150 ships and 35 aircraft of the Navy and Coast Guard were deployed [3][4]
2nd (Sea Vigil-21)	12–13 Jan 2021	Described as biennial; followed by AMPHEX-21, a tri-service amphibious exercise [5]
3rd (Sea Vigil-22)	15–16 Nov 2022	500+ surface assets from the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine/Coastal Police, Customs, Forest Dept, port authorities and private operators [6]
4th (Sea Vigil-24)	20–21 Nov 2024	6 ministries and 21 organisations; Army and Air Force took part for the first time; precursor to TROPEX [2][7]
5th (Sea Vigil-26)	11–19 Nov 2026	Two phases, CDSRE + Sea Phase; nine days, the longest so far [1]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Nature	National-level, pan-India coastal defence exercise [1]
Lead / coordinating agency	Indian Navy (Ministry of Defence) [1]
Conceived	2018 [1]
Rationale	To validate maritime security measures strengthened after 26/11 [1]
Geographic scope	Entire coastline + EEZ; all 13 coastal States/UTs (as of the 2019 edition) [1][3]
Facilitating ministries (2026)	Defence; Home Affairs; Ports, Shipping & Waterways; Petroleum & Natural Gas; Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying [1]
Participating agencies	Navy, Coast Guard, Coastal Security Police, Customs and other maritime agencies [1]
Community stakeholders	Fishing and coastal communities [1]
Phase 1	CDSRE (Coastal Defence and Security Readiness Evaluation), 11–17 Nov 2026 [1]
Phase 2	Sea Phase, 18–19 Nov 2026 [1]
Linked exercise	TROPEX (Theatre Level Readiness Operational Exercise), held biennially by the Navy [1][11]
Coastal police stations operationalised	204 under Phases I & II of the Coastal Security Scheme [10]
ICG coastal drills	Sagar Kavach and Sajag, conducted by the ICG with coastal police taking part [10]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Strategic / Security

• The exercise treats security as running from the shore into the EEZ, not just the coast [1].
• Together, Sea Vigil and TROPEX cover the full range of maritime security challenges, from coastal defence to high-seas operations [1].
• Since 2024, the Army and Air Force also take part, which moves the exercise towards tri-service integration [2][7].

Administrative / Inter-agency coordination

• Coastal security is a multi-agency task. The Navy leads, while the Coast Guard, State police, Customs and port authorities each run their own part [1][6].
• The exercise has grown from roughly 150 ships (2019) to more than 500 surface assets (2022), and to 6 ministries and 21 agencies (2024). It is a stress test of the lead-agency model [3][6][7].
• The CDSRE phase is an audit of readiness before operations move to sea [1].

Federal / Governance

• Coastal police stations are run by States/UTs, and the States supply the manpower. The Centre supports them through the Coastal Security Scheme [8][9].
• Bringing in the Centre, coastal States and UTs makes this a test of cooperative federalism in internal security [1].

Social / Community

• Fishing and coastal communities are formally included as stakeholders, acting as the "eyes and ears" of coastal surveillance [1].
• The Ministry of Fisheries is one of the facilitators, which links fisher welfare with security (for example, identifying boats at sea) [1].

Economic

• The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways take part. This points to protecting offshore energy assets and port infrastructure as an economic security priority [1].

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• Nov 2026: Sea Vigil-26 runs 11–19 Nov, the first edition structured as CDSRE + Sea Phase over nine days [1].
• Nov 2024 (baseline for comparison): Sea Vigil-24, the fourth edition, involved 6 ministries and 21 agencies, with the Army and Air Force taking part for the first time [2][7].
• None of the retrieved Tier 1/2 sources records any other Sea Vigil development in mid-2025 to 2026.

7. Prelims Hooks

• Sea Vigil was conceived in 2018 to validate coastal security measures after 26/11 [1].
• Lead agency: Indian Navy. It is not the Coast Guard and not the MHA [1].
• Sea Vigil-26 is the 5th edition, held 11–19 Nov 2026 [1].
• CDSRE stands for Coastal Defence and Security Readiness Evaluation, the first phase (11–17 Nov 2026) [1].
• The Sea Phase of Sea Vigil-26 runs 18–19 Nov 2026 [1].
• Scope: the entire coastline and the EEZ [1].
• Five facilitating ministries: Defence, Home Affairs, Ports-Shipping-Waterways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Fisheries-Animal Husbandry-Dairying [1].
• The first edition was held on 22–23 Jan 2019 and covered all 13 coastal States/UTs [3][4].
• Sea Vigil-21 (12–13 Jan 2021) was followed by AMPHEX-21 [5].
• Sea Vigil-22 (15–16 Nov 2022) deployed more than 500 surface assets [6].
• Sea Vigil-24 was the first edition with Army and Air Force participation (6 ministries, 21 agencies) [2][7].
• TROPEX is the Navy's biennial Theatre Level Readiness Operational Exercise; Sea Vigil is its build-up [1][11].
• Sagar Kavach and Sajag are coastal security drills run by the Coast Guard, not the Navy [10].
• 204 coastal police stations were operationalised under Coastal Security Scheme Phases I & II [10].

8. What a Nine-Day Drill Cannot Show: Boats That Sit Idle the Rest of the Year

• The exercise is announced in advance and lasts only a few days
• The Ministry of Defence announced Sea Vigil-26, with its dates, before it began [1].
• For those nine days, every agency brings its best boats and people.

• But coastal security depends on patrols every single day. Audits of normal days show a very different picture.

• In Gujarat, most police boats were not being used

• The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, India's top government auditor) checked coastal police stations in Gujarat. Each station had three boats, but often only one was in use [12].
• The repair yard was far away, so broken boats waited 4 to 13 months to be fixed [12].

• As a result, sea patrols fell short of their target by 78 to 91 per cent [12].

• In Karnataka, some stations had no boats at all

• Of nine coastal police stations, four had no patrol boat [13].
• In the other five, three boats were under repair for 3 to 11 months, and one had been damaged by fire [13].

• None of the stations had its own jetty (a small landing platform where boats are tied up) [13].

• In the islands, the plans were years behind

• In Andaman and Nicobar, only one of ten planned Marine Operational Centres had been set up after seven years [14].

• Work to upgrade 20 coastal police stations had not even started [14].

• The Coast Guard itself was short of fast boats

• The CAG test-checked six Coast Guard stations. As of December 2010, three did not have enough Interceptor Boats (small, fast boats used to stop suspicious vessels) [15].

• Why this matters for reading Sea Vigil

• Under the Coastal Security Scheme, the Centre paid for boats and buildings, but the States supply the people [8][9].
• A short exercise tests whether agencies can work together when they are ready. It does not test whether a boat is working on an ordinary Tuesday.
• These audits are from 2011–2018, so some gaps may have since been fixed. That is why the findings of each Sea Vigil should be checked against the next audit.

9. Why the Weakest Link Is a Small Fishing Boat

• Big ships can be tracked; small boats mostly cannot
• Vessels longer than 20 metres must carry AIS (Automatic Identification System, a radio device that broadcasts a ship's name and position) [17].
• For boats under 20 metres, the Home Ministry said in 2019-20 that there was no formal system to track their movements [17].

• Most Indian fishing boats are in this small size group. So a hostile boat can look like any other fishing boat on the radar.

• The problem was identified in 2009 and is still being solved

• The NCSMCS (National Committee for Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary) first met on 4 September 2009 [18].
• It was asked to work out how to register boats under 20 metres and fit them with transponders (devices that send out a boat's location) [18].
• In 2019 it recommended that transponders be made compulsory for these boats in the proposed National Marine Fisheries (Regulation & Management) Bill, 2019 [17].
• In 2023-24 the Home Ministry said the national roll-out was still "under active implementation" [20].

• By January 2025, more than 36,000 transponders had been delivered to coastal regions under the Vessel Communication and Support System [19].

• What this means for the "eyes and ears" idea

• Sea Vigil counts fishers as the eyes and ears of coastal security [1].
• But if fishing boats themselves cannot be identified at sea, the security agencies cannot tell a friendly boat from a suspicious one.
• So the fishing community is both the biggest help and the biggest blind spot. That is why the Ministry of Fisheries sits among the facilitating ministries [1].

10. Who Is in Charge When the Exercise Ends?

• During Sea Vigil the Navy leads; on normal days the work is split
• The Navy coordinates the exercise [1].
• But the Coast Guard is responsible for territorial waters, and State marine police patrol the waters close to the shore [8][9].

• So the agency that runs the test is not the same agency that does most of the daily patrolling.

• India added a coordinator above all the agencies only recently

• The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS, the office that supports the National Security Adviser) now has a National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC) [21].
• Under the NMSC, a Multi Agency Maritime Security Group (MAMSG) was set up on 15 November 2021, with one sub-group for policy and one for intelligence [21].

• This came about 13 years after 26/11. Until then, no one office sat above the Navy, Coast Guard, police, Customs and the ports on maritime security.

• The audit happens, but who acts on it?

• Sea Vigil-24 included a check of over 950 critical coastal locations [16].
• The public releases describe the scale of the audit, not what gaps were found or who must fix them [16].
• Most fixes, such as repairing boats, building jetties and hiring police, fall to the States [12][13]. The exercise has no power to make them do it.

11. What Sea Vigil-26 Should Lead To

• NSCS should use the MAMSG to follow up on the CDSRE findings
• The CDSRE phase (Coastal Defence and Security Readiness Evaluation) is an audit, and Sea Vigil-24 already checked over 950 locations [1][16].

• The MAMSG already brings the agencies together [21]. It should list each gap with a named agency and a deadline, and check it before Sea Vigil-28.

• The Department of Fisheries should finish the transponder roll-out and make it compulsory by law

• This is what the NCSMCS recommended in 2019 [17].

• Without a legal duty, a boat owner can switch off the device or never fit it.

• MHA and coastal States should fund repairs and jetties, not just new boats

• CAG found boats lying idle for months because the repair yard was far away and there were no jetties [12][13].

• Buying more boats does not help if the existing ones cannot be kept running. Future central funding should cover maintenance and nearby repair facilities.

• Add surprise checks to the planned exercise

• Sea Vigil is announced in advance [1].
• The Coast Guard's own drills, Sagar Kavach and Sajag, already run along the coast with police taking part [10]. Some of these could be held without warning to test real daily readiness.

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: Sea patrols in Gujarat fell short of target by 78–91%, and boat repairs took 4–13 months (CAG) [12]
• Data: 4 of 9 coastal police stations in Karnataka had no patrol boat, and none had its own jetty (CAG) [13]
• Data: 36,000+ transponders delivered to coastal regions under the Vessel Communication and Support System by January 2025 [19]
• Data: Sea Vigil-24 checked over 950 critical coastal locations [16]
• Report/Committee: CAG Report No. 7 of 2011-12 on the Role and Functioning of the Indian Coast Guard [15]; NCSMCS (chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, first met in 2009) [18]
• Law/Case: Coast Guard Act, 1978 (sets out the ICG's mandate); proposed National Marine Fisheries (Regulation & Management) Bill, 2019 (transponders for small boats) [17]
• Scheme: Coastal Security Scheme Phases I & II (boats and police stations for the States) [8][9]; Multi Agency Maritime Security Group under the NMSC, 2021 [21]

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: "Security challenges and their management in border areas"; "Various security forces and agencies and their mandate"; "Linkages of organised crime with terrorism."
• GS-II (secondary): Centre–State coordination and federalism in internal security.
• Possible question stems: 1. More than fifteen years after 26/11, India's coastal security architecture has evolved from a fragmented to an integrated multi-agency model. Critically examine, with reference to Exercise Sea Vigil. (15 marks) 2. Discuss the role of coastal communities and State governments in strengthening India's maritime security. What institutional gaps persist? (10 marks) 3. Coastal defence and high-seas readiness are two ends of the same spectrum. Explain with reference to Sea Vigil and TROPEX. (10 marks)

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• Coastal Security Scheme (Phases I & II): the infrastructure Sea Vigil tests.
• Indian Coast Guard Act, 1978 and the ICG mandate: the ICG is responsible for security in territorial waters.
• TROPEX: the high-seas half of the readiness picture.
• Sagar Kavach / Sajag drills: smaller ICG-led coastal drills that are often confused with Sea Vigil.
• 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the institutional reforms after them: the root reason for the exercise.
• UNCLOS maritime zones (territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ): needed to understand the "coastline + EEZ" scope.
• SAGAR / MAHASAGAR vision and Information Fusion Centre–IOR: the wider maritime strategy.
• AMPHEX: the tri-service amphibious exercise that followed Sea Vigil-21.

15. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Exclusive economic zone (Geography): Sea Vigil covers the whole coastline and the EEZ, so you need to know what the EEZ is.
• Territorial sea (Geography): The Coast Guard is responsible for territorial waters, and the exercise runs from the shore outward.
• High Seas (Geography): TROPEX covers high-seas operations, the other end of the range from coastal defence.
• Comptroller and Auditor General (Polity): CAG audits revealed idle boats and patrol shortfalls that a short exercise cannot show.
• Performance audit (Polity): The Gujarat and Karnataka findings come from CAG performance audits of coastal security.
• Police (Polity): Coastal police stations are run by States because police is a State subject.
• Cooperative federalism (Polity): The exercise brings the Centre, States and UTs together on internal security.
• National Security Council Secretariat (Polity): The NSCS houses the National Maritime Security Coordinator and the multi-agency group above the agencies.
• Jointness (Polity): Army and Air Force joined in 2024, moving the exercise towards tri-service integration.
• SAGAR (Geography): SAGAR and MAHASAGAR are India's wider maritime security vision, linked to this exercise.
• Fisheries (Economy): Fishing communities are the 'eyes and ears' of coastal security, and small boats are the weak link.
• Cabinet (Polity): The Cabinet Secretary chairs the NCSMCS, the committee working on boat registration and transponders.

16. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Wrong lead agency: the Navy coordinates Sea Vigil. The Coast Guard leads Sagar Kavach and Sajag [1][10].
• Counting editions: 2019 (1st), 2021 (2nd), 2022 (3rd), 2024 (4th), 2026 (5th). "Sea Vigil-21" was called biennial, yet an edition followed in 2022 [3][5][6][2][1].
• Conceived vs first held: conceived in 2018, first held in January 2019 [1][3].
• Sea Vigil vs TROPEX: Sea Vigil is a multi-agency coastal exercise. TROPEX is the Navy's theatre-level, high-seas exercise. Sea Vigil is a build-up to TROPEX, not a part of it [1].
• CDSRE comes before the Sea Phase, not after it [1].